Latest / UK Travel Planning / Exploring Scotland’s North Coast with Victoria Greig: Highlights and Tips

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Exploring Scotland’s North Coast with Victoria Greig: Highlights and Tips · UK Travel Planning

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracey Collins.
• 0:10
  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.
• 0:26
  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.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to episode 118 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: In this episode I chat with our first New Zealand guest, victoria Gregg, about her and husband Morrie's epic seven and a half week UK trip earlier this year.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It's a fantastic conversation where Victoria shares their wonderful experiences, including their time with the award-winning North Coast Explorer Tours, specialising in designing and delivering bespoke private tours of the North Coast 500 and the North Highlands.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: This tour offered them unique insights and breathtaking scenery, making it a highlight of their journey.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Victoria also discusses their visits to the picturesque Cotswolds and the historic city of York and provides invaluable tips for anyone considering booking a tour or planning a trip to the UK.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Provides invaluable tips for anyone considering booking a tour or planning a trip to the UK.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Join us as we explore the highlights of their adventure and discover what made their trip so special.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: My name is Victoria and I live in Christchurch in New Zealand, that's on the South Island of New Zealand, and we went over to the UK in April May.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: I travelled with my husband, murray.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: We both retired, and this was a trip that we had planned to do quite some time ago and then it got canceled because of COVID.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: So, with one thing or another, this was the time to do it and it was wonderful.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Absolutely wonderful, and you went for a reasonable amount of time as well.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So a couple of months was about eight weeks.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we were away for seven and a half weeks, so it was being so far away.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: You really want to try and pack in as much as you can and make the most of the time that you have available.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, because you literally are going from the other side of the world all the way over to the UK.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So you spent the entire seven and a half weeks in the UK, which is wonderful to hear, I have to tell you, victoria.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: So would you like to give us a quick overview of your itinerary?
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: So this was really our bucket list doing the things that we really wanted to do.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: So we started off in Aberdeen for a few days.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Then we went up to Shetland, which was a place that I'd always wanted to go to, and we had seven days there.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: We had a rental car and we tootled around seeing and doing as much as we could Absolutely fantastic.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Then we went down to Inverness where we met up with Robert and did a North Coast Explorer tour.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: After that we went down to Fort William to go on the Jacobite Express that was another thing that was on my bucket list and then on down to Glasgow and to the Outer Hebrides, which was amazing.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: So we did a self-drive tour around the Outer Hebrides and then we trained back to Edinburgh and then down to York and we spent a week exploring York Absolutely fantastic, so much history in York.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: And then down to the Cotswolds, where we really indulged ourselves with our love of wonderful National Trust houses and gardens and, yeah, it was absolutely fantastic.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: And then back to London just for a night and back home.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: So really was doing the things that we were absolutely keen on.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, and I love it as well, because that's actually a lot of slow travel.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: You say you're packed in a lot, but you actually spent a reasonable amount of time in places like York, so you actually got to get the feel for it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: And I know a lot of people can't and they have to spend a day in.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: They're on their way maybe up to Edinburgh, but actually being able to spend that length of time in a place is amazing.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: So how long were you in the Cotswolds for, I have to ask.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: We had about 11 days in the Cotswolds, isn't that?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: fabulous, that's heaven, Honestly.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I mean I say that my mum lives just outside Stratford, so I'm very lucky with that, but I love the Cotswolds and the gardens.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: I mean Kiffsgate, Hidgert.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, honestly, I was talking yesterday with somebody and I was saying I could spend all day in those gardens just wandering around it was absolutely fantastic.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: We had a list of the places that we really wanted to go and see and I'd group them by days so that we could go and see something in the same area where we were and try not to miss out places.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: But we pretty much did a couple of houses or gardens every day and at the end of it we were absolutely exhausted by the time we got to London.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: But it was fantastic.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Oh no, it sounds brilliant.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: So I asked you to come on to the podcast to talk actually overall about your itinerary but to focus on North Coast Explorer Tours because they're our partner for North Scotland and Sally-Anne was like I thinkoria would be fantastic to chat to and, um, she can talk about our tour and I just thought it'd be lovely to to hear from somebody who's actually done a tour um with sally ann robert north coast explorer tours to kind of explain how it went and how what sort of things that you did on it.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I've actually just finished a youtube um virtual copper video that I did with sally just catching up on how the season has gone, which has been fantastic, and I've put lots of brilliant videos because it is honestly such a beautiful part of the world.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: But you chose to book with North Coast Explorer Tour, so how did you hear about them?
