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Strikes bring much of London transport to a halt

Follow BBC Radio London Travel for the latest service updates | Tube strikes: How to win at London during a walkout

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That's it for our coverage of today's transport strikes in London.

The page was written by Marita Moloney, Thomas Macintosh and Andre Rhoden-Paul. It was edited by Nathan Williams and Chirag Trivedi.

What's been happening?

We'll shortly be stopping our live coverage of the transport strikes in London. Here's a round-up of what's been happening today:

• Passengers across the capital are facing disruption to their journeys due to separate industrial action by Tube workers and bus drivers
• Transport for London (TfL) has advised people to avoid travelling today, and there's a very limited service running on just three lines
• RMT members are striking for the fifth time this year in a dispute over job cuts, while National Rail workers will also walk out again on Saturday
• Some 63 bus routes are affected in west and south-west London and parts of Surrey as Unite members strike for 48 hours over pay
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says the rail industry has made a "very fair pay offer" and is accusing "union barons" of holding their membership hostage to strike ballots
• But RMT general secretary Mick Lynch says there's a "big stalemate" between the government and the London Mayor's office, while Unite says the pay deal offered to bus drivers is "insulting"

Is there a strike tomorrow?

Yes. Unite's London bus strike continues for a second day .

Plus, there will be more widespread disruption to the UK rail network on Saturday , as the RMT and TSSA go walk out again.

The effect on services is expected to be the same as 18 August, although some services will run on one of the days but not the other. Disruption is likely to continue into Sunday morning.

Read more details about the strikes here

'We're as near to a general strike as we have been in decades'

Rail workers aren't the only group joining the picket line as the cost of living soars.

Unions members from several industries are set to go on strike in the coming months, as Alan Jones, Industrial Relations Correspondent at the Press Association, explains.

Among those who could potentially strike are refuse workers in Windsor, members of the Royal College of Nursing, barristers and workers at the Port of Felixstowe.

Quote Message: A lot of these people worked through the pandemic: post office workers, Royal Mail workers, train workers, delivery drivers, refuse collectors - many of them hailed at the time as being the kind of heroes of the pandemic." A lot of these people worked through the pandemic: post office workers, Royal Mail workers, train workers, delivery drivers, refuse collectors - many of them hailed at the time as being the kind of heroes of the pandemic."

Inflation is "definitely what is driving a lot of these disputes", he tells BBC Radio 4's World at One, with autumn expected to bring even more industrial unrest.

"It's possible that teachers and nurses and even doctors and other health workers will be taking some form of industrial action," Jones says.

"People were talking about a summer of discontent... but the autumn and the winter could be much bigger in terms of industrial action than what we've seen in recent weeks.

"We're as near now to a general strike as we've been for decades."

Trains are only running on three Tube lines

BBC Radio London

A very limited service continues to run on only three Underground lines.

The Central Line isn't running through Central London with no service from White City to Liverpool Street. A limited service is operating at the ends of the line in the suburbs.

The District Line is only running between West Ham and Upminster.

Whilst the Northern Line has a reduced service Golders Green to Edgware and High Barnet to East Finchley.

The DLR and the Elizabeth Line are the only parts of the Transport for London network with a good service.

Long taxi queues building up

Mcdonnell calls for wage rises in line with inflation.

Some more political reaction to bring you as the former shadow chancellor has now waded in on how the strikes and cost of living crisis go hand-in-hand.

Speaking on Radio 4's World at One (WATO) programme Labour's John McDonnell called for wage rises in line with inflation adding it is the only way to protect people from "sinking in to poverty".

He rejected that this would embed inflation saying that the dominant thrust of inflation rising wasn't coming from wages but from profits, and called for an excess profit tax.

He also criticised city bonuses which he claimed had gone up 30%.

Asked about whether the UK is facing a "winter of discontent" of strike action he said there is a build-up of workers prepared to go on strike "many of whom have never been on strike before".

Thameslink busier at St Pancras

BBC London News

With no Tube service at a station which would ordinarily serve six London Underground lines, there is extra pressure on Thameslink.

Thameslink trains connect north and south of the city via central London – as well as Luton and Gatwick airports and various counties beyond.

There has been a constant stream of passengers leaving this part of the station all afternoon.

London to Manchester service reduced

Elsewhere in the land of transport, only one train an hour is running between London and Manchester.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps seemed unaware of how many trains were running along that route.

Avanti West Coast is running a reduced timetable of one direct train an hour because of "severe staff shortages".

Transport secretary under fire for train timetable mistake

Restaurateur says customers adapting to disruption

Wendy Hurrell

One London restaurant owner says both staff and customers are adapting to this week's transport disruption.

Ed Thaw, who owns Leroy restaurant in Shoreditch, says they were busier on Wednesday because customers knew that three days of reduced services due to strikes were ahead of them.

He adds that he is sympathetic to the strikes - for now.

"It's kind of swings and roundabouts but by and large we're kind of getting to where we want to be across the week," he says.

"I think our customers are adapting and we're kind of adapting. It's a lack of staff, it's energy bills going up and this is one of the lesser pains to deal with.

"It's not ideal, if it keeps on happening then at some point it's going to be a problem."

Re-route required

Like many people outside Tube stations across London, I find Salani Bandaranayake (right) tapping directions into her phone outside Euston.

She is travelling back to Leicester with her mum having visited family in Watford for the past fortnight.

In their case, it's a relatively short walk to King's Cross St Pancras.

"We actually booked a ticket a week ago... Now we'll have to walk to catch our train on time."

She says she is "neutral" on supporting London's fifth Tube strike this year.

"They're fighting for their rights as well," she adds.

How many trains are running today and Sunday?

Katy Austin

Transport Correspondent

Network Rail says about 70% of usual train services are running today.

This is because of starting late following yesterday’s national rail strike.

On Sunday, about 85% of usual services are expected to run following the next national strike day on Saturday.

How to win at London during a Tube strike

Today's Tube strike is the fifth to happen in London this year but the first to take place at the height of the school summer holidays.

While most of the Underground network is down and some bus routes aren't operating, there are still other methods for Londoners and tourists to battle their way around the capital.

Trains can offer sneaky routes across the city, more river bus services are operating for the day and there's always the option of a rented bike or e-scooter, depending on which borough you're in.

Discover other ways to survive the day in the city here .

Tube staff pay up 8.4%

Although London Underground workers received an 8.4% pay rise in April, prices are rising at 10.1% - their fastest rate for more than 40 years.

It means the gap between pay growth and inflation is the biggest since records began more than 20 years ago.

However, a four-year deal with unions guarantees 15,000 Tube workers an annual pay increase of RPI+0.2%, which will cost TfL £100m.

Elsewhere in the public sector, police have received 5% pay rise , teachers were awarded between 5% and 8.9% and the Armed Forces, who cannot strike, got 3.75%.

NHS workers received at least £1,400, backdated to April, with porters and cleaners getting a 9.3% increase.

Eligible doctors and dentists received a 4.5% rise.

Mayor: We have an anti-London government

Video content.

As transport workers in London go on strike today, the Mayor of London has told BBC London he thinks the government is "anti-London".

He says if Transport for London wasn't still in discussions with the government, it could resolve this industrial dispute amicably with trade unions.

The government and TfL are still in negotiations about the conditions of a long-term funding deal, something which Khan says is hampering discussions with the RMT and other trade unions.

The RMT has previously said this latest strike was prompted by TfL's "refusal" to share details of a draft government proposal it received regarding funding of the transport system in London.

But Khan said the deal wasn't final and that its contents were "sensitive".

Key points from today's strike action

Here is a midday catch-up of everything we know so far about today's Tube strike.

• The majority of lines on the London Underground network have some form of disruption
• Only the Elizabeth line and the south London Trams are reporting a good service at midday
• Over in south-west London more than 1,600 bus drivers are on strike which is causing disruption to services across that part of the capital
• RMT general secretary Mick Lynch claims there is a "big stalemate" in talks between the government and the Mayor of London's office
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps argues the rail industry has made a "very fair pay offer"

Station shops shut

It's not just Tube stations which have the shutters down.

Seven shops are shut inside Euston station this morning, even though train services are running.

Although none of them has anything to indicate the reason for the closures, it seems a good bet that the Tube and bus strikes are a factor.

There is another Mexican outfit outside the station which is closed - but that is due to "routine maintenance".

Pay deal offered to bus drivers 'insulting', says union

As well as London Underground workers, bus drivers who are members of the Unite union are also walking out today in a dispute over pay.

Some 63 bus routes are affected, with services disrupted in west and south-west London and parts of Surrey today. Drivers will also strike on Saturday.

Unite regional officer John Murphy says the pay offer offered to members is "insulting" as wage increase offered over a two-year period "doesn't get close to inflation".

Drivers deserve to be treated better and with respect, he tells the BBC.

More empty seats at Lord's

It's day three of the first Test between England and South Africa at Lord's and there are fewer fans in place for the start of the action than normal.

The nearest station - St John's Wood (the only Tube station which doesn't contain the letters of the word "mackerel") - would ordinarily bring thousands of supporters to the home of cricket.

"I do hope that people can manage to get here today," Jonathan Agnew tells listeners on Test Match Special.

"It's all a bit chaotic today with Tube strikes and a bus strike as well.

"Well done to those how have made it but looking around there are still rather more empty seats than there would rather be for the first ball of a Lord's Test match but hopefully people will be able to get here and see, more or less, the start of the action."

Truss says unions 'holding country to ransom'

Liz Truss, who is currently bookies' favourite to become the next PM, has vowed to "crackdown" on strikes if she is selected as Tory Party leader.

