England travel questions

Why is rabid sports fandom culturally acceptable, but "Trekkies" and "Browncoats" and people in other art-based fandoms regarded as mentally unstable and fair game for ridicule? I live in what has to be one of the more rabid football areas of the country, and yesterday I drove past a house with a six-foot nylon blow-up "doll" of the college team's mascot next to the road. People take vacation time to drive and fly in from other states to watch games, they take over bars for the TVs and discussion, and they tie up traffic for 1-2 days at a time here in my fair city - and WE'RE crazy because we like to watch the same movie a few times in the unobtrusiveness of our own homes (and occasionally venture out to a convention center to meet others like us)? And my fandom doesn't cut into anyone's educational budget, either.

I like baseball and NASCAR and soccer's kind of neat, but I'm just saying, why are sports nuts socially OK when we are not? Geez.

To the point of this post: I know some of you have traveled overseas or, hell, even live overseas from my POV (imagine that!). Anyone been to the UK (mainly England and Ireland)? My sister wants to go and I'm curious if there's a travel book or some such that advises WELL how to do so without spending a small fortune, giving realistic expectations of how much $$$ will be needed for food, lodging, travel, admissions fees?