As a tourist I found London WAY cheaper than Prague... The food was cheaper.. the galleries were cheaper... Of course I couldn't find any supermarkets in the old city, which didn't help.. In the end I paid 200kc for a meal and a bottle of water, nice place.. if only I could remember the name! but I saw one sign with the nerve to boast 'dinner for one person just 450kc'... That's ridiculous! I didn't have to stay overnight in Prague so I don't know about the accommodation.. And London is so english, you can be right in the center of London where all the shops are and all the history and all the tourist attractions, but it's still english. Prague doesn't feel Czech. Also people are soooo friendly in London, they were friendly in Prague too.. but they are sooooo friendly in London! And everything goes there! Every exhibition longs to stop in London! Every band! Everything! At least once in my life I'd like to live there, I know it wouldn't seem cheap then! But it's quite a cheap place to visit. I think the whole trip including accommodation and food and flights and gallery tickets cost me 250 euro for five days I adore London, I think it's my favorite capital city.. but then there's Madrid... oh how could I choose!? Still I need to visit Prague at least one more time, to see the art properly, London and Madrid have the best Galleries I've ever seen, and this colors my view... (literally) Reading this thread everyone seems to have had completely different experiences of London hee hee.. Tourist attractions are expensive? Not the ones that attracted me! I do remember thinking that 15 euro for a ferris wheel seemed a bit much.. but going to the top floor of the Tate is free and you get the same view.. And the coffee was slightly above the average price (but still cheaper than any restaurant in Dublin that I know of), but I saw it as a donation to the gallery so I didn't mind. and I'm not into eating out if I can avoid it... I'd prefer to go to a supermarket... Packet sandwiches were only the equivalent of 2 euro! I couldn't believe it! They're 5 euro at home!I guess London is was just made for tourists like me.
You'll have to tell me where you went in London, then. I lived in London for twenty five years and I've been in Prague for two, and I can assure you that we live twice as well here in Prague on half the income we had in London. Take food, for example. I spend the equivalent of about 50GBP a week in Prague, whereas in London, even two years ago, I would usually spend about 100GBP. Public transport: I pay something like 1200kč a quarter for unlimited travel on the metro, trams and buses in Prague; in London, the cheapest fare for one stop on the tube is 3.50GBP. The 450kč dinner you saw in Prague was either very good or aimed at tourists. The equivalent price in London would be 15GBP and I certainly wouldn't want to eat it. When I was there in July, I went for a Chinese with some friends. It was nice but not spectacular and it cost us 35GBP a head. Here in Prague, we always go to at least one sporting event - ice hockey or football - a week, often a concert as well. In London, we couldn't possibly have afforded to go out so often. Sorry to go on but London is regularly quoted in surveys as one of the most expensive capitals of the world and for good reason - it is!
And it is not only one of the most expensive but it is rapidly becoming the dirtiest, tattiest, most unpleasant place to be. I have resolved never to go there again unless forced to by business. I live about 15 miles from London when I am in the UK and it costs me more to go there for a day than to fly to Prague from Luton. Sadly my self-imposed banishment will bar me from some excellent exhibitions but since I can't afford most of them anyway that can't be helped. As for the people being friendly - I have no idea where Ctyri koruny went but it wasn't to any part of London that I know!
Amazing. Apart from the bit about where you live - I lived in Westminster - I could have written all that word for word, Cestino!
It depends on where you go what you buy and the type of lifestyle you want to live I guess.. I stayed in a cheap hostel in a large mixed room... I'm not into eating out, I'm afraid of being underground, I find city bus systems too confusing.. so It was cheap for me! I'm sure if I had to pay rent it would make up for the way everything else is cheaper than the old part of Prague and certainly any city in Ireland. I walked everywhere.. I walked about ten miles a day I'd say! My feet were in bits by the end!
OK that is too much (min. one stop fare is 1 GBP), but I have to admit I pay half of what I paid in London for a week here in Prague, but for month . However you can eat for 3,3 GBP for very good portion of very good chinese food in London as well, which being 100 Kč is not much more you pay in here. This is simply the way it is , it depends where you go. I recently compared cinema prices, 9 GBP in London (280 Kč), which is not that much comparing what I paid in Village Cinemas in Cerny Most, 169 Kč). But sure some thinkgs are very expensive in London as well, but some are cheaper. When I will move once to new flat and will buy more clothes, I will rather fly to London then try to shop in Prague Btw. sorry Slavia lost the derby
It is certainly true that one can eat well in London, especially Chinese, for a reasonable price. It is not just the cost of London, apart from transport, theatres and some exhibitions, that bothers me - I would expect things to be more expensive than in Prague. It is the fact that it has become so uncared for, so dirty, noisy and tatty that makes me sad. I worked for many years in London in the 1960s and it was a pleasure to walk there, through the parks, round interesting streets, visit museums and to watch the people. That pleasure, it seems to me, is entirely gone. The shops are full of expensive rubbish, the streets are dirty, jammed with traffic, although the Congestion Charge has helped, and the whole tempo of life there is impossible to keep up with. Clearly I am getting older, and I don't much like big cities anywhere, but I don't have that feeling in other places like Prague, Berlin or Cologne. Dr Samuel Johnson said "He who is tired of London, is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford...." I think he is probably rolling in his grave in horror now.
