Latest / UK Travel Planning / Exploring the UK in 17 Days: Tips, Itineraries, and Hidden Gems

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Exploring the UK in 17 Days: Tips, Itineraries, and Hidden Gems · UK Travel Planning

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: In this podcast, tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Hi and welcome to episode 119 of the UK Travel Planner podcast.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: This week, doug and I are here to talk to you all about our recent UK itinerary.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Hello, so if you are following us on Instagram, uk Travel Planner, or in our Facebook groups, so we have the UK Travel Planner Facebook group, the London Travel Planner Facebook group, and we also have a UK Train Tips Facebook groups.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: So we have the UK Travel Plan and Facebook group, the London Travel Plan and Facebook group, and we also have a UK Train Tips Facebook group.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: So if you were following along in any of those or you receive our newsletter, you'll know that we recently basically did a 17-day trip around the UK.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: In fact, we visited every country in the UK.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Now the first thing I am going to say, before we even launch into this, is that this is not necessarily an itinerary that I would recommend that you follow to the letter, as in.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: We did this very quickly so we could see how it worked and how the public transport fitted together, and the reason we did that is quite often in itinerary consults we asked about this particular route, whether it's going clockwise or anti-clockwise, so we basically wanted to try it out, didn't?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: we.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: We've done all these places before, but we just wanted to try alternative means of transport as well yeah, so basically to give you a quick overview of what we did, we basically started in birmingham, we then went to cardiff, on to Chester, we then actually went over to the Republic of Ireland, but it was a very, very short visit into the Republic of Ireland before we headed north to Northern Ireland and Belfast.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Then we were headed over to Scotland and we were in Glasgow, edinburgh, then we went up to the Isle of Skye before driving over to Inverness and taking the sleeper train down to London.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: So that is kind of our itinerary in a nutshell.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: But what we thought we'd do is we'd kind of just chat with you a little bit about I guess we planned it in a way because we knew we wanted to kind of cover those spots and we knew we wanted to do that route.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: We listened to people, people's concerns, issues and questions from our itinerary consult, made a note of them and then we address those on the way absolutely so if any of those destinations are on your potential itinerary when you visit the uk.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Um, it also is worth noting that we have got destination guides for each of those destinations, which we'll be updating very soon.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: That you can also see in our Instagram stories, and we have reels, and we're soon to be putting together some YouTube videos as well, with things to know before you visit these places and how the actual route went and how we got around and sharing some tips.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: So those will be coming.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: So do make sure that you pop over to UK travel planning and check out all of that information that we share all of the time.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Now also want to say, before going into too much detail, that we are going to be talking generally about our trip and kind of how it went.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: If you're looking for more detail about any of those places in terms of podcast episodes, if you tune in, on November the 12th, we have our Belfast episode coming out, which is episode 124, which is basically our itinerary for Belfast.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: So we're in Belfast for three days and it's basically what we did in Belfast in a lot more detail.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: And then in episode 125, which is out on November the 19th, we talk about our Sky itinerary.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: So we're on Sky for four days and we talk about what we did, how we got around Sky and also some actually quite essential tips.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I think that we it wasn't our first visit to Sky, but there were a few things we thought, oh, you know, this is really kind of things that people really need to know before they visit Sky.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: So is there anything else you can think of, doug?
