FSU Girl

41 minutes ago, Packerfan4 said:

FSU girl GO NOLES. Disney could be full of kids not that I don't like kids but if I was on my honeymoon I wold nt want screaming little ones all around me. Just saying. 

We ended up deciding on a land trip to Scotland and England in May. It was a fantastic two week trip

42 minutes ago, LuckyStar said:

So glad I found your post.  We are looking at Scotland/Ireland for a month next Summer and I have checked out Rabbies and will check out Highland Explorer.  Did you all rent a car at all?  

 

I started a travel blog where I’m writing about my trip if you’d like to read it. Travelswithalysia.com 

We didn’t rent a car, figured it would be complicated driving on the other side of the road. We took the train from London to Edinburgh. We found the city of Edinburgh very walkable everywhere. For the rest of Scotland we saw it by the tours. Their train system seems very easy to use to get to other cities in Scotland if we didn’t do tours I would have done it that way. 

I know Rabbies has some tours in Ireland as well I’ve looked into them if we ever go there. 

We bought our Tower of London ticket when we got there and didn’t wait long, but it was a crowded day. If you do buy day of I recommend trying to get there early, we arrived when they opened. Crowds definitely increased as the day went on. I bought most tickets online in advance, but had issues buying tickets for the historical sites it wouldn’t charge my card online. 

I just came back from my honeymoon where I planned a land trip to England and Scotland. Originally was going to do a cruise and then changed my mind. We did pretty much exactly what you want to do. 

We stayed in Edinburgh for a week, like you I didn’t want to change hotels and instead have a home base. We stayed at the Hilton Carlton just off the Royal Mile it was a great location to everything. 

For getting around Scotland I booked multiple one-day tours. I’m sure you could take trains or drive and do things on your own, but we really liked having the tour companies take us everywhere. I had never booked a tour outside of a cruise before and was a little apprehensive, but they were all fantastic. 

We used Rabbies and Highland Explorer Tours. They had options for multi day trips, but we only did one day tours. It was nice coming back to the city and the same room every night. 

We went to the highlands, saw a ton of castles including Stirling Castle. We also went to the borders, into England (actually walked into the country that was fun) and visited Alnwick Castle where Harry Potter was filmed, gorgeous castle. Did hiking, saw waterfalls, went to St. Andrews and did a tour of a working whiskey distillery. Was a fantastic week I loved each tour we did with both companies. Rabbies only uses small buses of no more than 16 people and Highland Explorer Tours were slightly larger with around 30 people. Some days had smaller or larger groups, but both companies guarantee you will go no matter how many actually sign up. 

For Loch Ness I wouldn’t do it. It’s really far from either Glasgow or Edinburgh and if you are doing it in a day you’ll spend the majority of your day getting there and back. We were going to originally until I realized almost all complaints for these companies were for this specific tour and how much time is spent on the bus and how little actually there. 

If you have any other questions let me know, I just got home from the trip so it’s all still fresh in my mind

18 hours ago, OCruisers said:

Consider London Black Cabs.  They also offer tours. It's our favorite!

 

http://www.londonblackcabs.co.uk

This looks interesting! They have one that does Hampton Court and Windsor Castle. How do these tours work? It says they pick up and your hotel and drop you back off. When they take you to the sites you're visiting do they come inside with you or they just wait for you at the taxi to finish? Are the fees to get into the castles included or the fee is just for the actual taxi? 

Also for when we land in Heathrow would you recommend using them to get to our hotel?

35 minutes ago, milolii said:

The lines would be awful!  Also it could be sold out in advance.  When are you going? 

We'll be there the third week in May. I was thinking instead of going to Windsor going to Hampton Court I've read online its not as important to get a ticket in advance for there? We'll also only be there during Monday-Friday so no weekends, would that help with crowds?

12 minutes ago, milolii said:

I could of spent half a day there.  You only get about an hour and a half with this tour. Windsor Castle would be easy to do on your  own. Getting tickets in advance would be essential, though.  The train drops you closer than the parking lot.  In fact you walk past the train platform on your way to Windsor.  I think that is the way Her Majesty, the Queen gets there.  In her private car, of course.  