The foreign secretary has outlined her plans to tackle strikes, which include introducing minimum service levels to keep transport links running.

"Once again we're seeing militant trade unionists holding our country to ransom," she told the Daily Express .

"As prime minister, I'll crackdown on the debilitating strikes that cripple the vital services that hard-working people rely on."

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Major travel disruption in London due to strike action

Huge crowds of people are seen queueing at stations in the capital - with no trains running on any London Underground lines today.

Wednesday 15 March 2023 15:04, UK

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Commuters in London are facing lengthy delays due to travel disruption caused by strike action.

No trains are running on any London Underground lines due to the walkout by Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) members - part of coordinated industrial action across the country.

Huge crowds of people were left queueing at stations including Tottenham Court Road in central London this morning.

And transport monitors say it has increased the number of traffic jams in the capital.

Journey times for drivers were significantly longer during the commute as a result.

Geolocation technology company TomTom said at 7am the average time it took to drive 10km (6.2 miles) in London was two minutes longer than normal at that time, at 15 minutes and 27 seconds.

It also said there were 387 traffic jams in the capital - stretching for a total of 406km (252.3 miles).

Related Topics

• Rail strikes

Visit London Like a Smartie: 18 London Travel Mistakes to Avoid

Last Updated: February 20, 2023

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If you visit London once and don’t almost die crossing the street, then let me ask: did you  really  visit London?

These are the mega-philosophical questions I ask when I find myself in England’s infectious capital, alongside “how many cups of tea is too many”, “why can’t I stop making accidental eye contact on the Tube”, and “where was Harry Potter filmed…? “

You see, London is a funny place. On one hand, it’s totally optimized for tourism, has cool attractions by the bucket load and is an absolute traveller’s dream.

On the other, it’s a vacation disaster waiting to happen.

Save this list of what not to do in London for later!

You’ll be glad you did.

I say this because London, while one of the most lovable cities in the world, is laden with traps that could easily trump any first time visitor – cars on the opposite side of the road for instance, or words pronounced nothing like they’re spelled.

After visiting the city over 6 times in the past few years, I’ve learned a thing or two about what NOT to do in London, and so, in an attempt to convert all my embarrassing stories into actual useful information, today’s post will be all about common London travel mistakes.

In this post, you’ll find THE classic 1st timer mistakes to avoid when you visit London. It’s a long list, but I promise it’ll make your London travel experience 100% smoother. Here we gooo…

1. Looking the wrong way when crossing the street

So back to the whole getting run over thing: the first time I visited London, I almost died about five times.

Brits drive on the left, which sounds quirky and innocent enough until you realize it turns every street crossing into an auto-fuelled death trap.

This has become such a problem that most crosswalks in touristy areas literally have “LOOK LEFT” and “LOOK RIGHT” painted on the pavement in aggressive white block letters.

Seeing as how survival is pretty critical to your enjoyment of beautiful London town, I highly recommend you look both ways before crossing the street, especially the correct way (as dictated by the block letters).

Essentially what I’m saying is: please for the love of Cumberbatch, don’t get run over.

2. Riding the Tube like a newb

One of the most traditional and sacred art forms in London is navigating the city’s underground train system, AKA riding the Tube.

I’ll admit, this was one of the most stressful parts of visiting London for the first time because it’s horrifically hectic, there’s a million lines and it seems like literally everyone else knows what they’re doing.

So, to save you from distress when riding London’s beloved Tube, here are a few easy rules to keep in mind…

Get an Oyster Card (or use your Contactless payments):

I’m not even sure if buying single tickets are a thing anymore because it’s so rare.

The public transport in London relies on a tap in/out system that automatically charges you, and using an Oyster Card or your contactless card will help you score the lowest rate possible (and takes the guess work out of what tickets to buy).

Using your contactless card is the most convenient, but depending on where you’re from you might incur expensive foreign transaction fees.

Most visitors will instead buy an Oyster card (a refillable card that you can buy with a refundable £5 deposit). These are available at all stations, but you can also buy one in advance online here .

Keep your card, tickets or railpasses handy:

Basically, to gain access to underground trains, you need to tap in, but to leave the station, you need to tap out.

Most Londoners have nailed this process, which means if you need to stop and block traffic in order to rummage through your bag for your card, you will be pissing a lot of people off. *sips tea angrily*

Don’t stand on the left side of the escalator:

That side is for impatient and fit people who enjoy treating escalators like stairs.

Don’t you dare block that path by standing there or putting luggage there, otherwise you will face the ultimate wrath of British people: silent rage, accompanied by a subtle tut.

Avoid rush hour at all costs.  

Just don’t do it. It’s horrible.

There’s nothing worse than baking in a sea of hot humans (temperature, not looks) during the busiest time of day, looking everywhere to avoid awkward eye contact.

I would never ride the Tube by choice between 7:30-9am and 5-7pm.

3. Pronouncing English words totally wrong

Let me tell you, British English is a trap.

They lure you in with the charming accent and cute little phrases, then promptly throw you under (double decker) buses with words that are said completely not how they’re spelled.

It’s like one day they decided it’d be funny to watch tourists fail, and just arbitrarily conjured up random non-phonetic pronunciations. And yes, while in the grand scheme of London mistakes, this one is pretty low key, with the sole consequence being embarrassment and shame, I figured it was better to warn you so you can be aware & careful before asking a stranger for directions.

So when you need to get to Leicester Square looking for THAT filming spot from Harry Potter , know that you’re looking for “LEST-ER Square” and not “Lay-chest-er” or “Lei-sess-ter” Square.

Also know that “Greenwich” is pronounced less like the Wicked Witch of the West (“green witch”) and more like a malady experienced by senior aged women (“gran itch”).

… You’ve been warned.

PS: This is not even including super fun words and names like Lacock , which is actually pronounced “Lay-cock” and an absolutely charming village in the Cotswolds.

4. Thinking cash is all you need

This one is weird… and unexpected, but there are now some places in London that are “card only”. Like, enough places for me to add this mistake to the list. SO, know that you should probably bring some cards with you in addition to cash when you visit London.

Especially at markets , there are some places that have decided to join the whole cashless revolution, so make sure you also have a credit/debit card or Apple Pay in addition to the bills in yo’ pocket.

5. Not knowing the lingo

So, as I said earlier, British English is…….. different. 

And if you’re from outside of England like me, sometimes it may feel like you’re speaking an entirely different language.

To ensure your visit to London is smooth and stress-free, I recommend you brush up a little on classic, frequently used terms.

For instance, (this is currency, but still): remember we are dealing with pounds here instead of dollars, and pence instead of cents.

Alternatively you might hear the word “ quid ” in place of pounds, (5 quid means 5 pounds) or sometimes when they’re feeling especially cute, they might even say 5 squids.

This is not a joke. I can’t believe I had to explain that.

When asking for the washroom, if you feel silly saying “loo” (it honestly doesn’t sound cute without a British accent), the word toilet is much more common. “Excuse me, which way is the toilet?”

In England, you’re looking for the  lift and not the elevator.

You also put your trash in the  bin  and not the garbage can. If you see a line-up, that’s called a  queue  here, and don’t you DARE jump any queues.

Queuing is basically England’s national sport (next to avoiding eye contact on the Tube).

Lastly, when at a bar, you can order by the pint or a “ half ” (half pint). Some places do “ a third ” as well.

BONUS: This happens way more outside of London , but you might notice some people will use “ You alright? ” as a greeting, like how we use “hey, how are you?”

So, if random people like shop clerks are asking you if you’re alright, they’re just saying hi, they’re not probing into the deepest depths of your mental state.

6. Overloading your itinerary

Okay, next up: when you visit London, one thing you need to constantly keep in mind is that London is absolutely massive, so a) don’t expect to cover everything in a single trip and b) make sure you plan your day and its stops wisely.

There’s a common London joke that I have found to be eerily truthful: no matter where you go in the city, everything in London is 40 minutes away from the other.

You do not realize the accuracy of this statement until you actually get to the city. It’s scary.

Anyways, the point is: London is big, the neighbourhoods are far apart, and you can expect to spend 40min in transit going to any given place.

In short, you can’t to cover everything in one go. Attempting to do so will really ruin your trip!

So, before you leave, take a look at your itinerary and make sure you’re not cramming it with activities that are all over the map.

Make sure you organize your day in a way that makes geographical sense, and of course leave some breathing room so you’re not stressed the entire time.

7. Assuming everything will be smooth

London’s public transport is one of the most iconic things about the city. I mean, does it really get more “London” than red double decker buses and stuffy rides on the Tube?

It’s therefore kind of hilarious how often things go terribly wrong with London’s transport system.

Straight up, I’ve never NOT encountered some kind of transport trouble in London. There’s always something.

There was that time my airport train was inexplicably cancelled because of “fire”… or the incessant works on random underground lines that always somehow clash with my own personal commute.

So, understanding that the London underground is a maze of transfers, escalators, mysterious odours and locals who are sick of your confused BS, expect that something will go wrong, allocate extra time for your commute, and be familiar with your plan Bs.

8. Doing too many paid London attractions

London is a city that’s crawling with cool attractions… famous ones to boot (including the amaaazing Warner Bros Studio Tour, which is where they filmed Harry Potter).

Anyways, given how many amazing attractions you can find in London, your first instinct might be to do them all. LONDON EYE. BUCKINGHAM PALACE. TOWER OF LONDON. MADAME TUSSAUDS. *foams at the mouth*

Okay, I get that you want to see it all, do it all, gram it all… but attractions add up.

