Can I do London 'on the cheap'

[needastrongone]

Firstly, if this is the wrong section, apologies.

Second, I probably sound like a stereotypical northerner

We are a family of 4, teen DC (so adult pricing applies). We decided as a family to split our holiday this year. Lucky enough to be picking a subsidised trip abroad, due to a client of DH being exceedingly appreciative of his level of commitment to their company over the last year.

So, as we only have to pay flights for this holiday, we decided to take the DC to London for a few days. I really want them to experience the city, take in a show, see the sights, visit the Natural History museum etc. DD and myself have been before and she loved it.

We a restrained to school holidays, but not particular holiday, so flexible in this regard. Just a bit at how much an apartment, train fares etc would cost, before I even factor in travel, food, and activities. Budget is reasonably flexible, especially if we go later in the year as I can budget a little more.

So, at the risk of sounded extremely daft, can we, as a family of 4, do London 'cheap'? Is it a case of planning well?

Or do I sound stupid?!!!

TIA

We have stayed at the St Paul's youth hostel in a family room. Very central and clean, great buffet breakfast and the teens loved it. Lots of friendly people from all over the world.

We walked all over London to see the sights and markets and ate at Bella Italia and the like using our Tesco vouchers.

I think that UNi accommodation would seem really cool to teenagers.

I am just so pleased that I started this thread. No only do I have some brilliant ideas to keep costs down, but there's so many ideas for things to do that I wouldn't have known about at all, had I not started it. I would have spent at least twice as much and stayed on the tourist well trodden path.

Thanks to all who have contributed, as I have already said, it is very much appreciated. I have asked for the thread to be moved.

In London, why not walk? I went the other week for a touristy ramble:

Get off train at Paddington.
15 minute walk the Kensington gardens/Hyde Park Italian fountains.
15 minute through park to Kensington Palace.
15 minute walk through park to the statue of Albert Memorial/ Albert Hall. (Museums just round the corner)
15 minute walk through park to the Serpentine
Cross Hyde Park Corner to Green Park.
Cross Green Park to Buck Palace.
Through St Jame's Park to Horse Guard's Parade.
Round corner 20 minutes to Houses Of Parliament.
Cross Westminster Bridge to see big wheel and annoying gits pretending to be statues.
Etc.

London is a city where there is no end of interesting things to see, and tons of stuff to do for free. Plan a route on a map and find all the free stuff along the way.

Buy food at supermarket and picnic, bring bird food for birds and nuts for squirrels.

I'm afraid I don't know any details but I know that the Guide and Scout HQs used to offer hostel style accommodation at a reasonable price. I know the Scout one is quite near National History Museum, so might be an option?

*Natural

The scout HQ is Baden Powell House and is in the same area as museums and Imperial College.

I get rather jealous of threads like these, I don't live far from London so have never done overnight stays. Maybe I should one day even though it's 30 minute train journey home.

We are about 20 minutes from the Yorkshire Dales, but rarely go, so I know what you mean peach

We are happy to walk, we love walking

A bit of London trivia, there are no roads in the City of London. True fact.

We did it cheap quite a few years ago - this is what we did:

Hotel - booked Covent Garden Travelodge when they released their cheap deals. This was back when they were really cheap and we managed to get 3 nights at £39 a night in a family room. Premier Inns are good value but a bit more expensive but they are better hotels IMO - try them too. Higher price again - the Novotel Tower Bridge - we also enjoyed our stay at this hotel. If you include a Sunday night they are usually very good value but many shows are not on on a Sunday.

Train - booked when the tickets were first available using our family railcard. Back then the early purchase tickets were called Apex, not sure what they are called now.

Food - used Tesco vouchers (which we get virtue of our tesco credit card) to get vouchers to eat at Bella Italia, Café Rouge, Pizza Express etc so we could eat out as a family cheaply.

Show - we looked out for offer tickets and paid £35 for top price seats for We Will Rock You. I think top price seats back then were about £55. We were going to buy them when in London but found, when we were there, the choice was pretty poor, so that's a risk you take.

Oyster cards - we got these for use on the tube.

Museums - make the most of these free entrances and get there early so you don't have to queue for too long.

We also used Tesco vouchers for hop on hop off but you can get deals online for lots of different activities if you look at what you want to do before you go,

Spitalfields/Shoreditch is a fab area...esp for teens. Ds1 got a secondhand Aquascutum jacket that was the envy of all his chums!

Also lots of eaterie places, it's well worth checking out tesco clubcard deals, you used to get four times value for your clubcard vouchers....this was a HUGE saver for us when we'd go with the children.

Wowcher and Groupon again great savings.

