How Far Can Your Rent Get You? *

Whenever we talk to people that don’t live in London when we are travelling or those who have moved to London from further out they always say how expensive it is. London is actually in the top ten most expensive cities in the World to live, so it’s no surprise that it’s the most expensive place to live in the UK, so those people we chat to really do have a valid point!  For us, I guess we are more than used to having lived on the border of London and Essex our whole lives and commuting into town every day for over eights years for both University and work.

Well known online travel agency, loveholidays, have created an interactive map that shows you just how far around the world a weeks worth of rent and commuting via tube could get you. For example, those commuting from Barking can swap their commute to Barbican for a week in an all-inclusive hotel with flights to the lush beaches of Crete, or you can switch a week on the tube from Clapham South to Canary Wharf for an
all-inclusive holiday enjoying the beaches of Kos, pretty crazy when you think if it!

I popped in my commute from Gidea Park to Barbican, it worked out what the average weekly rent would be for our area and I could swap that for an all-inclusive holiday to Egypt! I think I know where I would rather be and it’s certainly not at my desk in Barbican! In fact, I think I’d rather be travelling anywhere in the world!

I’ve only ever done one all-inclusive holiday before for my cousin’s wedding about 5 years ago and being the food fiend that I am, I absolutely loved food available around the clock and of course, being able to have a few cheeky tipples around the pool in the afternoon. I can totally see the appeal and why so many Brits head overseas for them each year. Maybe it’s something Mike and I need to consider more when booking holidays for 2018 as we tend to do lots of little weekends away and end up spending a fortune on food and drink whilst we are there, so the appeal of having paid for it all before we arrive means we can save some pennies too!

 Jonny Marsh from loveholidays said, “We recognise how expensive it is to live and work in London, but everyone deserves a holiday away from the daily grind and this fun interactive tube map shows some of the destinations that can be easily reached based on average weekly rent and
tube fares across the capital city.” It just goes to show that travel doesn’t have to be expensive at all, it’s just knowing the right places to visit.