sarah_621

I'm a senior in high school, and am in the very beginning stages of planning my first trip out of the country, going with my mom. School lets out in late June, and I have to be back for college by mid-August, so unfortunately I have to go during high season - probably around the beginning half of July. Since my mom works, our time will probably be limited to two weeks. I know this wont be my only trip to the country, so I am more inclined to do a small part more in-depth, rather than the typical touristy countries I "should" go to first.

I'm thinking about sticking to the United Kingdom - England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. If that seems too ambitious for two weeks, I am not averse to saving Wales for another time. I want to spend the most time in England, which will probably be my starting point as I plan to fly into London-Heathrow. While I do enjoy shopping, I also want to get a feel for the history and culture of the area - any historical homes are a must, especially in England. I love all kinds of food, and anything ethnic and different is what I'm looking for - my mom is definitely the same way (she will want to avoid generic, chain restaurants)

I've saved about $5,000 so I can pay my own way, but with graduation presents (hopefully!!) I'll have a little more - I know exchange rates will be killer. I'm aiming for everything to be mid level price-wise: coach seats, decent hotels, no super fancy restaurants.

Basically, I need any advice/suggestions anyone has to offer! I'm coming in with practically nothing - any tips and ideas would be HUGELY appreciated, for getting plane tickets, booking hotels, deciding where exactly in each place to visit, what to see there, where to eat, how to get around... yeah, just about everything

tipsygus

Sorry Sarah

My first suggestion is go and buy a good guide book, Fodor's for example and my personal favourite Lonely Planet and decide what you want to see and do. Choose one or two areas of the UK ie Scotland and England, spend a week in each in one or at the most two places and then do day trips. Search the web most towns and cities in the UK have websites as do the attractions.
Then check airlines and travel companies to get an idea of cost.

Nikki

I always start my search for plane tickets at www.kayak.com. You can see all the airlines that fly the routes you are considering and compare prices. Then I check the site of the specific airline I am considering to see whether the price is any better. All things considered, I prefer to book with the airline itself rather than a third party site if the price is the same, but I will use a third party site if I can get a better price there.

It can save time and money to book your tickets "open jaws". This means you would fly into one city, for instance London, and out from another, for instance Edinburgh. This eliminates having to backtrack to London to fly home. You can find these options on search engines such as Kayak by looking for "multiple destinations" or some similar formulation.

I do recommend looking at guides, for instance the destination guides on this website, to learn more about the places your are considering visiting. Hard to answer many of your questions about things to see with as wide a possible area as all of the UK and Ireland. (I am assuming you know that the Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK.) When you have a general outline, or when you are deciding among general outlines, people here can answer more specific questions about the places you plan to visit.

bilboburgler

You might try the Rough Guide series. Fodors is a little lacking away from the main draws.

Ethnic, interesting point, do you mean you want to eat food that is not of the area or do you mean you want to eat food that is not international?

The exchange rate is pretty good at the moment (I'm guessing your $ are US but what do I know) but you will find that London prices are what a capital city can charge.

There are some real must does and I guess we all have our favorite. I think the V&A musuem will give you a good overview of history 7000BC forward covering design and art. A walk along the Thames and a pop into Tower of London, The wheel and St Paul's cathedral drops into the same standard. Food in London is from across the world and a good guide book will let you see the best of say Indonesia, Pakistan, France and with due diligence the basics of English cooking (new and old fashioned).

Shopping I'll leave to you

Getting about you will find that a car is useful once you leave London (car in London is basically a waste of time) if you want to see historical buildings. However it is still possible to do the whole Oxford/Stonehenge/Cambridge thing by coach from London coming back to the same hotel/appartment every night.

Going further its worth surfing this web site so if you decide you want to see the walled city of York then surf that and the threads should give you a good start

nytraveler

Agree - you need to spend about amonth poring over all the guide books yuo can find. Then you'll know what YOU wnat to see and do - versus what we do.

At the moment the exchange rate isn't bad - but prices in the UK are way higher than in the US for the same thing - so I wouldn't plan on shopping - unless there is something available only there that you really must have.

Two weeks is a ery short time to do 4 countries - I would limit yourself to 2 at the most - and even then recognize you will be seeing only a small part of them.

Also - it will probably save you money and will definitely save you time if you fly into LHR but fly out of whatver airport is closest to the end of you trip.

