Discounted West End tickets

If your heart is set on a big-budget West End show, don’t be disheartened by the often shockingly high ticket prices quoted on theater websites. There are still plenty of ways to bag a bargain ticket, particularly if you’re flexible with which show you see.

Leicester Square is littered with cheap ticket shops, but make your first stop TKTS, the only official discount ticket booth run by the Society of London Theatres. TKTS sells lots of half-price and discounted tickets, and the stock is replenished throughout the day (so you don’t have to be in the queue at 9 a.m. to secure your seat). The booth is open Monday to Saturday until 7 p.m.

Travelex £12 tickets
National Theatre
Website

Travelex’s partnership with the National Theatre has become one of the most popular affordable passports to theater in London. Seeing a production at the National Theatre should come high up on any theater buff’s wish list. Occupying an iconic space on the South Bank, the National is home to three different auditoriums and produces more than 20 productions a year.

With Travelex, savvy theater-goers can bag one of 95,000 £12 tickets on sale throughout the year. At some performances this equates to almost half the seats! Keep checking the National Theatre website for details about which productions are being offered at £12 and act quickly when you see one you like–they get snapped up quickly! You can book online, over the phone (020 7452 3000) or in person.

10p tickets
Royal Court Theater
Website

Yes, you did read that correctly. Chelsea’s lovely Royal Court Theatre actually sells tickets for just 10p each every day. As you may expect, they’re not the best seats in the house (they’re actually standing tickets with a restricted view), but nonetheless, they will set you back a meager 10p, so you can’t really argue with that.

Four 10p tickets go on sale every day for performances in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs an hour before the performance starts, so get there early to claim your place in the queue. Tickets are sold at one per person.

If you would rather book your seats in advance then opt for the Royal Court’s £10 Mondays, when every ticket for performances in both the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs and Downstairs cost just £10 each. Get online and book your ticket early though, as Monday nights always sell out fast.

Free theater

The More London Free Festival is a four-month extravaganza of free culture in a fantastic location at The Scoop amphitheater, right by the River Thames at London Bridge. The program runs from June to September and encompasses a mixture of theater, music and film. Details of the 2013 season are due to announced in May, so be sure to keep an eye on the website if you’re visiting London over the summer.

Also check out the program at the Southbank Centre, where free outdoor performances regularly take place over the summer months.

Pub theaters

London’s pub theaters are a unique and quirky way to enjoy some culture in a truly relaxed environment, plus tickets are much more reasonably priced than glitzy West End shows. There are countless options and the quality of the performances will vary from production to production, but with tickets costing as little as £6 in some places, it’s worth the gamble.

Some of my favorites are:

• Upstairs at the Gatehouse located above The Gatehouse Pub in pretty Highgate Village.

• The Kings Head Theatre at the back of the Kings Head Pub on Upper Street in Angel.

• The Landor above The Landor pub in Clapham North.

Your London theater tips?

Have another favorite way to score cheap theater tickets in London? Tell us about it in our comments section. Also, stop by our London guide for more budget tips for visiting London.

The post London: How to find cheap and free theater tickets appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

1. Ride the RV1 or number 11 bus
From £1.40

For as little as £2.40 (or £1.40 with an Oyster card) for a journey, you can take in the best of London from the comfort of these public buses. Instead of paying over the odds for an expensive tourist bus, these two central London bus routes take in the main attractions and you can jump on and off as you go.

The RV1 starts in Covent Garden and will take you past Somerset House, across Waterloo Bridge and down past the London Eye, Royal Festival Hall and the Oxo Tower. It carries on past London Bridge and City Hall before crossing Tower Bridge and stopping at the Tower of London and ending its route at Tower Gateway Station.

Alternatively, the number 11 bus travels between Fulham Town Hall and Liverpool Street Station, calling at Westminster Abbey, Horse Guards Parade, Trafalgar Square and St Paul’s Cathedral along the way. More information.

Experience the sights (and smells!) of Borough Market for free. Photo: Kenjonbro

2. Visit to Borough Market
Free

This haven for foodies is the ideal place to wile away an afternoon without frittering away too much cash. With food from all over the world, most of the stalls at Borough Market offer samples so you can happily try a whole lot of different tastes before deciding what to have for lunch. Head there at the end of the day around 4:30 pm and you might also benefit from larger freebies as the traders get rid of their leftovers before packing up and going home.

3. Happy Hour at Match Bar
Beer for £3, 2-for-1 cocktails, cheap food

It’s rare to find a central London cocktail bar with a decent Happy Hour even on the weekends, but this cool locale tucked away behind Oxford Street is the perfect place for a little bit of indulgence if you’ve been window shopping and successfully managed not to blow your budget!

