As someone from the United States, being able to travel around the EU and the UK at a much smaller cost compared to back home is extremely exciting. However, planning trips can get expensive easily, so here are some mistakes I made touring England for four days, and my suggestions on avoiding racking up as many costs.
One of the first mistakes that I made was not setting a hard limit on how much I wanted to spend on food and souvenirs. When you are in a new country — especially when walking around a lot — you’ll naturally want to buy things. You might think a €5 coffee isn’t much, but small costs add up quickly. Especially when going to tourist spots, food and souvenirs are way more expensive. So, setting a limit on money spent per day can help deter you from buying things you might regret. One of the more expensive purchases on my part was going to eat in Chinatown in London. While it was a fun experience, paying at least 16 pounds to eat is certainly not ideal on a budget. Don’t be afraid to go to a Spar or grab fast food like McDonald’s so that you are not spending all your money in one place.
The next mistake was actually getting to Shannon Airport to fly out on my trip. I had gotten an extremely early morning flight, but that meant the shuttles were not running to the airport during that time. Therefore, I had to schedule an Uber, which increased my travel budget astronomically just to get on my Ryanair flight. My suggestion would be to take a later flight to be able to catch the shuttle to the airport to avoid those Uber costs. While it might take a few hours less to explore where you are going, it will also save money.
Using Booking.com to schedule the lodging was really nice because it showed us cheap and safe options. However, one of the hotels we booked had the latest check-in time at 10 p.m. We booked the hotel thinking we could contact them for a later check-in. Unfortunately, after multiple texts and calls to the hotel, we were not able to reach them, which caused us to arrive too late for check-in and waste money on the non-refundable hotel. Not to mention, spending a lot of extra money to get a different hotel on short notice was not fun. So, if you know it’s going to be late at night, book a hotel that allows late or 24-hour check-in — or at least contact them about the late night. It’s better to spend a bit more on a hotel that allows a late check-in instead.
Finally, traveling around England was fun. We used a lot of different trains to get to different cities, which for the most part allows for a mostly stress-free travel experience. However, trains can easily get canceled, which happened twice on our trip. The first time was due to an incident on the tracks causing multiple blockages. This led to hours of waiting and several canceled trains before we finally arrived at our destination. The second time was due to a staff shortage, which caused cancellations and forced us either to wait or to take an Uber. Therefore, keep your trip flexible. It can be tough, especially when there are specific places you want to visit but always expect the unexpected. Sometimes spontaneity can be the most exciting option.
Overall, while mistakes were made, fun was had. Trips like this can be stressful, especially when things don’t go as planned, but taking situations with a grain of salt and finding the humor in them allows any trip that might have gone wrong to still be enjoyable. Sometimes you have to make mistakes in order to learn from them, and this trip was definitely a learning experience. Nonetheless, money comes back, but you might never experience this again — so take the opportunity to travel while you can.
Study Ireland - Stories & Guides from International Students 
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