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: No, what I'm saying was that the time spent in planning was well spent.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think it's absolutely essential to plan this.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: And, yes, we did have all of the accommodation booked.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: We had the car that we hired in Edinburgh booked.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: We had the Caledonian Sleeper booked.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: We did not leave it till the last minute and I know there seems to be a bit of a trend that people want to kind of just wing it and be flexible.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Well, we didn't want to wing it, we didn't want to be flexible.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: That sounds wrong but we actually knew exactly what we wanted to do and we booked the tours.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: We didn't want to miss out on anything and I know I do and you know we booked the tours.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: We didn't want to miss out on anything.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: And I know I spoke to a friend a couple months ago who actually was in belfast and was unable to book a couple of the things that we did because they were fully booked.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: So I guess it's up to you and this is advice we say we never, ever, say to anybody you have to do this or don't do this or do do this.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Really, we just advise really that, um, if there are essential things that you want to do, you know, if you want to hire an automatic car, for example, we recommend that you don't leave that to the last minute.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: If there's a specific tour that you want to do, we recommend you do not leave that to the last minute same with restaurants, and if you the one place you desperately would like to go and experience for peace of mind, it's worth trying to book it in advance yeah, absolutely okay, let's let's talk without further ado.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about our itinerary.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: So we started off in birmingham and we headed up to cardiff.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Now, as I say, this was a very, very whirlwind itinerary, so we only actually spent one night in cardiff.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: So so the journey we took by train, we're talking about trains at a direct service from birmingham new street um I reserved seats advance made it easier.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Then we arrived straight into Cardiff Central, which is right close to the city centre.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I made sure I booked hotel sleepers which was right next to the hotel, right next to the train station.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: The hotel was right next to the train station, as I say, so that made it easier.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: And really what I wanted to do in Cardiff was just explore a little bit of the city.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: I wanted to go and check out the Victorian arcades and the central market and we wanted to go and have a look around the castle, which I was actually blown away by.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: I had not been inside the castle before and, honestly, it was beautiful.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we were lucky with the weather as well.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: That made a big difference.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so definitely would be spending longer going back to Cardiff.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I think again, I mean the afternoon.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Honestly, we fitted a lot in that afternoon.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: The weather was really good and I really enjoyed the castle.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: I have to say it was a highlight for me.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, it was good views.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: It was really really pleasant.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: And then, after we went, to Cardiff Bay.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: We caught the train down to the to the Bay Area and had a look around there very short train journey and we weren't there that long, were we?
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Well, we had a meal there, yeah, other than a meal, yeah.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So that was easy to do as well.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So, again, we'll have a Cardiff destination guide so you can check that out, and an article about things to do in Cardiff.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: So the next morning we woke up and we hopped up on another train yeah, direct service to Chester went a slightly longer journey there because I wanted to explore through more or less through the centre and by Craven Arms that way and it was absolutely fantastic.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: It really really was.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: We're looking at the scenery because the times I've done that journey before I haven't been blessed with fine weather, but this time we were lucky yeah, so in Chester we were staying in the hotel Indigo Chester.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: We were invited to stay, so thank you very much to the hotel Indigo Chester, and I actually want to give a huge shout out actually, because the staff were fantastic they really were, from arrivals to the moment we left.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's beautiful.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: We had a beautiful, beautiful room.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: The food was fantastic.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: As I say, the staff were amazing, particularly I'm going to big shout out for Steve on reception.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: He could not have been any better.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: He was probably one of the best guys I've ever met on reception anybody on reception.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: He was outstanding.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: He was telling you everything you need to know before you even knew that you knew it you need to know it yeah, so it was great, food was excellent.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: So, honestly, if you are planning to add chester into your itinerary and we're hearing more and more, actually chester is coming up absolutely.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: The hotel indigo chester is the place to stay.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: We.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: We really loved it and it's very, very, very, very close to the centre, very close to the train station, very close to the centre so we're able to go and explore Chester.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: We went and explored the Rose.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: We had a look at the Roman Amphitheatre what's left of the Roman Amphitheatre?
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just enjoyed exploring Chester, the cathedral.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: You know it's a wonderful city.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: You've got Roman walls around the city.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: There's a lot to see and do in Chester.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Again, we only spent one night and I'd recommend staying a little bit longer if you can in your itinerary, but really we had a lovely stay there.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: We really did yeah.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: And then we had a fairly early-ish start the next morning.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: So where did we go the next day?