London is not a cheap city to visit as it is, and doing paid attraction after attraction is one of the surest and quickest ways to burn through your budget in a hot minute.

Plus you’ll be spending most of your day braving horrific line-ups.

But here’s the good news: London has tons of free attractions you can take advantage of. Click here for a full list.  

I highly recommend you cap your paid attractions to only a few that you really, really want to do, then devote the rest of your time to these amazing free attractions, and to eating more delicious food with that money you’ve saved 😉

PRO TIP: Consider getting a London Pass if you do intend on seeing lots of paid sights. It’s essentially one card you pay for that then gets you into tons of paid attractions. If you plan correctly, this can save you SO much money. Click here to learn more.

9. Being too reliant on Google Maps in London

As a forever-lost human potato, I (more often than not) rely on the great Google Map deities to safely get me from Point A to Point B.

I would not advise this in London.

Instead, you should make sure you have the CityMapper app downloaded to your phone.

CityMapper is a free app beloved by locals that is more up-to-date on delays, closures, route possibilities and more, making it a far superior option to Google Maps.

They even have a calorie counter for the walking option. If that’s not wild, I don’t know what is. This is one of my favourite apps for European travel, so be sure to check it out!

10. Forgetting that there’s no phone service on the Tube

I don’t know about you, but my phone is my BFF when I’m on public transit.

Luckily, the two cities I’ve lived in ( Munich and Vancouver) both have pretty excellent phone service even underground.

…  The same cannot be said for London.

There’s zero service on underground trains in London so make sure you A) have offline maps downloaded or something so that you can reroute if things go wrong and B) bring something to entertain yourself on the train… after all, everything in London is 40 minutes away, remember?

Seriously though, bring a book or something. Otherwise, you’re doomed to awkward scrolling on your phone pretending like you have service when everyone else knows you’re as dead on the inside as they are.

11. Ignoring all the signs in London

I know this long list of mistakes is scary, but let me continue with a mildly re-assuring statement: London is 100% optimized for tourism.

Like, their national animal might as well be a confused North American waddling into the wrong side of the road.

SO, know this: if you keep your eyes open, there are signs literally everywhere that will guide you to here you need to go, especially if your destination is a touristy place like an attraction or museum.

That said, most first time visitors blindly miss these signs. Don’t make that mistake!

Keep an eye out for signs that lead to main attractions and hotspots.

If you’re confused or lost, look for some kind of sign, or worst comes to worst, just ask someone.

Sure, your question might seem silly to a local, but if they’ve been living in London for a while, odds are good that they’ve heard a dumber question before.

12. Relying on the underground too much

Okay I know I said that London is huge, and it may be tempting to ride the Tube everywhere to save your poor legs from disintegrating…

But if you’re constantly chugging along on the underground and not taking the time to absorb your surroundings, then you’re missing out severely on one the most beautiful things to do in London: meander and dreamily stare at everything like you’re the protagonist in some coming of age film.

So here’s my suggestion: walk as much as you possibly can within neighbourhoods and then take the Tube to cover huge distances.

13. Eating only in restaurants

London is one of the best foodie cities in the world.

There’s thousands of options from every cuisine imaginable, but as a visitor, if you’re dining exclusively in restaurants, you’re missing out on one of my favourite London experiences: food markets!

Or markets in generally really, because there’s always food stalls. Yay.

Please I beg you, at least once during your trip, get a meal from a food market.

Not only will it be much, MUCH cheaper than dining in a restaurant, it’s also just an exciting experience you need to try.

Borough Market is a foodie favourite, but of course these days it’s very touristy.

Other markets I love for food are Greenwich Market, Brick Lane Market, nearby Old Spitalfields Market and I’ve heard great things about Maltby St Market too.

14. Eating only fish and chips

I get it: I, too, get that feverish, compulsive need to “eat THE thing at THE place” – gelato in Italy for instance (never a mistake) or the classic: fish and chips in London.

BUT I mean… while the country’s most “famous” foods are greasily delicious, the London food scene has far more to offer than English classics like fish & chips, fry-ups, steak pies and other amazing artery-clogging delights.

In my opinion, one of the best things about London is the truly terrifying abundance of international food options, enough to paralyze any indecisive foodie.

This is why I highly recommend you diversify your meals in London, maybe visit some food markets and enjoy this amazing access you have to a global flavour palette!

Sticking to the stereotypical foods means you’re missing out big time on some of London’s best foods.

15. Sticking only to “Central London”

I really enjoyed London on my first visit, when I flounced from sight to sight, doing all the touristy musts that had topped my bucket list for so long.

It wasn’t until subsequent visits though that I really “FELL” for London.

While clamouring at the gates of Buckingham Palace (like a peasant) is fun, and scoring selfies by iconic sights like Tower Bridge is great, London’s diverse neighbourhoods are where I think the city really shines…

Best of all, there’s a little something different for everyone.

I mean, between the colourful charm of Notting Hill (which is glorious in May by the way), the hipster vibes at Shoreditch, the insanely posh Chelsea/South Kensington, there’s SO much to see and explore outside of the very city center, so make sure to carve out some time for that as well.

Here’s my tip: do all the touristy musts, but then pick one additional neighbourhood to explore independently. I promise you it’s the best!

16. Waiting in Line for Attractions When You Don’t Have To

Spontaneity is great, but when you’re a first time visitor to London, you will be joined by thousands (dare I say… millions?!) who are looking to check the same things off their bucket list.

This means long lines, for pretty much everything.

The worst thing you can do in London though is waste all your eatin’ and explorin’ time rotting in a line-up (I mean queue). So, here are some tips…

If you know what attractions you want to see, book in advance online and get a skip the line ticket.

These are usually not that much more expensive, and given that time is money, they’re more than worth it.

Browse the best deals on advance tickets for London’s top attractions here.

Time the biggest attractions strategically. If you can’t book in advance, definitely avoid going to big attractions in the middle of the day. Early morning or even better, just before closing time is often way less busy.

17. Missing London’s amazing (free) viewpoints

Going back to the point about London being horrifically expensive, one of the main mistakes I’ve noticed with first time visitors to London is that they miss out on all the FREE viewpoints you can get in the city, opting instead for touristy paid views like the London Eye or the Shard.

Save your money. Here are a few of my favourite free viewpoints in London:

Tate Modern – the views over the Thames from the viewing level terrace are too good to pass up. Plus the museum itself is free and awesome too.

Sky Garden – free, but you need to book in advance and the tickets go QUICKLY. Usually tickets are released every Monday up to a week in advance. Click here to book.

Primrose Hill – a farther away view of the skyline in a very pretty park/colourful neighbourhood.

18. Treating London like your playground

Okay, so this final mistake is more of a respect thing than anything else, but it’s important.

Remember that London is far more than just a check off your bucket list: literally millions of people live here and call it home.

SO remember to use your common sense and never do anything you wouldn’t want someone else to do in your own home…

Don’t go trespassing onto private property just to get a fake candid in front of a colourful wall, don’t be loud and disruptive if you’re wandering around a cute residential neighbourhood, etc. etc.

Planning to visit London?

Whew! I hope you enjoyed this post full of London travel mistakes. Be sure to save this post for later and feel free to ask away if you have any more questions!

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🏨 Booking.com: For searching hotels

📷 Sony A7IV: My (amazing) camera

✈️ Google Flights : For finding flight deals

🌎 WorldNomads: For travel insurance

🎉 GetYourGuide: For booking activities

21 thoughts on “Visit London Like a Smartie: 18 London Travel Mistakes to Avoid”

Hahaha, I had to laugh! As an Aussie, London is one of the few places I am NOT going to almost get run over 🙂 Some great tips here though.

I think everyone who’s been to London before can relate to this post! haha thanks for sharing <3

Girl, I did not do a single paid attraction in London, haha. I was too broke for that. I mean all the museums are free and they are so cool! Also agree about the Fish and Chips, found it way tooo overrated. Camden Street food is to die for. Didn’t have a problem with British English as I speak it haha or well the version of it we are taught in my country, but what was baffling was just how much they love saying ‘Sorry’ for no apparent reason. Like stop, will ya.

I’m from England and I hate having to visit London, too many people for my liking! This list is absolutly spot on, espeally the part about the tube, and the England lingo. Every part of London uses different slang words that people from other countries have no idea what they mean! Great blog, your pictures are stunning.

So helpful! I’m planning to visiting London soon, this definitely will be my guide hahaha Thanks for sharing!

Great list! I would take your #15 a little further and recommend that people take at least one day trip outside of London. There are so many amazing options some of my favorites are Cambridge, Windsor, Stonehenge, and Winchester

Yeahhhh, I go for the looking BOTH ways before crossing method. And not just like, a quick glance to the left and right. I do at least a double take on those bad boys!

Another I have done there is take the tube to the Abbey Rd stop to find the Abbey Rd is not in fact, on the Abbey Rd tube stop. Bloody confusing!

The first time I travelled to London (solo!) Citymapper was a lifesaver for me! I can totally vouch for that app 🙂 Apart from that, though, I had no difficulties getting around London. It’s pretty much like Hong Kong, where I come from and live, since we were a British nation until not long ago. And the pace in London is a lot slower than in Hong Kong! 😛 – Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog https://charmainenyw.com

Nice post! Thanks for sharing!

This is great! I lived in London for two years, and I learned very quickly to look BOTH ways before I crossed the street. I guess there is a reason they teach us that when we’re kids! Something that always threw me off was ‘stay in or takeaway’. It’s always been ‘for here or to go’ and I would always just say ‘to go’!

