Cheap Weekend in London

Quick Tips:

Get the tube/bus travelcards to save on transportation costs. Grab some snacks from one of the many grocery stores to save on meal costs. Check out the secondhand bookstores on Charing Cross Road for some real bargains. Stroll the markets of Petticoat and Brick Lane for some garage sale prices on a wide range of merchandise. Buy your theatre tickets at the Leicester Square TKTS booth. Pop into one of the many free museums including the British Museum, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, or The Natural History Muesum.

Best Way To Get Around:

Buy a travelcard using the touch screen vending machines (if you have pounds) which are faster than the booth lines. Buy the weekend travelcard (6.10 £) or the day travelcard (4.10 £) for a busy day of sightseeing. A single destination journey will cost you .70 £, so the cards are usually more economical. If you're traveling before 9am on a weekday you'll have to pay the peak price.

You can also easily transfer to and from busses and trains on one pass. Keep the pass handy because you'll need it to enter AND exit the turnstiles. Do a good deed in the evening by surprising another tourist, or maybe even a true Londoner, by handing your pass to someone waiting in line to buy theirs - you'll make their day. Visit the Interactive Tube Map to help you plan your visit.

Our double room was very no frills, with a small bed, closet, desk, and a separate small bathroom. There was a TV and a coffee maker. The linens were clean with fresh towels each day, and we had no trouble with hot showers. For breakfast they served only cereal, toast, and coffee.

Overall, it was warm, quiet, and quite honestly the cheapest hotel room we could find through the internet. We were able to comparison shop and book online using hotels-plus.com.

Gaby's came highly recommended, and at first glance this diner did not seem all that extraordinary from the outside--but we were not the least bit disappointed. It offers takeaway and sit-down service for its wide range of home-cooked veggie and Middle Eastern specialties. The picture menu makes it easy to order.

For about $30, we had two falafel and hummus starters, pita bread, a stuffed pepper with assorted vegetables, a lamb kebab with fries, a Coke, and baklava. The chili sauce is super hot--just the way I like it--and we put it on everything. We were quite literally mopping up every last bite on our starter plate with the pita bread and nibbling even on the garnishes because it was all so good. We liked the baklava so much that we went back the next night to get one for each of us to takeaway to our hotel.

The decor was lacking--fake plants with lingering Christmas decorations. You don't go to Gaby's for the atmosphere, rather, its value, choices, location, and late hours (open until midnight Monday through Saturday and 9pm Sunday)-- are hard to beat. It's right near the Leicester Square tube station, so feel free to grab a takeaway falafel for a true London bargain.

Belgo offers one of the largest selections of Belgian beers in the UK, and we decided, based on the waiter's suggestions, to have Maes and DeKonick. With the beers, we were given complimentary rye bread with mayonnaise. I enjoyed a light lunch of goat cheese croquettes with salad and a side of heavenly mashed potatoes. Leo ate a steak and fries with a garnish salad. We shared a delicious Brussels-style waffle with cream and ice cream for dessert. We enjoyed all of this for less than £30! Many of our neighboring tables dove into the kilo buckets of mussels with fries and mayonnaise.

We arrived around noon and noted that by 12:30pm, the place was brimming with Londoners and tourists alike. Since Belgo is not a secret given its bargain prices for first-rate food, I suggest you get there early if you'd like to avoid the rush. They offer lunch specials and a "beat the clock" evening menu of three main course choices with a drink where the amount you pay depends on when you place your order -- order at 6:00pm and you pay £6.

If you really enjoy the place and are in town for a more than a few days, you can make use of their Loyalty Card where four Belgo meal stamps gets you a complimentary fifth lunch.

We were very satisfied with our choices from the Tandoori Hut -- the vegetable samosa was the largest I've ever seen. We shared our food and were easily filled up by the samosa, chicken korma, and a nan thatb that cost us less than £5.