Let's say you have an urge to crash the royal wedding — or at least to go to London and get in on the festivities. Yes, there's still time to see Kate and Will tie the knot real-time Friday at London's Westminster Abbey. And you can do it for less than $2,000, including round-trip airfare from Los Angeles and a five-day hotel stay.
Here's how to get started:
Airfares: Search for last-minute airfares on Kayak.com or your favorite comparative airfare site. The results might surprise you.
Round-trip tickets between L.A. and London can cost less than $1,000 during the wedding week. Here are some fares I found leaving Wednesday and returning Monday. (Note: Fares are frequently adjusted, so prices may have changed on these flights since I did the research Monday.)
—Round-trip airfare from L.A. to Heathrow airport on United Airlines cost $962 with tax and fees; and
—Round-trip airfare from L.A. to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic for $987 with tax and fees.
Hotels: Do the same comparative online shopping for hotels. I went to Hotels.com and found rooms for an average of $159 a night at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel and $125 a night at the Best Western Shaftesbury Paddington Court; prices don't include tax. These rates are averages over the five-day stay because prices go up on weekends. Both hotels are pretty centrally located.