If you are planning to go to Britain in the next couple of weeks, prepare for possible disruptions.
You might have heard of protests in London planned for September 13th. Well, allegedly, so did some travel companies, and rail tickets are being cancelled. (Or, perhaps the train drivers are going to the protests.)
If you are not going for the protests, you might find roads blocked, especially in London. But, on the flip side, any going for the protests might be disappointed by low turnout.
If you travel by air around the time of the protests (the closest available days we found include leaving September 11 and returning on the 16th), you will find that the return ticket is less than a tenth the price of the leaving ticket.
If you plan to arrive after the protests, you will save a lot of money, but it will still be significantly more expensive to go to London than to return to Cluj. That is probably because there are more Romanian students travelling to London than British students travelling to Romania.
Will the protests in London attract people from all over Europe? It may bring home a few British expats, but more likely the majority of people from outside of London will be from the North of England.
You will find disruptions if you are travelling to France. The Prime Minister of that country is planning on stopping two national holidays. So, on the 10th of September, French drivers and others are planning to strike.
The first cancelled holiday is Easter Monday. The other is VE day.
We expect the French strike to be much bigger disrupter than the London protest. Why? Well, first, the French are more likely to get what they want over protests. Back in the 1990s, Britain and France protested over petrol prices, and the French government backed down, while the British one didn’t. (Tony Blair famously sent in the military to stop the strike.)
Second, the French are more unified in the strike. While some British people oppose immigration, others support it. And on both sides, many people do not see immigration as an important issue. In France, almost no one supports getting rid of Easter Monday or VE day.
That said, if you can choose when to travel to either country, we recommend waiting until after all planned strikes and protests.