And not sure what you mean by ethnic foods. Some of the foods in the UK are odd to American tastes - but don;t know they would be considered ethnic. And while there are a bunch of Italiand and Asian restaurants in the UK - those in larger cities in the US (not mall chain places) are generally at least as good - and often more authentic.

Nonconformist

Another useful starting point might be to take a loook at the National trust website - they own a lot of historic houses which may be of interest to you, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland has its own organisation):
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits.htm

Finding some specific first-choice places you'd like to visit would help you work out a shape to your trip.

sarah_621

Thank you everyone for the advice - I will definitely go out and buy a guidebook! I guess I didn't realize how broad my questions were, but judging from how quick I got responses I'll be fine coming back in a month and asking more specific questions. I guess my lack of travel experience kind of overwhelmed me... I had very little idea of where to start the whole process. And I can now see two weeks wont get me anything in depth, so Ireland (yeah, I'm a little confused on the UK/Great Britain thing) is probably going to have to wait.

Open jaw tickets, good idea. And when I said ethnic, I was meaning food specific to that area, like regional stuff... no McDonalds, we definitely want to eat what the people there eat. Guess I can't say ethnic though, it's not that far removed. I love all types of food, so I'll try and find some good international-food places too, I've heard there is lots of Indian places. And yes, I'm from the US so I'm starting with $5,000 US dollars.

Here's a more specific question though, to someone who knows England: Obviously London is a must, but any suggestions about places outside of London? I've heard Bath and Brighton are fun, and I'm thinking of Oxford and Cambridge as well. Is this do-able in a week?

janisj

You will have a wonderful trip -- but I agree w/ just about everything said above. We here on Fodors are a great resource for helping you refine a route/itinerary. But not for doing the planning for you -- since my dream trip will almost 100% sure be different than yours.

However - - just to get you started:

"<i>England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. If that seems too ambitious for two weeks, I am not averse to saving Wales for another time</i>" . . . . .

I'd decide between doing England/Scotland -- or Ireland/ London. 2 weeks is not long enough for 4 countries . . . nor for 3. Especially Ireland - it cannot be seen/experienced in a few days. Travel around Ireland is slow. You could spend 10 days there and barely see the highlights. You could easily do 2 weeks in Ireland. (Same goes for England and Scotland BTW - but travel is a bit easier so you could squeeze in a little more in 2 weeks.)

Also - remember, 2 weeks does not = 14 days 'on the ground'. One day is spent flying overnight to the UK. The 2nd day is often a jet lagged fog (due to that overnight flight). Day 14 is spent packing and flying home. So your 14 days very quickly becomes 10-11 days for actual touring around.

Another hint - the earlier in your travel window the better you'll be both for crowds and for costs. UK schools don't let out until mid July so June/very early July is not high season and things will be easier/cheaper than mid July/August.

janisj

sarah: our posts crossed. Of course Bath/Oxford/Cambridge are terrific. But so are 200+ other places. So go get that guidebook and do some reading.

You need to decide what types of things interest you. Castles? Trendy shopping? History? Art? Scenery? Outdoors activities? whatever and then we can help you more . . . .

There are quite literally hundreds of stately homes/castles you could visit just in England and Scotland.

janisj

Also meant to add - you and your mom need to decide whether she wants to rent a car or if you will rely on public transportation.

Your itinerary could be substantially different depending onn how you will get around.

Not for London of course - you won't need/want a car there. Nor in places like Edinburgh. Trains go lots of places, but some places are easier by car. If you are taking trains we'd make different suggestions.

carolyn

Sarah, in order to save some money up front, go to your public library and look at their travel guides to see which one (or ones) suit you best; then you can buy what you think you will benefit most from. They may be old enough to be out of date regarding food and hotel prices, the the sightseeing won't change.

I know you and your mother will have a wonderful time.

greg

I also use library books for planning. I only buy books I want to rip out relevant sections to take with me.

How did you choose U.K. as your destination as opposed to other countries?

nytraveler

IMHO you need at least 5 days for London. If you want to do daytrips I wold reco Windsor, Hampton Court Palace (esp if you're a fan of the Tudors - if you're not get the series and check it out). Bath is pretty and interesting with Roman Ruins. Brighton is a seaside resort - but nothing like you will see in the US - and the Prince Regent's Palace is wonderful. Oxford is interesting, but takes a whole day and is better done with a guide who can show you around the various colleges (difficult to do o n your own).

