Travel News

Travel Tips For London’s Big Royal Wedding

Locations in this article:  London, England New Orleans, LA

The official engagement photo by Mario Testino of the royal coupleHave you caught the Royal Wedding fever yet?

Well, Peter’s not convinced, but plenty of other Americans are getting ready to celebrate on William and Kate’s big day.

He recently spoke with Jennifer Conlin of The New York Times about her recent story on how to get your own slice of the royal nuptials in London.

Peter Greenberg: I happen to think the British Royal Family is the most dysfunctional royal family next to the Monaco Royal Family. But once every so often, and in this case once every 30 years, we get hung up in the fairy tale known as the wedding.

Jennifer Conlin: It’s going to be one big party in London and all throughout England, I’m afraid to tell you.

PG: I know they’ve already declared it April 29 a bank holiday, right?

JC: Yes, but the pubs are allowed to stay open on that Friday and Saturday night until 1 a.m. There will street parties, and live television screens up in all of the big parks, I believe. I think you are going to see  London going wild.

London England Goes Wild For Royal WeddingPG: How does London go wild? Walk me through that.

JC: It’s funny because they love what they call “fancy dress,” which are costumes. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see  men running around in morning coats and women in huge hats. They love to have their pints of beer in the middle of the day and, in this case, probably earlier.  I think you’re just going to see a lot of funny behavior and people having a great time.

PG: So given the choice of watching that on TV or going to London, which would you do?

JC: I used to live in London and I know the London spirit. Even the people who don’t care for the Royal Family, the non-Royalists if you will, are going to be out having a good time. It’s a national event; it’s a moment that you can celebrate England in general.  It’s going to be a big party.

PG: All right, so we got the concept of the big party, what about the big ticket price?

JC: Now it is an opportunity for hotels to try to get people in.

PG: By the way, we have a terminology for that: It’s called gauging.

Find deals for travel on the big day: Royal Wedding Travel: Still Room To Join The Royal Wedding Party

London's Public Transit Gets In On The Royal Wedding CelebrationsJC: It always feels like gauging because it’s a pricey city when you do all the conversions from the English pound to the U.S. dollar. When they offer deals it doesn’t always quite feel like a deal to us. But they are offering deals. They’re trying to get people into hotels for £200 a night as opposed to £300, which is a good deal in London.

They’re offering specials if you want to go have tea at some of the nicer hotels, and they’re having wedding teas with little wedding gifts. There are all sorts of thing going on. But the cheapest way you can do it is they’re starting to offer camping in some of the parks throughout London. They’ll set up tea tents to camp for three nights for £75 in Clapham Common in South London. They’re calling it Camp Royale.

PG: That sounds like a bad Woodstock nightmare to me.

JC: I think it’s going to be fun. I think you have an attitude problem. And Americans are more into it in many ways than the Brits.

PG: Why?

JC: I think we have this fascination with this fairy tale because we don’t have our own royalty. You can go to London, or watch it on TV, and see this procession from Westminster Abby to Buckingham Palace and see these coaches that date back hundreds of years. I think we like that kind of princess/prince moment.

Wedding couple dancing - Celebrate the Royal Wedding in LondonPG: Sure, it’s kind of like a bad Disney movie. We have a situation where most Americans, if we’re honest, are going to end up drunk in a pub 60 miles away having a vague recollection that someone got married.

JC: You know, they’ll remember that. You always remember in some ways the vacations that go horribly wrong. They’ll remember that on their wedding day they got drunk at a pub and lost their way.

PG: Speaking of getting to the pub, airfares are going to pretty expensive, aren’t they?

JC: British Airways is offering a deal that includes hotel. When I last checked, you could pay about $1,000 a person fly out Thursday, April 27, come back May 1 and have that airfare from JFK to London Heathrow and three nights in a hotel. That’s not bad when you consider normal airfares at this time of year are about $800.

PG: And I think they throw in breakfast on that deal.

JC: They are, and they have different levels of hotel so you can pick a nicer hotel and spend more or a cheaper one. But I think the cheapest one I found was about $1,000.

Planning your own wedding? Do some shopping during William & Kate’s with: Postcard To A Princess Bride: London’s Bridal Shopping Scene

Official engagement photo by Mario Testino - Royal Wedding TravelPG: So you have the Royal Package or you’re camping in Clapham.

JC: Camping in Clapham could be a really good time. Don’t knock it.

PG: All right, I was just in London two weeks ago and you could not walk 20 feet without seeing a commemorative plate, towels, place mats, silverware. This is an opportunity for blatant merchandising.

JC: That’s true. I heard Kate and William didn’t want their image on any tea towels because that was just too tacky, but I’m pretty sure that’s a rule that has probably been broken. But you could not believe what sorts of things you’re finding. I think they’re even selling condoms that have their pictures on it.

PG: Ah yes they are, I saw them.

JC: I think it’s going to be a really fun time and you have an attitude problem. I found these two women down in New Orleans who are going and they have already bought wedding gowns that they’re going to wear around St. James’s Park. They’ve made reservations for a rehearsal dinner at The Wolseley. They have organized the entire thing as if they were brides even though they’re both married with children and live in New Orleans.

PG: Right, and while they’re gone their husbands are getting restraining orders.

JC: They’ll probably be getting up secretly at 3 a.m. to watch it live on television.

By Peter Greenberg for Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio.

Related Links on PeterGreenberg.com: