Cheap traveling tips for students in UK

If you are study abroad in UK already why not look around? In this post I try to give some idea how to travel in the cheapest way locally and nationwide. Even one can grab a bargain flights around Europe.

Local travel in your city

Many big cities like Liverpool or Manchester have a free bus around the city every 10-15 minutes. If you are lucky, enough to live nearby any of their bus-stop you sorted! Do not worry if there is no free bus, student fairs are quite friendly anyway. To use student discount you must buy a travel ticket for a month or for a whole semester. It seems expensive to pay this amount once but in long-term can save a lot. You might buy just only for one bus company or cover the whole city (this one more costly but students can ride any bus or metro even ferry).

Bigger cities might have more than one Travel Company. For example in Newcastle Upon Tyne there are three bus company: Go North, Stagecoach and Arriva. When you buy a return ticket on a Go North bus, you cannot use it on the others. If you have to change during your daily travel to your university had better have a weekly/monthly pass. The city often divided by zones, in this way you might buy a pass just for 1-2-3 zones and like this can save money also. Possibly all travel companies offer a “get around” daily ticket that you can use all day all zone on all transport. It could be handy if friends or family visit and you want to show around.

If you do not mind to walk or ride a bike those also alternatives (and free). Unfortunately the weather in UK not really good (mainly windy and rainy most of the times) but if you don’t mind..

More about saving for students mentioned in a previous post before.

Travelling long distances

The choices are varies. The most obvious would be train right? Most of the countries of the world the train would be the cheap and comfortable option for long distances. Ha! Not in the UK. The train is ridiculously expensive if you not book in advance like 1-2 months. I travelled by low cost airline often half-price than it would cost me by train between Newcastle – London. The most extreme example: I bought a flight ticket with Easyjet (cost me 18 GBP with taxes + train to London another 18 GBP = 36 GBP). The same trip with train would cost me 100-150 GBP. Of course, it is possible to get a cheap train ticket but have to be quick and keep eyes on their website. Also possible to get a Student Travel card and with this you can get some discount.

Other websites claim it is enough to buy tickets online 1-2 weeks before and collect in the station and still can save money… It never happened with me, neither any of my friends could manage the same. One of my friend use to go to the train station exactly 30 days before his desired travel and could get really cheap tickets to London.

Travel with low cost airlines.

Unfortunately, airlines do not offer student discounts. However, worth to check them before you starts booking train or bus tickets. Many times one can find great deals. Keep in mind the airport possibly far from the city centre so it will cost you extra time and money to get into the centre. Low cost airlines like Jet2, Easyjet or RyanAir use to be good options but now they seem to be greedier and try to charge for everything. Meaning: check the conditions carefully because some unpleasant surprise will waiting for you at the airport check in.

For example with RyanAir, you have to print your ticket at home or they will charge with an absolute ridiculous thirty-something pounds. Just for printing the lousy ticket! So watch out.

You might also plan some look around in Europe during your summer holiday or long weekend trips. If you travel light (hand luggage only) can grab many bargain trip. Cities like Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Edinburgh serve low cost airlines so very likely you can fly from there. Popular destinations like Paris, Madrid, Malaga Prague, Ibiza or Milan possibly cost around 100-150 pounds return if you book in time. It is including taxes, really. Surprisingly sometime British Airways offer same low price so worth to check it too. Besides, they are much less hassle.

Before you start scratching your head “how the hell can I manage to check all the websites” I give you some help. There are several websites, which help to search all the airlines in one place. For me the DOHOP worked the best with short distance and long-distance international flights as well.

Double check taxes and supplements.

Unfortunately, often the cheap flights tend to be expensive in the end when you check out and pay, so be careful. Nowadays some of them getting better (for example Easyjet) shows the real price straight away with taxes not just pop in the last page when you have to enter your card details like RyanAir.

Long-distance bus travel.

It is my favourite part. There is nothing better than travel in the bus 7-8 hours together 60-80 other people with one stop. I am sarcastic of course. I did it many times with Megabus and National Express. They are the possible cheapest travelling choices in UK for long distances. Not comfortable if you are tall but you want travel cheap or not? Right, so get use to it. If you do not mind sleep in the bus during night, overnight trips could be good options. Save time and money. You get in the bus night-time and arrive in the morning. If decide to travel daytime you will spend all day on the bus. In addition, passenger can carry one big luggage + hand luggage. It is very popular choice for low budget travellers and students. I did many times between Newcastle – London (7-8 hours). If you book in advance, (2-4 weeks) you can get one way ticket around 8-15 pounds. Few years ago even managed to book a ticket for 1 pounds + 50pence booking fee. Megabus is the cheapest but National Express more comfortable and quicker in my experience.

The “leg stretching stop”.

Be careful, they stop around 30mins (National Express 1-hour) for stretching your leg, use the bathroom, eat, smoke etc. Be back in time because they not going to wait for you it is fact. The drivers have a tight schedule and will leave you there if you not back in time and you have to catch the next one around 3-4 hours later. Not fun believe me so keep your eyes in your watch.

That is it for now. If you want to add anything or I missed something, feel free to comment.

No related posts.

Tags: how to save money, international students, student surviving tips, study abroad, study in UK

Category: tips and tricks