Tips For Visiting England?

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Scott

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Hi Everybody!

My Wife and I are going to be visiting in the vicinity of Manchester England in a few weeks. We are renting a car and will just be driving around. We would love to have suggestions of things to see and do!

Also, I don't like the sound of what Verizon would charge us for what amounts to limited service while there. So we are thinking of buying a local SIM card to use while there, and could use some suggestions there as well.

Thank you in advance!

Scott.
 
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magpens

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I can recommend the area around Oxford, about 3 hours drive south of Manchester. Check out Stone Henge (famous prehistoric stone circle), Avebury (less famous prehistoric stone circle and other prehistoric relics) , Bath (old Roman baths), Abingdon (quaint country town), Culham (atomic energy research), and Oxford itself (famous university town).

Don't forget Stratford-upon-Avon:

Stratford Upon Avon to Manchester by Bus and Train | Stratford Upon Avon to Manchester
 

skiprat

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Visiting the UK...my 2p worth
Driving
1. Remember we drive on the correct side of the road.:wink: I have driven in USA and all over Europe and have been known to pull onto the wrong side of the road when leaving the hotel first thing in the mornings. Scary!!:eek:
2. Our fuel price for petrol is around £1.20 / litre. Filling up on a motorway will cost more.
3. Get a hire car with a separate Satnav if you can. They have far more 'touristy' info.
4. We rarely have posted speed limits. Your Satnav will show the speed limit of the road you are on. Watch out for 'Average Speed Cameras' through roadworsk. Your car hire company will hammer your credit card if you get caught. DAHIKT:frown:
5. I would set your Satnav to 'Avoid Motorways' if you really want to see the best of UK.
Phone/ Communication
1. You can indeed get a Sim only at many places, mostly supermarkets. But if you have a Smartphone then look into Facetime or Whatsapp. My daughter is in China at the moment and calls would be prohibitively expensive. Maybe even buy a dirt cheap throw away Pay as You Go phone from a supermarket….Asda, Tesco,..etc. Most hotels, MacDonalds, Costa Coffee shops have free wi-fi. Not good enough for streaming movies but fine for internet calls.
Places to visit.
1. Buy a cooler bag and make up daily picnic stuff.
2. Make a list of your own 'must see' places and see where they are on a map. Then Google those places to see what events may be on those days. You may be planning to be in say Ludlow on Saturday, only to find they had a wonderful Jousting display at the Castle on Sunday. Or maybe if in Scotland, you miss a Highland Games by a day. County Shows, big Car Boots and Market Days are all good to see.
3. Check out the AA Route Planner on the web. It will give you realistic times between places, so you can plan a bit before you come. Your Satnav here will also take traffic into account.
4. England Personally, I'd avoid Manchester city. Chester is well worth a visit. A Roman Walled City. Lots to do and see. From museums, galleries, cathedrals, markets, walk the wall, a trip on the Dee. (15miles from my place). Maybe do the open top bus thing, then walk around.
5. England Not far away, drive towards Ellesmere Port and get the famous 'Ferry Across the Mersey' and visit the Liverpool Waterfront. Pretty good.
6. England Welsh Borders. Ludlow and Church Stretton, are beautiful. Go on Farmers Market day and get some cool grub for a picnic in the immaculate grounds of the Ludlow Castle.
7. Telford has the first iron bridge I think.
8. There's an amazing old aqueduct nearby where you can take a trip over in a longboat. I'll remember the name soon
9. North Wales. Take the mini Steam Train up Snowdon Mountain and if you are reasonably fit, walk back down. Wave to the Rat as you go past my place!!
10. Mid Wales. Betwys Coed is pretty. Scenic and touristy
11. West Coast Wales. Port Merrion near Port Madoc, is a bonkers folly. But worth a visit.
12. England. Oxford old city is OK… Abingdon / Culham is OK….ish. I work at the UKAEA site a lot and I'm not sure it would rock your boat. I'm sure their Visitors Centre is very interesting but I can assure you won't see any of the fancy Fusion / Fission machines as they are having major alterations.
13. However, Google Oxfordshire Villages. There are several stunningly beautiful places in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds.
Stratford Upon Avon is fantastic. Take a romantic row-boat ride.
14. Scotland. I love Scotland. You need a couple of days at least to see Scotland. If you can't manage to get into the Highlands then at least see Edinburgh, go over the Forth Bridge just for fun( they are currently building a new one next to it) maybe stop at the Kelpies and take a short trip on the Falkirk Wheel.
15. Scottish Borders. Really beautiful areas and great scenic route to Edinburgh.
16. London??? If you must visit London then there is plenty to see and do. You can do the Google thing. I can't recommend it.

