World Tour: Pound for Pound

Over the past few “World Tour: London” posts, we have glamorized one of the staples of the EU (*European Union). Rightfully so, London goes on our top 10 lists of places in the Europe. What we failed to mention was the pound. The pound brings a big stomach knot, head throbbing and slight raise of the eyebrow to a tourist bringing in American dollars. Just our luck: we find a cheap flight to London and now we have to spend what we thought we were saving. Now not to say that you do not have the funds to not even flinch at even the heaviest of fines but even Donald Trump has to note the impact of the pound. The pound eats up the dollar in the most brutal way.

We did not realize the brutality of the currency difference until we needed to exchange Euro’s for pounds...check out this break down: we started with probably about $65 USD (*United States Dollars), changed that for Euro’s which came to €55 and then to pounds which left us with £40. £40?! After putting up about $65 originally?! Unreal. To us it is more the principal because with the £40, the same price tags still apply…i.e. shoes still cost 99 and food still costs 20-40 for a decent lunch. So essentially, you are paying almost double of the USD to buy the same things in London. It is not being cheap or without the adequate funds to limit your spending here, this is just common sense.

We had a short list of purchases here needless to say, except when it came to the food. No way would we sacrifice a good meal or a good location in the city, so everything else had to suffer. We did, however, figure out some great ways for a foodie to make it on the Queen’s money. There are plenty of pubs, small Mom ‘n Pop spots and off the beaten path restaurants that have breakfast and lunch specials that will run you between £10 and £15. Each special comes with more than enough food and after getting your hands on a cheap flight to London, why would you want to spend all your money on expensive mark ups of stuff you can find in the U.S.?? Stick to a £10 to £20 for lunch and splurge on dinner is our suggestion…especially where food is not the British specialty, save those pounds for a hidden treasure that you are sure will not be found on the shelves of Barneys.

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