As someone who lives in London, I always find these posts super entertaining to read! and I’ll let you in to a secret, some us (even though I’ve lived here my whole life) still get confused by the “you alright?” question, we usually respond with “yeah, good thanks. you?” even if it’s not the truth and you’re dripping wet from the constant rain (I still haven’t got an umbrella though but does anyone here actually have one?!) haha!

Kirstin https://LetsGoSomewhereElse.co.uk

What is up with the “fire” delay? I’ve encountered that too (how often does this happen?), but thankfully we were treated to about thirty minutes worth of jokes from the conductor while we were held in limbo.

Thanks for the advice and information and mistakes about the travel!

Nice blog, I’m glad to read this blog. This blog contains one of the best tips to travel to London smartly and it is very useful for people who are planning to visit London.

Superb guide you covered almost everything a traveler should look into. I’ve been thinking lately that I would love to visit London with my husband and daughter.

Always worth spending some time in the other cities in the UKL when visiting. Most of London has become a bit of a tourist trap. You can be in Manchester on the train in less than two hours from central London.

Agreed! I have a whole other post as well detailing awesome places to visit in England besides London: https://happytowander.com/most-beautiful-places-in-england/

I haven’t been to Manchester yet but hope to go someday! Thanks for the comment.

Looking the wrong way when crossing the street is something I still do even after two years living in London… Can you believe it?! There’s some stuff you just never learn right? I now spend my time between Rome and London, and when I’m not at home in the UK, I honestly just miss all these little things you’ve written about!!

I loved reading it, so beautiful, I loved reading it, please keep on writing blogs like this in future as well.

Amazing blog, really interesting, I loved reading it, please keep on writing blogs like this in future.

Your list of travel mistakes to avoid in London is spot on! These insights are invaluable for ensuring a smooth and enjoyable visit to the city. Thanks for helping travelers make the most of their London experience

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How public transport in London went down the tubes

Transport network laid low by the pandemic, homeworking and cuts - but its problems aren’t insoluble.

Would-be train commuters wait for buses at Victoria station, London, during a rail strike by members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Getty Images

Tube and bus users in the UK capital woke up on Tuesday to a 5 per cent fare rise, the biggest increase in nearly a decade, and the first Tube strike since the start of the pandemic, with another one planned for Thursday.

Both hike and strike follow the UK government’s Budget and Comprehensive Spending Review in October last year, which disbursed £7 billion ($9.38bn) to improve urban transport elsewhere in England, but provided no new funding for its capital city.

At the time, Mayor Sadiq Khan said the decision took “London for granted” and would lead to a significant deterioration in service levels.

He said money was needed urgently to maintain and revamp the Tube network, improve road surfaces and convert the bus fleet from internal combustion engines to electric.

The mayor was not a lone voice in decrying the move. Eighty-two signatories of a letter sent to UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak on behalf of London businesses and organisations were equally concerned.

The letter expounded the need for “robust public transport services as part of a wider integrated network” for logistical, economical and climatic reasons.

London may be the centre of the country’s wealth but there is widespread poverty in the capital.

The letter points out that many impoverished Londoners depend on public transport “to access – and provide – vital jobs, education and services”.

The impact of a moribund transport system in London, could undermine the country’s "most powerful economic engine [and] would hold back the UK’s economic recovery”.

Whitehall and City Hall at loggerheads

The letter didn't fall on deaf ears but its clarion call was only partially heeded, with long-term tensions between Whitehall and City Hall colouring the government's response.

In late February, the Department for Transport announced a further £200 million would be given to TFL, taking government financial support for the operator since the pandemic began to close to £5 billion.

The possibility of additional capital investment was floated, but was made contingent “on the mayor and TfL’s co-operation with the government”, as well as the meeting of various conditions attached to previous support the operator has received during the pandemic.

These include a consultation on how TfL could raise between £500 million and £1 billion of additional yearly revenue from 2023, achieve operating cost savings of up to £400 million in 2022 to 2023, and move its pension fund into a “financially sustainable position”.

To meet these commitments, Sadiq Khan is being told to make cuts to existing services, make TfL staff poorer by reducing their pensions and find ways to raise money that don’t trouble the Treasury’s coffers – despite London’s economy generating a net £38.8 billion for the Treasury in 2019.

Given London's transport network plays such an integral role in the function and success of London's economy, an underfunded and poorly performing network will likely harm the capital's overall economic output - meaning less revenue for Treasury in the long term.

The government's short termism was called out by Silviya Barrett, head of policy and research at the Campaign for Better Transport, who dismissed the latest financial package for TfL as “disappointing”.

“It’s essential that we don’t see a decline in service levels,” she told The National .

“This would lead to fewer people travelling on tubes and buses, which could fuel a downward spiral and reverse the progress in the modal shift [change from one form of transport to another] made pre-pandemic.”

Ms Barrett here highlighted one of the most troubling aspects of TfL’s turmoil: before the pandemic, the capital's transport network was seen as an exemplar for other UK cities to follow.

TfL’s passenger problem

Since TFL was created 21 years ago, the devolved operator reached the point where it was funded with no direct operational subsidy from central government. Instead, it covered 72 per cent of its costs with revenue from passengers – nearly twice the level of some UK cities.

As with so many other aspects of life, however, Covid turned this conspicuous strength into a glaring weakness.

TFL figures show total passenger journeys on the Tube fell from 1.3 billion in the financial year of 2019/20 to 296 million in 2020/21.

The effect on revenue was brutal, with passenger income dropping from £2.73 billion to £650m.

TFL could maybe absorb the losses if they were limited to the pandemic. The problem is that while the danger posed by Covid is now receding, the changes it has left behind appear permanent.

Of these changes, one of the most prominent is the shift to discretionary homeworking .

This trend was highlighted in a report released earlier in February by the UK’s Institute of Economic Affairs. It forecast rail would be “hit particularly hard by changes in travel habits, as many rail users – concentrated in high-income groups and white-collar jobs – have been able to shift to working from home and virtual meetings with ease”.

This finding would have made particularly grim reading for Sadiq Khan, because revenue from the Tube props up the rest of London’s travel network.

The low passenger-low revenue paradigm prompted the IEA to recommend the government further retrench subsidies to the rail network.

“Lower than expected passenger numbers make the high level of rail subsidies even more difficult to justify, especially in the context of harmful tax increases and pressure on the public finances,” said Dr Richard Wellings, report editor and former IEA deputy research director.

TfL funding model an outlier

The IEA is a staunch advocate of free markets and so most of its conclusions call for less government intervention.

Tellingly, its conclusion here is not shared by authorities in the US and France where New York and Paris are operating in far less adversarial circumstances and enjoy far greater state support.

This means they are less reliant on passenger numbers to sustain services, and thus better protected against seismic disruptions to the transport continuum such as Covid-19 .

Richard Brown, deputy director of think tank Centre for London, crunched the numbers and found that 72 per cent of London’s transport revenue was generated by fares, compared with 41 per cent in New York and 36 per cent in Paris.

TfL’s passenger dependence is a relatively current phenomenon. As recently as 2011, more than 50 per cent of its revenue was from a central government grant.

Sadiq Khan put forward a proposal last year to devolve the money Londoners pay in Vehicle Excise Duty to the capital to diversify TfL’s passenger-centric model. Such fiscal ringfencing operates successfully in both New York and Paris, but the UK government rebuffed it.

Metropolitan Transport Authority data show that in New York in 2018, the policy raised $2.3 billion for the city’s transport network. A similar amount in London from this policy would be transformative.

Ms Barrett believes the UK government needs to undergo a complete transport mindset shift.

“Public transport is an essential service and should be a guaranteed provision just like education and healthcare,” she said.

“It’s just completely rethinking the funding model so it delivers not only for the passengers that are using the service but for the wider society in terms of providing economic environmental social benefits.

“It saves money for the NHS [National Heath Service] too. If people are walking and cycling and using public transport rather than driving everywhere, we’ll have a healthier society.

“This is what many of the European countries understand; they are funding public transport to the extent that there are services available everywhere.”

Getting people out of their cars

Ms Barrett also wants to see more obstacles put up to car use as “the harder is to use your car in cities, the more attractive public transport will become”.

She listed higher road prices and more provisional parking charges, workplace parking levies and clean air zones as some of the ordnance that could be harnessed to this effect.

London is already doing many of these things, but Ms Barrett would like to see an acceleration and urged Sadiq Khan to expedite plans for distance-based road use charging.

Mr Khan “is saying that he’s going for it but not until the next election and I would be looking to implement that much quicker as that will bring revenue for public transport which is safe from [government] cuts,” she said.

The danger of a punitive approach to car use at a time when public transport is becoming more expensive and less readily available is clear: ordinary Londoners will find their daily travel options both prohibitive and onerous.

Yet Sadiq Khan needs to keep the wheels on London buses and trains going round and round, not just all day long, but all night long too. If he is to do so without the state support availed to other global cities, then he is going to have to make some pretty tough choices – and it appears likely the losers will be private road users.

2021 Urban Mobility Readiness Index – in pictures

1. Stockholm – overall score: 73.7. Getty Images

View from London

Your weekly update from the UK and Europe

Simple Flying

Air traffic control issue disrupts thousands of passengers at london airports.

Thunderstorms across London saw numerous flight cancellations last night. Today, those storms have moved across Europe, adding to the chaos of the situation. The ATC issue is thought to be a problem with radar. A statement issued by the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) explained,

"We have a technical problem with a system at the Swanwick Air Traffic Control which is causing some flight restrictions. We are doing all we can to fix it as soon as possible

"We apologise for any inconvenience people may be experiencing and will provide further information as soon as possible."

