A friend of ours has never visited the UK so we decided to plan a little trip to London so he could have his first experience of the country and its amazing capital. We aren't going for many days so join me with the preparations for the journey.

I'll be going through some of the preparations with you and I'd love it if you could also give me tips and suggestions! I actually haven't been that many times to London so any help would be welcome! This is what I've prepared so far:

Book flights

Whenever we prepare a trip in Europe we travel with a low cost airway which is much cheaper. From where I live we usually fly with Ryanair or Easyjet so I go to their webpages to find the best date.

It's important to remember that some days are cheaper than others, for instance the 14th of February is expensive as it's Valentine's Day. You don't have to return with the same company either, it works out better usually but we are flying to and from different London airports because the dates and hours were more convenient.

Book a B&B

The next step is to find a place to stay, sometimes we have a look in Booking.com to get an idea but this time we decided to go with Easyhotel.com as they have several cheap hotels near the centre. They aren't very special at all but at least we don't have to share the room and we have our own toilet.

If you don't mind sharing there are even cheaper hostels and I think it's important to be as close to the centre as possible even if you have to pay a bit more as you'll save the money later as you won't have to pay so much for the tube.

Travel documents and money

I always like to take a little folder with all the important documents and information. One must always check the expiry date of the passport or ID card (I missed a trip to China because of this) and it's important to print out all the reservations and boarding passes.

As for money, I can't use my Spanish euros in the UK but I don't usually change money like I used to. Speak to your bank to ask them what exchange rate they have and whether they charge for using the card abroad. I find it's much easier to use a credit card than to exchange a lump sum you may not use up in your trip. In any case you should always take some cash in euros for emergencies.