Planning: How to Travel?
After reading everything I could get my hands on, we were ready to start serious planning. We made a list of all the things we really wanted to see and do and found there was enough to keep us busy for months, if not years. However, all we could afford (in time and money) was a two week trip. To make matters worse, another primary objective was to visit some places relevant to Susan's family history. She had become very serious about genealogy and wanted to do some research on a particular Scottish ancestor whose origins were suspect. So with these interests and limitations, we evaluated all the various travel options.
Many people like the ease and efficiency of traveling with a tour group. But given our very unique list of family history sights, this was not an option. The other end of the travel strategy spectrum is based on the notion that spending a long time at one place is the best way to get a feel for a foreign country and its culture. I have been advised by many people that we can't really see London (or anywhere else) in just a couple of days. I have no doubt this is true. However, we could not spend a week in London (or anywhere else) and accomplish our primary goals. My objective was to plan a trip that would balance these two extremes of travel philosophy. By traveling on our own and going to places that are off the main tourist trail, we would not be as insulated from the culture as the people on the tour busses are. And even though we will cover a large distance, we limited our sightseeing at each location so that we could spend as much time as we wanted at each place. We also arranged our travel schedule so that most of the time we would stay at one location for two nights. So even though we were always on the go, we still could settle in a bit.
After making some hard choices, we determined that we mostly wanted to visit London, York, southern Scotland, St. Andrews, and the Aberdeen area. Given this list, the most efficient travel strategy would seem to be to fly "open jaws" into London and out of Scotland (Glasgow). This way we wouldn't have to waste a day getting back to London to fly round trip. If there is one thing on which all people agree, it is that you should not try to drive in London. So we chose to travel by public ransport in London (the Tube, train, cab), and then take a train to York. There we would hire a car and drive around Scotland since most of the places we wanted to visit there were not accessible by train. This strategy was cost effective because we weren't paying for a rental car when we didn't need one. Another advantage was that our driving was limited to country roads and small cities (for the most part).
After sorting out where to go and how to get there, we looked into food and lodging. For the budget minded, independent traveler, the consensus is to use bed and breakfast houses (B&B's). However we did choose to stay in a Hotel in London (although it was a small "B&B style" hotel). We also chose to stay in an expensive country estate hotel for our last night in Scotland as a special treat. Eating was one detail I didn't plan in advance. I find guide books to be of limited value since their recommendations are usually a couple of years out of date. But mostly, we didn't know where we would be at meal time and didn't want to spend a lot of time tracking down a restaurant across town. We decided to rely on local recommendations or dumb luck to find places to eat.
The last question was when to go. We decided to go in mid May
for several reasons. It was a convenient time for Susan and I to
take off from work. It was also convenient for our children, who
were going to be staying at home with their grandparents. We thought
it would be easier for all of them if we traveled while school was still
in session. May travel also benefits from being "shoulder" season.
Nearly all attractions are fully open but things are a bit less crowded
and prices are a bit lower. Finally, the weather in Great Britain
is generally good in May. It is one of the drier months, and while
it's not as warm as summer, it is far enough into spring to allow reasonably
comfortable outside activities.
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