In Scotland, Glasgow, Edinburgh & Aberdeen all have adequate to good public transport. All the other towns are small enough that you probably won’t need it.
In Edinburgh, it sounds like you’d want to visit the Castle - which has the Scottish War Museum and also dungeons, ramparts, all you’d hope for. And great views.
There are also several walking tours of the Old Town area, including ‘ghost’ tours and of Mary King’s Close, supposedly sealed off for centuries because of plague.
Calton Hill, at one end of Princes Street, is also worth climbing if you don’t fancy the higher Arthurs Seat, a bit of extinct volcano in some parkland which dominates the city. Lots of monuments at the top of Calton Hill, but even better views at the top of Arthurs Seat.
Edinburgh is well used to tourists and students, so there’s plenty shops of every discription. It was originally built on a spine of rock running from the Castle to Holyrood Palace (The Royal Mile) and so you’ll be climbing up and down some quite steep streets half the time…
Either book now, or avoid August - the town really fills up. And I don’t remember just when it is but there’s a major summit at Gleneagles this summer and I know that a lot of accomodation in Edinburgh has been booked for various security reasons.
Mycroft H, there’s loads of places in and around the West End that sell legitimate tickets for the Shows, including the venues themselves.
Otherwise: ticketmaster if you’re wanting advance bookings. Bear in mind the Booking fee though - it will be cheaper to physically get them from the little shops. There are ones in Piccadilly Circus tube station and Leicester Square I can think of off hand.
The easiest (and cheapest) way is to book directly with the theatre - use your credit card. You can do it before you come.
Also you can do it in person or over the phone when you’re here. Most theatres have a limited number of returns that they will sell on the night (and lots of shows aren’t complete sell outs every night). If you book far enough in advance you can get tickets for pretty much everything. Also the National Theatre sell all it’s return for a tenner.
The only truly legitimate way of getting them other wise is the SWET (soc of West End Theatres) box in Leicester Square. That sells half price tickets on the day of performance. Needless to say you aren’t going to get Mamma Mia or Producers tickets there. If you tell me what you’re after I’ll tell you if this is an option (I use this quite a bit).
You will see LOADS of “ticket agencies” around the West End - these are glorified touts (“scalpers”) and charge accordingly. However their prices are VERY negotiable. Make 'em an offer. These people aren’t illegal but they are a bit iffy.
Also the concierge at your hotel can source tickets too (especially if it’s a decent (ie spendy) hotel)
Finally there will be men in leather coats selling tickets outside the show. Caveat Emptor! There are stories of forgeries from these blokes.
This is quite true - but on a sunday you are more likely to be trampled by japanese schoolgirls than accosted by tramps. (Do however avoid the area under the bridge by Camden Lock. That is the main crack market)
Camden Market is a long street and lots of off-street stalls selling black clothes, silver jewellery, joss sticks, rolling papers, bongs, piercing things, stick on tattoos, and ludicrous shoes and other things I would have bought when I was 14 to annoy my parents. It’s hell on earth for grown-ups but the Elysian Fields for teens. Like I say - pack them off there and go to Portobello (which is for grown ups). Or try Camden Passage (which is in Islington - very near to Camden) which is again antiques and bric-a-brac.
Also the Nathan Barley types have all gone to Hoxton. Which truly is up itself. Unless you go in the Good Mixer which is wanker central.
Call me an overgrown teenager if you like, but I love Camden. Just as well, really, as I live just up the road. IMO, it has a great atmosphere, very cosmopolitan(although that may be just the combination of smells from all the food stalls), and I don’t think it’s at all wankery, mainly because everyone there knows they’re a throwback from an earlier era.
It does get very crowded, especially during summer weekends, but I guarantee gothic teenagers will adore it.
Apart from that, I’d recommend a trip to the Lake District, one of the most beautiful parts of England, but your girls would probably hate it as there’s not much to do but walk and sail and take in the scenery. Although they may be interested in the Pendle witch trials, which took place not far from there.
I’ve been on lots of their walks and they’ve shown me things that I would never have found - even as a native. Cheap too - about a fiver a head. They do ghost walks (some of which are pub walks - the kids are allowed in pubs (if they’re 14+) but can’t drink.
Your kids are going to clamour to see the London Dungeon and Madam Tussauds. Resist them. Bribe them. Fight them. Do anything but give into them. Both “attractions” are awful. They are national embarassments.
Take them on the London Eye instead - It’s bloody great.