 

I thiught Bukingham Palace was stunning, but Windsor has it beat. 

I had tried buying tickets to Windsor Castle, but for some reason the site didn't run my credit card (somehow the foreign transaction fee still went through) I emailed them and they didn't see it on their end so I wouldn't be able to book that in advance. I'm not sure why it didn't work I've bought so many things over there for my trip and none of them have given me a problem. If its impossible to do without a ticket in advance I feel like our only option would be through a tour. 

On 3/26/2019 at 4:19 PM, milolii said:

We used Premier Tours and went Windsor, Stonehrnge and Bath.  But would Of loved more time at Windsor.  

 

Full day but it was great.  Leaves from Victoria Coach Station.  A few blocks from the Victoria tube station.  I think they drop off at some  points in London on the way back.  

 

https://www.premiumtours.co.uk/tours/windsor-castle-stonehenge-lacock-and-bath-with-lunch

Thank you! I'll check them out. I'd really love to make it over to Windsor Castle. 

49 minutes ago, pfopma said:

Are you on a cruise and will only be in London for a day or are you sending some time in the city post- or pre-cruise?

 

I would highly suggest London Walks great escapes then. If you enjoy walking then these tours are perfect. We did the Cotswolds tour and also the Hampton Court Palace Tour where you take a boat part way on the Thames going through the locks on the river. 

 

If you want to do a day trip to Windsor that is very easily done on your own by taking the train to Windsor from Paddington with one easy change and then walking around town and visiting the castle on your own. We also did a day trip to Liverpool on our own. Took a 7:30 am train to Liverpool and took a taxi to The Beatles Museum at Albert Dock. Booked a 3 hour tour with Fab Four Taxi Tours that picked us up at the museum at noon. They dropped us off at Mathew Street and we went to the Cavern Club and had dinner at the Hard Days Night Hotel before heading back to London on the train. Got back to London around 10 pm. 

 

We also did a bus tour with Premium Tours to Stratford-On-Avon, Bath and Stonehenge and another tour to Canterbury, And other to Oxford, Bampton, and Highclere Castle. 

We'll be in London for a week so plenty of time to see the city. For the Hampton Court tour who did you use for that? That sounds like a lot of fun. 

1 hour ago, pfopma said:

What is your style of travel - do you like a small group or do you prefer a large group? What do you want to see outside of London? I have used these two companies:

https://www.premiumtours.co.uk Large group tours using bus transportation with tours in London as well as day trips outside of the city.

 

http://www.walks.com/other-tours/day-trips-from-london/ - A variety  of 2 hour walking tours in London but they also have day trips they call Great Escapes. A full day using trains and boats to arrive at destination for day trips.

I'm not really sure, I've never done a tour outside of a cruise organized tour before. It's our honeymoon. I don't think we'd need walking tours of the city itself, we'll get around by the Tube and see the sights. I'm thinking more for things that are farther away and would be tricky to visit on our own, like Stonehenge.  

I'm looking to book a one day tour in London, not sure where to exactly yet, somewhere outside of the city. I was wondering if anyone has any reliable tour companies that they've used to do this? 

29 minutes ago, Thejuggler said:

Assuming its an LNER service you will get some of the extra cost back from the first class free food and drink offer.

Yes it’s the LNER train. Free food and drink sounds good 

I booked my train tickets today yay! Did first class both ways since it wasn't too much more than normal seats. It was weird though I could select the seats on the trip up to Scotland, but they were assigned for the trip back and I couldn't change them, just could change the preferences. Excited though, my trip is coming up soon.

The 4 night. You’ll get a sea day, it’ll feel less rushed and you’ll be able to enjoy the ship more. 3 days is way too short to me. 

I would pick dinner. I wasn’t a fan of the brunch although I know a lot rave over it. I think the food at dinner is far above what is served in the MDR. You’ll also have a better shot getting reservations for dinner since it’s served every night whereas brunch is only on sea days

I say do the cruise! I’ve done three Disney cruises, all adult only. Yes there are kids, but Disney does a great job keeping them out of adult only areas. Love the adult pool, the bars are greatly themed. They have adult only dining for an upcharge that are fantastic. A lot of people sail on Disney without kids it won’t be odd at all if you do. And it’ll be fun to have your friends there too. The Merrytime cruises are great, I’ve done two of them. 