If you're going up to Scotland I would stop at York on the way - and possibly see Hadrian;s Wall (the far end of the Roman empire in Britain) if you can.

Rosa_Mundi

How exciting!

I 3rd the library suggestion. I had to wait a little while for my library copies since someone else must have had the same idea I did, and in the meantime I got some great advice here- but the best advice was to look at several since the style of some will appeal to you more than others!

I checked out four different ones and spent alot of time going through them, finally pre-ordering the newest versions of two of them. If you aren't already, sign up at Borders for their emails. There are frequently 30-40% off coupons and shipping to your local store is free. Every little bit helps.

The advice you get here will be invaluable in addition to your own research. These people really know their stuff and it's great that they care enough to share their experiences- so definitely read as many trip reports as you can find and although sometimes the response list can be long, read through them- there are often great tips bounced around 'informally'.

From what I've read since starting my own planning, it seems like keeping it down to 2 countries for 2 weeks is sound advice.

Hope you and your mom have a fabulous trip!

jent103

I definitely agree with getting some guidebooks from the library - great resources there. Since it sounds like you need a starting point, some of my favorite places in those countries are: London (definitely spend several days there - and wherever you start, remember your first day will probably be a wash due to jet lag); the Lake District; Oxford; Bath; Edinburgh; Dingle; Kenmare; Glendalough/Wicklow. Places I haven't been but want to go: the Scottish Highlands, more of the Cotswolds, the Peak District, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Now, some of those will take longer than others - I'd allow much more time for the Highlands than for Oxford, for example - but maybe those will at least give you some topics to start with.

Absolutely fly open jaw. Makes no sense to do otherwise. And although the UK has a reputation for being very expensive, it's really not hard to visit fairly inexpensively. If you have $5,000 just for your part of the trip, that is definitely doable (my two-week trip to the UK and Ireland a couple of years ago cost me about $3,000; we stayed in a couple of hostels but otherwise had a pretty middle-of-the-road budget. The exchange rate was almost $2/pound then). Once you figure out an itinerary, people can help with specific hotels, restaurants, and other things in your price range.

Whether you'll want to rent a car depends on where you go. In London or Dublin, definitely not. Elsewhere in the UK, a lot of places are well served by trains or buses (Edinburgh, for example, or York), but some places you just have much more flexibility with a car (the Lake District or most of western Ireland).

<i>"Yeah, I'm a little confused on the UK/Great Britain thing"</i> - The UK is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is a completely separate country which shares an island with Northern Ireland.

Iowa_Redhead

Sarah, you're going to have a ton of fun on your trip and good job on starting out with the idea that this won't be your one and only trip. I do warn you however, travel can get into your blood and become an addiction! I started traveling internationally at 15 and almost 10 years later it's only gotten to be more of a passion.

In May 2008 I joined a bus tour to see England, Scotland and Wales. It was 14 days, counting the travel days and a single day in London. Even traveling by private bus where we didn't have to worry about routes, getting lost, parking, etc, it was a TON packed into a very short time. Doing that same trip with just two people would be impossible or nearly so. We were on the move constantly and barely had time to make a loop of the island. Most people would really hate the idea of a new place to sleep every night, so consider that in how much you want to move around the country. I'm content living out of a suitcase and moving every day, my family was not happy with that idea when I joined them in Ireland.

Many have suggested a week in London and I agree that that's a great time frame. For your second week, what are you interested in? History, architecture, shopping, landscapes, etc. I adore London for the history and architecture, but I also loved Scotland for the amazing views. I have pictures of Loch Ness when the gorse was blooming (it's bright gold when it blooms) that still make me smile like a fool.

For ideas of what you might like to do, lurk through this website and read trip reports. Then google the places they mention, and any key words you can think of, and see what they look like. Does it take your breath away and make you think "I want to go there!". When you find those places, keep a list of them as places you're interested in. Some might be a good idea to visit, and some will simply help get a view of what makes your eyes light up. Play in the travel section of the library and through the guidebooks. Google sites for things to do in London (there are literally tons of things to do in London) and again image search on google is an excellent tool. Another way to get ideas is to look at the tour group sites (Cosmos, globus, trafalgar, etc) and see where their tours go. Yes, this will get you ideas for mainly touristy places but there's often a reason that places are tourist traps. You don't have to follow their itinerary but it might give you ideas for places.