As well as passengers delayed at the London airports, those heading to London from other airports are facing restrictions too. These are not only due to the ATC fault but also because of a band of thunderstorms hovering around the north of France.

Problems at Swanwick

Swanwick in Hampshire is the main control centre for Southern England, looking after air traffic at both of the UK’s busiest airports – Heathrow and Gatwick. It seems that the fault is affecting how close together flights can take off and land, meaning many flights, although still operating, are facing serious delays.

A spokesman for Heathrow Airport told the Mirror ,

"We are aware that NATS – the air traffic control service – is currently experiencing a technical issue with their systems that is affecting some airspace in the UK.

"Flights are currently arriving and departing at Heathrow, and we are supporting NATS to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologise to passengers for any disruption that occurs as a result."

Gatwick too warned of delays, advising passengers to check the latest information with airlines.

At 15:00 GMT, NATS issued a further update saying that they had fixed the problem “sufficiently to safely increase traffic flow rates”. However, they are still battling with the knock on effects of the earlier delays, and of issues with weather across Europe unrelated to the radar fault.

At the time of writing, Flight Radar 24 reports an average delay of 25 minutes at Gatwick (LGW) and of 60 minutes at Heathrow (LHR).

First BA A350-1000 celebration canceled

The arrival of British Airways’ first A350-1000 was scheduled to take place today . The event should have been a major celebration for the carrier, with media including Simple Flying invited to attend. However, due to storms across Europe and the ATC chaos in London, the carrier decided to call off the whole thing.

It seems that G-XWBA was unable to fly due to the inclement weather. Speaking to The Points Guy , a British Airways spokesperson said,

“Due to the weather and storms across Europe, all airlines and airports are suffering from severe delays. There are currently huge storms over France causing havoc. British Airways are currently not even able to land some of their planes full of paying passengers so landing an empty plane for a delivery flight is out of the question”.

Even if XWBA had managed to make it to Heathrow, it would have certainly seemed a little callous of BA to be running a big celebration when thousands of holidaymakers are facing a nightmare. According to the Independent, BA canceled at least 50 flights to and from Heathrow over the past day, and one flight to San Francisco has been delayed by more than 24 hours.

Really not @British_Airways finest hour. They are not to blame for the weather. They are at fault for a woeful response. I suspect they will lose lot of customers today, and rightly. Now going back to the book about the battle to keep my day of delays in perspective #Heathrow pic.twitter.com/YLDwA78z8I — James Rodgers (@jmacrodgers) July 26, 2019

Stranded passengers were reported by the Telegraph has being handed roll mats to sleep on.

As well as departing passengers, some inbound passengers have been faced with mega delays too. Passengers from Verona, Naples, Salzburg, Malta and Dalman were unable to travel at their scheduled time last night, being delayed until today instead.

Have you been caught up in the chaos in London? Let us know in the comments.

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UK flight chaos could last for days, airline passengers warned

Technical meltdown in air traffic control causes bank holiday misery, with 500 flights cancelled and others delayed

• UK air traffic control issues – latest updates

Airline passengers have been warned that flight disruption could persist for days, after a technical meltdown in UK air traffic control left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed on the summer bank holiday.

Returning holidaymakers and those hoping to travel out of UK airports faced cancellations and delays of up to 12 hours after takeoffs and inbound flights were suspended due to a “network-wide” computer failure.

A limited number of flights were able to operate but air traffic was severely restricted as engineers struggled to locate and rectify the problem.

With controllers forced to input flight plans manually, about 500 flights were cancelled and others delayed for hours even before Nats, the national airspace controllers, announced at 3.15pm that it had “identified and remedied” the issue that arose almost four hours earlier.

Passengers at airports in the UK and around Europe reported being left in limbo with travel plans wrecked and check-in desks closed, while airlines were unable to confirm if their flights would leave.

The unusually long outage is likely to cause disruption for several days, with knock-on delays from crew and planes left out of position.

British Airways said passengers due to travel on Monday or Tuesday could move their flights free of charge, while Heathrow on Monday evening urged passengers to come to the airport only if flights were confirmed as operating.

At Gatwick, where about 150 flights were scrapped, easyJet cancelled virtually all departing international flights on Monday afternoon. The airline could not yet confirm what flights would operate on Tuesday but it is understood to expect some continuing impact on its schedules.

Gatwick said in a statement they would “operate a normal schedule” on Tuesday, but said passengers were “advised to check the status of their flight with the airline before travelling to the airport”.

According to flight tracking sites, planes were delayed from about 11.30am. Nats confirmed the problem at about 12.10pm, saying it was “currently experiencing a technical issue” and had “applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety”.

After announcing it had fixed the original issue, Nats said: “We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible. Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.

“Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.”

According to data from the analytics firm Cirium, 232 outbound flights from the UK and 271 inbound flights had been cancelled by 2.30pm, just under 10% of all services.

A Heathrow spokesperson said schedules would “remain significantly disrupted for the rest of the day”. They added: “We ask passengers to only travel to the airport if their flight is confirmed as still operating. Teams across Heathrow are working as hard as they can to minimise the knock-on impacts and assist those whose journeys have been affected.”

A British Airways spokesperson said: “Like all airlines using UK airspace, our flights have been severely disrupted … While Nats has now resolved the issue, it has created significant and unavoidable delays and cancellations. We’re working as hard as possible to get customers whose flights have been affected on their way again and have apologised for the huge inconvenience caused.”

The travel operator Tui warned its customers to expect “significant delays to some of our flights”.

Flights from Ireland were also affected, with many due to cross UK airspace.

As well as holidaymakers, passengers affected by delays included British athletes and others returning from the World Athletics Championships in Hungary.

The BBC presenter Gabby Logan said on X that her plane was stuck on the runway at Budapest airport, adding: “After almost three weeks away from home I am hours from hugging my family. And have just been told UK airspace is shut. We could be here for 12 hours. So we sit on the plane and wait.”

Engineers at Nats will have been racing against the clock to limit the fallout from the outage, potentially the most serious since its control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, opened in 2002, falling on one of the key travel dates in the calendar.

A computer glitch at Nats in 2014 affected flights until the following day, despite airspace being curtailed only for about an hour.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats questioned the government’s apparent slow response before the transport secretary, Mark Harper, posted on X on Monday afternoon that ministers were “doing all we can”.

Harper said: “UK airspace remains open but traffic flow restrictions are in place. Nats are working at pace to fix this and aviation minister [Charlotte Vere] and I are doing all we can to support them.”

Earlier, the shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, posted that the issue was “extremely concerning for passengers travelling in and out of the UK on one of the busiest days of the year”, adding that she was “surprised” by the lack of a ministerial statement.

The Lib Dems called on Rishi Sunak to convene a Cobra meeting. The party’s transport spokesperson, Wera Hobhouse, said: “Millions of holidaymakers could be facing huge disruption in the coming days due to this fault and we can’t risk this government being missing in action yet again.”

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More on this story

UK air traffic control chaos prolonged by remote working, review finds

Facial recognition could replace passports at UK airport e-gates

Up to 1,500 cars in Luton airport fire ‘unlikely to be salvageable’

Luton airport reopens after huge car park fire grounded all flights

UK air traffic failure blamed on ‘extremely rare’ circumstances as CAA opens inquiry

Airlines call for compensation reform after ‘staggering’ air chaos revelation

‘Furious’: UK passenger stung by air traffic chaos – then an oversold flight

UK air traffic control failure: what caused it, and who will have to pay?

‘We’re £1,000 out of pocket’: travellers affected by UK air traffic chaos

UK flight disruption: your rights and what you are entitled to

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Travel Problems: Solutions That Can Save Your Trip

These days, travel problems aren’t just a possibility, they’re almost an expectation. Learn ways to prevent common issues and deal with any that do occur.

Travel affords fantastic benefits. It allows us to meet new people, experience new cultures, and grow as a person. However, travel does not come without difficulties. There are problems with language barriers, culture shock, and bad weather. Major travel problems aren’t just a possibility at this point; they are almost an expectation. Air travel, after the pandemic, is struggling to keep up with the surge in travelers in 2022, and more complex problems like pilot shortages, poor staffing, fuel problems, and a little bit of rustiness are adding fuel to the fire. So, how do you deal with these almost inevitable disruptions? Is there a way to salvage your trip?

In this guide, we will cover some of the most common travel problems as well as tried-and-true ways to overcome them. We’ll talk about post-pandemic madness, but we’ll also hit on travel concerns that pop up all the time. No matter what travel hardship you come upon, the most important challenge is to keep your head and quickly weigh the options. There are always options! They might not be what you originally intended. They might result in a completely different summer travel experience than you planned, but you know what? That doesn’t have to be devastating. It can actually be really exciting! Let’s dive in.

Plan a sightseeing scavenger hunt!

Looking for just the right tour to start off your trip? Consider an app-guided scavenger hunt from Let’s Roam . We have hundreds of adventures all over the world! Each unique experience includes trivia, photo challenges, and more. Engage in some friendly competition as you and your travel companions learn about landmarks and make new memories!

10 Tips On Being a Prepared Traveler

To be perfectly honest, you can prevent a lot of heartache just by doing things right from the get-go. Before we get to solutions for when problems occur, let’s chat a minute about some travel tips to keep them from happening in the first place!

1. Stay away from the masses.

Flying in and out of New York City, or London Heathrow is a bad idea right now. Large international airports do have the best prices, generally. However, they also have the most flights coming in and out. If one or two get delayed, guess what, they are affected. If you have the ability, book a flight from a smaller airport.