No doubt I'll remember more the instant I post this…so perhaps more to come.
PS…I travel a lot for work but if you are in my area, then feel free to give me a shout.

Enjoy the trip:biggrin:
 

monophoto

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Wife and I were in the Cotswolds a few years ago, and are going to Cornwall in September.

We opted to do a tour rather than rent a car and drive ourselves. The rationale is that the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road, and are more aggressive drivers than we are accustomed to here in the Colonies. That makes driving a far more scarey proposition. And when you compound that with the need to navigate, and to want to do some sightseeing, it just makes sense to me to let someone else do the driving. YMMV.

As to communications - this year will be our sixth overseas trip, and our practice is to turn off the cell phone and enjoy being where we are. I rely on an iPod (an iPhone without the phone function) for web/e-mail access while traveling, and have found that every hotel we have stayed in has free WiFi, as does every MacDonalds.

If you use your cell phone with your existing service to call home, you will have to pay a roaming charge. If you use your existing service to call a local number in England, you will also pay a roaming charge and since your phone is registered in the US, the call will be treated as an international call ($$$). You can purchase a local SIM card that will allow you to make local calls, but calls home will be international calls ($$$). So the bottom line is that calls home will be very expensive.

So we tell our kids where we are going to be, and tell them that if an emergency arises, they are adults and should just deal with it. We send them occasional e-mails to let them know we are still on plan. In the five overseas trips we have taken, we have only had a need to call home once, and that was deal with an airline strike that left us stranded in France.
 

Turned Around

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I did a trip there not too long ago for work. Landed in London and drove up to Gateshead. Hit Sherwood forest, Stonehenge, Yorkshire (beautiful churches there). My advice: take your time, enjoy every bit of it, soak in the scenery, and watch your speed.
 

skiprat

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Louie, you really think we are more aggressive drivers? :frown: Perhaps in the big cities like London but generally we aren't that bad. I'm sorry if you had a bad experience on you previous visits.
However, we really have no time for bad drivers and they get the hooters and sign language messages...:biggrin: I guess people can get upset with drivers that pootle about during rush hour and just hold everyone up...but hey, at least you won't get shot..:biggrin:

I would rather stick pins in my eyes than be stuck on a bus with a bunch of tourists. A bus load of people can't fit in the best little cafes and hidden gem places so they only go to the bigger places.:wink:

My wife and I were recently in Tuscany, Italy and at first we relied on public transport, which I have to say was good and cheap, but it is very very restrictive. After two days we got a hire car and braved the manic streets and hills of Tuscany in a tiny Fiat 500. Italy is notorious for it's roads and drivers but the teeth marks in the car seats were more than made up by the freedom to go where you want, when you want.
 

skiprat

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I did a trip there not too long ago for work. Landed in London and drove up to Gateshead. Hit Sherwood forest, Stonehenge, Yorkshire (beautiful churches there). My advice: take your time, enjoy every bit of it, soak in the scenery, and watch your speed.

Yowza!!! Gateshead via Sherwood, Stonehenge and Yorkshire !! That's a hellavu detour. You need a new map.:biggrin:

Just kidding:biggrin:
 

Smitty37

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I did a trip there not too long ago for work. Landed in London and drove up to Gateshead. Hit Sherwood forest, Stonehenge, Yorkshire (beautiful churches there). My advice: take your time, enjoy every bit of it, soak in the scenery, and watch your speed.

