London: Tips
Travel tips, hints, and advice
Travel tips, hints, and advice
Don't use the most famous booking engines; use the ones with the largest selection and lowest rates
Hotels try to pad your bill with overpriced extras and ancillary fees; here's how to avoid them
A traveler's guide to learning how to pack light and love it—or, how to fit everything you need for a six month trip into a single, carry-on sized bag
A great picture is worth a thousand travel miles—Tips, hints, and recommended photo and video gear
The hotel garage will often be far costlier than a nearby public garage or other parking option
Breakfast at a B&B is lovely—but at a standard hotel, you probably won't be getting your money's worth
User review sites are handy, but take their advice with a grain (make that a shaker) of salt
Hotel sites often feature special sales and promotions you won't find on the booking engines and aggregators
A room with "external facilities" (shared bath down the hall) always costs less for this minor inconvenience
A Full English breakfast is lovely and worthwhile; a dull, continental-style one isn't worth the added expense
Hostels, B&B's, apartments, farm stays, castles, university dorms, campgrounds...there are so many of these budget options I needed to create a whole separate section on this website just to fit them all in
Hotels' official star ratings have nothing to do with how clean, central, comfortable, or charming a hotel is—just how many (often pointless) amenities it offers
Advice, resources, & tours for gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, and queer travelers in the U.K.
Advice, resources, & tours for pilgrims, Christians, and spiritual travelers in the U.K.
Information and concerns for gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual travelers in the U.K.
Tips and advice for how to get the most out of seeing the sights, museums, and monuments during your British vacation
Release your inner Scorsese and shoot better holiday videos to take YouTube by storm
Prix-fisse, tourist menu, lunch menu—a fixed-price or set tourist menu may not be the best meal you could have at that restaurant, but it's certainly often the best budget option
Be your own chef and you can save money and add an extra cultural experience to your trip
From fish 'n' chip to food trucks, there are many excellent (and inexpensive) British versions of fast food to try
Skip the big slab of meat and order two starters instead—more variety, lower cost
Be a sightseeing V.I.P.—Sightseeing passes grant admission to dozens of sights, avoiding the lines and saving money
Online ticket prices can be cheaper than buying them on-site (and will also save you time waiting in line)
In that paragon of travel documentaries, National Lampoon's European Vacation, there is a scene in which Ellen Griswold (Beverly D'Angelo) forgets to lock the door on the shared bathroom in their London hotel. A man comes in to brush his teeth and is pleasantly surprised when Ellen—washcloth over face and believing the man to be her hubby, Clark—calls to him from the bathtub to join her. Shock and hilarity ensue. The accidental intruder was played by none of ther than Robbie Coltrane, 16 years before he embodied Hagrid in the Harry Potter films.