Accommodation fixed and sorted

[almaviva90]

Finally...after getting freaked out last night by the fact that the rooms available during the time I'm staying at Orient House had decreased from 10 to 6 in one day, I managed to finally book a room yesterday. Will be staying a total of 32 nights, I think. The rate per night was £39.06 though since the total was over £700, I got a 10% discount from the overall cost so it ended up costing £1125 which is a pretty good price. The room is a single ensuite one and there are some self-catering facilities available so I think it's worth the price.

Now that my flights and accommodation are now sorted, I have to start thinking about where I'll be going on my free days (12 days in all *sighs for more*). Oooh, and whether it's better to get a VisitBritain International SIM card before I leave HK which has £25 credit on it or just going to a shop and buying a rechargable SIM when I get to London though I'm thinking that I'm probably not going to spend a lot of time on the phone. Also what the hell is the difference between an Oyster Card and a Visitor Oyster Card? The second one just differs from the first in the sense that you can get it before you leave and it has a picture of the Houses of Parliament or Big Ben printed on it...

Ah, my brain hurts...

Comments

[x-reggg.livejournal.com]

what are you going to use the sim/your phone for? will see if i can help from there. :)

[almaviva90.livejournal.com]

I guess it's just in case Yen or someone needs to contact me while I'm in the UK (roaming on my HK number is waaay too expensive) plus my mum isn't the most technically advanced mum in the world (she still hasn't quite got to grips with Skype, for example) so I think I'll also have to use it to make the occasional call to her while I'm in London.

[x-reggg.livejournal.com]

i've never been a fan of international sim cards so i'm going to be biased and say get a local one XD;;; if you will call your mum for a long duration, O2 have/had (don't know if it's still around) a tariff where you can get free international minutes if you top up a certain amount. there's also another one where you can pay a certain amount per month (or one month only in your case) and you can get unlimited texts/calls in UK, which you can use if you will be using that bit more.

ultimately, if you're not making a lot of calls, then £25 seems like quite a lot of money for a card with no added things; but of course that's me and you might think differently.

[almaviva90.livejournal.com]

Yeah, £25 does seem quite a lot once I think about it. Perhaps I should get a local one instead. Any idea which providers give the best rates? O2 or any other ones?

[x-reggg.livejournal.com]

calls are generally £0.20-0.25/min and £0.10/text... if you can, have a look at the rates in O2 or vodafone or orange, most people i know are in one of those, so they shouldn't be bad :D i wouldn't go for the smaller companies (lycra mobile etc) as it's harder to top up (in the case where you used up your SIM money, you can just go to a supermarket to buy a topup voucher, as supposed to other means...

*diverged* basically go have a look yourself! rates are around the same, so find one with a plan/add-on which works out for you :D eg. if calling overseas will cost most then get one with free international minutes; if you text/call like crazy than get one with free minutes/texts etc :)

*diverged again* IIRC vodafone is £0.20/min for calls and O2 is £0.25/min. they both have a decent/good international call plan, so give those a look? orange has a deal where you can watch a movie at 2 for 1 price every wednesday :)