I’ve been wanting to get started on planning a trip to the British Isles, but I have no idea how to get started. Aside from the plane tickets, I don’t even know where to look. We’re wanting to hit England, Scotland, and Ireland. The best order is still a question, and how to get from one place to another.
I know I sound retarded, but I’ve never done this before, and I don’t know a lot of travelers.
So, I was wondering if I could get any advice on trains, car rentals, places to go, places to stay (we don’t have problems with hostels), and what not. I know it won’t be cheap, but any money saving advice would be nice as well.
If you want more details on what I have in mind, feel free to ask. I know I am being a little general at this point.
Just a quick bit of advice. Don’t try to do too much in one trip. You won’t really get much out of any particular place if you have to run through it.
Also, travelling by train is MUCH cheaper if you book tickets ahead of time. I got tickets for round trips from London to Leeds and Portsmouth for a fraction of the possible price. I don’t have the links handy, but google British train reservations for some ideas. And I do recommend traveling by train. After the airline experience, it’ll feel like luxury.
First, decide what you’re interested in - cities? Castles? Countryside? Big long walks? Meeting people? Music? Museums? And so on. This will affect later plans.
Secondly, yep, don’t try to do everything. Don’t build an itinerary where you travel to somewhere new every other day. Decide on perhaps three bases, and spend a few days in each.
Open jaw tickets are the way to go, rather than both arriving and leaving from London. If you can easily get up to Vancouver, then flights with Zoom are a very good option, because they operate to London, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff & Glasgow.
The Fodors forum is full of previous advice, and is very active (although I find it horrid to navigate): Europe - Fodor's Travel Talk Forums
Sound advice from everyone - decide what you are interested in and don’t try and do too much.
Along with the Fodors forum, I like Trip Advisor. The London forum in particular is very well used and people are always happy to give their advice! Trip Advisor also has hotel reviews, helpful but beware of any that are too enthusiastic or too negative. Dodgy hoteliers have been known to praise themselves and slag off rivals :dubious:
I favour independent travel myself - and having once met the pig-ignorant ivory-towered managing editor of Fodors, I’d particularly advise against that publication itself, and possibly its style of travel unless you’re loaded.
My personal way of doing things is to have a few places in mind, then book two nights in the first venue - two nights rather than one, since a) you may be jetlagged, and b) even if the place sucks, you still need to find another one, and since you have to check out before lunch, you want to give yourself some time to book somewhere else and not leave yourself in the unfortunate position of being without a bed for the night.
Once you’re established, use www.hostelz.com or www.hostels.com (they do hotels too) or another site of the same kind, to book your next venue. You’ll usually save a bit of money this way, and maybe book into places that are off the beaten track.
You might find this too much bother, though I assure you it’s actually not bad, so you may want to book your venues throughout the whole trip. Expedia is a good bet for the slightly more expensive hotel, with some good discounts available. Have a look at Trip Advisor, as MarcusF says - their reviews are independent (inasmuch as they can be - 99 bad reviews and 1 good one will tell you all you need to know).
There was a similar thread for UK-travel newbies recently with similar advice, and quite positive results. I’ll have a search for it and post if I find it.
Here you go - with fantastic itinerary attached. (I also note that when I read the trip diary, I missed that Jamaika a jamaikaiaké ate in my favourite Indian restaurant in all of London - the puri place by Euston - just awesome.)
After the first couple of days, when you decide where you are going to go, hit the local Tourist information office and see if they can book you a B&B for the night where you are going. They have a very nice system, it was how I booked all my stays after the first night in the UK, except for the convention hotel in Glasgow. And I really liked driving while there. It made it easier to go somewhere on the spur of the moment, and I had a lot of moments.
The Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland was very nice. It claims to be Scotland in miniature, with highlands on the north end of the island and the lowlands on the south. Nice hiking opportunities, Brodick Castle, ancient menhirs, all kinds of things to see there.
If you are going to be there during August, you want to hit Edinburgh. The Military Tattoo was great and the Fringe Festival is an awesome experience. The various historical sites and museums are enough to keep you busy there. Add in the Festival and you can easily spend the entire month in the city.
I’ve done the festival fringe in Edinbug several times and you definitely need to book your accommodation well in advance…like yesterday! The whole city gets completely packed with visitors but it’s great fun to be there.
Another word of advice, pretty much every tourist spends ages in London. Don’t waste all your time there - get out and about. As others have said, train travel is relatively cheap and a good way to get around. Plan where you want to go and maximise your sight-seeing experiences.
While staying in Edinburgh would be ideal, you can also stay in Glasgow and take a train over for the day. It does mean no late nights in Edinburgh because the trains don’t run all night, but it can be easier to get lodging.
Question: How longs does it take to see the Cotwolds? And 9if possible) the lake country?
I agree, london is nice, but the country is much more interesting to me.
I think a minimum would be a day each for both the Cotswolds and the Lake District . But it depends how many of the individual places within each area you would want to visit. Sorry to be so vague but it does depend on the individual on how many villages or lakes they want to see.
Back in '93 when I was in grade 12, I went on a 10 day trip to England.
It was an English Lit trip, I wasn’t in the class but they needed a couple more people to make it happen. I had worked my ass off on a fish packer the summer before so I went.
It was awesome, it has been a while but here was roughly what we did:
flew into London, spent 3 nights there. Took a decent bus tour, went to see Agatha Christies “Mouse Trap”, went to the British Museum, Buckingham Palace etc.
Worked our way up to Edingburgh, stayed 1 night in the following places: Bath, some where in the lake district, Nottinghamshire, Stratford Upon Avon, and 1 other city.
The whole trip had a English Lit slant, I wasn’t into literature but I still really enjoyed the trip. Saw lots of castles, grave yards, churches etc.
Don’t know if that helps, but good luck and have fun!
