Unfortunately, this year the GBBF is on at the same time as the London olympics, which means the city will be crowded and hotels will be charging up to TEN times their normal room rates. Airfares will also be higher. It will be impossible to organise a London GBBF and pub tour this year but I plan on organising a pub and local beer festival tour when the olympics are over and prices come down.
Last January, 11pm and I visited a small winter beer festival in Cambridge. There were fewer than 100 beers on tap but it was enough for us to have a good time. There are many small local beer festivals held throughout the year so chances are good that we can find one or two festivals within an hour or two of London. It will also be a good chance to visit some "country" pubs.
At the moment there are only festival listings up to April on the CAMRA homepage. Once they update the lists I can start planning for the trip.
As usual, Yuuko and I will go for about ten days. Perhaps we can do as last year and fly to London on the same day but people can return to Tokyo when they want to.
The paralympics finish on 9/9 so I'm planning on going before the end of September while the weather is still good.
Please let me know if you are interested in going this year.
September beer festivals. Not guaranteed they will be held and no dates yet:
SEPTEMBER
Ascot
Birmingham
Bridgnorth - Severn Valley
Chappel
Darlington Rhythm & Blues Festiva
Durham
Faversham - Hop
Grantham - Autumn
Hinckley
Ipswich
Jersey
Keighley
Letchworth
Lytham
Maidstone
Melton Mowbray
Nantwich
Northwich
Redcar
Rochford Cider
Saltaire
St Albans
St Ives (Cambs) - Booze on the Ouse
Shrewsbury
Southport
Tamworth
York
The cheapest time to fly at the moment by BA is between September 21st (Friday) and September 28th (Friday) I think 11pm would like to go on the 28th, probably because there are some local beer festivals scheduled for that weekend.
My plan is to fly from HANEDA to London but return to NARITA. Last year we had to get up early to pack and catch the first train to Heathrow to take the flight to Haneda and so we couldn't have breakfast at the hotel (Which we paid for!!!)
One or two other people are also interested in going on our beer tour but it's difficult for them to go at the end of September so we have decided to push back departure one week and will go at the beginning of October. Please let me know if you are interested in joining us.
It's nearly June and almost time to make a final decision on our departure date. It would also be nice to know how many people are going. So far there are four of us:
Me
Hippyさん (11pm, 寝る人)
Yuuko
Moeさん (Usually comes to the pub on Sundays)