This same strategy goes for choosing your destination. Right now is not a good time to tour London, Greece, or Paris. Check out the Albanian Riviera instead!

2. Get good travel insurance.

Whether you invest in a great travel credit card or you buy extra travel insurance through a company like Safety Wing, make sure that your trip is covered. You may be eligible for lost baggage reimbursement, coverage for a hotel if your flight is delayed overnight, or even full reimbursement if your trip is canceled.

It is important to be familiar with your particular travel insurance company and how it works. Make sure you have read your policy. Print it out and carry it with you so that you have the customer service number and your rights handy. The same thing goes for the airline you are flying.

3. Don’t overbook.

Normally, it is a great practice to book things early, at least from a budget standpoint. That is not the case in today’s travel universe. The more you book in advance, the more you are going to have to fight to get back if you have a missed flight or other disruption.

4. Make sure your trip is refundable.

If you do choose to book ahead, make sure that everything you book is refundable up until the day of service. That means that you only book fully-refundable hotels, activities, etc. Do not book anything expensive for the first two days of your vacation. If your flights are delayed, and you just had free days planned anyway, then you didn’t miss much.

5. Pack light.

Seriously, do not check bags, unless you absolutely have to! For almost any trip in the world, you can manage with a carry-on and personal item. I realize this seems insane to some of you, but I promise it is possible. You can always purchase larger items when you get there. There is probably a Walmart or similar store. Don’t stock up at home on new clothes, shop when you arrive!

6. Pick a straight path.

Direct flights are the most expensive flights. However, they are also the least likely to have problems. If your direct flight is delayed a few hours, so what? You don’t miss your next flight because of it. You will still end up at your destination—just a little later than you had hoped for.

This may not even mean choosing a more expensive flight. It just might mean picking the correct airport. You may need to drive a couple of hours to a different one instead of choosing your nearest and usual. You may need to choose a vacation destination that is pretty close. Most Caribbean, Central American, and even Northern South American destinations can be reached with a non-stop flight from the US.

7. Check in early, and position yourself appropriately.

While I usually don’t recommend this, for travel in 2022, you need to be at the airport at least three hours early. Poor customer service, long waits to check bags, and frequent gate changes mean that there is a lot of opportunity for error. Give yourself time to adjust.

Once you have made it through TSA and to your gate, position yourself close to the flight attendant desk. The desk clerks are the fastest way to get a new flight if you are one of the first ones in line. Otherwise, there are better options we will discuss later.

8. Download all the apps.

The best travel apps aren’t just money savers—they can also help you keep your trip on track. If there is a smartphone app for your trip, download it. That includes the airport, airlines, hotels, etc. Turn on the notifications and set it to vibrate so you will feel when you get an alert. Some airlines will even put flight delays up hours in advance. This can save you from sitting in the airport for half your day when your early morning flight has been delayed until the afternoon.

9. Do your research!

When you leave for a trip, you should have some key information handy. Will your cell data work when you get there? If not, you should have the directions and map to your hotel downloaded. If you land in the morning, and you can’t check in until 3 pm, you should have a plan. Where are you going to get local money? Do they have a certain rideshare app that is prevalent? What are the major scams in the area? Know what to look for as soon as you step off the plane. You can’t research everything, but you can be prepared for 99%.

It is vastly important, that you have emergency services saved on your phone or written down (or both). You should have the address and phone number of the closest hospitals, the emergency service number, your roadside assistance, and the location of the US Embassy handy at all times.

10. Be flexible.

The key to surviving travel (and making the most of a bad situation) is keeping your mind open. If you travel enough, you will run into problems. It is inevitable. The kicker is…how do you react to them? Can you salvage the trip, or are you going to sit in it and be miserable?

Common Travel Problems and Last-Minute Solutions

Some travel-related problems are due to poor planning. Some are due to faulty systems and industry issues. Some are cultural. Some are situational, and some are just downright bad luck! We will cover them all in this section and give you a few tested solutions to make the most of a rotten situation.

Flight Issues

Beforehand: Make sure your flight is insured through credit card or travel insurance. Purchase refundable flights. Have a backup plan and a secondary destination, in case you need to change your entire trip.

In the moment: If you have to deal with a flight cancellation, don’t freak out! Keep your head and get to the customer service desk as soon as possible. If you are in a long line, then begin to contact customer service via social media or the phone number. Believe it or not, it is often quicker to use Twitter than wait for a person.

You will need to decide if you want to cancel your trip, get on the next available flight, or change your destination. Normally, if your flight is canceled, you will automatically be booked on the next available flight. However, you have the right to turn this down. This is where knowing those policies comes in handy. Don’t cancel a flight that is nonrefundable without knowing that you can get some reimbursement or a new flight.

For more information on this common travel problem, we’ve got expert advice on “ How to Make the Most of a Flight Delay “!

Language Barrier

One of the most frustrating things on the planet is to be stuck in a pickle and you can’t speak the local language. While a good chunk of the world speaks some English nowadays, it seems you’re always in a tiny village or rural area when you get in a jam, and there isn’t an English speaker in sight.

Beforehand: Before you travel, make sure to download the destination language on Google Translate on your phone. This way it will work even if you don’t have data service.

In the Moment: There are a few things you can do if you find yourself in an area where you can’t communicate. First, head for the most touristy thing you can find. Generally, hotels, tourist attractions, and popular restaurants are going to have the highest chance of finding someone who speaks your language.

Secondly, make friends! Talk to people on the bus. Look for ex-pats or digital nomad hangouts . I don’t know how many times our travel has been made 100x easier because one of our travel companions spoke a bit of the language. Friends are invaluable!

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It is likely that a local speaks some English, and if you are brave enough to ask for help, you will find someone who is willing to help you. (Looking really pathetic and lost is also helpful)!

Lost Luggage

Beforehand: Make sure your bags are properly labeled with your name and home address. Have those policies printed out! Keep your claim tag information.

In the Moment: Consult the lost baggage service desk for your airline. It is usually located near baggage claim. You ask for the appropriate amount of money, per their policy, for delayed baggage.

If the airline refuses to give you a stipend, you can still rely on your travel credit card or insurance. Generally, this will be a reimbursement kind of thing, so stick to the budget in your policy and keep all your receipts.

Beforehand: Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, both before and during your flight. You can also try to book flights that will have you arriving in the later afternoon or evening. Check out our tips for conquering jet lag !

In the Moment: Try not to nap when you land at your destination. You want to get on the local time as soon as possible. Try to get a good night’s sleep on the first night. This may involve a sound app on your phone, a sleeping mask, or adjusting the temperature. Do what you need to do to get a good night’s sleep.

Schedule Gaps

One of the most common frustrations is an early check-out time and a late check-in. You now find yourself with hours to waste, all your heavy bags, and nowhere to go.

What to do: The first solution is to contact your next hotel. They will likely allow you to check in early or store your bags in a safe luggage closet until check-in. If not, check into local locker storage. You can use Google or a specialized app like Bounce, Nannybag, or Stasher to find lockers near you.

When in doubt, find a Let’s Roam scavenger hunt nearby! That will kill 1.5-2 hours and you’ll have a great experience.

Bad Weather

Beforehand: Normal weather patterns should be part of your pre-trip research. You want to choose the season with the least amount of rain, no hurricanes, etc. However, the weather doesn’t always play along. If the weather is questionable, only book a night or two in your preferred hotel. You might need to relocate.

In the Moment: If you wait it out a day, and the weather still stinks, talk to your resort first. They will often be willing to relocate you to a sister hotel in another region. In some countries, just moving a couple of hours can put you in a completely different climate. In Costa Rica, for instance, the east coast has the opposite rainy season as the west coast, and they are only a couple of hours from each other.

If moving is not a possibility, then look into what you can do to have some fun indoors. We can help you with that! At Let’s Roam we have a series of amazing indoor activities for every kind of adventurer. Try one of our indoor scavenger hunts, a virtual murder mystery, or our home date nights. We know it isn’t a substitution for the vaca you planned, but it’s better than moping!

Consult the locals! The local people obviously live in this kind of weather. They know how to entertain themselves during monsoons, keep safe during major storms, and they will be more than willing to share their tips and tricks.

Tummy Troubles

Heard of “Delhi belly”, “the Haitian Sensation”, and “Montezuma’s Revenge”? Travel-related illness is all real, and they are brutal!

Beforehand: Ask your physician for the best antibiotic for food poisoning and traveler’s diarrhea for your destination. They will almost always write you a prescription to take with you. Make sure you research foods to stay away from and how to get clean water to your destination. Carry a filter water bottle.

In the Moment: If you get the dreaded sickness, hydration is key. You will have to force yourself to intake clean water, herbal teas, or whatever you can keep down. In many countries, the pharmacist has much more autonomy than in the United States. They always know the best medications for common ailments, and they can usually give you the correct medications without the need to see a doctor. If you are not better in a couple of days, you may need to visit a clinic or hospital for IV fluids.

Forgot Something

Beforehand: Carry a paper or digital copy of any important prescriptions.

In the Moment: If you have forgotten something you cannot do without. Consider having a family member overnight it by FedEx to your accommodation. If this isn’t possible, you can check with local facilities to get a replacement. Many eye doctors, pharmacists, etc. will fill your valid American prescription.

Getting Lost

Beforehand: Download your directions from Google Maps, or take a screenshot of the detailed directions. Take a screenshot of your hotel address.

In the Moment: Your first concern is to find safety. Drive, or walk, until you find a well-lit and populated area where you can think. Once you reach a store or gas station, ask a local for help. If you are in a rural area, call roadside assistance. When phone maps don’t work, you are best to just get a local taxi to take you safely to your destination.

