Hey y'all,
I'm graduating from college this year and I'm looking to take a gap year before continuing with school. I have always wanted to travel abroad and the United Kingdom seems like a great option. I would like to visit all the big areas in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. I'm under a relatively tight budget of $5,000 - $6,000 (USD). I have two months time to see as much as possible so hopefully that's enough time. I would like to leave from Raleigh, NC but traveling up to New York is not a major problem.
Any advice on sights to see, monuments to visit, foods to eat, easiest forms of transportation, and things to do is greatly appreciated.
Please let me know if you need any extra information. I apologize if I forgot anything important!
Thanks!
Help with 2-month itinerary for United Kingdom
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With $6000 for 2 months, that's $100 a day not including airfare. For food, lodging, local transport, fees & incidentals. Possible but not easy.
My first suggestion is to sign yourself up on the Hospitality Club website. It takes a while to go through sometimes so do it now. http://www.hospitalityclub.org/ I've stayed with members a number of times, often more for some company than the free place to sleep and have enjoyed it. It's something like Couch Surfing which I haven't used. You won't want to stay with members all of the time but if you alternated between hostels and club members you'd save quite a lot on accommodations which would bring the budget more in line with what's easily doable.
You may also want to look at www.yha.org.uk/ (England and Wales) and www.syha.org.uk/ (Scotland), www.hini.org.uk/ Norther Ireland and anoige.ie/ (Eire) very good way of getting to stay all over the place for low costs. Since they are all part of the Umbrella organisation there may be some great cost saving in this area too.
Too see, I'd get hold of the Rough Guide to countries, or surf the websites. What I would do is try and avoid August (main holiday season) have a look at www.seat61.com to understand the train system and then decide if you are going to base travel on the coach system or trains.
You also need traveline http://traveline.info/ and then the critical uk one, which I will have to dig out
http://www.transportdirect.info/Web2/Home.aspx?&repeatingloop=Y there you go.
You probably also need the festival guide
http://www.thefestivalcalendar.co.uk/
Please clarify -if that $5000-$6000 does or doesn't include airfare? And what time of year?
If that includes airfare, then it may not be as do-able.
You're now down to around 50-60 pounds per day for a 2 month trip.
If you're ok doing an EXTREMELY bare bones trip like that, then that's great and it may work, but I'd recommend going for just one month, doubling your daily budget to 120 pounds, and actually have some spending money for attractions/travel/decent food.
It may just be that I'm in my 30s now and no longer want to travel without knowing if I'm able to afford a pint today, or not
BUT... to stop being a Debbie Downer and to help with your actual question...
MUST SEE PLACES from South to North, kinda:
- Dover (if you like WW2 history)
- London, of course (Spend at least a week of your 2 months here, so long as your budget allows that)
- Bath (Roman ruins and baths... great history)
- York (walled old city and great nightlife)
- Newcastle (I may be biased since it's my original home, but the quayside is really great now, and again, great nights out for college-aged people
- Lake District
- Alnwick (great castle and gardens)
- Edinburgh (your must-see for Scotland... spend a while here too)
SHOULD SEE:
- Liverpool (for the music history)
- Cambridge & Oxford (similar old college towns... I prefer Cambridge, but both are really nice)
- Aberdeen
- Dumfries & nearby National park
- Snowdonia (Wales)