I ventured to London in April of 2017 with my friend Chijioke (hereafter, Chi Chi) for a week of good fun, smart fashion, and ALL the cool accents!
Our flights were ridiculously inexpensive. In August of 2016, I booked myself a solo trip to London for April of 2017 because 1.) I don't mind traveling alone, and 2.) solo YOLO. At that time, my nonstop red-eye from Philly to London was $943-ish. It was one of my more expensive plane tickets, but I was trying to get bonus miles through Delta's Skymiles program and I had to meet a spend minimum.
"Hold up!" you're saying. "I thought you were in human services and frugal, Audrey. That doesn't sound like an inexpensive flight." I am frugal though! I bought that ticket by picking up 2.5 extra weekend shifts as a group therapist at a local behavioral health hospital. Not that I necessarily enjoyed working a few weekends straight after already working my 9-5 during the week, but I kept reminding myself of the long game and how much fun I would have in London!
Hot Take: Want to travel but feel like you can't afford it? Go on and get you a side hustle. Some of my friends teach music or dance lessons, others create art and sell it, while others like me serve as therapists part-time. Practice self-care and do NOT overextend yourself. Set a budget for how much extra you want to rake in and then step back once you have the funds.
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So right, my initial ticket was almost $1K. But then Chi Chi serendipitously contacted me in late January of 2017 and was all, "I finally want to have a trip with you!" So I worked with a Delta phone rep and got a red-eye for April dates that worked with Chi's schedule. Same red-eye nonstop flight, but instead of $1K, the ticket was only $460! That's right! Nonstop to London for under $500. Even the Delta rep sounded surprised.
Alas, I had a $300 change fee from the prior booking. So they took $300 off of my $943 and gave me a nearly $200 flight credit for future use. I was one happy camper. Shouts out to Delta's customer service rep!
Hot Take: Don't be Type A like me. August, AKA 8 months before my trip, was WAY too early to book my London flight. I would not suggest that you wait until roughly two months before departure, either. Instead I advise that you download an app called Hopper so that you can track ticket prices and receive notifications of price drops, anticipated trends, and the like. If you have an Apple device, download it here. If you have an Android device, then a.) I'm sorry you haven't yet seen the light, and b.) download it here.
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We stayed at an AirBNB that was a 20-minute Tube (read: train) ride away from London proper. The AirBNB was nice in that we had a detached cottage all to ourselves. It was $535 for seven nights; an absolute steal for lodging in London! I would not recommend the hostess, however, because the heat barely worked and we were freezing much of the time. After corresponding on AirBNB with the hostess, she finally supplied us with two small space heaters. Except one of them had a short in the cord. We bundled up and made do with the one heater, reminding ourselves that we were fortunate to have heat at all.
Hot Take: Always correspond with your AirBNB host via the app. AirBNB monitors the messages and you can use the chat history as evidence of what was or wasn't done to remedy complaints.
Also! London is historically expensive to lodge in. Try to find an AirBNB or bed and breakfast in the outskirts for more acceptable pricing.
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That's all the info. on my plane ticket purchase bonanza and our rooming accommodations for now. Next up, I'll cover must-see eateries, activities, and sights while staying in London Town. (Spoiler Alert: I may have rapped onstage in front of hundreds of Londoner strangers. Meep!)