Another thing that kids will love is the egyptian rooms at the British Museum - it’s full of Mummies and other “cool” stuff. I took some kids there a few weeks ago and they were transfixed. There’s also a special exhibition (which costs money) of the virual unwrapping of a mummy - which is both informative and accesible for people who have never seen a a mummy before.
If they like dinosaurs - go to the Natural History Museum - Dinos AHOY!
If they’ve read that bloody silly Da Vinci Code take them to the Templar Church in the Temple (as in the book). Nonsense aside its well worth a visit in its own right - and the Temple is a side of London most people don’t see. If they get the church bug there are three Wren and a Hawksmoor church nearby including St Clement Danes (which is the church of the RAF and is the “st Clements” in the song “Oranges and Lemons”).
When in Edinburgh, take your goth teens downtown and take the City of the Dead tour. Kids will go nuts. Also, Edinburgh is a terrific city to get lost in.
Also remember in Scotland, the current Queen Elizabeth is Queen Elizabeth the first. They do not acknowledge the existence of the one who ordered the death of Mary Queen of Scots.
Get a power converter. If the kids want to play their video games, you’ll need one.
Get prepaid phone cards. Otherwise the motels will charge you an arm and a leg. Your cell phones probably won’t work there either.
If you go to the cybercafes, the / key is on the left side of the keyboard, adjacent to the shift.
London: The Changing of the Guard ain’t all that, but the parade is cool. Definitely do the Tower of London, but don’t take in cameras for the Crown Jewels. The Beefeater guards will be all over you like white on rice. London is expensive. A meal for two will cost more than a meal for four in the country. Hook up with darius and paulbeserker and they will take you on a killer pub crawl. Be sure to mention something about fighting alligators.
On the last point - get ready for prices that will make your toes curl. Whatever you are used to paying in dollars - you will be paying the same in pounds.
To give you a guide;
A pizza and a drink at pizza hut - about £8-10
A pint of beer (London) about £2.75
A “nice” meal in a decent (not top of the range) london restaurant £35-50 a head with wine (The best are £100-200 a head)
Ticket to get into the Tower- £8 (adult and there are family tickets available)
Out of London is cheaper but will still be expensive to a septic.
This is available for anybody up to age 25, so it’s possible there’s some youthful adults in your group who could obtain one.
And another thought on the Ripper theme - the London Dungeon. (Probably also suitable for the younger kids, assuming they’re not of a fragile disposition )
Well it’s your holiday - but I really wouldn’t bother with this. It’s rubbish. There are many better places to go (and without the huge queues it gets).
It’s a normal cellar that has been fitted out like a dungeon with waxworks and robots etc on a variety of gruesome scenes - eg Jack the Ripper, a torture chamber, Dracula’s castle etc. This should be great fun. But it isn’t. It’s a rapacious money-grabbing machine that manages to be both gory and boring. It gets incredibly crowded with foreign kids etc.
Transplant, living in London for the last year, and in the UK total for 3 years, and everything Ol’ Owl says above is dead-on except for one thing - ride the No 14 bus as well. It’s the old-style (Routemaster) double-decker bus and it’s cool as hell! Plus it goes right down King’s Road in Chelsea and through Piccadilly Circus, so past some of the trendiest shopping districts and not nearly as crowded as Oxford Street (which I would recommend avoiding if at all possible).
I live by my “TimeOut London” and A-Z Guide. I couldn’t go out or do anything in London outside of my close neighborhood without them, and TimeOut has whole sections of free stuff, family stuff, date stuff, restaurant reviews, etc… I agree with **Owl ** that riding the tube can be slower than walking, but I also find the streets in London incredibly confusing and whilst the tube map isn’t to scale, you do get right where you think you are and it’s dead easy to navigate. Don’t worry about ‘looking like a tourist’ or making yourself a target for thieves by pulling out a map, either - everyone uses them.
For shows, get a TimeOut when you get there; most of the big ones you can get cheap matinee tickets for just by showing up, but if you go to Piccadilly Circus or Leicster Square tube stations, you should be able to find half-price ticket booths that are legit (the permanent ones anyways). You can also buy online through Ticketmaster.co.uk and arrange to pick up at the theatre will-call box. Probably cheaper to book ahead…
And I need to second the fun of Camden. It’s seedy, but not dangerous, and I kinda like that. I also like East London, but live in SW London 'cause it’s easier for my commute. If I worked in London I would try to live either in Camden or Notting Hill.
