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Have trip planned for Aug 6 Week in Scotland. Had air travel Delta planned for over 6 months. Just notified Delta’s partner KLM for Amsterdam to Glasgow is cancelled. Nothing available. Nothing looking good. New schedule 12 hr layover in Atl, 3 rail connections…No way. This trip looks like it’s not going to happen. I can’t be the only one affected by cancellations for this trip. Anyone else out there having air travel issues?
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I'm doing ESW next month, flying British Air to EDI (via LHR). Have you checked other airlines?
Sam, where are you flying from? There must be airlines other than Delta. Maybe flying to Edinburgh would be a better bet, it’s the Edinburgh festival in August and people flock from all over. It’s only about 40 miles from Glasgow.
Update: my agent checked other airlines & cause it’s short notice flights are booked. What we have is doable but pain in the arse heading over. Augusta to Atlanta, to JFK, to Amsterdam, to Edinburgh. At least wife & I are sitting next to each other & able to get Comfort Plus going over the pond. Return did not change from original so that’s all good. Get into Edinburgh 6 hrs earlier but leave 7 hrs earlier out of Augusta. We will be worn out by the time we get to Scotland but then the fun begins. No uptick in airline price, which there shouldn’t be, from Delta. If anything they should bump us up to 1st class for the inconvenience but we know that’s not going to happen. Appreciate the input BKMD & British.
Will Tauck pick you up in Edinburgh and drive you to Glasgow?
On our first Tauck tour in 2018, we booked round-trip JFK to Edinburgh. We just took a local bus to Glasgow from the airport. And walked to the hotel from the station! Never dawned on us that they might transport us!🤦🏻♀️
Sgf, I don't think so. I asked if at the end of our tour they would take us to Glasgow from Edinburgh and the answer was no.
From reading here on the forum, I notice that some people appear to be able to get Tauck to transport them in ways they never used to, so I guess the lesson is to ask and maybe even ask again on a different call to a different agent, just incase they are more knowledgeable. But remember that Tauck records all phone calls.
When I was on the Essence of Japan trip, I asked the TD (who checked with HQ) if we could use their return airport transportation from Tokyo, instead of Kyoto, as we returned to Tokyo at the end of the tour. We were told no.
From experience, there is some flexibility within these limits: it has to be within the same city and it has to be to/from either a communications hub (airport or train station) or a hotel. Examples:
We changed out flight (september) as direct flight to edinburgh, then will hire a car to drive us the hour to Glasgow. Fingers crossed. Hope your trip comes through.
Claudia and British - by contrast, our Morocco tour ended in Marrakesh and Tauck drove many people to Casablanca, which was several hours away. The rest of us departed from the Marrakesh airport, a mere 1/2 hour ride.
I think this will be an ongoing conversation, because the start and end cities are typically different on land tours. Flights are getting increasingly more expensive, and having to book one way tickets to work with these itineraries will be challenging. For some, it may make sense to travel back to the airport we arrived at. I guess it's all relative to the cost and convenience factor.
SGF. You don’t havre to pay for one way tickets for tours, you book them together and it is not more expensive.to start and end from different airports.
Regarding the Morocco trip, both Casablanca and Marrakesh airports are options listed in the tour itinerary.
When I was considering this trip, I looked at flight options, and Marrakesh had significantly fewer flight choices, epeciallyt if you were looking for one stopover.
Update. After 24 hrs of flying, layovers, Uber from Edinburg Apt to Hotel in Glasgow we arrived this am. Uber experience and the layover at Delta Sky at JFK were the highlights of the travel. Went with Uber Exec to get a larger, more experienced driver. It was great. BMX 5 & driver showed in 5 minutes from using the app. Due to World Cycling Championships most areas around hotel and Edinburgh closed for the Championship. Closest we got to hotel from roadblocks were 2 blocks form Uber drop off. Easy walk and hotel checked us in quickly. Even though we were there at 1030 hrs they had a room for us already. Will go to Sterling Castle on our own tomorrow (Sun) since it was cancelled due to the Cycling World Championships. Then start the Tauck tour with the dinner meal.Hope any of the info will assist other travelers
@samgallagher So glad you made it there, and thank you for sharing your update. We will be doing the week in scotland in september and previously changed our flight there to a flight into Edinburgh. We were going to hire a private driver to get us to Glasgow, but have yet to make those arrangements. Do you mind sharing what sort of cost was associated with an Uber Exec from the Edinburgh airport fo the Glasgow Kimpton Blythworth Square? That is amazing that you could just arrange that on the fly.
PS I am assuming you meant "areas around the Hotel and GLASGOW closed for the Championship".
Have a great trip. Hope to hear more about your travels. Enjoy!
Hey Sherrill, used Uber app, so set that up on ur phone ahead of time. U have options with the app to select basic (small car & lower price), few other options such as exec (larger vehicle, more experienced driver). The cost with a 20 pound tip, which is $25, was 142.28 bp…$181.39. My agent presented limo driver at a cost of $369.42 with no tip. Yes, just areas around hotel and other sections of downtown closed for the cycling world championships. When u puck up luggage, walk thru customs exit door, take a right and walk in front of main terminal, cross street to the left where multi story parking is located. Stay on ground level and u will see vehicles driving one way thru multi lanes. Get in lane 3, get on Uber app and request ur driver which means you will need hotel address. Let driver know u are in lane 3, how many people, color of bags to help identify u. Best of travels.