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Well, we actually saw an advertisement in a Scots magazine and it all started as a bit of a joke really.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: My husband said, oh well, when we win Lotto we could do a tour like this with our own private tour and our own driver and everything.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Anyway, I sent an email off.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: I thought, well, I'll find out about it and find out what the cost and everything's like.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: And when it came back, I thought actually this is doable.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: And there were so many reasons why it was going to be better doing the tour than doing it on our own.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: And one of the main reasons was, if you've got someone else doing the driving, a they know where to go and, b you can both see everything, instead of someone trying to navigate and someone trying to drive.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: And I'd heard that some of the roads were pretty, you know, a bit nasty when you're not used to them, and so it just, you know, just panned out that this was actually going to really work for us and it did.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: It really did Perfect.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: And I know Victoria said you also heard afterwards that she'd been, she'd done a few podcasts as well, yeah, so you got the opportunity to kind of hear Sally-Anne through the podcast.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was really good because there was a link on the North Coast Explorer website talking about the podcast, and so we did.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: We listened to the podcast and, although we'd sort of actually had a couple of emails back and forth from Sally-Anne at this stage to actually listen to the podcast and hear more, it just reinforced that, hey, this is really the right way to do this.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Oh that's perfect.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I love to hear that, I really do, and it's so nice.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Sally Ann did three episodes and they were just fantastic, honestly.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: So it was lovely to hear that.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: I know you'd already found her and booked, but just the fact that you were able to listen to the podcast and kind of get to know Sally-Anne and hear a bit more about the area is amazing.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: So can you describe your experience with North Coast Explorer to us?
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: What were your favorite activities and experiences that you did?
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, how long did you spend with them?
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I guess would be a good question, as well, yeah.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Well, we did a six-day trip with Robert and right from the word go when we met him, we thought yep, this is actually going to really work.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: He was such a lovely personality, so easy to get on with, and I think what we found the most interesting was his knowledge was just encyclopedic, and it didn't matter what it was, whether it was about the history or the geography or the plants, whatever, he could tell us all about it, and that just made the whole trip so fascinating.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: And we certainly noticed it when we were out on the Outer Hebrides doing the trip on our own and we both said, oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if we had Robert with us.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, it does make a difference, doesn't it, when you're with somebody who's so knowledgeable about an area?
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and also knowing the places to go.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: We had spent I suppose it was well over an hour on a call with Sally-Ann talking about the sorts of things that we were interested in and places that perhaps we'd like to see.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: She threw in a whole lot more and it was from that that they came up with the itinerary that was tailor-made to do the things that we were interested in, which was really great, and I must say they got it absolutely spot on.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's brilliant.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: It was, yeah, fabulous.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: So I guess you know, from our point of view, one of the things that I was particularly interested in were the gardens.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: From our point of view, one of the things that I was particularly interested in were the gardens, and so Robert had organised, included in the trip, gardens like the Loch Melm, strawberry in Arboretum and Ulipo.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: We went to the gardens in Inverary and Etterdale Gardens, and then there was also Castle May and Dunrobin Castle, and it was so lovely to be able to go and see the sorts of gardens that we just don't have here in New Zealand, and Robert also gave us plenty of time to walk around those gardens.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: He'd sort of say to us well, I've allowed about an hour or an hour and a half or so here, but you just wander off and take as long as you like and you know, don't hurry back.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: It was, it was so lovely, it was so relaxing.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: That's a beauty as well, and you have your own private tour.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Because you have that flexibility, you haven't got to join a tour group.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You haven't got that kind of pressure of like we need to be back on the coach by X time.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: You get all that flexibility, which is just fantastic.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Isn't it absolutely amazing to be able to do that?
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: So obviously, you managed to get into some of the gardens.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: I have to just ask you at this point, because Sally and I are always talking about Hidden Beach Did you get to Hidden Beach?
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: No, and I would have loved to have gone to Hidden Beach, but it was one of those things.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: There were so many things that we were trying to see.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: So we sort of started in Albania.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: We went up the East Coast, we went through the Flow Country which I know is one of Robert's favourite places and I must say it was absolutely amazing the starkness, the barrenness, but it's absolutely beautiful.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: And one of our favourite times was just before we sort of started in the Flow Country.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: We stopped at Glen Loth and had this magnificent view down the valley and Robert had been telling us about the Highland Clearances and he read an extract from a book of a firsthand account of somebody that had actually been there in the clearances and it was so moving, it was absolutely incredible.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, you could imagine the smoke coming up from the burning of the villages and everything, and it was things like that that just made the whole trip so magical.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: You could have just driven through and it would have meant nothing but hearing all about it.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: It just was wonderful to see.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, putting the historical, the context into it as well.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it brings it alive, doesn't it?