One last one - go to Harrods in Knightsbridge. It’s so over the top it’s cool. It’s got a shrine to Princess Diana in it, after all - it really is shopping Mecca.
Same goes for me (email’s in my profile), and have fun.
I don’t know if it was ever any good - but I have taken parties of kids there and they haven’t been over impressed - I blame this whole internet craze. They’ve all seen much worse on the net and a few waxwork murderers don’t really cut it any more.
It’s also very popular so you get rushed through, after queing for what seems like a month - and it’s crowded with foreigners ('nuff said) so you just feel fleeced.
It’s bloody expensive too.
Like I say - this is just my opinion.
I’d show the real headman’s axe in the Tower and let them use their imagination.
Another thing that springs to mind - if the 16 and 17 year old girls can look 18ish (it’s pretty loose) and fancy doing something punky and gothy - they could try and get a drink in the Intrepid Fox in soho.
Yeesh! I think MY imagination would kick in there. You know that scene in I, Claudiuswhen Claudius’s wife realizes she is about to be beheaded and she screams, “NOT MY HEAD!”? Gave me freakin’ nightmares. But yeah, it would be right up the kids’ alley. They’re weird kids.
I can’t tell you all how much I appreciate your advice, especially about tickets and trains and maps! For the record, we’re planning to go in early July, so everyone who warned us off Edinburgh in August, don’t fear. Although I might like to attend the Fringe thingie, I suspect it would be a bit much for everyone else!
We’ve vacationed as a group before - last summer we rented a cabin in Gatlinburg Tennessee together for a week and it worked out just fine. This group is an extended family, so none of us are weirded out by togetherness.
I have no real concept of the British Isles in terms of size, but my understanding is that it’s really small compared to the States - like the entire thing is smaller than Texas. (I know, I’m REALLY showing off my ignorance, aren’t I?) But I’d like confirmation - it IS possible to cover a lot of England and Scotland in two weeks, yes? Give me an idea of how far it is from London to Edinburgh?
paulberserker Thank you for the information. However, I don’t use TicketBastards as it’s against my religion. However, I could use their site to see what’s on when we’ll be there. Thanks for the thought. It’s also good to know about the ticket shops in the Piccadilly tube station.
Perfect! This is exactly what I was looking for again. (My memory is perfect, it’s the recall that I have a hard time with.)
Interesting. I would have avoided them like the plague (or at least like a cutthroat).
Nah, I’m too cheap to stay in a place with a concierge. There’s a B&B towards the southwest end that was nice, great rates, good breky, shortish walk to the tube, and has street parking for the hire car. I need to dig out the info from the last trip and contact the owner, after I figure out more details.
Things such as plays I usually prefer to do spur of the moment. Although, you may have induced me into checking what’s on and actually getting it into the plan. Thanks again and cheers!
Although you’re right that it’s a small place, you’re better thinking of journies in time rather than distance. Trains from London to Glasgow or Edinburgh are around 5-6 hours. Driving could easily be double that (lots of people + not much land = congested roads). Scotland’s size, however, can easily be underestimated - expect to do a lot of driving.
Yes, your ideas for the itenerary are possible, but make sure you have things planned out in advance. And be prepared to be flexible in the inevitable event of a severe delay at some stage.
Britain is small (about 800 miles end to end) but it’s bloody dense.
What I mean is that Edinburgh alone could take up a week easily - and I’ve lived in London on and off for over forty years and haven’t seen all of it.
Bear in mind our VISIBLE history is well over 5,000 years, so there’s a lot of stuff.
London to edinburgh is about 400 miles - but it’s bettter to think in terms of time. It will take about 4 1/2 hours on the train and probably double that in a car (most of which will be in the two city centres).
So you will in effect spend a day travelling by the time you’ve checked in etc.
You can get a flavour of britain in the time you have, but if you really want to say you’ve “seen” Britain (and not through a train window) you might want to rethink the travelling.
What is most important to you? History? Culture? Hedonistic stuff? Pop culture etc.
Once you’ve decided that it becomes easier to plan.
I would also add that London is MUCH bigger than anywhere else in the country and has most of the national collections, so it should be at least your hub if not your base.
)
There’s a B&B towards the southwest end that was nice, great rates, good breky, shortish walk to the tube, and has street parking for the hire car. I need to dig out the info from the last trip and contact the owner, after I figure out more details.