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3 Reasons why NOW is the time to visit London!
If you haven’t been living under a rock, and can stand to watch or read the news with all of the Donald Trump/ Hillary Clinton banter, you have probably heard that Great Britain has voted to leave the European Union. While the full effects of Brexit won’t be realized for quite some time, you can take advantage of the opportunity to visit London now!
The Pound is down
The day after the Brexit vote the pound dropped to a historical low of 1.34 GBP to USD. Since then the pound has continued to drop and as of writing this was trading at about 1.31! For the past 5 years it was steady between 1.55 and 1.65 meaning you can get as much as 20% more pounds for your dollar as you could a year ago!
Steep drop in the Pound’s value means more bang for your $$$
The lower priced pound means your dollars will go further for your visit. The Daily mail said that last year Americans made up 10% of the tourists to the UK and spent more than any other nationality (3010 pounds). You can expect that number to go down significantly after the brexit. The Points Guy had a great piece that compared the cost of a trip to London over the past 8 years.
Cheap Flights
This summer there has been no shortage of great flight deals to Europe and Asia. This morning I searched to see if there were still late summer deals to visit London and guess what, YES there are! From New York there were multiple carriers under $800 round trip and I spotted a Norwegian Airlines deal for right about $500 round trip!
Tower Bridge
The other major US cities I searched were DC, Miami, Atlanta, Orlando, and Chicago all of which had options under $1000 round trip. Most of the best deals are on non-traditional carriers such as Norwegian, IcelandAir, and Aer Lingus.
Visit London then visit Europe!
A Busy London Night
London is the major gateway to continental Europe and the Middle East. When the pound fell, the Euro wasn’t far behind. Although the drop wasn’t as drastic the roughly 9% drop means your dollars will go further in EU countries as well!
The cheap airfare isn’t just to London. You can fly Aer Lingus from multiple east coast cities to Dublin or Shannon for less than $600 round trip!
Until Great Britain’s break-up with the EU has been finalized you can still travel between EU countries and the UK without having to clear customs making day trips to Paris, Belgium, or Ireland very quick and easy.
If you have never been to London, or it has been sometime since you visited, now is the time to take advantage of the discounted Pound and cheap airfare and visit London! I am tempted to take advantage of these deals myself!
3 Comments
I’m English and have been living in the States for 4 years now but am hoping to visit the UK next year and take advantage of the weak pound! I just find the fares originating from the States so much more expensive compared to flights I used to book back home in Europe. Why is that? I used to travel so much more and miss hopping over to Spain/ Greece etc. I have to make the effort to work less and travel more – there is so much to see in the USA too. I just wish you guys had more vacation days here. I miss my standard 4 weeks “holiday” I used to get back in England 🙂
Believe me I wish the US would have more vacation days too! I used to work with a Swiss bank and my colleagues in London would have way more time off than me! Where are you flying from in the US? I have seen some pretty low fares from New York to London recently. A lot of times the fares go in cycles, but one airline will discount their fares, then all others follow suit.
[…] long ago right after the #BREXIT vote, I wrote about how affordable it was to visit London and the United Kingdom. Well since then, the US Dollar has continued getting stronger, and the […]