So much thought and effort went into planning our UK family trip! I love planning trips, and I have a collection of spreadsheets for trips I hope to go on eventually. Before we ever decided we were going on our UK family trip, I had a spreadsheet with several sheets. I had lists of potential itineraries, sites to see, budgets, packing lists, restaurants, hotels, and more. I really enjoy reading other people’s trip itineraries, and seeing their trip budgets, so I thought I would share some of ours.
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Airline Tickets
The two biggest expenses were going to be flights and our hotel in London. Plane ticket prices had gone up while we were deciding if we were going to go or not, so we were constantly checking prices. It was cheapest for us to fly out of Vancouver, BC (we live in Eastern Washington), even considering the cost of gas and a hotel in Vancouver. The cost of flights from there was half of what it would be at our home airport!
We watched prices, and on a random Tuesday, West Jet had flights that were around $570/person. We looked at the dates and found that they lined up perfectly, and we decided to commit. It was both exciting and terrifying!
When we were checking out, the flights ended up going down even further to $540/person. We had airline miles to use from our Capital One Venture Cards, so we ended up paying around $370 total for 4 tickets! It was crazy and it felt like things were falling into place.
London Hotel
We planned to stay in London for 9 nights, so we really wanted to find a place to stay that was budget friendly. But, we also wanted to stay somewhere that felt safe and clean (especially for our kids), that was close to public transportation and near London Fine Arts Studios. This turned out to be quite the task!
After a lot of searching, my husband came across Premier Inn London Clapham. It seemed like the perfect fit. It was a ~7 minute walk from the studio, right by several bus stops, the reviews were pretty good, and in the photos it appeared to look clean and well kept. It ended up costing around $900 for 9 nights, which was an incredible deal compared to other places we looked at!
Other Hotels
My husband and I both have Marriott Bonvoy cards, and so we had several points and a couple free nights to use for hotel stays outside of London. One of my spreadsheet pages was a comparison of all of the Marriott properties in England and Scotland and how many points per night they were. We knew some places we for sure wanted to stay, but had a lot of flexibility for others. Some places we chose because they only required minimal points and were close enough to where we wanted to be. Others we chose because they were an ideal location, or a unique property.
I think the Marriott Bonvoy card is a great one to have if you love to travel! I feel like the points add up fairly quickly, and sometimes you get extra perks like free breakfast! There is a yearly fee, but you get 1 free night, so that basically covers it. I’m planning to do a full recap of all the properties we stayed at.
Bed & Breakfasts
There were 3 nights where we weren’t going to be by any Marriott Hotels. We wanted to stay two nights on the Isle of Skye and one night in Northumberland. When I started looking for a place on the Isle of Skye, there was hardly anything left. I started scrolling through Google Maps and looking for the hotel icon, and finally came across The Old Post Office in Kilvaxter. They had a room with one queen and one twin and there were two nights available for around $270, which was more budget-friendly than any other places we found, so we jumped on it.
In Northumberland, we found a b&b near Newcastle Upon Tyne, the Stone Cottage Guesthouse. There was a queen bed and a bunkbed. It was perfect, and only $90 a night! It definitely smelled like an old home, and it was super creaky, but, that just added to the charm. It was such a cute little cottage and the host was so sweet! The room was great too, and very spacious.
