How we spent 4 days in London for £584.47

We certainly have started to get a thrill out of traveling on a budget and we wanted to share how we had a 4 day / 3 night break in London on a budget a couple of weeks ago. The reason we wanted to go to London was to go to an attraction Kidzania and we created everything around that.

We are going to give you a breakdown of what we spent and how we did it, hopefully inspiring you to travel on a budget especially as staycations this year are ridiculously overpriced.

Let’s start with the total we spent: £584.47

Here’s the breakdown:

Petrol- £75.00

Hotel – £93.97

Hotel Parking – £0

Kizania- £110.00

Attraction Parking- £12.00

Underground Tickets- £38.00 x 2 days

Food for packed lunches- £25.00

Food out and about over 4 days- £192.50

Here’s how we did it part 1:

Hotel

Let’s start with the hotel, Travelodge have been doing some fantastic nights away for £29.00 a night. We actually went away last year for a few nights in Nottinghamshire when the eat-out to help-out was on.

We managed to find the same £29 a night deal in London which was just 3 miles away from Kidzania (our main location target). We started at the London Park Royal for 3 nights, one of the staff members was so very helpful on our arrival and gifted us the car parking which would have cost us £18. This hotel is also outside of the congestion charge area.

An amazing bonus was that we were a 5 minute walk from the nearest underground which meant we could go into the centre of London.

Food for packed lunches

We initially spent £25.00 at our own local supermarket on bread, ham, cheese, crisps, fruit, drinks, treats, UHT milk, mini cereal boxes and snacks. Our plan was to have breakfast and packed lunch on each day meaning we would only need to fund one meal a day. We got into the mindset of camping but in a hotel room and we are out most of the day so we only need to be at the hotel for sleep. It happened to be very hot the weekend we went away and so our plans are to take a cool box with us the next time we do this.

If you are buying food on the go we noticed from our break away that the prices didn’t differ much in the chains like Tesco, Asda, Costa, Boots etc.

What we couldn’t change:

The attraction tickets, parking and underground tickets were all set in stone, but we accepted this and we adapted our break so that the other days were filled with adventure. We will go into that in how we did it part 2 further down.

Kidzania

What an amazing experience this was and highly recommend it to anyone with children under 14 years old. It’s a city run by kids and the idea is that they need to work for their money which is loaded onto their cards, they can spend their money on non-work-related activities or in the small gift shop at the end.

Our children enjoyed being police officers, firefighters, nursery nurses, hotel staff, radio hosts, flight crew, window cleaners, delivery drivers, shop assistants and more.

Here’s how we did it part 2:

Two of the days were spent traveling into the centre of London and there is so much to do without spending money on attractions. As you know we are Geocachers, so this played a big part in our adventures and made us find out about London in a completely different way.

We managed to visit, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, China Town, Covent Gardens, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace and Marble Arch.

Let’s start with Trafalgar Square because we loved visiting there, not only because of the lions but because there was so much to do here. We loved the art installation which actually had a webcam in the drone for us to find ourselves on, it was a part of a Geocache. If you have no idea about Geocaching, the fun never ends and it’s almost like a worldwide treasure hunt, download the app for free. We also completed an adventure lab around the area as well as find traditional Geocaches. Adventure labs require you to be close to the clues to solve them in a sequence and after you’ve solved 5 areas you claim the find, it means you find out about the history and have to be observant.

We found GC7B73B Virtual Reward : The Fourth Plinth, GC5A7DW Trafalgar Square and Trafalgar Adventure Lab Cache.

We walked onto Leceister Square and had our lunch here, it was Sunday and it was rather quiet so we had plenty of choice on where to sit. We started another Adventure Lab here which took us all around the West End and ending in Covent Gardens, it was such a fun walk and the kids really enjoyed discovering everything.

Believe it or not we started another Adventure Lab when we got to Covent Gardens. This trail took us to London’s oldest restaurant as well as a hidden ear in the wall which was a cast of an artist who hid his ears around London back in history (we would have never noticed this if it wasn’t for Geocaching). We even got a bonus cache to go and physically find which was so much fun in the middle of a busy London.