Following along. We were on the Disney Fantasy when Oasis was docked next to us in Jamaica. Curious to hear how everything was on the ship

That’s weird they’d make you do all that. I’ve had so many cards cancelled for fraud and when I get a refund it just goes to the new card I’ve never had to do anything extra. This is usually with Disney hotels. I feel like the refund would just automatically go on your new card. 

1 minute ago, Bob++ said:

LNER say this:

 

Most people print their tickets at home so that shouldn't be a problem really. Show the printed ticket and ID (passport?) and that's it.

 

Note that it's better to book through directly LNER https://www.lner.co.uk and you can register for an alert when you are able to book your tickets on https://www.lner.co.uk/travel-information/early-bird-ticket-alerts/

 

 

Ok good. I'll definitely print everything before. I've got a stack of papers for all my tours I've booked. It'll be like I'm taking a book with me lol. I'll keep an eye the website. I believe the tickets should start become available to book in a month or so for my trip. Very helpful thank you!

1 hour ago, john watson said:

I did an Inclusive Rail Break through Superbreak.com.  Kings Cross to Edinburgh return with three nights in a hotel in Edinburgh and first class upgrade. Inexpensive, on the website click, travel, rail and hotel breaks then enter your trip.  I think its got to be within so many months though.

 

There are two basic train service providers LNER and Cross Country Trains.  As I recall it is important to reserve seats as they were not allowing people on the train without seats at Edinburgh when we travelled as people are going to get into arguments standing the whole journey.  First class includes free of charge drinks and snacks and seats are generally four around a table one side and two facing on a table other side of train.  Across the train they are two seats aisle one seat.  In standard class it is two seats aisle two seats across. You can deduce that the seats are smaller in standard (second class).

 

I have also reccommended  https://wwwthetrainline.com to people from the US previously who found collecting pre-purchased tickets from the UK local ticket machine or station ticket office convenient and easy.  You need you six character code e.g.  HBVNM plus the actual credit card you used to originally purchase the ticket/s.  Credit card must be valid at time of ticket purchase and collection date at time of travel to do this.

 

This site is useful:

 

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/London/Edinburgh 

Thanks! We already have our hotels, just need the train tickets. But all these sites are really helpful. Do you know if there could be an issue if I buy the tickets and then my credit card gets a new number before I show up? There is a lot of credit card fraud here and I get issued new cards constantly. Would still have the same name and everything. I think I'd like to do first class tickets, it'll just depend on what the price is like. 

13 minutes ago, tartanexile81 said:

The Bank holiday weekends are the weekends that include the first and last Mondays in May so 6th and 27th May in 2019.  I hope you're not travelling then because so much major engineering takes place on those weekends. 

We’re good. We’ll be on the train on May 13 and May 19. 

1 hour ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

 

There are two Bank Holiday weekends in May, though....

When are the holidays?

21 hours ago, tartanexile81 said:

 

We travel with full size cases around 30 inches and it's no problem. As somebody else said, there's space for large cases in the racks and the smaller cases fit above your head

Ok great! I think the length said 30 inches, I think it was the width that was the 11 so wasn't sure if an inch more would get flagged. 

On 12/18/2018 at 1:18 PM, tartanexile81 said:

I forgot to say fsugirl, but the best views are to your right as you travel North so try to book a seat on that side

Thanks for the tip!

I looked up the luggage size restrictions, are these very strict? I was looking at buying luggage that was 11.9 inches and when I convert the CM to Inches the max says 11 inches. Should I look for a different bag? The other dimensions were fine.

10 minutes ago, PhilbeachTraveller said:

At least a month in advance but since you're going in February, you can look it up now. Go to: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx

 

The train really is a nice relaxing trip (especially if you can do first class - probably very expensive on a Monday but should be doable on the Sunday and you can do the upgrade on the day). The sooner you book, the better the prices are (found that to my peril!)

I was only looking at February since that was all that is out so far. Our trip is in the middle of May. I signed up to be alerted when tickets go on sail so hopefully I can jump on them when they are cheapest.