Being Robbed

You’ve probably been saving for a while to cover your travel costs. Most people work very hard for the right to travel, so what happens if you get robbed? The most common assault is going to be a quick grab and run. Generally, they don’t want to hurt you, they just want your stuff. You are probably better off just to give it to them, and get to safety as soon as possible.

Beforehand: The key to not getting robbed is to pay attention and try not to look like a lost tourist. Do not flash your money or jewelry. Do not discuss money with strangers. Do not carry expensive electronics into crowded areas. Carry a moneybelt or slash-proof purse, and carry them crossbody. Men, put your wallet and documents in your front pockets. Do not keep all your cash, credit cards, and valuables in one place. Split them between your room safe, your travel partner, and a few places on your body. Be extra vigilant outside airports, train stations, and popular tourist attractions.

In the Moment: Get to safety quickly! Notify proper authorities immediately. If you still have your phone, contact your credit card companies, and your bank, and have your cards put on hold. If your phone has been stolen, get online and locate your phone (using the Find My Device App or something similar). This may help the police find the thief. You can also lock or erase your phone so that the thief does not have access to your accounts.

Getting Scammed

Beforehand: Every region has its favorite scam! Do some research on your destination and know what to look for before you travel. Be sure to read our advice on avoiding travel scams around the world !

In the moment: There really isn’t much you can do. If a prosecutable crime has been committed, you need to contact the police. If not, your primary goal is to get to safety. Do not engage with the person or persons, as causing a scene as a foreigner is usually not going to go in your favor.

Relationship Issues

If you travel long enough, you will eventually find travel buds, and they can be amazing! However, good things don’t last forever. It’s pretty common for travel relationships to go bad.

Beforehand: Keep it light. Don’t get into a long rental car or accommodation contract together. Make very clear expectations when you agree to travel with someone. It might sound formal and silly in the moment, but making sure everyone is on the same page about responsibilities, money, and expectations is really important.

In the Moment: When you feel the vibe changing, get out before it gets ugly. You can make up an excuse for why you need to leave, or just say that you need some time alone. Offer to pay your share of the expenses. Have a final drink together, and then part ways. If you don’t, it is going to blow up in your face, and you risk losing a friend totally, or worse.Exhausting Itinerary

This is a common one. If you are an American, you have limited vacation days, and you need to see it all! We get it.

Beforehand: Get a great guidebook! Rick Steves and Lonely Planet will both give you suggested itineraries and help you plan a schedule that is doable and enjoyable.

In the Moment: What do you already have tickets for? What are your top remaining must-sees? Go see these, and get rid of the rest. Ask a few locals (not in the tourist industry) which sites you should keep and which ones can go.

Lost Passport

Losing your travel documents is terrifying, but it happens to the best of us!

Beforehand: You should carry a photocopy of all your important documents with you. Use a secure documents app, like Last Pass . This will make the replacement of your documents much faster and easier!

In the Moment: Contact the local US embassy immediately. They will schedule an appointment to go over your case and get you new documents.

Culture Shock

If you’re heading to a destination for the first time, don’t be surprised if you feel awkward or uncomfortable at first. Culture shock is a real thing, and it can ruin your trip if you don’t know how to deal with it.

We’ve got tips to make you more culture conscious , and they would certainly be worth a read before you travel. Changing your mindset is a great way to ward off culture shock!

Beforehand: Research your destination culture and familiarize yourself with the stages of culture shock. This way you will know the symptoms and how to migrate through them.

In the Moment: If you find that you are judging your destination culture for the “weird” things they do, it’s time to respectfully ask some questions. The key to getting to a healthy place with a new culture is to understand why people do “weird” things, and why things are the way they are. Find a trusted local or traveler that is familiar with the culture. With a little background information, you will find that you can usually sympathize and move forward to a place of acceptance. Understanding and grace should always be your motive. Your way is not the only way or even the best way. They likely know something you don’t.

Terrible WiFi

If you are on a short trip, this isn’t such a big deal, but if you are traveling long-term, the lack of stable WiFi can make you insane. You do need to work, pay bills, and of course, binge Netflix, after all.

Beforehand: Carry a hotspot of your own, with a subscription option, like Skyroam . Always carry an unlocked phone with you.

In the Moment: Pop into the local phone carrier and grab a sim card with data. They usually have large amounts of data, free social media, and a few texting and call minutes for super cheap prices.

You’ve got this!

The best thing you can do to ensure that your trips are enjoyable is to do as much research and planning as you can from home. This will help you form realistic expectations, prepare for common scams, and have all the safety information you need.

You can’t plan for everything though, and problems will happen. The most important in-the-moment advice is to keep your head! If you freak out, you will not be able to make appropriate decisions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and remember that a bad vacation is usually salvageable if you are flexible!

In this guide, we have hit on a few of the common problems in travel, but a life of travel presents different problems than a short-term trip. For a good look at the reality of full-time travel, check out “ Essential Considerations for Long-term Travel .”

Frequently Asked Questions

The most common travel problems are lost passports, delayed or canceled flights, and lost baggage. Always carry photocopies of your documents and invest in travel insurance.

Long trips are rife with possible problems. The most common travel problems are relationship issues , canceled or delayed flights , bad Wifi connectivity , and culture shock .

Inclement weather is a common travel problem . If you find yourself in it, look for adventurous indoor activities , and consult locals on what they do when the weather is crummy!

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A knotty problem: Boffins working on fuel-efficient trajectories for space travel

Not yet the london underground style efficient schematic we want, but it's a start.

Boffins at the UK's Surrey Space Centre have devised a way of determining the optimal route for spacecraft that doesn't require the engines to burn precious fuel.

The concept of shifting from one orbit to another without using fuel is not a new one. Engineers have turned to heteroclinic connections as a way of transferring a spacecraft between orbits without expending propellant. However, calculating these points presents a challenge, requiring either immense amounts of computing power or a human-in-the-loop to make an intelligent estimate that can be worked from.

In 2019, a paper was published, extolling the virtues of using artificial neural networks to identify heteroclinic connections.

The Voyager probes undertook the Grand Tour [PDF] based on a certain alignment of the planets that occurs once every 175 years. They used orbital mechanics and gravity assists to take in Jupiter, Saturn, and, in the case of Voyager 2, Uranus, and Neptune. However, the need to save fuel on missions closer to home has become a priority, thanks in part to NASA's Artemis program.

While a direct moonshot is all well and good, planners want to cut down on the fuel needed for expeditions around the vicinity of the Moon, particularly considering that a substantial chunk of the Artemis program involves the construction of the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon. Hence the need for fuel-minimal trajectories in the vicinity of the Moon.

It's a variation of the classic three-body problem. One body is the spacecraft itself, while the other two are the Earth and the Moon. Yet calculating a trajectory to travel from point A to point B while using minimal fuel, thanks to heteroclinic connections, is no easy task.

The approach published by Postgraduate Research Student Danny Owen and Lecturer in Orbital Mechanics Dr Nicola Baresi this week uses knot theory , an area of mathematics. This is used to generate rough trajectories that can then be refined, effectively giving space agencies a variety of possible routes from a specific orbit.

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Owen said: "Previously, when the likes of NASA wanted to plot a route, their calculations relied on either brute force or guesswork.

"Our new technique neatly reveals all possible routes a spacecraft could take from A to B, as long as both orbits share a common energy level.

"This makes the task of planning missions much simpler. We think of it as a tube map for space."

The researchers have applied the technique to other planetary systems, including the Galilean moons of Jupiter, in addition to the Earth-Moon system. ®

Narrower topics

• Hubble Space Telescope
• James Webb Space Telescope
• Solar System
• Square Kilometre Array

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Dubai flooding: Everything you need to know if your Emirates flight is cancelled

H elen and Roman from Manchester should be heading home from New Zealand today after visiting family near the capital, Wellington. The couple have been told their Emirates flights via Dubai are cancelled and there is no clear timetable for getting them back to the UK ; Helen is running short of medication.

Gwen and her husband are stranded in paradise – Bali , to be precise – with no certainty about when they might leave. “We can’t seem to get any contact with Emirates to be advised of another flight to the UK,” Gwen tells The Independent . She adds: “We don’t want to be stuck in Dubai at the airport. Can you update us on the position and offer any advice?”

They are just four of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who have been stranded by the unprecedented storm and flooding in Dubai.

On a typical day, 250,000 people pass through the world’s busiest international airport; Dubai overtook London Heathrow for this title several years ago.

But over the past 48 hours the vast majority have seen their flights cancelled, diverted or heavily delayed due to flooding.

Bizarrely, the way that air passengers’ rights rules are structured means that people who have yet to leave the country are in a far stronger position than those in far-flung corners of Asia , Australasia and Africa.

These are the key issues.

What’s the problem?

A severe storm began in the early hours of Tuesday 16 April. Dubai was drenched in a year and a half’s worth of rain in a single day , killing at least one person and disrupting travel through the airport that handles more international passengers than any other.

Flooding and associated disruption is continuing to cause widespread cancellations.

All airlines using Dubai International Airport affected, with British Airways flights from London Heathrow diverting in successive days to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi .

But passengers on Emirates – which flies more people on intercontinental journeys than any other airline – are collectively facing far bigger problems.

How bad are things?

A snapshot by The Independent of all the overnight Emirates departures due to arrive in Dubai from the UK on Thursday morning shows the scale of the problem. Bear in mind that most of the aircraft used are Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo” planes carrying more than 500 passengers.