On the second day we didn’t do as much Geocaching but we got to see the sites and had a rare treat of seeing the Queens Guards on horses going from Buckingham Palace through Hyde Park. We were pretty tired after all the Geocaching adventures but it didn’t stop us from having fun.

We were pretty impressed with how much we got to see on a small budget but had so much fun, the kids are still talking about it now.

Looking back we believe we could have saved more money on eating out by planning where we would like to eat in advance, it takes a little more organisation but it will be worth it. Having three kids you never know what you might have to buy on the go but we can safely say we didn’t hold back, for example when we were in Hyde Park we all enjoyed an expensive ice cream. What we are trying to say is that we didn’t feel like we were holding ourselves back to purposefully stick to a budget but be mindful on our spending.

We would love to know if this has inspired you to travel on a budget, do let us know where you end up. It is possible to travel this way if you find a hobby like Geocaching, go to local free attractions and explore the local history.

I wonder where our Geocaching adventures will take us next.

The Gilmours

The best gift for a Geocachers Birthday!

Wondering what the best Birthday gift is for a Geocacher? Well… now I know exactly what it is after a surprise and shock I had last week.

I recently converted two friends (Tristan and Louisa) to Geocaching, they are connections I have made through the lockdown and in the world of Clubhouse. We are all self-employed and I shared my love for the hobby and how it helps us escape the workload at home which feels more like escapism for us. Tristan and Louisa have dove straight into Geocaching and got the addiction. They have only been Geocaching 36 days based on their stats and delivered the BEST Geocaching gift ever.

The night before my Birthday, Tristan sent a message with the Geocaching map of our local area, his message read “OMG Did you see this this…??”. To be fair, it was past midnight so I overlooked it thinking they have only just seen the Geocaches in our area and fell asleep.

I received another message early on Saturday morning, my Birthday, it read “Looks like there’s a special cache….”. If you look closely at the screengrab above you can see a cache titled No Time Like The Present (GCJRSRR).

They had gotten my attention and I said to Rob “I didn’t know you could do limited time Geocaches? Did you?” I found it mildly frustrating that they had discovered a new type of Geocache that we had never heard of. We are meant to be the more educated considering we have been caching since 2017. Anyway, I typed in the GZ code on my phone and it didn’t appear with anything, I thought it must have only just been published so I grabbed my laptop and booted it up but still no luck. I messaged in our group conversation to say it doesn’t seem to work and Tristan replied “Good job I screen grabbed 😉“. I was sent further screengrabs and was told all the clues are in the images so we can get going with it, it was only available until 12pm.

It was at this point I knew this wasn’t a ‘real’ Geocache, it wasn’t on the app. I noticed the GC code was infact our family initials – GCJRSRR (GCJenRobSophieRileyRobyn) – very clever. Tristan and Louisa had used their amazing photoshopping skills to create all of this, although this didn’t answer any questions as to what I was meant to find. Rob had no idea about any of this either so we both enjoyed figuring out the puzzle.

The first section of the puzzle was quite easy and this was the answer to the tool we needed for the next section. For the first section the answer was a number which then had to be linked to that number of the alphabet. EG, the first question was: 26 – month of Jen’s Birthday = 23 = W. Once we had figured out the answers it read “What 3” and I knew the app they were referring to immediately as we have it on our phone’s in case of emergency whilst out Geocaching= What Three Words.

Now we are cooking on gas but I have to be honest we slowed down at this point, we had to figure out the words to put into the app.

1= Another word for prevents

2= These could be computer / nail / paperwork

3= Like caches when not visible they are ____

We got 2/3 straight away but it was the second one that got us stuck for quite some time. Rob and I were in our PJ’s trying to figure this out and in the end we had to ask for the optional hint which made it nice and easy. However, we spent around 45 minutes on all of this because we didn’t want a hint at all.

Once we had the words, it was time to pop them into the map, I still had no idea what on earth was going on and what we needed to find. The What Three Words app displayed a pin at the Park Street Performing Arts Centre, this offered no answers, Tristan and Louisa reminded us we had until 12pm. It was still early in the morning and Riley had gone onto his virtual dance class with DanceWise Studios, so we didn’t rush to get ready which we regret now.

