Hi, everyone,
I have always wanted to go to Britain and stay there some time to feel the culture. Does anyone know about the accommodation situation there? How much does it cost to rent a room there (Scotland or England)? I don't want to stay in big cities like London, I only want to stay in a small town which is not very far from cities.

I want to stay there for around one month and want to live together with the house owner who I hope could be patient, kind, talkative and maybe have retired and have much time to chat with me.

Is it possible that I can do some work for the house owner so that I could rent a room cheaper?

I may probably go there in May.

Thanks for your help!

Try rightmove.com for general rental prices but short term lets will be pricier; maybe gumtree.co.uk for private accommodation and you could always place an ad yourself for something that meets your specific requirements.

Many thanks!

If I still lived in UK, I'd be tempted to ask you to stay in exchange for some home help, but too late! It might help if you tell us a bit more about who you are, what you are good at, etc. Do you have experience with kids? Maybe a family might need help during Summer school holidays for instance, or an animal sitter- or help with a recovering granma, etc- and you might even get some decent pocket money. Good luck.

I am doing some research about dentistry in Switzerland now. i am from China and 30 years old. I will go back to China later this year and want to go to Britain before going back. I have no experience of being a babysitter or doing other things except treating tooth problems ( which I think is useless for my stay in Britain, :-),) But I would like to learn to do any of them if possible ( if it is not difficult to begin with, anyway i dont plan to stay there long). I dont intend to earn any money there, I only want to be able to stay at an affordable expense there so that I can feel the culture and people. The most important is that I want to talk with people there.

Is it possible that I can find some old people who just want to have company and someone to talk with them to kill their time? That would be ideal!

By the way, the best is to live together with a local family (living in one of the rooms in their house) who are kind, patient and talkative

Try doing a search on yahoo.co.uk or google.co.uk for room to let or flat share. There are dedicated sites where people with rooms or people looking for rooms can place ads. But be careful. Some are full of scams, and some want you to pay to join before you can reply to ads. When my husband had a contract in Manchester 2 years ago I found him a room in a house but I can't remember the site I ended up using. But he found 3 or 4 possiblilities and was able to contact them without paying and go and visit the properties and meet the home owner.

I live in Scotland and highly recommend it! Even living in Edinburgh is more like being in a big town than a city. It will be cheaper then most of England and has great transport links to the rest of the UK.

I also loved living in Lincoln - another city that is more of a big town. It is just far enough from London to be affordable but from the next town over (Newark) you can get a high speed train to London in less than 2 hours (maybe 1hr 15 min??), about the same to York and only 3.5 hours to Edinburgh. It was a beautiful place to live - my second favorite british city (after Edinburgh).

If you can wait til late May or June - you could look at university towns - they will be quiet when school is out so rooms will be cheap and more plentiful. Cambridge, Oxford, St. Andrews, Norwich are all beautiful - find the university websites and see if they have a link to rooms for rent/share.

But be careful - I went to England for a 6 month work study, fell in love, got married and have been there 18 years!!!

Thanks!

This is quite a good 'bad' luck. :-)

You really need to have an idea about where you want to go in the UK as regions (& the people) vary so much.

Why not stick an ad up in www.gumtree.com.


Unlike here, people are more open to suggestions like yours & with you seeming so helpful you may get lucky..

Good luck! I think you are trying to make a good experience for yourself that you won't forget..

Yes the UK is very dangerous - my 6 months turned out to last 39 years, lol.
There is also a magazine in the UK called 'The Lady' and it is full of adverts for short-term sitting, etc.

Don't forget to book that bargain flight to the UK - it expires in 2 hours

Only bookable today 99chf Swiss Flights!!!!