Week 11: Travel Tips

Here are some travel tips I picked up with all the traveling I did and I hope it helps you out when you’re planning to travel!

• Sometimes it’s easier and faster just to travel by plane, especially with all the discount airlines out there. Check out skyscanner.com and put in the destination of ‘Everywhere’ and sort by price . Also check out easyjet.com and ryanair.com for two of the budget airlines that have great fares to almost anywhere in Europe.
• If you’re traveling to France or Brussels it will be fastest (and most comfortable) to go via train as it goes through the chunnel. Check out eurostar.com. Fares are as low as £30 one-way, which is a very good deal for a comfortable 2 hr train journey that leaves from King’s Cross/St. Pancras, which is walkable if you’re staying in NYU housing. However, you have to book early as fares go up quickly and then it might be cheaper just to fly. It is definitely worth it to go by rail though so keep your eye on those fares!
• Also check out megabus.com and nationalexpress.com for cheap buses. Use eurolines.com if you are not starting your journey in the UK–it is the same company as naitonalexpress but sometimes the fares can be cheaper if you match up the fares yourself across all 3 websites than buying a roundtrip journey.
• Hostels are the way to go, and definitely safe. I was a bit skeptical myself since I had never stayed in one (they don’t seem to be common in America but they’re all over Europe and this gives you a good variety to choose the best one). Hostbookers.com and studentuniverse.com has the cheapest prices (hostelworld.com is just slightly more expensive). Make sure to read the reviews to help you pick a safe and clean place. Most places have luggage rooms and lockers to keep your belongings safe while you’re out and you can usually even store your stuff before and after check-out times. Some give you locks but some don’t so it’s best to bring your own. Most don’t come with towels though so bring your own. Also don’t forget shower flops. Also just a tidbit: the hostels I stayed in in Portugal were the best ever. They were all so clean, had great amenities, had very friendly staff, and were on par with hotels in terms of quality. I don’t know what it was about Portugal, but I especially recommend the hostels there.
• I have been advised that in Amsterdam, however, hotels are better than hostels.
• It is often more economical to take an overnight bus since you save a night in hotel/hostel, as opposed to taking a flight where you’d be getting in late at night and don’t have much time to explore anyways.
• Aside from Heathrow, you can fly out from Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted. Most budget airlines do not fly from Heathrow so you will likely have to use the other 3 more out of the way airports. Heathrow is the only one where you can take either the city bus or tube to directly. For the other ones you usually have to take an airport shuttle such as easybus.co.uk or terravision.eu. This is annoying because you’ll have to go to a specific pick-up location. It is especially annoying if you’re flying out in the middle of the night or early morning because the tube will be closed and you’ll have to take a bus to the pickup location. Take the train if you can to the airport. Go to firstcapitalconnect.co.uk for trains to Gatwick or Luton out of King’s Cross/St. Pancras.

My early morning flight to Dublin on Ryanair.

 

Week 10: Preparation Tips

A corollary to my post on packing tips last week, that should help you keep a few things in mind to prepare before you come so you won’t be stranded without some necessary things when you arrive.

• Figure out what you’re going to do for a credit card/bank account. Get a no foreign transaction fee credit card (I’m currently using Chase Sapphire and I know Bank of America and Capital One are other good options.) You don’t need a chip credit card but it can get annoying (some automated machines, like at Tube refill stations, don’t take swipe cards so you have to wait for a person to process it for you at the counter and there’s not always someone there). I hear there’s currently a Bank of America travel card that actually has a chip, which seems pretty smart and now I wonder why all travel cards don’t have this feature. Get a bank account that won’t charge you ATM fees. Bank of America doesn’t charge you ATM fees if you use any bank in the Global ATM Alliance (e.g. Barclays in the UK, BNP Paribas in France, Deutsche Bank in Germany; but note there isn’t an alliance bank in every country and it also doesn’t apply to Barclays in France for example or BNP in the UK). Capital One is another option you can check out. I have friends who have to pay $5 every time they use the ATM with their regular bank card so figure this out beforehand!
• The rate for exchanging currency in cash before you leave the US is terrible (not to your advantage compared to actual market rates) so just bring a little. Once you get here you can withdraw local currency for a much better rate at ATMs (assuming you followed my last tip). I would also have a small amount of Euros ready, assuming you want to travel (I haven’t figured out what the cheapest option will be for me yet since I didn’t think about this beforehand and now don’t have access to any of my regular banks.)
• Figure out how you’re going to get from the airport to your dorm, or just find someone to share a pre-booked cab with like I did. I knew I wouldn’t able to take the Tube with all my luggage and figured enough people would have booked cabs already that I wouldn’t need to. It worked out for me and I suggest you definitely share since it’s pretty pricey and a cab definitely fits at least 2 people with a full load of luggage. However, where I saw people run into problems is when they had planned to share a cab with a friend who was getting in on a different flight. Usually there’s no way to contact your friend when you land since no one has a phone yet.