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: We headed up to Holyhead, north Wales, on the Anglesey Peninsula, for the train train, the ferry across to Dublin.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we caught the ferry.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: We were very lucky because the crossing was very smooth.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Doug gets a little bit seasick so obviously.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: A little bit, yeah, so he was very pleased with that.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: We're going to skirt over Dublin because it's it's a republic of ireland, so obviously nothing to do with the united kingdom, um.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: So we will talk about a republic of ireland on a visit to dublin and the global travel planning podcast.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: So if dublin is somewhere that you're planning to visit, do pop over at the global travel planning podcast, um, which is also run by myself, and we'll talk all about what we got up to in Dublin.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: And we had a wonderful tour in Dublin, I will say, which we will talk about in that podcast.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: So we again, we just spent one night and one full day in Dublin before then we caught the train from Dublin Connolly train station to Belfast Lanyon place train station, which I will say has been replaced by the Belfast Lanyon Place train station, which I will say has been replaced by the Belfast Grand Central interchange.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: The trains into that are not yet fully operational but the buses are.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: So we decided to spend four days in Belfast because it's somewhere that I wanted to find out more about, it's somewhere we wanted to explore, and Doug had spent some time in Northern Ireland before I actually hadn't, so this was the first time for me to actually spend some time in Northern Ireland and familiarizing myself with it, so loved the four days that we spent there.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Honestly, it was a very interesting place to visit.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: We found all the people so friendly, so welcoming and we basically, in those four days we we did the kind of classic things that I guess everybody does when they go to belfast, in that we went to the titanic museum, we did a day trip out and we went to the giants causeway, because you know you have to do that, don't you?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: We did a hop on, hop off bus tour and also we did a um the political black taxi tour, which kind of tells you about the troubles and and really should be compulsory, I think, an essential if you're visiting northern ireland and belfast to actually learn about the troubles.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: So, as I said, we will talk in far more detail about belfast in our and share that four day itinerary with you.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Actually was three full days because we actually left on the Monday morning, so it was actually a three-day itinerary that we did.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: It was very full, the weather was good.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: We had about 10 minutes at the Giants' course where the weather seemed to go crazy and it was windy and rainy and like a squall, but then that was gone and we really enjoyed Belfast.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: The moment we arrived, we met with welcomes and smiles and everybody was just, yeah, very pleasant.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: And we had an exceptional Sunday roast there.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Again, I'll share that when we talk about the itinerary.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And we stayed at the Hampton by Hilton Again, lovely staff and a really nice day.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: And also very close to the new interchange station.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was very easy on the Monday morning when we had to check out and we had to actually be over there by what time?
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Just after 6 am.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, very early start.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: So what did we do on the Monday?
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Well, we caught a bus from Hannan Buses and that was very, very easy, very straightforward, and took us directly from the interchange bus station via the ferry, to Hannan, glasgow Buchanan Street bus station.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we went over, basically took the bus, took us onto the ferry.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: We crossed over on the ferry, which again was another smooth crossing.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I cannot believe this honestly, we were very, very lucky.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Got off at Cairnryan, yes, and then the coach then took us to Glasgow bus station.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I will say the views on that route were fantastic.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gorgeous, gorgeous Scottish scenery on that boat trip, on that coach trip.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: So sit on the left-hand side, that's why I sat on the left-hand side, so I've got some fantastic pictures.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and also, if you do it in the reverse, sit on the right-hand side from Glasgow.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, from Glasgow to Cairn Ryan and then over to.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: But how easy that was, I honestly did not.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: It took me by surprise just how easy that was.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I honestly did not.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: It took me by surprise just how easy it is to do that trip.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: And again, that is something that has been asked so many times about that kind of belfast, glasgow, how to have to get over there.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Honestly, take the ferry.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: I mean I'm not sure I have to say in the middle of winter, I'm not sure if the, if the seas are a bit choppy, that I particularly want to be on it and I know it won't sail if it's particularly fine anyway, but I just thought it was so easy.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: That's right, because some of the logistics can be a little bit tricky if you're doing it on your own, particularly from Cairnryan to Glasgow or vice versa, because there's no train directly the whole length of the journey from Glasgow to Cairnryan, so you do have to look at different modes of transport.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: So by using the Hammond coaches it's all done for you, very straightforward.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: And it was not expensive either.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: So again, we'll share.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Well, I suppose, yes, we can share that in the Belfast one, but it really wasn't very expensive, was it?
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: No £44.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Was that each?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, £44?
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's excellent, Really really good.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: So we were in Glasgow for one night.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Now, Glasgow is a city I do enjoy visiting, and we jumped on the clockwork orange, didn't we?
