Last-minute London trip for the royal wedding? It’s cheaper than you may think

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.

Car: You won’t need one; public transit or taxi is the way to get around London easily. Unless, of course, one of the royal coaches will be picking you up.

Activities: Check out The Times’ Royal Wedding Web page, which includes the players, an interactive map of Westminster Abbey and more. (The abbey’s website says the landmark building will be closed to regular visitors through Friday and reopen Saturday.) Also worth a look: The Times’ Christopher Reynolds shows you What’s new in London since the last big royal wedding.