<p>i'm going abroad to london in the fall and have been trying to research various things about budgeting, money exchange, packing, travel etc...it's a bit overwhelming. i keep coming up with random questions...if anyone has any advice it'd be appreciated</p>
<p>-is there a general estimate of how much money should be budgeted per month or week? talking into account food, activities, etc. i kind of want to know about how much I should have available throughout the semester</p>
<p>-i've been getting the impression that just using an atm card is better than traveler's checks...is this right?</p>
<p>-if i'm going to be in london, dealing mostly in pounds, how do i manage changing currency if i plan on traveling elsewhere in europe?</p>
<p>-the eurail pass where you can select 5 bordering countries seems like a good deal...but the uk isn't included on the pass...should i just plan my trips individually then? also though, i have a two week break from classes in the middle of the semester---would it be a good idea to get a eurail pass for that time frame along with a cheap flight to a continental country like france or germany?</p>
<p>Tried to post earlier but everything crashed. Trying again now.</p>
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<p>Take however much you would spend in dollars, in pounds. eg if you would spend $1000 dollars in the US, take £1000, possibly more. It’s really expensive. No getting away from it.</p>
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<p>Yes. Perhaps take some checks for emergencies only. They went out with the dinosaurs in Europe. To change them, you have to find a bank that will accept them, 9am-5pm Monday to Friday only. Stand in a long line, take your passport for ID and get a really poor exchange rate. Not worth it.</p>
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<p>Same as you manage in London. Go to ATM in Paris/Berlin/Madrid etc. withdraw Euros. There are a few ATMs in London which allow you to withdraw Euros in any case (St Pancras station for one). Or you take some pounds to a bureau de change in any bank, travel agents, post office or large branch of Marks and Spencer and they will change it for you.</p>
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<p>I don’t know anything specific about the passes you are talking about, but in general rail passes are usually only good value for money if you will be travelling for a long period of time. In 2 weeks you would probably have to take a train trip every single day to make it worth while, which would mean you would mostly see train stations on your trip.</p>
<p>The British version of the train pass is called a Britrail pass. If you want one of these you have to buy it before you leave home because it’s not available in the UK. Long distance train tickets work a bit like plane tickets in the UK. They are much cheaper in advance. The cheap deals come out about 12 weeks in advance. I once went to York for £8. Walk up fare on the day is more than £100. </p>
<p>Rail passes cannot be used on Eurostar. That is the train through the tunnel from England to France. This reduced their usefulness. Bear in mind you will probably be able to take trips at weekends too. An advance train ticket to Paris or Brussels costs about £50 so you can go to class on Friday (if you even have class on Friday. Probably you won’t), then stroll down to the station, get on the train and have your dinner in Paris in 2 hours time if you like. It’s no big deal doing stuff like that in Europe. Places are close together really.</p>
<p>If you would like to explore the UK at weekends you can buy a 16-25 railcard. This costs about £25 and gets you about 30% off most fares. I know the vast majority of tourists have no interest in the UK outside London (and in fact think the whole if the UK is London) but there are lots of nice places really close by. Also, London is as big as an average sized European country just by itself. It is very different from anywhere else in the UK (London has a population of more than 7 million. The next largest English city is Birmingham, population 1 million). I recommend Oxford and/or Cambridge, Brighton, the New Forest, St Albans, and Bath to start with. All of these within 1,5 hours by train from London.</p>
<p>although it seems like it’d be best to plan travel early/before I get there…which i’m not sure if I can do since I won’t know my class schedule/who I’d be traveling with until I get there! a bit of a pickle</p>
<p>If you’re planning on traveling in and around Europe from the UK sometimes cheap flights are the way to go, look up easyjet or ryanair. These are also good if you just want to do a weekend at a time. Be careful for hidden costs though, especially for Ryanair, (if you forget to do something like print out your boarding pass in advance they charge you silly amounts at the airport). Once you get to Europe you can then use the high speed rail to get about if you want to do a big trip all in one go. If you’re changing money into Euros for your trip shop around (there are loads of comparison sites), don’t do currency exchange at the airports they rip you off.
Also when you get to London get an Oyster card (google it) for traveling around, it’s much cheaper.</p>
<p>Also if you want to travel around the UK by train (e.g. places like Oxford and York are good for daytrips) you can get much better deals by booking your train in advance (google the trainline). Buying a ticket on the day can be really expensive! If you want to go really cheap there’s also the megabus which is just a really cheap coach service (there’s info about it online but you should also book this in advance).</p>