Traveling to the U.K.

kube00

kube00

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So my wife and I are planning a trip to the U.K. this fall for around 10 days in October. It looks like a possibility we might hit up Ireland as well or head to Edinburgh for a few days. First time traveling to the U.K.

We've spoken to a travel agent who gave us info on guided tours. Some of those seem okay with a few days of free time. Im sure if I planned out everything myself it would probably be cheaper and I'd have a some more options where to stay etc, like at a B&B.

Tips? Things I need to know? Who's used a London Pass before? I hear its easy to get around within London with the public transportation.
 
Not sure if this would be helpful, but after my study in Cambridge I spent 2 weeks in London and solely traveled through their rented bike kiosks. I believe they were Barclays. Weather permitting, and October might be fairly cold, taking bikes is a great way to get around London. It seems a little scary at first but after awhile you get used to it. Not to mention it's fairly cheap.
 
As far as London goes: Definitely get the Oyster pass or whatever they're calling it these days. The tube and bus system is super easy to use and easy to get just about anywhere on if you can read a map or whatever. There's also a billion taxis if you get in a pinch.

Just about every museum in London is free (some special exhibits cost money, I think the Tower of London does charge an entry fee) and you could literally spend your entire ten days just wandering every museum they have there. Most are pretty huge and you'll probably get worn out without seeing the whole thing in one day.

Other than that, they have wonderful large parks that can be fun to walk through, there are plenty of monuments and other historical buildings to see, and in October you may be able to get a tour of Buckingham Palace. I'm not 100% sure on that.

The cost of room and board depends where you want to stay. Tourist areas and upscale areas are more pricey, but are near a lot of things and many are in relatively nice and safer areas.
 
Contact the local USO over there. Theyre a nonprofit group for servicemembers, but will help out regardless. They may have some tours and usually can tell you whats good and whats not in the area.
 
I was there three years ago and I agree wholeheartedly that you should use public transportation to get around London. You can also get bus day tours to see the sites around London. One day we did this and got to see the Roman Baths at Avon, Stonehenge, and Windsor Castle. I would not want to be locked into a tour the entire trip, but one day wasn't bad.

I will say you will be hard pressed to see England, Scotland, and Ireland in 10 days and have quality time in those places. Our trip was mainly focused on Ireland, so we flew into London, and spent only three days in England, took the train to Wales, took the ferry to Dublin, then rented a car in Ireland and spent the rest of the three weeks in Ireland, and finally flew home out of Dublin. I had driven in Ireland before, so I knew what to expect. Narrow windy roads that barely look big enough for a bicycle in the US, will be a normal two lane road in Ireland. Rent a car with standard transmission for the complete experience!

We were on the go constantly. In Ireland, I think we only stayed at one place (Galway) more than one day. We knew the major destinations we wanted to be near, and booked a few places in advance, but a lot of the trip we left open ended, so we weren't locked in to having to be somewhere. We never had an issue getting a room this way, and it helped pace ourselves. If it was Monday and we were enjoying ourselves in county Kerry we could spend a couple extra days there knowing we don't have to be county Cork until Wednesday.

We stayed at B&Bs most of the time, and had a good experience at most of them. A few I was glad we were only there for a night, but nothing was horrible. We did stay at a hostel in Galway for a couple of nights. It looked brand new so it was very clean, and it was one of the more spacious places we stayed at the entire trip. We even had a private room with a bathroom, and it was a lot cheaper than the B&Bs in the area. So despite the bad rap, hostels can be an option if you're a cheap ass traveler.

As for warm beer, I didn't have one the entire trip. Most of the cask ales in England were served at cellar temperature (around 50 degrees). Every other draft was similar to US in temperature.
 
The London underground is fairly easy to navigate there are maps on all trains and all over stations, plus theres always loads of free paper maps about to carry with you
 
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