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a beautiful area anyway, but to know the kind of the history and what's happened in those areas is.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Again, it brings it all to life, doesn't it?
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Some of the other things that we really enjoyed doing was I loved the old castles the Sinclair Guernigo Castle that's on the side of the cliffs, I mean that was.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: The ruins there were just fabulous and the amazing view standing looking at the castle and the sheer drop down the cliffs below.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: It was absolutely beautiful.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Really loved that.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: The cliffs I found absolutely amazing.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: When we went up to the likes of Duncansby Head and Stax and just seeing these magnificent cliffs it was, yeah, I have a thing about heights so there's no way I was going to go anywhere near the edges.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I've got some pictures of my kind of like as close as I would get to the edge as well, because I'm the same.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I'm like okay, this is far enough.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: So I mean that was absolutely amazing.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: We really enjoyed that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Balnakeel Beach I'm just absolutely in awe of these amazing beaches with the pure white sand and hardly anybody on them.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: It was just absolutely mind-blowing really.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: But Baunakeo would definitely have to be one of our favourites, and with the ruins of the church at one end, it was just quite spectacular.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just at one end, it was just quite spectacular.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just seeing the views, it was just wonderful.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Never get tired of them at all.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: So I bet you took lots of photos, thousands of photos.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: I'll be asking to share some in the show notes because I know that people will be like I want to see what this looks like because you're painting this amazing picture.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: To be honest, no photo will do it justice, but you will get an idea.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my husband was a very keen photographer and Robert was very good about stopping on demand and, of course, he knew the best places to stop to get these amazing views.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: It was absolutely fantastic.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, we'd have maybe stopped in one place and he'd say no, no, no, we'll just go a wee bit further on and and yeah, yeah capture the views.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Um, so, obviously you were transported.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Robert drove you around for the entire time that you were there, so that was great.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: So, again, you get to sit back and relax and enjoy the views.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Well, you get chauffeur driven.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: You can't ask for better, can you?
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: And accommodation is also included.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: So what sort of accommodations did you stay in on the way?
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: The accommodation.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: It was lovely because Sally-Anne basically said to us what sort of budget do you want to spend on the accommodation?
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: And then she came up with a list of places and we made our own bookings for the accommodation.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: But it was wonderful having the recommendations.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: A it had to fit in with the stops where Robert was planning an overnight stop or something, but it was really great to hear that they don't recommend anywhere that they haven't actually stayed in themselves.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: So all the accommodations we had was amazing.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: We stayed at some bed and breakfast, we stayed at a couple of little hotels.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: They were absolutely beautiful, the standard was amazing, and the other thing that we really appreciated was because there's not much in the way of restaurants or whatever.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: It's not like being in a city, and so Sally-Anne had also said to us well, I'll send you some information for places that you might like to go for dinner.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: And then she made all the bookings for us, so we'd arrive at a place, check into the hotel or the bed and breakfast, and then there was somewhere already booked for us to go for a meal, which just made it so easy.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's fantastic, Absolutely fantastic, and did you have any unique or unexpected experiences during the tour?
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: It was really quite fun.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Robert has what he calls the Sky Explorer, which is his drone, and I had never had any experience of this at all, and so you put on the headset and you really felt as if you were flying.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: So we used the drone a few times, like flying over the top of a waterfall, it was just absolutely amazing, a totally different sort of view.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: And also the Eileen Doonan Castle.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Again, it was just flying in and you could see all these people walking around it, but we had the bird's eye view.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing, isn't it?
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, not many people can do that, unless you get in a helicopter, but being able to do it where you can and I know Sally Anne's described it you kind of put these goggles on and then so you're actually seeing the view from the drone, which is yeah, yeah, it's it's quite weird.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is very weird, but you know you're flying over the top of the lock and and here's this view underneath you it's absolutely wonderful oh no, it sounds fantastic.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: So obviously you had a.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: You thoroughly enjoyed it.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: I know you had a fantastic time.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: So how would you kind of compare a tour with north coast explorer with with other tours that you've done, would you say?
