According to the new Lonely Planet guidebook, Britain is overpriced and has had its day as a tourist destination...
Overpriced, lacking in quality, crass, commercialised, tacky and trashy.
All words used by the authors of the Lonely Planet guidebook to describe parts of little old Britain.
Yes, the new edition of the influential travel publication has said that as a tourist destination, Great Britain has had its day and just doesn’t deliver anymore.
So what exactly has gone wrong with our country?
(Not so) Great Britain
The Lonely Planet authors say that many British destinations lack quality and are overpriced. Public transport, tourist attraction admission fees, restaurants and hotel rooms in Britain are all condemned by the guide as expensive compared with many other European countries.
On the topic of eating out in London, the guide delicately suggests, ‘You’re often better spending £5 on a top-notch curry in Birmingham or a homemade steak-and-ale pie in a country pub in Devon than forking out £30 in a restaurant for a modern European concoction that tastes like it came from a can.’
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Lonely Planet also turned its critical eye to several specific areas, describing Surrey as ‘uninspiring’ and ‘dull’, Dover as ‘down in the dumps’ and Southend-on-Sea as ‘crass’ and ‘commercialised.’ Stoke was also condemned as a ‘sprawl of industrial townships tied together by fly-overs and bypasses’ while Durham fared slightly better, described as ‘unquestionably beautiful, but after the cathedral and old town, there’s not much else to do’.
This isn’t the first time the guidebook has opened fire on Great Britain. In the most recent England edition, author and Brit David Else wrote that his homeland was now ‘celebrity obsessed’ and ‘addicted to junk food’.
But despite these criticisms, the guidebook did concede that some parts of Britain were still great.
Not all bad
Despite the high prices, Lonely Planet said that London did still have many excellent restaurants and free attractions for children. Scotland also fared well in the guidebook with Edinburgh praised as ‘one of the world’s most fascinating cities’ and Glasgow described as a ‘byword for style and chic’.
Birmingham was described as an unexpected tourist hotspot with a lot to see while Canterbury was placed as the best of England’s cathedral cities.
The guide said that overseas tourists stood to gain the most from Britain due to the weak pound while British natives looking to holiday at home could see themselves regretting not heading abroad.
‘Britain ain’t cheap’ was the overall verdict from the book!
So what can we do to avoid the many rip-offs littered around our country?
Public transport
When booking long distance and intercity public transport, the golden rule is to always buy your tickets well in advance. Train tickets are released 12 weeks before the journey, and the earlier you book, the less you’ll pay. Ensuring you travel in off-peak hours will also cut the costs of your fare.
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Splitting your ticket and buying several fares for different legs of your journey is another possible way to save on train travel if you have left booking until the last minute. Head to Splityourticket.co.uk to see if this tactic can shave a few pounds off your travel bill.
If you’re staying in one area for your holidays and travelling frequently, buying a travel card for the duration of your trip will almost always end up cheaper than purchasing single fares.
For some more domestic travel tips read Cut the cost of domestic travel.
Restaurants
Just like public transport, getting a good deal when eating out in Britain (and London in particular) is all about planning ahead. Several restaurants now offer 2-for-1 or half price vouchers for meals on weekdays that can be printed off from the internet. Keep checking sites like myvouchercodes.co.uk, vouchercodes.co.uk and restaurantvouchers.co.uk for available deals. Some of these vouchers may require you to book in advance and mention that you have a voucher.
If you have a smartphone make sure you download the MyVoucherCodes and Voucher Cloud apps that will look for meal deals in your surrounding area and download the voucher straight to your handset.
If you’re planning a special meal out it’s worth keeping an eye on group buying sites like Groupola, Groupon and Living Social as they will often sell discounted vouchers for plush restaurants in your local area.
For some more tips on slashing your restaurant bill read Eat out for less.
Attractions
Keeping an eye out for discount vouchers to top attractions on sites like lastminute.com and daysoutguide.co.uk is a good way to save money on pricey entrance tickets. However these vouchers may not guarantee you entry to top attractions during peak hours such as Bank Holidays or even weekends, so if you can plan your visit for off-peak periods, you’ll certainly save a few pounds.
There are also an amazingly large number of attractions you can visit for free. In the two months between finishing university and starting work I became something of an expert on filling days for free in London! The Tate Modern, Tate Britain, British Museum, Imperial War Museum, National History Museum, Science Museum and National Portrait Gallery are all free and well worth a visit.
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Hotels
Booking hotels well in advance and during off-peak periods is an obvious way to save money on accommodation. But there is another sneakier way that you might not have thought of that could allow you to bag a five star hotel at a two star price.
As we reported back in 2009, several upmarket hotels will sell off rooms that they haven’t been able to shift to sites like lastminute.com and hotwire.com on a ‘top-secret’ basis. This allows you to book a hotel in a certain area, of a certain quality but you’re only told its exact name after the payment has gone through.
However from the facts given on the site and by using the betterbidding.com forum you can usually work out which hotel you’ll be booking before you part with any cash.
What do you think?
Has Britain has its day? Do you agree with Lonely Planet’s verdict?
Let us know you thoughts in the comment box below.
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