We were planning on doing some caching for my Birthday so I thought we would be quickly stopping by, I thought perhaps it was a parcel drop-off point and it seemed the most logical answer. We drove straight into the front drive of the place and I tried to go into the building but it was locked, I tried knocking but there was no answer, I retreated back into the car and tried to call the landline of the building and no answer. I gave up again and messaged Tristan and Louisa to ask if I was in the right place, they said yes but to go around the corner, I went the wrong way at this point and ended up going back to the car AGAIN. I felt we were on a wild goose chase and it was around 11.20am, I started to think that perhaps this wasn’t the end. Thankfully Tristan and Louisa messaged us with a clue to say we were in the right place and to check the sign post.

I got back out the car and started to investigate the sign, maybe it was a real cache I thought, I looked in the obvious places but couldn’t see anything there. I made funny faces at Rob and the kids who were watching me and Rob said to keep looking. I then stepped back to look at the sign as a whole and looked around to see if there was anything else around… there were two people holding boxes looking right at me! I have to confess it took a few seconds BUT it was Tristan and Louisa, I couldn’t believe it and shouted “NO WAY”. We’ve never met in person before and this was the last thing I thought of but I have to say I haven’t been this suprised in a while.

A work trip broought them here and how to kill two birds with one stone! I was honestly so shocked and surprised and am still talking about it a week later.

Tristan and Louisa could do this as a Geocaching Birthday/Anniversary/Event experience because it was so much fun and I had no idea, truly talented with photoshop and certainly made it a memorable birthday. Thank you so much.

Tristan is @ImTristanG

Louisa is @ImLouisaMay

What was in the boxes? Well they had both spoilt me…

There was something in there for us all to enjoy and the kids were super excited about opening the boxes and having a rummage around. Louisa had written us a lovely letter which was a really lovely personal touch. We can’t wait to go caching with them on their home turf, hopefully they will have some Geocaches left that they haven’t found.

Jen

Log a trackable that’s on Mars!

We’ve just discovered a trackable that’s out of this world with our much-loved hobby of Geocaching. In fact, it’s on the Mars Perseverance Rover. I don’t know why but it felt rather special discovering this trackable and we didn’t need to fly out and get it, it wasn’t exactly handed out on a plate either.

What is a trackable?

Trackables are physical game pieces that move from geocache to geocache. Types of trackables include: geocoins, tags, t-shirts, and more!

We have a few that are travelling around the world, our best one is TB8BRQF which has travelled over 13918 miles!

How do I discover the Mars Perserverance Rover trackable?

Geocaching.com has handed everything we need on a plate but we have to still discover it ourselves. The trackable code is physically on the Mars Perseverance Rover and you have to use images on the Nasa Raw Images page to find it. Don’t worry, there may be over 600 images right now but there are clues on how to find the code and it didn’t take us too long.

Check out the trackable page with full instructions on how to discover it at TB5EFXK.

Once you have discovered it your Geocaching account will unlock a new souvenir. Souvenirs are virtual pieces of art that can be collected and displayed on your profile. They’re generally awarded for caching in a particular location, on a particular date, or during one of Geocaching HQ’s souvenir challenges like Goodbye 2019 Hello 2020.

Happy Caching

The Gilmours

When we were rescued by Grandad

We were on a roll with our Geocaching, spring is here and the Goecaching season has begun for us. We decided that we would go out on two consecutive days after a couple of weekends of dedicating just the Saturday to our hobby. The plan was to go on a short walk just for an hour or two and I had located what I thought was a little loop.

The walk was titled Circular Walk and so it seemed perfect, I could see it was part of a larger loop but thought I could see that we could cut through the middle and do a smaller section. We usually do this on larger trails with the three kids because it does tire them out. We started at Geocad17 – Circular Walk 7 (GC5KTEG) and we spent some time trying to find it but with no luck, usually when this happens we have a feeling on how the rest of the day is going to go. The funny thing is, I did ponder on which way to start the walk, should we go left or right? We decided on going right because it was such a lovely eye pleasing little walk. We walked next to a stream and passed quite a few other walkers.