Yowza!!! Gateshead via Sherwood, Stonehenge and Yorkshire !! That's a hellavu detour. You need a new map.:biggrin:

Just kidding:biggrin:
Skip - I last visited England in 1967 and much of the advice you are giving was the same as the advice I got then....I was there for work at Hursley Park and stayed right next door to the Winchester Cathedral. I found I got the most out of my stay there by finding a friendly Brit and getting them to show me their favorite haunts. Friendly Brits were not hard to find. I also found that Pubs were great places to have fun and I met a few people who could drink an unbelievably quantity of beer - met one fella who could pour away two pints for every half-pint I drank. I skipped London except passing through on the way in and the way out. I figured nothing in a city that big was interesting enough for me to want to go there.
 
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Turned Around

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I did a trip there not too long ago for work. Landed in London and drove up to Gateshead. Hit Sherwood forest, Stonehenge, Yorkshire (beautiful churches there). My advice: take your time, enjoy every bit of it, soak in the scenery, and watch your speed.

Yowza!!! Gateshead via Sherwood, Stonehenge and Yorkshire !! That's a hellavu detour. You need a new map.:biggrin:

Just kidding:biggrin:


No, it was intentional. We were there a couple days before and a few days after our meetings. Made it a little vacation. Drove to Edinburgh, Scotland one evening for dinner one night.
 

monophoto

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Louie, you really think we are more aggressive drivers? :frown:

Actually, this has been proven scientifically

One of the popular tools available to traffic planners is the roundabout. Roundabouts have been used for some time in England, but have introduced rather recently in North America, and the software used to design roundabouts came from England. When roundabouts designed using that software were constructed in North America, it was found that the throughput (vehicles/hour) was measurably less than predicted by the English software. It was later found that the reason was that drivers in North America are more cautious when entering an intersection than drivers in England, and slow down more in the roundabout.

I share you hesitation about bus tours. The company we use offers only small group tours - 16 people or less - which is much more tolerable. In fact, the first tour we did with them (in Scotland) involved only five people - my wife and I, a couple from Australia, and our driver/guide. Because it's a small group, its much more flexible, and the guide is allowed to modify the itinerary on the fly to coincide with the interests of his guests.
 

skiprat

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Ha ha Louie, the reason you guys slow down at roundabouts is twofold....
one, coz your cars weren't designed to go round corners and two, coz as you drive on the wrong side of the road, you are unsure which way to go around the roundabout.... :)
 

Smitty37

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Louie, you really think we are more aggressive drivers? :frown:

Actually, this has been proven scientifically

One of the popular tools available to traffic planners is the roundabout. Roundabouts have been used for some time in England, but have introduced rather recently in North America, and the software used to design roundabouts came from England. When roundabouts designed using that software were constructed in North America, it was found that the throughput (vehicles/hour) was measurably less than predicted by the English software. It was later found that the reason was that drivers in North America are more cautious when entering an intersection than drivers in England, and slow down more in the roundabout.

I share you hesitation about bus tours. The company we use offers only small group tours - 16 people or less - which is much more tolerable. In fact, the first tour we did with them (in Scotland) involved only five people - my wife and I, a couple from Australia, and our driver/guide. Because it's a small group, its much more flexible, and the guide is allowed to modify the itinerary on the fly to coincide with the interests of his guests.
What do you mean by introduced fairly recently? Roundabouts like those fairly common in England today aren't much over 50 years old there. Traffic Circles upon which roundabouts are based were introduced in this country in about 1900 or so and were pretty well phased out by about 1950 because of problems.
 

Smitty37

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Ha ha Louie, the reason you guys slow down at roundabouts is twofold....
one, coz your cars weren't designed to go round corners and two, coz as you drive on the wrong side of the road, you are unsure which way to go around the roundabout.... :)
When driving in the USA or Canada...do you find the worst problem the same as I found. Looking over the wrong shoulder when backing and looking out the wrong window when checking the outside rear view mirror....those two things bothered me more than anything else except the time i approached a parking lot, depressed the brakes and stopped just fine...entered the parking lot and pulled up to a wall to park depressed the brakes and they went to the floor and the vehicle stopped when it hit the wall. Fortunately I was not driving aggressively at the time and did very little damage to the car and none to myself.
 
