Costly Mistakes to Avoid in London

Without a doubt, London is one of the most expensive cities one could possibly visit. Some travelers even tend to think that a visit to London is completely out of their price range. To be honest, there are actually some costly mistakes you should avoid whilst traveling London.

However, if you follow these tips, I’m sure you can enjoy your visit to London without going broke! This article contains tips for your accommodation and how you can save a lot of money here without sacrificing anything, how you can save money using public transport and many more tips.

Costly Mistakes to avoid in London

1 – Accommodation

First off, there are plenty of ways and tips that allow you to have an incredible trip to London – even on a tight budget! One of my favorite ways to save money on accommodation is to book through Airbnb {discount code linked}. I’m sure most of you already use Airbnb, but it’s honestly such a money-saving tip!

On Airbnb, you can find good private rooms or even entire places just for yourself without paying a fortune. For our personal trip to London, we stayed in an Airbnb in the Shoreditch district of London. It was very close to the Liverpool Street Station and also to several bus stations.

For your interest, Shoreditch is the party district of London, but our place was very well insulated and we haven’t heard anything of the noise. By staying here, we were also able to reach photo spots very quickly.

2 – Costly mistakes to avoid in London: The London Pass

I’d highly recommend to ask yourself about your type of traveling. Are you a person who’s constantly searching for things off the beaten path or are you more into sightseeing and visiting museums, exhibitions, etc.?

If you know that you’re going to spend money on sightseeing activities nonetheless, then it may be useful to think about the London Pass. The best thing you can do is to look up the prices of attractions beforehand and consider whether the London Pass is worth spending money on.

Personally, I skipped on the London Pass as I wanted to see things off the beaten path and explore the city without stepping in every museum or use every possible opportunity to use the London Pass.

Nevertheless, even if you cannot afford the London Pass, there’s no shortage of fun things to do in London on a budget! Did you know that many museums are actually FREE to visit? Also, there are free walking tours like they are in most cities, but you could also go on a self-guided tour.

3 – Paying public transportation with cash

This is actually on of these costly mistakes in London that you can avoid without doing much! Cash is by far the worst way to pay for transport in London, and should be avoided in pretty much all cases, with the exception of taxis (although these accept contactless and credit cards too).

Usually, cash fares are much higher than the other payment options, plus some services, like the bus, don’t even accept cash any more. Basically, don’t use cash to pay directly for your ticket in London if you can avoid it!

There are two other ways that you can pay for the majority of public transport in London. These are the London Oyster Card and a contactless enabled debit or credit card.

Contactless payments (debit, credit, Oyster) have the advantage that they offer daily and weekly capping. For example, the daily cap in zones 1 and 2 is £6.50 whilst you can pay endless amount of money when paying with cash. It is a great option if you plan to use the tube a lot.

4 – Booking accommodation outside of London

As I said earlier, you can absolutely go for districts within London that are ~15 minutes away from the city center. But you should never ever book accommodation outside of London, because commuting into the city every day can get way too expensive! Especially since the prices are fixed to the zones your traveling in. Means that traveling in a tighter zone is much less expansive than traveling from more far away. Plus, it wastes precious sight-seeing time.

5 – Not eating at markets

Oh no, it’s definitely no secret that dining out in London can be so expensive! We went out to get a casual pizza and ended up paying way too much, just because we decided to eat in the city center – not a very good idea.

Somehow, everything felt like it’s like 100£ per person – yes, even a casual pizza (that, btw, didn’t even taste good). One day, we discovered a local market – the Borough Market. And honestly, there’s nothing better than grabbing food here! Borough Market is one of those places where you can get high quality food without breaking the bank. Moreover, we found that the market itself was so diverse and offered so much food from different countries!

6 – Thinking the tube is the only way to get around London

Even though London is a big city, it’s very easy to get to most of the attractions on foot. In fact, London is very walkable and we used to walk a lot! Just make sure to wear comfy shoes!

However, the tube isn’t the only way to get around London – even if you walking is not convenient for you! Most times, we ended up riding one of London’s buses, which are a) much cheaper than taking the tube, b) less stressful, and c) less crowded. Win-win situation, I’d say!

7 – Costly Mistakes to avoid in London: Tipping too much

I don’t know about you, but before we visit a new country, we always do some research on tip etiquette. While tipping is highly appreciated in London, it’s not always appropriate. Remember to check your bill for an already included service charge. If you’ve been to Italy already, you might know this procedure! Restaurants and cafés tend to charge you more just because you sat down.

Here are some basic guidelines to keep in mind:

London restaurants: When eating out, it’s customary to leave 10-15% of the bill. Tipping is not customary for fast food, take-away or self-service.

Bars & Pubs: Tipping is not common in bars or pubs.

Taxi drivers: Most people round up to the nearest pound.

London hotels: Many London hotel restaurants include a service charge, usually 10-12%. If a service charge is not included on your restaurant bill, it’s customary to leave a 10-15% tip.

8 – Not doing research on restaurants

As I already mentioned, restaurants in London can be quite expensive, so it’s worth to do some research before arriving. I like to do my research at TripAdvisor or Yelp to find good-rates restaurants. Plus, by doing so you can already assess how much it will cost you to dine there. This can help prevent you from eating at overpriced tourist restaurants, which serve mediocre food at best.

To help you save even more money, I recommend choosing one meal per day as a sit-down meal. For example, you can grab a quick breakfast at a café, enjoy a sit-down meal at a restaurant for lunch, and grab an inexpensive meal for dinner. Or you can have an inexpensive lunch and splurge on a nice dinner.

9 – Trying to see everything in London in just one day

I know that there are many cities that can be explored within a single day, just like a German fairytale village for example. London isn’t. As I already said, London is a very big city. We spent four days in London and haven’t seen everything that’s on our bucket list.

Actually, there’s so much to see and do in London! It’s almost impossible to do everything on one trip – unless you spend a whole month or more there! And even then, I doubt that you’ve seen everything. And while it’s tempting to jump from one expensive attraction to the next, you’ll end up losing money by not making the most of your experience.

Plan ahead and devote enough time for your essential attractions. By doing so, you will enjoy your trip even more and won’t waste money on stupid things.

10 – Not buying a return ticket to the airport

There are a few ways to travel from the airport into London. The quickest option is to take the airport express train. It’s cheaper to buy a return ticket than paying for two separate trips.

Pro tip: It’s also cheaper to buy the tickets well ahead than last minute before arriving in London.

11 – Skipping Londons free attractions

While London is known to be very expensive, it also has plenty of free attractions that are worth a visit! Some of London’s most popular museums are free, did you know? So, no matter if you prefer to spend the afternoon admiring beautiful art at the National Gallery or hanging out with the Egyptian mummies at the British Museum, London got you covered.

By the way, the Natural History Museum in London is free, too! And during Christmas, you can ice skate there as well.