We carried on our merry way and was enjoying our loop after finally finding Geocaches at Geocad22- Circular Walk 6, Geocad21 – Circular Walk 5, Geocad20 – Circular Walk 4, Geocad19 – Circular Walk 3, Geocad18- Circular Walk 2. By this point we had bumped into a couple of people on horses which weren’t pleased to see it, so we hurried past quietly. I took a photo (funnily enough) of where it went wrong and I took this picture because of the name, my maiden name is Jarratt and you don’t often see it spelt this way. I had planned this to show my dad as our ancestors owned some land.

This is the point where we turned right which appeared to be a signposted footpath but when we got part way things didn’t feel right. I couldn’t see how we were going to make our way across to the car, we could see the bridge near where we parked but not the path through. I changed my view on my phone to see if I could see the trails on the Geocaching app, Rob and I were both looking at this point and I convinced him that we must need to give it a wide birth. This is when the promise of McDonalds came for the kids as it was just past 12pm and we had already been out way longer than expected.

We carried on walking and mole hills seemed to appear but I was convinced it was going to meet round. I can safely say now, it didn’t! We ended up by the side of the A63 next to the Pulse & Cocktails adult store! Oh my word, what were we going to do? We were pretty tired and Rob had said he wanted to get back for the LFC match at 2pm. Do we turn back and walk 3/4 miles?

Ring ring… ring ring… My dad picked up the phone, he agreed to come and rescue us and take us back to the car. We knew it was going to be a good half an hour wait and was thankful that there was a garage to buy some snacks for the kids. Yes, the guy at the garage did ask me “Is that your children out there?” and I did try to explain but what were we meant to do?

The kids were so well behaved and really enjoyed looking out for Grandad whilst all the drivers going past were wondering why there was a family of five at the adult store. I imagined headlines in the local news paper and we did all have a giggle. The kids didn’t ask much about where we were but we had instilled that we were stuck on the A63. Eventually it turned cold and we were waiting for my dad to save the day.

Grandad arrived and rescued us, the kids cheered with joy! We were all so very happy to see him and get warm in his car.

It’s the first time we have ever gone wrong on our Geocaching adventures but we know to trust our instinct and we will look back and giggle with this story. The kids enjoyed telling their friends at school what had happened and the blame firmly lay with me.

I guess the question is, where did the walk meet up? Did it meet up at all? I’m sure we will find out when we go back to discover the caches we haven’t found.

Have you ever gotten lost? Or taken a wrong turn? We can’t be the only ones.

Jen & co.

Geocaching in Edwinstowe

Just over a week ago we had a mini-break in Nottinghamshire, we felt we needed to have some time away with the lockdown ease. We did everything on a very low budget but knew we needed this time for our family’s mental health, we needed to feel like we weren’t trapped and needed that different scenery.

Nottinghamshire is only an hour and a half away from us, it was just enough of a distance for us. We decided to go here because Rob is called Robin and our youngest is called Robyn, Robyn’s gamer tag includes RobynHood. Obviously, Sherwood Forest was going to be a focus, I hadn’t been for years and I remember going as a child with school. Rob doesn’t remember ever visiting and the three kids hadn’t visited either. Everyone was excited and once we looked at the Geocaching map to see what was around, we knew we were going to have a great time.

Edwinstowe

Our first find was near what we remember as a historical irrigation system and it had some of its original fixtures in place. Weir is it (GC42KVJ) You may be able to see the cache on the cog if you look closely. A nice easy find for our first find on our break away and we have to say the village had a historical trail with signposting for knowledge. We did stop to read some of the information.

It was a dull day with a mist that got us wet, but we weren’t going to let it dampen our spirits. We walked to the next cache which was a church micro and we loved how the sign point had a voice-controlled by turning the wheel. St Mary’s is said to be where Robin Hood and Maid Marian got married. Church Micro 1526… Edwinstowe (GC495FC) took us a while to find but with Daddy’s undefeated attitude he put his hand within the frame of the sign which was amongst spiders and other creepy crawlies and found the cache.

