Visiting London from Sheffield: a student's guide

To the station

Start with the tram. Blue route trams run between the University of Sheffield stop on Upper Hanover Street and Sheffield station every 12 minutes, and the ride takes under ten. Walking takes about 20 minutes, and a taxi around ten. From Ranmoor and Endcliffe, add the bus or tram into town.

By train

From Sheffield station, East Midlands Railway runs to London St Pancras International via Chesterfield, Derby and Leicester, in about two hours. There are up to two trains an hour for most of the day, and services home keep running until late, so a there-and-back day is realistic.

What you pay depends mostly on how far ahead you commit. Advance fares, released around twelve weeks before travel, undercut everything else. Off-Peak fares are the flexible middle option, sold right up to departure, and Anytime fares are the price of leaving it late at a busy time. If you're 16 to 25, a 16–25 Railcard cuts a third off most fares, as the university's own travel page points out; over 25, look at the 26–30 card.

By coach

Coaches cost less and take about twice as long. They run from Sheffield Interchange, on the edge of the city centre, or from Meadowhall Interchange, a short tram, train or bus ride out, and finish at Victoria Coach Station roughly four hours later. Check which interchange your coach uses before you set off.

In London, your contactless card is your ticket. Tap it on the yellow reader at the gates going in and again coming out (on buses, just once as you board). A daily cap kicks in automatically, and once you reach it, further journeys that day cost nothing. No Oyster card, no top-ups. Use the same card or phone every time, or the cap won't add up.

If you're used to Sheffield's trams, the Tube will feel fast and crowded. Its map distorts distances: lots of zone 1 stops are only a few minutes apart on foot, and walking between them shows you far more of the city. On escalators, stand on the right.

London's best things are often free. The big national museums, the British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate Modern, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the V&A, charge nothing for general entry; you only pay for special exhibitions. So is Sky Garden, the garden at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street, as long as you book a ticket weeks in advance. And the parks, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, St James's Park, cost nothing at all.

For food, head for areas rather than restaurants, which come and go: Chinatown in Soho, the curry houses and 24-hour bagel bakeries of Brick Lane, the stalls of Borough Market, and the street food along the South Bank. Budget for London prices, which are noticeably higher than Sheffield's; one sit-down meal and grazing for the rest goes a long way.

For shopping, skip the chains you can find at home. Shoreditch and Brick Lane are for vintage, Soho and Carnaby Street for independent labels and vinyl, and Camden Market for when you want everything at once. Coal Drops Yard, just behind King's Cross, is the first stop if you've just stepped off the train at St Pancras.

Staying the night? Soho is the central pick for bars, Shoreditch is where students tend to end up, and Dalston has the smaller venues and later closing times. In a pub, you order at the bar, and nobody expects a tip on drinks.

For a day trip, take the train and an early tram: you'll have most of the day in London, and the evening trains home run late enough for dinner before you go. Choose one or two neighbourhoods and do them properly; trying to tick off the whole city just means a day underground.

If you're staying over, the coach becomes worth considering, since the travel time eats less of the trip. Share a room in a budget chain hotel to split the cost, and look a little beyond zone 1, where rooms are cheaper and the centre is a short ride away, with the daily cap still covering your fares. Prices rise as the date approaches, so book early.

And if your family are travelling to Sheffield for your graduation, especially from abroad, London makes an easy add-on: two hours from Sheffield station, which is ten minutes by tram from campus. A weekend there after the ceremony, gown photos already done, is a good way to end the trip.