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously it was a private tour, bespoke for you, so I don't know if it was like the first time you'd done that type of tour, or We've not done that sort of tour before.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, we've done just day sightseeing tours or whatever, but they've been with other people.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Just, I guess we felt very spoiled being just on our own with Robert.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: It was his vehicle and everything was so comfortable and the fact that he would stop anywhere that you wanted to and we were seeing the places that we really wanted to go to, not what's just on the sightseeing list that you know everybody else maybe wanted to go to.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: So we really felt that we got the most out of the tour and the fact that he was sharing his knowledge with us, that's what made it absolutely magical.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, that's great.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I was talking to Sally the other day and she said that Robert is studying, is still studying.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, which is fantastic, isn't it?
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: So you know, know, he already knows a lot, so learning even more absolutely, and, and that really impressed us actually that he kept on um doing more study, um, you know, and his knowledge is really what made the trip so great oh, that's brilliant.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you about wildlife as well, actually, because it was something salian and I were talking about about last time I was up there just the sheer amount of red deer that I saw.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I just wondered did you see any?
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I'm just throwing this question in, but did you see any wildlife when you were there?
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's lots of birds, but we there weren't many deer.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: We saw a few on the way through the flow country, but I must admit I'd seen some pictures that he posted up later where they were quite a few herds of deer and whatever.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: We just saw the odd one or two and we were a bit early for things like puffins when we were out at Duncansby Head and yeah, so it was a wee bit early for those.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: But I love Highland cows, so very happy.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: But I love Highland cows, so very happy to see the Highland cows.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I do too.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I do too.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: And they're so docile and lovely and just gorgeous, aren't they?
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: They're just so lovely and cuddly yeah, they are.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: So what tip would you share with anybody who's considering booking a tour with North Coast Explorer?
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Do it.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: We've done quite a bit of research on North Coast 500, of the sort of areas that we were interested, things we were interested in seeing while we were on the trip and but, and, as I said, listening to the podcast made a huge difference because you were getting so much more information and feedback.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: But I think if you're doing any trip, do a bit of homework so you sort of know the sorts of things that you might like to do on the way.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: I'm terrified of missing out on something.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: It's terrible if you've been somewhere and you found that you know, sort of 10 minutes away from where you were, was this fantastic place that you should have been to.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: So, yes, that was why it was so good to do the tour, because Robert had all these little secret places that he went to and knew about them.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, we stopped in the middle of nowhere one day and he was this big sort of concrete box, sort of you know, in this paddock, and he said, well, what do you think this is?
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: And absolutely no idea.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: Anyway, he lifted up the lid and looked down this hole and here was this ladder going right down to the bottom and it was an old nuclear bunker from, you know the Cold War days?
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Wow, just in the middle of nowhere.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: Now, only Robert would know about that.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Absolutely.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Everybody else would drive past it and not have a clue.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, absolutely.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: It's priceless, though, that that sort of, that sort of knowledge and you only get that from somebody who knows the area, is researched the area and and knows that you know all the ins and outs and those little secret places that not everybody knows.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: And I have to say I have because know Sally-Anne will be listening to this podcast, obviously, but Hidden Beaches on my list when I get up there, sally.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: I've seen too many pictures of it now and I think often people are quite surprised actually with how beautiful the beaches are in that part of the world.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, the beaches are absolutely amazing, but I mean just the views from the road just driving through.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: The views on the road from the likes of Skari to Ulupo were just absolutely stunning.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: And I know one place we were and we stopped and you could count seven different ranges of mountains, one after the other after the other.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: We had the most beautiful weather when we were on the trip.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: It was just amazing.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: But those sorts of views were just absolutely mind-blowing.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: And I have to say and you live in New Zealand, south Island, new Zealand, which for me is up there with Scotland as one of the most beautiful places in the world I have Scotland, norway and New, zealand, south Island for me are my three that I just go.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: You can't be anywhere in the world.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: So that, coming from a New Zealander who lives on South Island, is a huge compliment.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: And I know that later on in summer, when the heathers are out, you'd get the most glorious colours and everything.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: We were there when the gorse was out, and so our photos some of them are just amazing.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: You've got this wonderful bright yellow of of the gorse, um, and it just was absolutely beautiful oh, fantastic.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm just going to skip on to a little, just ask a few questions about your trip to to england, so I'm going to throw this in now, just a quick one.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: So I just want to ask what, what the highlights were in york for you well, one of the main reasons that we wanted to go to York was my husband was very keen to go to York Minster and that was absolutely fabulous.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: It was just magnificent, the building, just walking around it, let alone inside it.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: And we did do a tour of the cathedral.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: That was just lovely.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: The shambles, it was absolutely fascinating.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: We got up one morning about six o'clock to go to the shambles before all the crowds get there.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: We were so early.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: We saw a couple of foxes, oh wow, which was lovely, but those wonderful old buildings and the angles you sort of wonder how they're still standing.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: That was just, yeah, the museum gardens we spent quite a long time walking around those.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: That was just wonderful.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: And the wall walking on the wall.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: There's just so much history in York and it's so easy to get around, absolutely.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: A very walkable city, isn't it?