One reason we stopped in Edwinstowe was that we wanted to find the Robin Hood and Maid Marian statue but it wasn’t there, apparently, a car had collided with it and so it had been removed for repair. It means we will have to visit again in the future. We couldn’t find all the Geocaches in the area either, so we have some to return for.

We also found Going East (GC4J4PX) which felt like a bit farther from the others with the three kids and next to the main road, but we did find it. Edwinstowe is lovely to walk around and worth a visit for the historical reasons and also some light Geocaching.

We will be sharing our finds and adventures of Sherwood Forest soon. Make sure you follow our blog so you don’t miss it.

Jen, Rob & The Gilmour Kids.

 

500 finds milestone

We went out one afternoon to get our 500 milestone and it all went wrong, Riley got stung by the nettles, Robyn didn’t want to walk, I fell over and hurt my knee. We were going to give up when we decided to drive by and find the 5 we needed to get to our next milestone.
 
WE DID IT!

Hope you enjoy virtually celebrating with us.

Jen & co

20 years of Geocaching

On Saturday we went out for the first time in seven weeks as a family and most importantly doing what we love the most… Geocaching. We needed to see something other than the four walls of our home, inside our car or the shops.

We didn’t realise there was a souvenir to grab in aid of Blue Switch Day 2020 which is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Geocaching. It made it even more special for our time out of the house during lockdown.

The kids have only been out twice since lockdown commenced, of course there’s the backgarden. Rob and I only go out once a week and are both careful as explained I have two auto-immune diseases and other health problems, I am not on the vulnerable list but am susceptible to getting things so we have made sure to be extra safe.

We loved to see the green in the trees and the grass growing as well as spotting the wild flowers, bugs and birds. My eyes felt refreshed and pleased, such an odd feeling.

We found five caches and only came across a handful of people, we used hand sanitiser after every cache was handled just to be safe. On our first cache we gained the souvenir badge and we were all delighted especially as we miss Geocaching so much.

blue switch day 2020

I have to be honest with you and say that for me personally it helps my mental health, I can get away from the reality of life and get soaked into the game whilst walking and discovering new areas around us.

We all want to send you our best wishes and hope you are keeping safe during the coronavirus outbreak.

Jen & co.

Virtuals in London

Before the lockdown came down on the UK, I was down in London for the Digital Women Awards. I had some free time the morning after and spent it Geocaching, I think I walked over three miles in total that day.

I found six caches, five of which were virtuals. I had only covered a small section of London and there are more virtuals for me to go back and claim in the future. The smileys represent the virtual finds of the day, see the little ghost? That’s how we know if a Geocache is virtual, there are quite a few different types of caches.

Virtuals in London

 

About virtual Geocaches:

A Virtual Cache is about discovering a location rather than a container. The requirements for logging a Virtual Cache vary. You may be required to answer a question about the location, take a picture, complete a task, etc. In any case, you must visit the coordinates before you can post your log.

The Virtuals that you can find today are mostly great examples of this cache type. But they took a lot of time to review and it was difficult to determine guidelines for high-quality Virtuals.

(source Geocaching.com)

 

Finsbury Circus Green

Findsbury Circus Garden

The first find of the morning, the virtual was to locate the drinking fountain and to claim the find I had to provide the cache owner with the answer to their question: Who was the object at the GZ presented by?

A nice and easy cache to start the day and a lovely garden with stunning buildings circling it (GCK63N).

MMMonument 

I would have never have found this monument without Geocaching. The monument is under the Millennium Bridge and celebrates Millenium measure with scientific instrument makers. The instructions to claim the virtual: the top item on one face is of interest to all geocachers, but to prove you’ve visited, what item is listed at the bottom of that face?

I knew exactly what the answer was just after inspecting each side and I thought it was a perfect virtual for any Geocacher (GCHC6H).

Golden Gallery Virtual Cache

St Pauls

I don’t ever remember going in or even seeing St Pauls Cathedral when visiting London as a child or teen. It was an impressive sight and I would have loved to have gone in but time didn’t allow it, I plan to come back with the family in the future and enjoy discovering St Pauls Cathedral together. I did, however, spend some time looking up and walking around.

