In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, Liz Truss took over Boris Johnson’s position as prime minster on Tuesday, September 6 after a formal meeting with the queen, who passed away 2 days later. Three months prior to these events, a clueless Philadelphian booked Labor Day flight plans to his favorite country in the world, dreaming of dry ciders, meat pies, and chips soggy with Sarson’s malt vinegar. He was aware that the Trump-like prime minister had done plenty to make people mad, and was in fact under investigation with serious possibility of forceful resignation, but every country has its problems, right? Especially lately.

We don’t travel to get away from problems, we travel to experience new and interesting ones. And boy were no problems more interesting than those on the week of what I shall now know as Labour Day in honor of our neighbours across the pond. What follows could be called a ground zero account of one of the biggest geopolitical weeks in London’s history, but who wants to read a stodgy article like that. In times like these, I find that escapism is best. Here are some UK travel tips from a guy that just finished his third trip there.

Fly cheap

A flight from New York City to London takes about six hours, and a flight from anywhere else to London is a subject that I don’t have enough money to speak on. The point is, unless you’re popping over to London for less than 12 hours, the flight is not going to be the majority of your trip, so why should it be the majority of your spending? Every cent you spend on your flight is a cent you didn’t spend on some of the world’s best food, drink, and entertainment in the UK. Norse Airlines opened to the public on August 12, providing me and other cheap flyers around the world with the opportunity to cross the Atlantic for under $400. Sure, you might end up nearly doubling that price if you want to bring a bunch of luggage, but my advice is to bring a children’s-sized backpack, load it with a few changes of shirts, socks, and underwear, and enjoy the freedom of walking directly onto the plane and wherever else you want to go with your essentials on your back. Your friends want souvenirs? Bring them Norse Airlines pamphlets, they can drop the $350 and see Europe themselves.

Plan day trips

Maybe you’re staying with your aunt in London, not far from the remarkable Hampstead Heath. Maybe you’ve just learned that a new prime minister will be chosen on Tuesday, and you’d rather not be too close to parliament that day to see how the city reacts. This is a great time for a day trip, one of my favorite UK activities. You see, unlike the US, which is huge, has terrible urban sprawl, and severely limited rail infrastructure, Great Britain is a nice little island with beautiful walkable towns and the 5th most used railway infrastructure in the world. Unfortunately, UK rail workers are having some trouble getting fair compensation, so you may find your day trip plans are subject to unexpected changes. Not to worry! I get half a dozen more amazing day trip suggestions every time I visit London, and none of them seem overhyped or irrelevant to my interests.

You really can’t go wrong visiting any charming UK town for a day, so go ahead and ditch those plans to see your favorite cidery in the midlands and take a trip to the ancient town of Bath instead. You’ll get to see a city seemingly untouched by time, outside of a Chipotle and Apple Store or two, and drink the finest Somerset ciders and gin without having to rent a vehicle or step foot in a barn. Here’s an chart of how my day trip expenses from London stacked up against my future day trip expenses from Philadelphia (going to New York for a concert cruise):

Expense	Philadelphia to New York	London to Bath
Roundtrip train ticket, day-of (Amtrak vs GWR)	$160.00 (w/tax)	£65.00 (~$74)
Train station breakfast (Pret a Manger vs Pasty Shop)	$12.00 (w/tax)	£5.00 (~$6)
Drink the local culture (Death & Co vs The Stable)	$70.00 (w/tax & tip)	£20.00 (~$23)
Dinner and a drink (The Winslow vs The Raven)	$60.00 (w/tax & tip)	£20.00 (~$23)
Main event (Rocks Off Booze Cruise vs Roman Baths)	$40.00	£22.00 (~$25)
Daytrip Total	$342.00	£132.00 (~$150)

See different neighborhoods

Truth be told, you don’t have to leave the city to escape the gritty urban London experience. Even in its busiest business and retail districts, London maintains its own cozy character where an escape from the hustle and bustle is as close as the neighborhood pub. If that’s not enough, you’ll be delighted to hear that London is less of a city than it is a collection of countless adjacent towns (neighbourhoods) with their own unique character and quirks. Sure, you might know the famous ones from TV and movies, your Sohos and Notting Hills and Wembleys, but have you walked along the Thames far enough to see the quiet riverside neighborhood of Shadwell? Have you passed to the south of river far enough to see New Cross, an exciting cultural battleground of a neighborhood where beloved towny haunts stand alongside Instagram destinations, hipster cafes, and a prominent punky music venue? These multi-faceted quick trips on the tube are the perfect way to clear your mind after watching frowning correspondents analyze Prime Minister Truss’s first speech and conclude that not much is going to happen with the new shift in power.

Drink tea, eat fry-ups

The overall bleakness of the UK’s situation and the world situation at large may drive you to take advantage of the UK’s many gorgeous pubs, and perhaps one too many rounds will have you not feeling your best in the morning. Keep calm, the British isles can help. If you have 5-10 quid in your wallet, you have enough to purchase one of the world’s best hangover cures. The full English breakfast in some of its more extravagant forms will give you enough food to put an elephant to sleep, but a proper everyday fry-up from a streetside cafe or pub is a centuries-honed perfect portion of protein, fat, and carbohydrates designed to complement a pot of strong black tea and get your stomach and head back in order. You can drink coffee if you’re so inclined, there’s certainly plenty of places to do so now, but I hope you didn’t really take the whole trip to tea town to get another cup of joe.

See other parts of Europe

I’ll be the first to admit that this is a bad thing to suggest in a UK travel guide, but let’s face it, Americans get some of the worst vacation time allowances in the world, and our allotted time for loitering in one country is short. Run around the UK at your most rushed leisure, take your photos, and hop in a budget airline to get to the next country you want to see. If your vacation goes like mine did, you may find that you flew out of the country just one day ahead of the death of a monarch, which is at least strange luck, if not good. I really enjoyed Madrid. But the UK with all of its issues and blemishes really does feel like home.

One last hyperspecific piece of advice: if you happen to be returning to the states on September 11, both the anniversary of a momentous American aircraft-related tragedy and three days after the death of the reigning monarch, and you hear a Gatwick airport officer whistling the song “Jingle Bells” in the security line for a full 20 minutes straight, the most British thing to do is absolutely nothing, which is what everyone in the line did. Thanks for reading. I hope this was helpful.

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