From 8 pm-10:30 pm Monday to Thursday and 5 pm-8 pm on Saturdays Match Bar offers 20% off small food platters, bottles of beer for £3 each or two delicious cocktails for the price of one, meaning you can even treat a friend and get change from a tenner!

4. River cruise
From £4

A leisurely cruise down the River Thames is a great way to explore London if the weather is good. KPMG Thames Clippers stop at lots of lovely landmarks, from the London Eye all the way to Greenwich Pier. A single adult ticket costs £6, but you can get 10% off with a pay as you go Oyster card, or 1/3 off with a Travelcard. Alternatively, an unlimited hop on/hop off “Roamer” ticket will cost you £9.10 with a Travelcard.

5. Bar Kick
£2 beer and cheap cocktails

Much more than just a bar, head to Bar Kick with a few £1 coins and spend a fun-filled afternoon playing table football. If you’ve got a competitive streak, you may also want to sign up as a member and play more seriously in the tournaments. Head down between 4-7pm any day of the week and you’ll also benefit from £2 bottles of beer and cocktails for £4.85 each! Located at 127 Shoreditch High Street, nearest station is Shoreditch High Street Overground.

Hang out over London on the Emirates Air Line. Photo: Martin Pettitt

6. Emirates Air Line
From £3.20

The Emirates Air Line opened just in time for the London Olympics and is an alternative way to cross the river from north to south London. This brand new cable car offers a five-minute journey over the River Thames from Greenwich in the south of London to the Royal Docks in the north (or vice versa). Fares start from £4.30 for a single and £8.60 for a return, but with your Oyster card you’ll only have to pay £3.20 or £6.40 respectively, leaving you with more than enough for a pint of beer once you’ve reached the other side!

Read our related post on more cheap ways to get great views of London.

7. More London Scoop
Free

Every summer you’ll find a huge program of exciting free events going on at the amphitheater at More London, right by London Bridge station. There is anything from films and theatre, to dance, art and music, all totally free. Overlooking the river, it’s a fab place to include on any summer itinerary – just stop by and see what’s happening, or alternatively, sign up to the More London mailing list and receive updates direct to your inbox.

National museums, including the British Museum (above), are free to enter every day! Photo: Moria

8. Museums
Free

One of the most fantastic things about London is the fact that the museums are free. You could spend weeks exploring everything from the British Museum and the National Gallery, to the Science Museum and the Tate Modern, without parting with a penny. So make the most of it, Cheapos!

Here’s our list of 20 free museums in London.

9. Royal Court Theatre
£10 tickets

You have to be quick off the mark, but it is possible to bag a theatre ticket for just £10 in London. There are £10 tickets to every Monday performance at the Royal Court Theatre. Located in Sloane Square, this famous theatre prides itself on showcasing the work of up and coming young writers and its productions can vary greatly in style.

10. Parks and gardens
Free

If the weather goes in your favor, you’ll find that the liveliest places to spend a sunny afternoon in London are in actual fact, absolutely free. Whether you’re exploring well-known spots such as Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, Green Park or Hampstead Heath, or lazing about in smaller green spaces like Highbury Fields and Clapham Common, there is no shortage of open, green space in London. So pack a picnic and get exploring!

Also in our guide: Looking for more ideas about ways to save in London? Head over to EuroCheapo’s London Guide to read about great affordable hotels in London, plus articles on budget tips, transportation passes, and more.

The post London: 10 cheap things to do (for under £10!) appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Here are some of the best (and cheapest) ways to do just that!

Cinema

Unless you’re lucky enough to speak the local lingua, chances are you’ll be looking for a movie house that shows films in English. While there are quite a few scattered around the city, these two are the most accessible:

Metropolitan Cinema
Via del Corso, 7 (Just off Piazza del Poppolo, Metro Flaminio)

The Metropolitan (pictured, above) is a friendly, old-school little cinema that has not entirely succumbed to the Italian penchant for dubbing absolutely everything that is not a product of Italy. It shows at least two English language films at any given time, and if you go on a weekday afternoon, or Wednesdays at anytime, you’ll only pay €5.50. Otherwise, tickets are €7.50.

Warner Village Metro Cinema
Piazza della Repubblica, 44 (Metro Repubblica)

Live music and drinks at the Scholar’s Lounge.

You can’t miss this large, swanky cinema, which is the place to come if you want to see a blockbuster. However, it usually only shows one English language film at a time, so your options will be limited. Tickets are €7.50 (€5.50 for students).