Week 9: Packing Tips

Now that I’ve gotten familiar with my set-up for the next 4 months, I wanted to share some packing tips for anyone studying in London, or anywhere really. I’ll probably do more of an all-around tips post later on, but I wanted to get this packing stuff down while it’s still on my mind. (Also I’ll admit I think this makes me feel better about some of the dumb packing choices I made that made lugging my 3 suitcases–1 of which was overweight–here more painful than it should be…haha)

Packing/Preparation Tips

• Do NOT bring appliances like hair dryers and straighteners. My roommate and I did not listen to this figuring that we had adapters and converters; my roommate’s hair dryer blew out completely even with the converter… Pro Tip/Exception: I am actually using my straightener here because I checked and my converter is compatible with my straightener’s wattage. My roommate’s hair dryer had a higher wattage, and I’m too scared to kill my own hair dryer forever since it doesn’t say on the appliance so always CHECK and you might be fine.
• NYU London’s SPEX club (Stern Political Economy Exchange) runs a rummage sale every semester (and SPEX is also present at a few other NYU global sites) and you can buy things for cheap like used hair dryers, straighteners, hangers (one of the biggest complaints was that our closets are too small and did not come with nearly enough hangers), laundry baskets, etc., and even used books. Pro Tip: do not buy hair dryers or straighteners at the rummage sale! They are much cheaper, not to mention new and including all the accessory parts, at a store called Argos. However, I did calculate the per hanger price here and it is worth it at the rummage sale. Also keep in mind that only so many additional hangers will fit in the tiny closets, and I think 5 hangers (sold together for £1 at the rummage sale) is the perfect amount.
• Check for your textbooks in the lounges of both Byron and Guilford since past residents usually leave them behind (and try do this before everyone else gets there!). Then check at the SPEX rummage sale. Definitely do not attempt to buy your books in the US before you come because even if you can’t find free books lying around I would say the book sale prices are still pretty reasonable. For custom textbooks you’re gonna have to decide if you want to chance it. Or ask someone who took the class here before.
  
• Bring a backpack and a lock for travel. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this, but now that I’m thinking of it you won’t have to.
• Minimize the toiletries you bring. I know this is common sense but I’ll tell you right now that the 2 most popular drugstores that you can find everywhere are Boots and Superdrug so you can even browse their websites and check to see if they have what you need, which chances are they will. Pro Tip: Superdrug tends to be cheaper, and both are in Brunswick, the nearest shopping center.
• If you are picky about your stationary bring your own. The paper size is different here (it’s difficult to find college/narrow-ruled paper), the holes are in different places (it’s a 4-hole punch), and thus the binders are also different. I wouldn’t really advocate bringing all that dead weight here when you can buy perfectly adequate substitutes, but just know that it’s useless to bring US-style binders without enough filler paper and vice versa.
• Consider shipping stuff here instead of going overweight on your luggage. You can have stuff arrive before you move in and NYU will accept it for you, unlike the policy in New York. However, keep in mind that you have to go to the academic centre to pick up packages, so if you have a lot of stuff you will need to factor in the cost of taking a cab or maybe bribing all of your friends to help you.
• Bring an umbrella! It promptly rained the first day I was here and I even brought an umbrella but just hadn’t thought about unpacking it yet.
• Check the weather and pack accordingly!!! The umbrella thing does technically fall into this and I knew it would rain a lot. But where I went wrong was packing too many summer clothes when it gets cold so much earlier here. Whoops…

Ok…will post more preparation tips that don’t have to do with packing next week. Stay tuned!