• Cancelled: London Heathrow (three), London Stansted, Birmingham and Glasgow. That represents around 3,000 people who did not arrive as expected on Thursday. Crucially, because the outbound flights were cancelled, a similar number did not fly out from Dubai to the UK.
• Delayed: The minimum delay arriving in Dubai was two hours, for a single flight from Heathrow. A second Stansted flight was three hours late, while arrivals of another flight from Heathrow and one from Newcastle were four hours late. But the standard delay was six hours, affecting passengers from Gatwick, Heathrow, Glasgow and Manchester.

Once in Dubai, though, their problems could just be beginning. Hundreds of flights are delayed, and onward connections on Emirates to destinations such as Colombo in Sri Lanka , the Seychelles and Kolkata in India are cancelled.

Many Emirates flights are resuming, but with planes, pilots and cabin crew scattered around the world it will be some time before a full schedule is running again.

When flights resume, the passengers who are booked on those departures take priority – with people who may have been waiting for days at the back of the queue.

What does Emirates say?

“Emirates extends our sincerest apologies to impacted customers who have experienced delays and disruption to their travel plans caused by bad weather and road conditions.

“We appreciate how difficult it is for everyone affected. While some customers have been able to return home or reach their destination, we are aware that many are still waiting to get on flights.

“Our teams are working hard to restore our scheduled operations, as well as secure accommodation and other amenities for affected customers at the airport. Our primary concern will always be the safety of our customers and crew, and this will never be compromised.”

The airline adds that Dubai airport “remains congested” and warns: “There may still be delays to arriving and departing flights.”

Emirates says: “Customers impacted by flight cancellations should contact their booking agent, DM us [@EmiratesSupport on X/Twitter], or visit emirat.es/support for rebooking.”

What is the position for British travellers due to be flying out to or via Dubai?

Air passengers’ rights rules mean they are in a strong position. Any airline that cancels a flight from a UK airport, for any reason, must provide passengers with:

• An onward flight as soon as possible, including on a rival airline if seats are available. For example, a passenger from London to Sydney could expect to be rebooked via Hong Kong, Singapore or Doha if Emirates has no room but Cathay Pacific, Singapore or Qatar Airways does.
• Hotels and meals as appropriate until they can reach their destination.

No cash compensation is payable because the cause of the delay is beyond Emirates’ control.

Passengers in Dubai awaiting an onward connection – what is the outlook?

Emirates says: “While some customers have been able to return home or reach their destination, we are aware that many are still waiting to get on flights. Our teams are working hard to restore our scheduled operations.”

The airline says it is trying to “secure accommodation and other amenities for affected customers at the airport”.

Anyone who arrived from the UK (or anywhere in the European Union) is entitled to a hotel, meals and an onward flight on any airline as soon as possible.

Passengers travelling in the opposite direction have no such legal protection.

Airlines generally provide stranded passengers with accommodation and meals, but such is the pressure on hotels that this may not happen. There is no legal obligation to arrange care.

What about people stranded in Asia, Africa or Australasia with connections via Dubai?

As they are flying on a non-British/non-European airline from outside the UK/EU, they have no formal rights besides the general principle that the airline will get them home when possible.

Travel insurance may cover added costs, and possible make a modest payment (typically £25 for each 12 hours) for the length of the delay.

I’m booked on a package holiday. Does that make a difference?

If you have bought flights and accommodation at the same time from the same provider, you have an extra layer of consumer protection. The Package Travel Regulations mean that the company that sold you the trip is responsible for ensuring the holiday goes ahead as planned – and must take action if it does not. For example:

• If you are booked to travel to the Maldives via Dubai, the holiday firm could look for alternative flights.
• Should your short break to Dubai be impossible because of cancelled flights or conditions on the ground, you are due a full refund.
• Stranded on the other side of the world? The holiday company must find a solution for you, and ensure your welfare while you wait.

If I pay for my own hotel or alternative flight, can I claim it back from Emirates?

That depends. If you are in the UK – or stranded in Dubai en route from the UK to a third country – and Emirates has been unable to provide you with these, then you should be able to claim. In all other circumstances, such as being stranded in Bali, it is unlikely the airline will pay up.

Travel insurance may help.

What about other airlines flying in and out of Dubai?

They are also facing big problems. Flydubai, the short-haul cousin of Emirates, made dozens of cancellations on Tuesday and Wednesday, with many flights on Thursday heavily delayed.

FlyNas, the Saudi budget airline, has cancelled more flights than any other on Thursday.

Other carriers, including British Airways and Royal Brunei, have grounded some UK flights, but operations overall are not as badly affected because Dubai represents only a tiny proportion of flying for most airlines.

I have a flight to or via Dubai next week. Should I worry?

Probably not. Emirates and other carriers should be back on track, and as mentioned anyone with a booking for a flight that goes ahead takes precedence over those who may have been waiting a week after a cancelled flight.

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

London is now more expensive than Monte Carlo

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London is officially less affordable than Monaco ’s glamorous district of Monte Carlo .

As much as we love the big smoke, the housing and rental market has reached scarily high averages, with data from Zoopla showing that the average property price in London is an eye-watering £731,910.

After factoring in daily living costs , bills, transport, dinner and fun (if you’re even able to treat yourself), it can feel as though you’re splurging without even trying to.

The new numbers that look into how expensive London is to live were crunched by finance experts at Finansvalp , after gathering data from the cost-of-living website Numbeo to create an affordability index. 

Each city on the list, which includes Dublin , Bucharest and more, was given a score out of 100, based on eight factors – including accommodation, utility, transport and lifestyle costs.

The index factors in the monthly cost of renting a one-bedroom flat outside of the city centre, electricity and water bills, as well as monthly mobile phone and broadband plans, fitness club fees, travel passes and the price of a meal out for two. The experts measured these expenses against the average monthly net salary for a person living in each city.

London was found to be the most expensive European capital to live in, scoring 41.04 out of 100.

Those living in the English capital earn and average of £4,169.68 after tax and can expect to pay around 49.5% of this figure for a one-bedroom apartment in the city, at an average rent price of £2,064.91.

Shockingly, London finished in first place ahead of Monte Carlo, Monaco. The city, which is known as a playground for the rich and famous, is technically a district, which makes up the city-state of Monaco. 

As a result, locals face some of the highest living costs in Europe, with the city scoring 41.23 out of 100. Residents earn £8,406.99 on average each month, with a one-bedroom apartment in the area costing £3,126.29 to rent – the third-highest accommodation cost of any capital city in Europe.

Locals are said to spend their time driving around in sports cars, enjoying the views from the French Riviera , lounging on beaches and seeking hedonism on boats and yachts. So, you could say it’s quite different to the London lifestyle in that regard.

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Monaco is also loved by the wealthy for being a tax haven, because of its favourable laws and policies. 

The third most costly capital city in Europe is Dublin, Ireland, with a score of 42.24 out of 100. 

The 10 most expensive European capital cities to live in

• London, United Kingdom
• Monte Carlo, Monaco
• Dublin, Ireland
• Luxembourg, Luxembourg
• Bern, Switzerland
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Lisbon, Portugal
• Valletta, Malta
• Athens, Greece
• Oslo, Norway

Each month, residents in Dublin earn, on average, £3,591.95 after tax and can expect to pay around 53% of this for a one-bedroom apartment in the city at a cost of £1,929.82.

Residents typically spend £375.64 on monthly household bills and £281.05 on lifestyle activities like meals, fitness and travel.

Meanwhile, Bucharest, Romania, proving to be the most cost-effective for residents, scoring 59.69 out of 100.

The research found that each month, residents in Bucharest typically earn £1,098.50 after tax and can expect to pay around 34% of this for a one-bedroom apartment in the city at an average cost of £375.15.

The 10 most affordable European capital cities to live in

• Bucharest, Romania
• Chisinau, Moldova
• San Marino, San Marino
• Vilnius, Lithuania
• Vaduz, Liechtenstein
• Warsaw, Poland
• Helsinki, Finland
• Skopje, North Macedonia
• Budapest, Hungary
• Madrid, Spain

Speaking on the findings, Olle Pettersson, CEO of Finansvalp, said: ‘Living in Europe’s capital cities can be a financial tightrope, requiring strategic budgeting and savvy decision-making to thrive in a cosmopolitan lifestyle.

‘As such, understanding the financial landscapes of European capitals is crucial for individuals, which is why our data experts have analysed the living factors driving costs.

‘We hope this will empower locals and emigrants alike to make informed choices about their finances and lifestyles in an increasingly interconnected world.’

Is it still worth living in London amid rising costs?

While many dwellers here are moving to community towns, like one that is known as ‘God’s waiting room ’ because of its elderly population, not everyone is rushing to leave any time soon. However, many Londoners feel life has become worse in the city in the last year.

A survey in March this year asked 1,100 people living in London about their thoughts on life in the Big Smoke, with 65% saying housing had got worse and 67% saying the NHS and other public services had declined since the start of 2023.

When asked to describe London in just one word, 60% called the capital ‘expensive’ , compared with 38% who picked ‘diverse’, 33% who said ‘crowded’ and 21% who chose ‘cultural’ as a main descriptor.

Yet in contrast to all this unhappiness, the QMUL team said Londoners have ‘relatively little appetite’ to leave London.

Just a quarter said they probably wouldn’t be living in London in five years’ time, with 60% predicting they were likely to stay.

Of the people who did plan on ditching the city, more than half said it was because of the costs of rent and housing in London and that elsewhere was cheaper.

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Thousands of people protested in Tenerife on Saturday, calling for the Spanish island to temporarily limit tourist arrivals to stem a boom in short-term holiday rentals and hotel construction that is driving up housing costs for locals.