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I've only visited the UK once, on business attending a marketing class - given by Panam of all companies - in London just off Hyde park. I didn't try to drive any there, but I walked over as much of downtown London as I could in my off time... I met a gentleman in the class from Christchurch, NZ who was near my age and spent a great deal of time with him at a couple of local pubs... great places to eat, though I found most British food to rather bland, the hotel bed about as soft as a table top... still enjoyed my trip over... although I was almost run over a couple of time by looking in the wrong direction before stepping off a curb.

I have driven in Jamaica and Trinidad, where they also drive on the left.... only drove one day in Jamaica, but made several trips to Trinidad where I called on clients and drove around the island quite a bit. Only turned once into the wrong lane, right in front of a local cop... he only laughed and wagged his finger at me... he obviously knew I wasn't native. There is a round about in San Fernando where most of my clients are... first time in was a little nerve wracking... Trinidadians drive fast and go into the roundabouts at a good clip.... I was use to doing roundabouts, we had one in the neighboring town of Mexia when I was growing up in Texas.
 

JohnU

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I had the honors of spending Christmas in London about 12 years ago when my sister in law lived there. I cant really give you any advice on the area. I seen the changing of the guards at the palace, threw up on a double decker bus, couldn't find a bathroom in most of the bars I drank too much at (nobody told the rookie drinker he could order half pints), there were some very nice pubs and food, and felt like a sardine in a can on the rail cars (mind the gap!) but had a great time. It was nice to see the old part of London town, rode the London Eye, and took a relaxing train ride out to Leeds Castle where we spent the day. It was a nice trip I hope to repeat someday, especially since my brother in law is from there and his family seems to like me. :) Have a nice trip! and make sure you contact your credit card banks to let them know your going, or they will cancel your card after the first use, thinking it was stolen.
 
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Dalecamino

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I think this is our nations oldest round about. Monument dedicated to the civil wars soldiers and sailors. Has nothing to do with England.:rolleyes:

Soldier-And-Sailors-Monument-2.jpg
 

Smitty37

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The reference is to the modern roundabout as opposed to traffic circle. There is a difference. My guess is that some circles might have been converted to roundabouts but I have no way of knowing that. They seem to be quite popular in Utah.

I don't think any modern roundabouts were built in the USA until the 1990s. There are something over 3500 now. There are 10 times that many in both France and England where they are quite popular.

I found this in a National Cooperative Highway Research Program document published in about 1997 or so. " In March 1990, the first two U.S. roundabouts, designed by Leif Ourston & Associates, were built in Summerlin, Nevada"
 
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Dalecamino

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Sorry Smitty. It's always looked like a round about to me. We have the moderns too. I think they all do the same thing. What do I know?

Scott, have yourself a great time over there. :wink:
 

Smitty37

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Sorry Smitty. It's always looked like a round about to me. We have the moderns too. I think they all do the same thing. What do I know?

Scott, have yourself a great time over there. :wink:
Actually Old style traffic circles and modern Roundabouts do not do the same thing...or at least they do not use the same method. The most obvious difference is that in a traffic circle the entering traffic has the right of way and in a roundabout traffic in the roundabout has the right of way. That does not seem like much but according to the literature it is a huge difference....I didn't know that either until recently when a local small city put one in.
 
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Chromey

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I lived in the Midlands for 8 years (Silverstone) One of my favorite cities in the world is Oxford, and although you may not want anything to do with London. you really owe it to yourself to check out The National History Museum and/or The Imperial War museum. Before I met my wife (37 yrs ago) I would spend days in London back then at "Tower Records" and the various museums.
Before then. my teenage years were in Germany and Italy. We visit her brother about every 2-3 years, and I am the guy that drinks those pints. I played on a semi-professional dart league back in the day, which was the always in the local pubs.
One thing I would recommend is to use a debit card at an ATM for cash, as some of the currency exchanges are terribly expensive.
 

Chromey

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Also forgot one thing no one has mentioned that we do is Skype, as has been discussed WiFi is readily available. My wife skypes her brother from here all the time cost $0, messages can be left to "meet" up later. Skype to Skype is free, so if you are leaving someone home you want to contact, make sure they have it, and they are on your contact list. Added plus is you can see them as well in video, if devices have that feature. When my son is on deployment, we skype him regularly. Hope that helps.
 
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