Britain is an expensive place to visit. The minimum expenditure, if you're camping, or hostelling, using public transport, buying picnic food and eating in pubs and cafés, would be in the region of £30-40 a day. Couples staying at budget B&Bs, eating at unpretentious restaurants and visiting a fair number of tourist attractions are looking at around £50-60 each per day, and if you're renting a car, staying in comfortable B&Bs or hotels and eating well, budget on at least £80 each per day. Single travellers should budget on spending around 60 percent of what a couple would spend (single rooms cost more than half a double)
Currency
Britain has so far declined to adopt the euro, preferring instead its
pound sterling
(£), divided into 100 pence (p). Coins come in denominations of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 and £2. Notes are in denominations of £5, £10, £20 and £50....
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Currency exchange
Banks or the larger post offices are the best places to
change money
. Every sizeable town in Britain has at least one of the big high-street banks: Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HSBC, NatWest, Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale. ...
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Travellers' cheques
The easiest and safest way to carry your money is in
travellers' cheques
, available for a small commission (normally 1 percent) from any major bank. The most commonly accepted are issued by American Express, followed by Visa and Thomas Cook....
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Credit and debit cards
Credit cards
can be very handy as a backup source of funds, and can be used either in ATMs or over the counter. Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Diners Club are accepted in most hotels, shops and restaurants in Britain, although they're less...
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Wiring money
Having
money wired
from home through a money-wiring company is never convenient or cheap and should be considered a last resort.
Fees
depend on the country, method of payment and amount being transferred, but as an example, wiring...
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Youth and student discounts
Various official and quasi-official youth and student ID cards soon pay for themselves in savings. Full-time students are eligible for the
International Student ID Card
(
ISIC
), which entitles the bearer to special air, rail and bus...
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