Needing a car or not entirely depends on where you want to go and your mom's comfort level driving on the left side of the road, most likely with a stick shift. The public transit system is pretty good in the UK, so you could easily do two weeks without needing a car if you're willing to tailor your trip to what's easily accessible and what's not.

Do remember that it's your mom's trip too so she might want to help with some of the planning or at least give ideas of what she does or does not want to do. I got into this mess a bit by traveling with family in Ireland and planning the trip. They wanted to have no input and ended up hating the trip because they had no input to the places or the travel style.

sashh

Do you have to do the entire trip with mum? Could you do two weeks with mum and then a couple of weeks on your own?

Two weeks is not enough to see much, I agree with the poster who said pick two places - that's as much as you can do with that short a time.

DO get an international student card - a lot of places givce student discount (museums obviously but also a lot of shops give 10% off) but you need proof you are a student

http://www.isiccard.com/about.asp

sarah_621

I chose the UK because I feel like for my first trip it will help a lot to be somewhere where pretty much everyone speaks English so I can get around easier - thats a pretty superficial reason I guess, but besides that I've been reading about England in books and novels, which really makes me want to visit the places they talk about. My parents will NOT have me going anywhere alone at all, so yeah, I do have to go with my mom for the whole tripp... which is kind of a bummer considering I was supposed to go with my friend but she backed out.

2 weeks 2 countries, I see now how I needed to pare down my list. I'm pretty sure of England and Scotland, don't want to add in travel by sea for this trip.

I am now cleared on what constitutes the UK, so thank you jent103! And library is another resounding reply, so I'll be heading there soon. Renting a car is my next big decision I guess, I'll have to read up more on that and talk to my mom. She will most definitely be involved in the planning process, so I hope she doesn't hate the trip Iowa_Redhead!! I can feel already that I'm going to love traveling, I'm planning to major in Hospitality so I'm hoping I'll get to travel for my job.

Rosa_Mundi, I totally agree: everyone here is ridiculously helpful, even though I posted without having even a bare-bones itinerary. Everyone has been really nice and encouraging, I was getting a little down on the trip but now I'm back to being excited!

Barbara_in_FL

Hi Sarah,

You will have a great trip. I agree that one big decision right now is whether your mom will choose to rent a car. In two weeks, you could certainly base yourself in London and Edinburgh and take day trips from each place if you wanted to rely on public transportation. It is easier to see the countryside with a car, but you can still get a taste without one. You didn't mention the books you've been reading but it is very easy to scout out book & film locations if you want to make that a focus of part of your tour.

One thing about basing yourself in or near a town (city) for a week at a time is that you might be able to consider a self-catering apartment rather than staying in hotels or B&Bs - it is sometimes more economical to do that and might give you and your mom a little more space.

Looking forward to seeing more as your plans develop.

Hans

Hi Sarah,

nothing against the UK, it's a beautiful country and I enjoy visiting there.

But from what I read in your posts, I'm not sure whether you already know exactly what you want to do during your vacation but already decided on the UK, partly because of language reasons. If I was you, I wouldn't base a decision on that consideration. From my experience, it's no problem to visit any major tourist centers in Europe using English. Many European tourists use English in communicating when in another country, even if they aren't native speakers, so it is very wide-spread in places with a lot of visitors.

So if I was you, I'd also consider other options, not least because of the price. The UK is more expensive than many other countries in Europe. You can go for cheaper options in the UK, but that comes with drawbacks. In case of hotels, it's the location. You might end up with a place outside the city centre, possibly only reachable by car if you rent one.

This isn't that much of a drawback if your interested only in sightseeing. Now, there is obviously nothing wrong with visiting a gorgeous landscape in Scotland with your mother if you enjoy that. But if I think about me at the age of graduating from high school, I had also other things on my mind. Since travelling some time on your own is out of question, a central location in a city might offer a compromise. In such a case it's easier to say "let's split up and meet at 7 PM at the hotel" or for you to go out in the evening on your own. If you're in a scenic bed and breakfast place in the countryside, you're much more stuck with each other.

Unfortunately nice hotels in attractive cities come with a price and in case of London, with a high price. But there are wonderful cities as for example Prague which are much cheaper.

To get an overview of hotel prices in various European countries, you could check www.hrs.com My experience is that hotel prices also give a good estimate for the relative costs of living (i.e. if the hotel price is double, so will the restaurant prices).