Accommodation, Free and Budget Travel In London, and sandwiches for £1

Somebody on WAYN asked where to stay cheaply near the centre of London for a week.

Bikes?
Decide how you plan to travel, walking, by tube train and bus using a one week travel card, or by borrowed bike from the Santander system.

Travel Directions
Work out two places you wish to visit each day. Mark the nearest tube stations on an underground map. See if they are all within one travel zone. Decide how much you are prepared to pay for a travel zone card. If you are going to pay only for a central London card then you need a hotel further in.

Travel train zones
If you are travelling further, and paying for an all zones card, you can look for accommodation in that zone.

Mark the stations on the edge of the zone (the further out of London the cheaper), then look for hotels or rental places near those stations.

Weekly Rate
Look for a reduction on one week to compare with a daily rate.

Loyalty Cards
If you are going for a hotel chain, check if joining their loyalty scheme gives you a room rate reduction, room upgrade, or free breakfast, or free day's stay if you are in one of their hotels a certain number of days.

More Information
At suburban and central London station you find racks of information leaflets. At big stations like Euston you can pick up a leaflet showing the tube system, also another larger leaflet showing local streets and landmarks. (Useful to find your way to nearby museums, find your way back to the station, find your way back to your hotel.)

Other leaflets include a bike map. This has a handy free map of streets all over central London.

Some lines and stations have faster train times than others. Some central areas are very crowded during rush hour. If your hotel is in central London, if you have an hour to spare, you can pop out and walk about. If you are in a suburb, you may feel more like having an early night or sitting at your phone or computer or the hotel's system (check what wifi is provided) or visit a local pub or coffee bar.

Coffee Loyalty Cards
You could choose an entire system, such as Costa Coffee, or Second Cup. Collect loyalty points for free coffee. You can save money by eating a sandwich on a public bench in an indoor shopping mall (such as Intu in Watford) or in a public park. This is not just a question of coffee shops wanting to discourage people from sitting around hogging seats (which might apply in Italy, where there is sometimes a cover charge for bread - see advice on Italy and systems in different cities in the simple wiki). In Singapore where central branches ask school children not to hog tables doing homework.

In the UK it's a government VAT charge on eating in. So you'll save on that by taking away your coffee and sandwich.

Pubs
You could check a different pub each day. Alternatively, opt for one group.
Wetherspoons pubs vary their food, so one day is curry day, another something else, so you can sample a variety of meals.
Some times of day, usually early, you get special deals.

Cheap Sandwiches
Also check out the £1 sandwiches in Boots (drug store / pharmacy) and Morrisons and Tesco, but they might sell out early.)

Late in the afternoon or early evening you will see more reduced price bargains. Even Tesco Express has a reduced price section in most stores offering sandwiches and other items such as fruit and salads which are on their last day of best by or use by dates.

So there you have it, travel sorted, coffee and drinks sorted, sandwiches sorted.
More Information from:
https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See more by and about Angela Lansbury, author, on other blog posts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, Amazon books and Lulu.com self-published print on demand books.