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and I'm glad that you spent a week there.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: It's brilliant.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Did you take any day trips out or did you spend the entire time in York?
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: We had one day that we went out with some friends and we went out onto the Yorkshire Dales and had a lovely walk around and we went to Corden through Knaresborough and whatever and that was really nice.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: It was lovely to get out.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: We went to one of the abbeys, went in the ruins of the abbey and that was absolutely fabulous.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: But the rest of the time we were in York and we could have stayed there longer.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: I mean every day we were out doing things.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: But there was so much to see and do in York.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, I'd go back to York every time.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Well, when I lived in the UK, we were always going to York, and every time I'd go back now to the UK.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: So, victoria, would you like to tell us what your top, most beautiful things that you saw when you were in Scotland were?
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Well, the Corrieallette Gorge and waterfall, that was lovely.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: The walk down from the car park, following the river down and then standing on the swing bridge looking down into the gorge and the waterfall that went down, that was just beautiful and it was such a lovely walk through the trees.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: We really enjoyed that.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Another special place for us, where we stopped, was near Torridon, the Amplock Open Air Church, and this was quite stunning in that here's this little church that the local people had made.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: That was just a natural little space with the stones around and on one side was the lock and it was just absolutely beautiful and so peaceful.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: And I think the last service that they had there was back in the 1980s or something.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: So I mean, it was really rather a special place.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: And one other thing that we did with Robert which was such fun was the Kempster Cairns and you could actually go inside the Cairns and Robert took Murray into one of them.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: But what really impressed me was out of Robert's bag came knee pads and gloves so that they wouldn't get their knees all dirty, and gloves so that they wouldn't, you know, scruff their hands or whatever.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: And Murray said it was absolutely amazing.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: You had to crawl in through this narrow little wee tunnel and then when you got inside the C, you could actually stand up and there was a hole in the roof.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Robert had the story about how the hole was formed, but Murray said it was absolutely spectacular.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: But again, who would know which was the right can to go into?
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: This was the one that was in the most original condition.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: There were other ones, but the fact that he had all the equipment, it was quite an experience.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Well prepared, absolutely.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's fantastic.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Did you go in or did it with just Maury, because I can't go in those places I get claustrophobic.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: I'd actually twisted my ankle just before we met up with Robert, so crawling in was not going to be something that I did, but Robert had walking poles for me.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Out of the boot of his car came the walking poles, which was absolutely fantastic, so he's prepared for everything.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's fantastic, that's brilliant.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, I need to say.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: There's just so much to see and every day is just I don't know.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Every day takes my breath away when I'm up there and it feels like nowhere on earth to me.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would agree with that and, to be quite frank, we'd love to do another one.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: We'd love to do another tour.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: There's so much more that we didn't actually get to see that we'd like to go back and do again.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: So maybe, maybe one day.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Lovely, it's been lovely talking to you today, victoria.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Now I always end the podcast with the same question um, so what is the one tip you would share with someone planning to visit the UK for the first time?
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: do a bit of research and find out what places particularly interest you.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Um, we've got a a big roadmap of the UK that's got everything in it and it's got things like all the National Trust places.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: It's got historical sites and everything.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: And we actually pour over that and have planned routes and things when we've travelled Basically using that.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: It also gives you an idea of distance and scale and whatever.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Things are actually much closer than you think.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: But sometimes it takes you a little bit longer than you think to get from A to B.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: That's the only thing I'd say but actually we use trains a lot getting from A to B and in New Zealand we don't have a good train service at all and love train travel.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: And in the UK I know people grumble about it, but really you guys have got an amazing train service.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: It's so easy to get from one place to another and the trains seem to be so regular, absolutely Well.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Doug will be pleased to hear that, because he's a massive advocate for traveling the UK by train.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: But it's been lovely chatting to you today, victoria.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming on.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the uk travel planning podcast.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favorite podcast app?
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: We love to hear from you and you never know.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: You may receive a shout out in a future episode, but, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Happy UK travel planning.