I don’t know if it is the same in Britain, but if you want to book an Uber ahead of time in the US, it says in small print that the driver may not arrive. We tried this one time and no driver came. We thought it was a one off until we were going to prebook an Uber recently and read the small print. We do use Uber, most recently around 9 times in NY over a three day period as it was too hot to walk far.
Sam, I’m not clear whether you pre booked like this or did you just order an Uber when you got to Edinburgh airport? I wonder how much a regular taxi would have cost?
Here is an interesting website about types of travel, time and cost from Edinburgh to Glasgow.
https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Edinburgh/Glasgow
I once tried the "make a reservation" feature with Uber and the driver didn't show up. I called Uber and they refused to refund that fee.
Since then, I've used Lyft (which gives 10x with the Chase Sapphire card).
British: Yes, u can reserve ahead of time for pick up but I have always used it as I need it. Maybe taxi is comparable in price but usually not. Check it out may be worth a few more dollars to u.
BKMD: Only bad experience I have had was today coming back from Sterling Castle, Tauck cancelled it due to World Cycling Championship but I saw tour buses at the Sterling Castle. No drivers available. Was Sunday and very busy. Walked towards train station, about 1/2 mile & got a taxi. Was only about $5 more than the Uber driver in the am to get to Sterling Castle. Sterling Castle is a must when in Scotland. Can’t imagine not seeing the castle as it is the most historical one for Scotland. Not sure if Lyft is avalanche in Scotland. Did not see any around but I have the app and used them in the US.
FYI Stirling Castle not Sterling Castle. May help someone!
@samgallagher Thank you so much for that detailed reply. That will be such a help. We are thinking we might go the Uber route as well. At least it will also accommodate whatever time our flight ends up getting in.
On another note, how far in advance did Tauck notify you that Stirling Castle would be omitted. Glad you got to fit it in on your own. I wonder where you will be taken instead.
If I read correctly, your tour started today. I hope it is grand!
Plenty of other great castles in Scotland.
@British Given Stirling was part of what Tauck typically includes, I am curious what they will do to replace.
Also, yes, it has been illuminating to realize how many castles there are!!
Have you seen the Neflix series "The Secrets of Great British Castles"? I have only watched a couple so far, but excellent.
Stirling Castle IMO is a must to see. Rich in Scottish history. World Cycling Championship was the excuse that Tauck deleted S. castle due to roads being blocked. Yes, roads were blocked but I saw motor coaches dropping people off at the entrance to the castle. Tauck could have made this happen. At least offer short walk to train station to S. castle then a mile hike from train station to the castle. It was doable. Anyways, glad we made it happen on our own.
While watching an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls, the Challenge, last night when the location was Scotland, he happened to mention there are around a thousand castles in Scotland. Being born in Britain i always think of a castle as an ancient ruin. Those of an age of a couple of hundred years, I think of as stately homes. Bear and his companion slept in the ruins of an ancient castle, no roof, only the fireplace and ancient toilet area, he called the crapper, had shelter for if it rained.
@british, I just found and watched that episode. Haggis is looking even less appealing now.
When I toured Scotland, one of the dinners included the 'Ceremony of the Haggis'. It included a fun little ceremony to watch. Each meal included a small portion of haggis, that each person could choose to each or not. Both my wife and I tried it and we thought it was OK - we wouldn't go out of our way to order it, but it wasn't terrible.
Of course we didn't get involved with the preparation and how they served it looked nothin like how it looked on the Bear Grylls show.
As always, for me, I will sample local any/all local cuisine if it is offered 'free' (part of an included meal/activity). If I have to pay for it myself, unless it is very cheap, I would not.
Have you ever tried the British, Black pudding! I ate it on occasion, blood and fat!
I tried Haggis once at the start of the England Scotland Wales tour. Once was enough. On our recent tour the hotel in Edinburgh had it on the breakfast menu and my husband ate it every morning. Told him "enjoy" as I was never making it at home even if I could.
I enjoyed the black/blood pudding that I had at the Savoy in London. When in Portugal, I always have some blood sausage. Just a small amount, It was also served on the Andorinha (Douro cruise.) It is an excellent source of iron.
Each ethnic group has its own cuisine. As I read through the comments about the haggis and the blood pudding, I think about food my mother enjoyed and that I had exposure to while growing up in NYC. We have a German heritage with lots of sausages. The haggis was not something I would go out and purchase but it was fine to eat. The white sausage at the full Irish breakfast was very similar. The blood pudding reminds me of the blutwurst that my parents and grandparents thoroughly enjoyed.
My husband's family lived in the midwest and did not have the exposure to fish that I had on the East coast. To them fish was salmon from a can or fish fries at church.
As we travel and one around the country we get exposure to more types of food that are with trying. You never know what you will like! Friends of ours went to Greece. At each meal he had the best octopus he had ever tasted.