London Trip Part 1: The Planning Process

One day I had an job interview invitation from one of the world biggest consulting company. The interview is held on London, United Kingdom. The distance between Glasgow and London is quite far. It needs an approximately 9 hours by bus, or around 5 hours train trip. The price of the tickets were not cheap also.

I thought to my self, it might be good if I take a short brake from school and spend more time in London. So if I don't get the job, I don't feel too disappointed because at least I got a good holiday. I looked at my academic calender. The interview will be held on the Friday, 17 February 2012. I got one morning class on that day. I think to my self, "Well, I can ask permission from the lecture". The best thing is that I don't have a class on Monday. Yayy... I can spend 3 days in London then...

So I contact one of my best friend. I ask him if he would like to go with me or not to London. I explain to him the conditions. Surprisingly, he happily willing to join the trip.

We do not do much planning on our trip because the time is actually very limited and we are hell busy with our courses and assignments. But arranging our transportation and our stay way ahead is very important to receive the best deal with cheaper price.

During our class before we book our tickets, we were talking about a friend of ours in class. She is a Russian. She suggested us to go and see the ticket price by one of a new Bus company in UK. She said that their price is very competitive since they are still striving to penetrate the market.

So after we finish the class, we search for tickets to London. We compare prices among companies. We also compare prices and schedules between train, bus, and plane. For sure, the price of the plane is hell expensive. And the train ticket price is also not far different with the plane. So we decided to take the 9 hours bus trip to London. It sucks, but what can we do with a budget limited condition? We paid GBP 80 for two return bus ticket. So per person is GBP 40 return. Not bad for the trip from Glasgow to London.

Next thing we do is book a place to stay. Housing in London can be very expensive. Especially if you want to live around the city center. However, there are a lot of affordable Hostels available around the city center area. We can book from lots of travel websites. One of the example is www.hostelworld.com.

Since we are going to stay in London during week end, we found difficulties to find hostels available during the week end. We have to move from one room to another for this case. It is very uncomfortable. In addition, we keep on hearing bad memories from our friends about their experiences living in hostels. Many said it was uncomfortable, not save, and impossible to get a good rest. The only good thing I hear from my friend about the hostels is that the price is cheap and we will be able to meet new people.

My friend is very picky when it comes to comfort. So he suggested, let's give a little more budget for our stay but spend less on food. he suggested to stay in a budget hotel that is located a bit far from the city center which offer far more cheaper price. In London, distance does not matter as long as there is an Underground Station nearby. Traveling via underground is cheap and fast.

So we start to browse for hotel through some travel websites. We compare prices. we have our heart in Premier Inn hotel. We compare the price in the travel websites with the price in their official website. The price in their official website is cheaper.

We browse every Premier Inn alternative in London. We like the Premier Inn Wimbledon South London. The reason behind that is the hotel located not far from the Underground Station, not far from groceries stores, and surrounded by fast food restaurants. Yeyy... We can save money by eating in fast food restaurants during our holiday...!!!

So we decided to book the rooms online via their official websites. If you book via their official website, you can select a "super saver" price that is way cheaper compared to their original price. The "super saver" price is a room only price with a no cancellation policy. This is a great bargain if you already know from when until when are you going to stay in their hotel. We pay GBP 178 for 3 nights stay. So assuming we divide the bill, we pay GBP 89 per person for 3 nights. So it will be around GBP 30 per person per night. Well it's a lot expensive compared if we stayed in Hostels, but at least we are sure to receive a great save rest during our holiday.

There we have it. We have got our tickets and hotels prepared. The next thing to plan is what will we be doing in London. Well, we don't have an exact plan for that since I was so focused with my interview. So we decided to go with the flow.