The task from the cache owner was to go into St Pauls and visit the uppermost gallery but they accepted claims outside due to the fee to gain entry. I was glad to claim this find (GCHX1W).

TechnOLOGY (Central London) 

BT HQ

I have to admit I went up to the virtual and then looked at the page after having a quick mooch around, only to find out that you shouldn’t linger due to the security cameras. I did manage to grab the information required by the cache owner: To claim this cache, mail us the exact wording of the CIRCULAR GREY historical plaque/sign on the wall. Mail the answers through our profile at the top of the page. The answer is NOT the white oval “City of London, Ward of Cheap”.

It was interesting to find another historical virtual for a different reason and one that resounds with Geocachers (GCCC6B).

A meeting place for Martyrs

martyrs

The last virtual of the morning and there was a lot to do to claim this find, I hoped that I was right with my answers here. I did spend a lot of time investigating the area and I could tell people were wondering why I appeared to be very interested in this building.

The cache owner required: When you arrive at the site. Find for me as evidence at GZ THE FULL NAMES OF 3 JOHN’S AND A BILL. In between the Johns and Bill you will find some steps, go up, turn around and look up. How many floodlights do you see? To the right of Bill there is a drop down covered by a metal grill, what is the amount of windows you can see there?

The cache owner was right in saying that tourists would be interested to find out about this location with more history to discover (GC22E5).

 

With so many virtuals to find in London, it will be quite a few trips before claiming the virtuals alone. We are looking forward to when the lockdown is over so we can head down and discover them, in fact, go Geocaching at all! It has been just over a week since we last went Geocaching and we are all missing the long walks and fun that it brings.

I hope you’ve enjoyed having a virtual walk around with me as well. If you do manage to discover any virtuals in London in the future, do let me know what you learn.

Keep safe.

Jen

Weeing in the Wilderness

Last week we were out caching and nature called for our youngest, Robyn is four. Most of the caching we have done with Robyn was when she was in nappies or short walks when she was getting used to life without them.

BUT,,, going on a longer Geocaching hunt meant that it was going to happen sometime. We felt for her when she looked around and saw no buildings, “where are the toilets?” she asked. She wasn’t pleased about weeing in the bushes as I had put it and it took a little while for her to finally wee but she did it. Celebrations went around the family and we all started chanting “weeing in the wilderness” and high fiving her one by one. Sophie and Riley were so excited about it being her first time weeing in the bushes.

Of course, I was prepared and had some toilet roll in the rucksack. To be honest this became a must after our first ever LONG Geocaching trail a few years ago, I am going to have to leave it there though.

If you are planning on doing a long Geocaching trail, always have toilet roll or at least tissues with you. We also have nappy bags.

Jen

Our new way of Geocaching

For quite some time we have been wondering how we can keep up with the kids when they are ahead of us on their scooters. After a while, we finally got to the point; ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’.

In January I purchased an adult push scooter for Rob after thinking about it for around nine months, we never had the money to dive into getting them. It was Rob’s birthday so it was a perfect excuse, Decathlon is reasonable on price and the quality is great. We had bought the kid’s first scooters from there around three years ago. It was quite funny because Rob had thought I had bought him some furniture because the box was huge, he was like a kid on Christmas Day when all was revealed.

It was so popular that we decided to upgrade Riley’s and Sophie’s scooters as they have Birthdays in Jan and Feb, Robyn had her first scooter already from Christmas. It was just myself left without, but we had agreed that my Birthday present would be a scooter and there wasn’t that long to wait, Rob couldn’t wait until March and wanted to get it as soon as he could.

There we have it, a family gliding together into the distance.

The perfect place to go Geocaching on scooters with children is the old railway lines. We have been watching the new series of Walking Britains Lost Railway Lines for inspiration, starting close to home and we will strive a little further in the future. Planning on investing in camping equipment for our adventures.

We will keep you in the loop.

Enjoy this short clip of us scooting about whilst Geocaching.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfq3HkTRWPw&w=560&h=315]

 

Jen & co.