Camden also great but also more gimmicky, but we love it nonetheless....esp the coffee vespas, you can sit and people watch for ages, good if you need a sit down and the teens are old enough to wander. Also loads of food stalls on the other side (stables area) and we have often wondered about wandering about and seeing how long it would be before they stopped proffering free samples!
Ohhhh and the canal boat trip from Camden to Little Venice is just glorious for spying on everyone's back gardens
Camden is good ish if the weather is terrible, it's mostly under cover.

I have friends and family who rent out their houses in zones 2 & 3 on airbnb and they decamp off on holiday or to their parents/in laws for the relevant period. Definitely cheaper than hotel rooms.

bakingaddict that was going to be my tip!

The central london Travelodges and Premier Inn's are very rarely cheap now, and if they have a sale, then Easter or summer in those locations is often excluded- I've tried!

One good idea which we've done is to stay at one of the farther out Travelodges. Kingston for example has two of them, both extremely near to the station, and you are then just 20/25 min into Waterloo, or you can stop off at Wimbledon.

The price difference is £50 quid to £120 odd a night, and if you want to explore South Bank and the Thames, coming into Waterloo is ideal.

Also, because there's two of them in Kingston, it keeps the price down. Less accessible by train, but also extremely cheap is Chessington Tolworth.

This is a real budget option as you are all in one room. I think it's ok to be in one room for two nights max. After that I get cabin fever.

And get online advance (free) tickets to nat hist museum to save queuing.

Hey, where do you live? Any interest in a house swap? (We're NE London, zone 2). Pm me if you like.

V&A museum is great and never has the dull queues of the Natural History Museum and Science museum. Go just for lunch in their lovely cafe if your teens have had enough of wandering around museums.

Please, please, please don't spend all your time eating in chain restaurants or pubs. There are loads of places to eat cheaply, interestingly, and well in London. Check out some blogs on London food for ideas. Chinatown obviously, but there's also Korean food in Soho that's cheap. Tokyo Diner just off Leicester Square does filling Japanese rice dishes and they'll give you an extra big portion for no more money as long as you promise to finish it - good for teenage boys! The 'dirty burger' trend means you can try really, really good burgers - I recommend Honest Burgers as they include chips in the price. Indian food up by Euston is cheap and fabulous. Tayyabs and its sister restaurants in Shoreditch serve incredible Pakistani grills, and I think it is actually impossible to spend more than £15 a head however much you order. There are street food markets all over the place where you can try out new stuff. Often really nice restaurants will offer lunch deals which are really good value so you can try somewhere relatively posh for less. Find branches of Franco Manca for gorgeous pizza for £5 each. Gabys on Charing Cross Road serves enormous salt beef sandwiches and delicious latkes. And the blogs can give you far more ideas.

I want to cry a bit when I think of someone coming to London and eating in Bella Pasta and Wetherspoons.

and i just remembered you used to be able to do a Behind The Scenes tour at the NHM....we got to see the giant squid in a vat of formaldehyde! ....it was on the website, but hard to find.

I love this thread - I'm hoping to do 2 or 3 days in London with a friend at the end of this year, we'll both be 25 and looking for interesting things to do :)

We've already got the HP Studio tour on our list, and we're both Sherlock fans so want to go location hunting :)

I don't mind staying a bit further out, given the transport situation in London it's hardly an issue. I honestly think we would have to have 2 rooms or self cater, given a DS/DD and all cramped in one room, fine if the DC are young, we've done it loads, but essentially 4 adults - no, I don't think I would cope.

Luckily, the DC are not at all fussy re food and love trying new things (wish I had known they would get to this stage 10 years ago, would have saved a lot of angst), so we would be happy to try some of the ideas that you suggest TooSpotty, thanks. It would add to the experience for them.

They are old enough to be left to wander round a market I think (would be nearly 16 and 14). I know so very little about Spitalfields I am afraid to say.

Haven't asked DH about house swapping yet.

So many ace suggestions, I can only thank you all again.

If you fancy visiting Hampton court, them get the regular south west train to Hampton court station from Waterloo. Walk around the gardens for free and see the outside of the house. (Or pay to go in if you want to see the tour/bedrooms text). Then take Turks launches along the river to Kingston or Richmond and have a little explore their before getting the train back up town. Or you can walk easily from Hampton court to kingston, it's a beautiful route only about 3 miles.

The evening ghost walks are brilliant, especially the one from tower bridge. Little venice canal is worth a mooch too. Go for a drink in the Warrington then walk up to Hyde park. If you go at August bank holiday then you could visit the Notting hill carnival which is awesome though not to everyone's taste and can get very hectic in the centre. Stick to the out sections and park stages.

OP this is a shameless place mark! I hope you don't mind! We are also thinking of going to London this summer and there are so many great suggestions on here. Thanks all