London is an expensive place to drink. There is no doubt about it, if you plan a big night out in the city or even a few drinks in an old fashioned London pub, you are looking at some expensive prices no matter what you are drinking. Over the past 10 years, the price of a pint has raised significantly from an average of £2.70 a pint to record breaking levels of £3.80. It is not uncommon to now pay £4 for a beer and will become the norm soon enough.

If you are out in London then expect to pay £8 for a cocktail and at least £15 for a bottle of house wine. You can quickly see how a fun night out can turn into a wallet denting night. Depending on where you are heading, any type of venue, from a Hotel Bar to a nightclub, a London boozer to a boutique club, will look to maximise drink prices and prices vary dramatically so it is becoming even more important to plan ahead your night so that you do not have a bitter taste in the mouth, and no it’s not the Guinness.

There are many ways to avoid excessive drink prices and you do not have to compromise on quality or taste. Many bars and pubs in London are running innovative schemes to make drinking more accessible and focus on offering cheap drinks throughout the week. Drinks vouchers are becoming a lot more popular so for the bargain hunters among you, there is a great opportunity online to seek out drinks vouchers and find some great drinks offers. The popular Grand Union chain of bars have recently started offering 2 for 1 cocktails in their bars by offering drinks vouchers to download online.

Many bars are also looking at happy hours and drinks promotions to entice customers in who are looking for some cheap drinks. Happy hours normally run in the early evening so can be a great opportunity to pop in to some hot bars and benefit from the cheaper drink prices that normally focus on cocktails and top brand beers. London happy hours can be perfect for those looking for cheap drinks in London’s bars and pubs. I recently visited Babble Bar in Berkley Square, Mayfair which is a very exclusive part of London which means drinks are not cheap. I was delighted to see when I walked in that the bar was offering 50% off drinks between 5pm and 7pm. This is the sort of example that is waiting to be discovered by the savvy drinkers of London.

An innovative tool that I use to find cheap drinks in London is a price comparison site for London’s pubs, bars and clubs. This is a great website as it allows you to search venues that match your budget. I found some really cool bars that have quite reasonable drink prices. They also have drinks vouchers that you can download and you can search for happy hours all over London. It is has become my essential tool for planning a night out in London so I highly recommend it.