Help me prepare!

[Boris Godunov]

Ok, I leave for London tomorrow night!

I am packing tonight. But I haven't been abroad in 10 years, and then all the prep was taken care of by my parents, so help me think of the things I will likely forget.

I have all the standard stuff taken care of: toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash, razor, shaving gel, eyedrops), undies, socks, clothes of all various kinds (sight-seeing, clubbing, fine dining, etc.), different shoes (casual, nice, sneakers), deodorant, cologne, vitamins...

I have my passport, and will use my ATM card to get British currency when I land at Heathrow. I've got luggage tags for my bags.

I have some books for the flight, as well as my discman (they do let you listen to CD players in flight, don't they? I know they don't allow it during take off and landing, but after that?). I'm thinking of borrowing a friend's Gameboy, too.

Any other suggestions? I always tend to forget something.

[MRT144]

yes, you can bring your discman and gameboy. but they dont allow classical music. it makes the likelyhood of a crash 100 fold.

[Boris Godunov]

I'll just have to risk it.

[chequita guevara]

Re: Help me prepare!

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
and will use my ATM card to get British currency when I land at Heathrow.

Can you do that? Even if you can, the exchange rates in airports is attrocious. Get some money from your bank first.


Remember, don't eat the beef.

[MikeH]

Yeah, ATM cards work all over the world now, have done for years.

Don't forget the UK is a fairly civilised country. You can buy anything you forget to bring with you here. You'll just feel you are paying extortionate rates for it.

[chequita guevara]

Well, the ATMs in Cancun give out American money, so I didn't know.

[Boris Godunov]

Re: Re: Help me prepare!

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Can you do that? Even if you can, the exchange rates in airports is attrocious. Get some money from your bank first.

Hmmm, a friend told me the opposite--that this was in fact the way to get the best exchange rate.

And I don't eat beef here either!

[DAVOUT]

Dont forget the adress of the American embassy. We have heared of demonstrations against american initiatives recently.

[MikeH]

I think the exchange rate from ATMs is pretty good for debit cards but you can get a bit stung on cash withdrawls on credit cards. You should be able to ask your bank for all the information you need.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by DAVOUT
Dont forget the adress of the American embassy. We have heared of demonstrations against american initiatives recently.

I'd probably be as likely as not to join the demonstrations myself

[Lincoln]

Take some hundred dollar bills also (new style, not torn etc.). Sometimes the ATM machines don't work. But I have found that the best exchange rates are given by the machines as opposed to the counters at the airport. They are usually ripoffs.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by MikeH
Don't forget the UK is a fairly civilised country.

Nonsense! Be sure to bring lots of bottled water as well as common survival gear such as a sleep bag, oil lamp, machete, and flares. Nothing electronic as you won't have a place to plug it in, and those you don't plug in will scare the natives. Britain also a very unique dialect. While not too different from American English, they will not understand you unless you speak very slowly and very loud. Make sure that you've had all your shots. They don't allow guns in London.

[Kropotkin]

Get some old football-shirt that's to small and learn the english people exacly how stupid they look when they are abroad themselves.

[lightblue]

Yeah use a normal bank's terminal instead of bureau de change. You get charged like £1 (at least with my Luxembourg bankcard i did when I had lost my UK bank card) per transaction, so take a fair amount out, don't withdraw a tenner at a time

[Pekka]

Yeah, like everyone else has said, make sure you have enough money in general so you don't have to miss out anything if something comes in your way that you'd like to do, or that you don't get into trouble. That's pretty much about it, I usually just make sure I have enough money, passport and tickets. That's essential, others can be arranged later if you miss something. And don't draw little money from ATMs like lightblue said, it's not that cheap. It depends, usually I find airport exchange rates horrible, but last time in Helsinki airport the rate was pretty good. You should find out the current rate so you can figure out if it's a good deal or not. There can be significant differencies.

Other than that.. you're pretty much set. If you're staying in hotel, make sure everything is good, bring confirmations etc with you if they want it, I lost mine in NY and I really had to talk a lot to get my room .
If you're staying with someone else, then that's not a problem.

Don't take too much stress, you'll always forget something anyway but make sure the very essential is with you (passport, tickets to everything, money).

Ah, and don't forget to take camera too! If you don't have one, you should borrow if your friends has.. and just get ready to have fun.

Passport, tickets, money and fun.