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: We did, and that's just what it says.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: That's the underground circuit in Glasgow and there's two lines One goes clockwise, one goes anticlockwise.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Anticlockwise or counterclockwise.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we went to the art museum.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Kelvin Grove.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Went to Kelvin Grove Art Museum, had a look around there, and then we hopped back on the train and went back and we decided to walk up to the necropolis.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: We did, we'd been there before, but it never ceases to amaze.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: And it was a beautiful day.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: And so we've got beautiful views over Glasgow and then we walked back via checking out some of the street art in Glasgow.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: So basically we had probably about half a day in Glasgow.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: Yes, we did yeah.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: So then, the next morning, we hopped on the train, which is not too far.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: We went to Edinburgh.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because we were stopping in george square, right next to the queen street railway station in glasgow, and then we called the train to edinburgh.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Just takes 50 minutes on the faster service, uh, but it was pretty busy the train yeah, it was, and then we spent two nights in edinburgh.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: So there were a few things that we wanted to do in edinburgh that we um had had on our list to do on previous visits and had not managed to get round to.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: So one of them was to we went to the Royal Yacht, britannia.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: And the other one was we went to Rosslyn Chapel.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: So we arrived on the was it the Tuesday morning?
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, tuesday morning.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: By this point, we left our luggage.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: We always stay at the Aldiwog guest house with Murray.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: He does a fantastic Scottish breakfast, so we stayed there, we dropped off our luggage and we headed straight off to the Royal Britannia.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Now, we hadn't actually booked tickets for this.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: I will say I did not.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: We went and we just turned, turned up, and we managed to get tickets to me we did and we went on the?
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: uh the tram because the tram stopped straight outside the?
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Uh, the old york guest house.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: So we caught that from the place escapes me, but direct down to the leith ocean terminal terminal.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Sorry about that.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, so the Leith Ocean Terminal Terminal, sorry about that.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: So the Leith Ocean Terminal, and I thoroughly enjoyed actually thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the Royal Yacht Britannia.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: So it was everything I actually thought it was going to be, and I particularly decided, a cup of tea and a Victoria sponge.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: You did have some Victoria sponge cake my favourite so that was really good.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: And then the following morning, so the Wednesday, we decided to go to Rosslyn.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: So that's what we did.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: We did.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: We caught the bus from just off Princess Street, there next to the Marks and Spencers, and we'd already done the homework as to which bus we could catch, because there's two buses with the same number, so it was a destination specific.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: And I'd already bought tickets for Roslyn in advance to make it a little bit easier, and subsequently I've actually exchanged them for a yearly pass which entitles you to Wow.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: So just to let you know, if you have an interest in Edinburgh, that Doug and I will actually be in Edinburgh for six weeks, so we'll be basing ourselves there for end of December through until the middle of February.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: So if you have a particular interest in following what we are getting up to in the UK, particularly Edinburgh, you're going to be able to find out lots on Instagram and the Facebook group, aren't you?
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: In January?
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: So if you have any specific questions or queries that you want us to check it out, let us know, yeah, absolutely yeah.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: So then that afternoon I went to make a bag.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: So making the um, the scottish um, oh, what's the?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Name of the tartan bags I can't think of the top of my head now.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Um bag I went and made that.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: I will share a bit more about that in the show notes and an affiliate link.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: So if you want to go and make a bag yourself, I know it's very, very popular to do and it was actually quite easy and I love my satchel.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: It's really pretty.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: So we went and did that and then we didn't?
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, doug, didn't?
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I went and made the bag and then we met up afterwards for dinner, didn't we?
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: We did.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I booked afterwards for dinner, didn't we did?
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I book that in advance as well.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which?
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Was absolutely outstanding, yeah, so we had a good couple of pub meals actually in edinburgh, which was really really nice.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: We went to the queen's arms, yeah and uh, then the tool toll booth tavern.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, both were excellent, both really good food.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: But, um, really you need to book ahead, um, because they do get popular and they all get very busy, and there was quite a few people being turned away, actually, I think, at the tour bus.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: There was One of the other pubs.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: The World's End was not currently doing food, which made it even busier.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so again, planning ahead, thinking about where you want to eat.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: It's really important because there's nothing worse than just spending hours, or even it feels like I was wandering around looking for somewhere to eat when you're hungry as well, exactly exactly, so that was good.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: So then the next morning we went, we headed up to the airport, didn't we?