Check out this useful website for programs and session times for both cinemas.

Tip: If you can speak Italian, take advantage of free films aired at “Casa del Cinema” at Villa Borghese. The films are mostly documentaries or old, obscure Italian films. For details, check out the website.

Live Music

There are plenty of pubs and bars in Rome which offer a huge variety of live music, but this is our favorite for both music and atmosphere:

Scholars Lounge Irish Pub
Via del Plebiscito, 101b (near Piazza Venezia)

The cosy and charming Scholars Lounge is host to live music almost every night from 10:30 PM. If it’s not a cover band doing the Chilli Peppers, Springsteen, or Oasis, it’s traditional Irish music, Reggae or karaoke (come on, you know you love it!). For the cost of whatever you want to drink, you can kick back with a congenial mix of locals and travelers and enjoy the vibe.

Last-minute theater tickets.

For a list of what’s on, check out the pub’s live music schedule.

Theater

Rome has an extremely vibrant dramatic scene with scores of theaters scattered all over town. It is generally not cheap to see a performance, but it is well worth the experience, especially when there are half-price tickets available at Last Minute Teatro, situated at Via Bari, 18 (Metro Policlinico). It sells unsold tickets for performances showing that night, and if you are not too fussy about what you see, there are huge savings to be made! Open Tuesday to Saturday: 2 PM-8 PM, and Sunday: 12 PM-4 PM.

The post Rome Entertainment: Movies, music, and theater on a budget appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

As far as prices go, think under 10 pounds. In fact, at one theater, tickets go for 10 pence a head (more on this later)! Here’s how to find the best deals:

Scoring half-price seats for the splashy West End shows-

Chances are if you’re thinking about taking in a show in London, you’re going to want to get the most for your money, i.e. a big-time musical (Billy Elliot, Sister Act) with magnificent production values and perhaps a B-list celebrity star. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just read the reviews and choose wisely as there are more than a few stinkers on the West End. (We’re hearing that Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical, for instance, just doesn’t live up to all the sequin and rhinestone hype.)

Tickets for the biggest musicals—especially the most in demand—can run upwards of 60 pounds ($100) apiece. But there are a few ways to save.

1) First, check for discounts online at ticket broker websites. The best aggregator out there is comparetheatretickets.com, which lists all the discounted tickets available from numerous online brokers for every show. For example, a search for Avenue Q tickets on July 23 turned up an 11-pound ($18) ticket in the upper balcony from the retailer Seatem.

Checking out the TKTS offerings; photo by Andyrob

2) Another sure bet for discounts is the TKTS booth in Leicester Square (Tube to Leicester Square, Piccadilly or Northern line), which sells half-priced tickets for most West End shows the same day of the performance. For the best shot at a wallet-friendly price and a non-nosebleed seat, get there when the booth opens at 10 AM Monday through Saturday (noon on Sundays).

Get thee to the theater!

Individual theaters also offer reduced prices for tickets as part of a concerted effort to bring in a younger crowd. As we reported earlier this year, the National Theatre puts on an annual Travelex 10-pound ticket season in which tickets for quality plays like Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album start at just 10 pounds ($16) apiece. Tickets are sold via the National Theatre’s website. The current season runs through the fall.

Some theatres even give away a limited number of free tickets for people under age 26. Yup, you read that right. Free. At the National Theatre, for example, all you have to do is sign up for an Entry Pass online and your first ticket to one of the theatre’s shows is absolutely free (after that, you pay 5 pounds per ticket, about $8). There are a ton of off-West End theatres with the free-tickets-for-under-26 deal, including the Donmar Warehouse, Hampstead Theatre, Soho Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Bush Theatre, and Gate Theatre.

Stand up for great theater!

You’d be surprised how many venues in London will let you stand and be counted for incredibly low prices. Both the Royal Opera House and the English National Opera sell standing room tickets in the back of the house starting at 4 pounds ($6.50) and 10 pounds ($16), respectively. At Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, you can experience As You Like It as a groundling would have in the 1600s—standing in front of the stage (cost: 5 pounds or $8). The National Theatre also offers standing tickets for 5 pounds for most shows.

Drum roll please…lest we forget those 10 pence seats-

And here’s the best deal I’ve seen in awhile (aside from the free tickets, of course): At the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, eight standing, restricted-view tickets are sold for only 10 pence (16 cents) apiece an hour before the show. Sure, you have to stand and you may not be able to see the entire stage, but 16 cents is one heck of a deal!

The post London Tip: How to score cheap theater tickets appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.