London for €73 Return — How I Do It
I’ve lost count of how many weekend trips I’ve taken from Amsterdam to London. The first time I booked EasyJet from Schiphol to Stansted for €73 return and thought I’d cracked the code. Then I took the Eurostar and realized there’s a different conversation entirely. Here’s my honest breakdown of both options and exactly how I do London on a budget without feeling like I’m missing out.
Eurostar vs Flight — The Real Cost Comparison
The Eurostar from Amsterdam Centraal to London St Pancras takes 4 hours and costs around €80-120 each way if you don’t book months in advance. The flight is 1 hour and costs €73 return. But here’s what the flight price doesn’t include: getting to and from the airports. Stansted Express from Liverpool Street costs €22 each way. A National Express coach from Victoria to Stansted costs €10 each way and takes about the same time. So the real comparison is: Eurostar door-to-door in 5 hours for €180-220, or flight + coach door-to-door in 5 hours for €93.
My recommendation: if you book at least 3 weeks ahead, take the Eurostar. The experience of arriving at St Pancras — right in the middle of London — is worth the premium. If you’re booking last minute like I often do, the €73 EasyJet flight plus a National Express coach gets you there for the same total time and half the price. I’ve done both multiple times and each has its place.
What I Actually Spend in London
London gets a reputation for being expensive, but I’ve consistently kept my weekend costs under €200 excluding flights. The trick is the transport. Tap in and out with your contactless debit card or phone — don’t buy an Oyster card. The daily cap for zones 1-2 is €8.50, so after two trips you’re riding free for the rest of the day. I walked 95% of the time because London is surprisingly walkable. From my hotel near King’s Cross, I walked to Camden in 25 minutes, to Covent Garden in 20, and to the British Museum in 10.
The British Museum is free and I spend at least two hours there every visit. The permanent collection — the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon marbles, the Egyptian mummies — costs nothing to see. I did pay €18 for the Viking exhibition on my last trip and it was absolutely worth it. Well-curated, interactive, and genuinely educational. For free museums, I also love the Natural History Museum (the dinosaur skeletons are spectacular) and the Tate Modern (the views from the Blavatnik Building are free and incredible at sunset).
Where I Eat and Stay
I stay in Bloomsbury or King’s Cross. A double room at the Premier Inn King’s Cross costs me around €90 a night through Trip.com. It’s clean, central, and the breakfast buffet is a solid €12. For food, I skip the tourist pubs near Leicester Square and walk 10 minutes to Borough Market. The market itself is touristy but the street food is genuinely good — a grilled cheese sandwich for €7 from Kappacasein Dairy is the best €7 you’ll spend in London. For dinner, Dishoom in Covent Garden serves incredible Indian food for around €15-18 per person. The queue looks long but moves fast.
I tried the £5 meal deal from Tesco for lunch on my first budget trip — a sandwich, a snack, and a drink for £3.40. It’s not glamorous but it works, and it frees up your budget for dinner somewhere good. My rule is: cheap lunch, nice dinner. That balance keeps the total spend manageable.
My London Itinerary for a Weekend
Friday: Arrive at St Pancras or Stansted by 2pm. Check into hotel. Walk to British Museum (free, open until 8:30pm on Fridays). Dinner at Dishoom. Saturday: Borough Market for breakfast (€10), walk across Tower Bridge (free), Tower of London (£34 if you want to go inside — I skipped it and don’t feel like I missed much). Take the Uber Boat from Tower Pier to Greenwich (€10 — best value sightseeing in London). Sunday: Camden Market for brunch, walk along Regent’s Canal to Little Venice, then head home. The canal walk takes an hour and feels like you’re nowhere near a city of 9 million people.
Book your London trip on Trip.com — they consistently have the best EasyJet and Eurostar deals from Amsterdam, and their hotel search covers everything from hostels to boutique stays in central locations.
Author Bio: I’m a Dutch travel writer who visits London at least four times a year. I’ve tried every route, every budget trick, and every museum cafe worth mentioning.
Book your London flight on Trip.com — I check their prices every time before booking.
Find London hotel deals on Trip.com — the Premier Inn near King’s Cross is my go-to.