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: we did again I'll put that in advance as a slight reduction by booking an advance for the tram ticket all the way from st angeles square uh to the airport yeah.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: So we picked up, we had a particularly special experience on the oh yes, yes, we did so.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I had the night before received a message from the lovely emily to say that she was in our facebook group and a podcast listener.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: So hello emily.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: And was really hoping that she'd bump into us, but hadn't.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Anyway, she was saying that the next day they were leaving and they were flying off to Dublin, and I said, well, we're heading to the airport in the morning, and so what happened?
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: We end up.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Well, Emily recognised my legs apparently.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Emily.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Because Doug had been wearing a lot of shorts and so we'd been putting pictures on of what we're wearing every day, because we found that it's very helpful, uh, when deciding what to pack pack, because you can see exactly what we're wearing.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: And so she looked up and then the next thing she was like dog, and then it was so it was lovely.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: So we've got some lovely photos, got to meet emily and ryan, her partner, and I say off.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: They were flying to dublin and then back to america.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: So hopefully, emily, hello, you're going to be coming on the podcast to talk to us all about your itinerary.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: So I guess it just was meant to be.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: It really was Mayday, didn't it?
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: It did.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: It was so nice.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, we picked up our car from Edinburgh Airport and we drove to.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Well, we drove to Malick Via calendar.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, we did stop off and see some Scottish cows island cows.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: And then, after calendar, we stopped off at the Green Welly.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Green Welly stop.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: We stopped there.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: And then of course you have to stop off on your way through Glencoe.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I mean that's kind of compulsory.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Glencoe, and also we stopped off just before Malang to look at the Silver Sands.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, we did, and.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Mohawk.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Mohawk, yeah.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: And then we checked in our accommodation for the night, had a really good meal actually seafood, had some lovely scallops in Malik, and then the next morning we caught the ferry.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Caught the ferry which obviously we'd already booked in advance with the Caledonian, and yes, and then we had Caledonian McGrane, and then we had a lovely drive from Armdale and we stopped at how many different points didn't we, oh, we did.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: We just kept stopping because you just kind of well, to be honest, I think that entire drive from Edinburgh it's just there's so many places you pass, so you go through there and then, of course, you go on the ferry from Malague over to Armadale and then you're driving through Skye and it's just honestly, it always takes my breath away because it's so, so beautiful.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: And we try to encourage a lot of people talk to us about doing that kind of Edinburgh up to Skye and then back, and we kind of do encourage you to do that in a loop, because if you go over on the ferry, so you're doing that kind of Fort William up to Malague Drive.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: That's stunning, beautiful, and obviously you're past the glenfinnan by going that way and then if you come around the other way, you get completely different views, but you're not missing anything.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: You're missing anything.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Everything's just gorgeous.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Um, and you know why, why drive the same route?
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: You might as well do a different route.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: So we were in sky for four days and we had perfect weather.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: I cannot tell you how perfect this weather was.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I am telling you, but it was stunning Blue skies and sunshine, not a cloud.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: I don't think we hardly see any clouds, do.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: We Saw some fog though, didn't we?
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: A little bit of fog, yeah, before the sun kind of burned through, but otherwise it was beautiful.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Exceptionally good weather for sky.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Exceptionally it was beautiful, exceptionally good weather for sky, exceptionally again, we'll talk far more in episode 125 about what we got up to on sky, but suffice to say is that we did a lot of driving, we saw a lot of sheep, we saw a lot of beautiful scenery, we ate a lot of beautiful, lovely seafood, yeah, and just had a fabulous time on sky.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: But but, as I say again, tune in for more information about Sky, because it's a whole episode really talking about what we did and what we saw and our tips for Sky.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: But after four nights in Sky and we stayed in a pod, which was amazing, lovely If you've not stayed in a pod before, check out the show notes, you can see the pictures.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: But then we drove to Inverness on our last day.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: We did via the bridge to Cala da Coles.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then we were planning to stop off at Port Augustus on the way, but unfortunately it was the one day we actually had a lot of rain, so we actually decided just to head for Inverness and Inverness Airport to drop off the car.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Now one tip if you are planning to drop off a car at Inverness Airport and we know quite a few people who intend to do this, or have in the past when we've done itinerary consults fill up your hire car before you get to the airport.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: There is no petrol station near the airport.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: You really need to do it just outside inverness.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I think we did it at the tesco there's a tesco, it's very reasonable price, yeah so we filled up with the Tesco, which is about 10 kilometres, 10 miles, maybe 10 miles away from the airport.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: That's the closest, In fact.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: We got to the airport and then had to turn around and then had to drive back 10 minutes to go and put the petrol in.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: So make sure you do that before you take the car bus into Inverness yes, because there's a new uh train station open up at Inverness airport but it's further than you think to walk to it about 15 good 15 minutes walk to walk to the uh through the airport terminal and the train station.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: And because it was pouring down with rain, we asked the information desk and we're told that there's a stagecoach bus.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: It was number 11.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: We caught um, but instead of catching to the train station we decided to stay on the tour the way into Inverness itself.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, we actually went into Inverness train station absolutely Because we were catching the Caledonian sleeper, so then we left our luggage at the train station.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: We did.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: It was an attendant on duty there.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: It was cash only for the luggageuggages themselves, but that was not working, so that they give us a ticket and we paid at the ticket office that's right, so we left the luggage there.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: So then we had a little bit of a walk around.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Inverness went to licky's bookshop, which has always been on my kind of list to do, and then we went to johnny fox's for a fabulous meal we did.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: I've been there so many times over the years and it's one of my favorite places that I've been there in the evening, because there's live music on every single evening there.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, um, and I've listened to various bands and things there in the past.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Excellent evening entertainment if you're ever in inverness johnny foxes, absolutely.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: But I'm going to tell you something.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I'm going to share this with you as a podcast listener, so don't tell anybody else.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: But if you are planning to visit, I guess, any restaurant, um, just double check that you book the right one.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: The reason I'm saying that is we walked in the johnny fox's and I said we've got a booking for six o'clock and I went no, no, we have no booking for six o'clock and I said no, I've confirmed it anyway.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: The the bartender said oh, this happens a lot, but it's a.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: There's a johnny fox's in Northern Ireland.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: So I was like oh, maybe that's what I've done.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Anyway, luckily we managed to get a table because we were actually an hour early and we sat down and I actually checked my emails because I had confirmed this booking and then realized that I actually had booked a Johnny Fox's in Perth, in Western Australia.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: So many apologies to the Johnny Fox's in Perth, western Australia, for the fact that Tracy and John Collins did not turn up.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: The reason we did not turn up is because we honestly thought we had booked or I thought we had booked Inverness Johnny Foxes.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: So there's a little bit of a tip Do book ahead for your restaurants and where you're going to eat, but just make sure you book the right one and in the right country.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: In the right country exactly.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: So that was a bit of an oops.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: So then we then went and caught the Caledonian sleeper.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: And we did.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: We were there in good time.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: We obviously booked it in advance, so it was all very smooth.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: We entered the berth, filled out the breakfast card for the morning, hung it on the door and then we went to the lounge car.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: We did and yeah, we sat and had a drink before kind of retiring to the birth, and that was it going to.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, going to sleep yeah, and both of us slept well?
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: yeah, we did.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: So.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: We did order breakfast in the morning, which, I have to say, I wasn't overly impressed with.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: No porridge was okay, yeah, yeah the porridge.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: I had a continental breakfast, but I wasn't wasn't over the moon, so maybe take your own food if you want to have breakfast on there rather than order it.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: But we arrived in good time into London Houston, yeah, and so on the very last day.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: So we arrived in London.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: So this is the last day of our itinerary we actually had.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: We were invited by Live Tours so thank you so much to Live Tours for this On a private tour of the Imperial War Museum and the Churchill War Rooms.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Now, we had luggage with us so we obviously could not take that to the Imperial War Museum or to the Churchill War Room.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: So what did we do with that, doug?
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: So right outside we arrived into Euston at Platform 15, and then right next to that is the left luggage at Euston.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: So we left two items there, things of value we took with us, laptops, et cetera, and then we left a suitcase and a backpack.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: So we decided to try that because if you go onto the London Travel Planning website, there are a number of options for where you can leave luggage.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: There are a number of companies that offer this.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: So we're trying kind of all the companies out to see how it all works out and we're finding that it's great.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: So we decided this time to leave them at the train station, which was quite expensive.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: That's what I think was £30, £35?
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: £30.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: £30.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: And we didn't leave them there a huge number of hours, maybe six hours, not even that, I think.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe six hours.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: So that's expensive option, but that is.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: That is one option I will talk about that you can do, but I will put a link in the show notes to options in london of where you can leave your luggage.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: As I say, we wanted to try this out because we had not tried out the train station before but for ease and convenience it certainly was the easiest way, yeah it was easy for us at that time, anyway.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: so we headed down to the Imperial War Museum, where we met the fantastic Andy, who was our private guide.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: He was absolutely outstanding.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: He was outstanding.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: My brother knows a lot about World War II.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: I will say that.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: But Andy has a PhD in World War I.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: I think it was history.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: He knows so much.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: You could ask him anything.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: He was so interesting to listen to.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: So if you have a history in learning about World War I, world War II in London, honestly you couldn't ask for a better guide.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: He was, and I should say thank you, andy, for your patience as well when Doug got his dates wrong and bits of information wrong.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Being very kind, when you explain, explain to me why I was wrong yeah, but it was great.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I learned so much.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Now I will say I used to be a history teacher.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: I was a history teacher so I've taught about world war one and world war two so I've fairly got a fairly reasonable knowledge.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: But honestly, andy's knowledge was just incredible, absolutely incredible dates you know events, so yeah, it was really good so.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: So thanks very much live tours for inviting us to on that private tour.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: It was brilliant and I will link to live tours in the show notes, and so do pop over.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Please do go and check through show notes for links to the hotels that we stayed in, the tours tours that we took.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: All the links will be in there.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Please do use our links.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: It helps support our work.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: They are affiliate links, but it's of no extra cost to you if you click on those, but it helps support us with the podcast, the websites and everything that we provide for free.
• 31:00
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• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Really, it's very easy.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: From as little as three us dollars a month, you can sponsor this podcast and we are going to start giving shout outs to all those wonderful people who do support our work.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: If you think about it, it's very, very little, and we feel that we do bring a lot of value yes, so thank you very much um, yeah.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: So then after that we went, and after the tour we left Andy at the Churchill War Rooms and then we headed up to Euston.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Yes, we took the tour back from Waterloo to Euston.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: Very straightforward, very easy.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: We collected our luggage, we had some food.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: We had some tea, and then we hopped in a black cab which took us over to Marylebone.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Straightforward, great taxi driver yeah.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: And that was it, and headed back to Birmingham.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: So that was the beginning of the trip.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: So we did in basically 17 days.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: That is our itinerary of how we got around Train, ferry, car, black Cab Tube.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: We're new in London so we used lots of different transport.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: We found the ferries really, really easy.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: I mean we did three ferries, uh, one as foot passengers, one we went over with coaches on the coach and then as foot passengers, I guess, and then on the third we actually drove the car over to Sky.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: So we did it in three different ways.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: So we tried lots of different accommodation, from budget accommodation uh we're in a pod to you know some of the beautiful, beautiful accommodation like the, the hotel indigo and chester.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: So we tried out lots of different things and just had a fantastic trip we did, and different meals as well.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: We've had some budget meals and then we've had some very yeah, excellent meals yeah, a lot of meal deals, yeah, anyway, so that was our trip and we hope that you found that interesting.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: If you've got any questions, please do get in touch, join the facebook group, send us an email, do check, as I say, the show notes which will be at uktravelplanningcom forward slash episode 119.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: But I think that's it for for this week's episode and, as I say, if you want to know more about belfast and sky and what we got up to, you can listen in on episodes 124 and 125, which will be out next month.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Excellent, okay, so it's a goodbye from me and goodbye from me thank you bye.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the uk travel planning podcast.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app?
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: We love to hear from you and you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: But, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Happy UK travel planning.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: That just leaves me to say until next week.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Happy UK travel planning.