August 10th Small Group Tour
Well I guess it's time to see if I can find some of you who'll be joining a pair of Aussies on this great adventure kicking off in Edinburgh on 10th August. According to my inside sources there are 24 North Americans joining us for 14 days of fun and frivolity Oh! and some history and a fair bit of ABC'ing. So please don't be shy. If you're one of those who'll be on the bus then please respond.
After traveling half way around the world we'll be arriving in Edinburgh the day before the tour starts and we are truly looking forward to meeting new friends.
Rod and Andrea.
After traveling half way around the world we'll be arriving in Edinburgh the day before the tour starts and we are truly looking forward to meeting new friends.
Rod and Andrea.
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Another option for your free time in Edinbrugh is a self-guided walking tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia which is permanently moored in the harbor. Most interesting tour even if you don't care about boats. You can do this on a free half day. There is a small restaurant onboard for a light lunch. Tauck may schedule a Britannia tour for everyone if the queen is vacationing at her Edinburgh castle that is a tour stop if she's not there during your tour.
Cheers,
Jan
Nope, not joining you (been there, done that), but just wanted to commiserate. Maybe your entire group booked through a TA and doesn't know about the forums here. Their loss.
What do you have planned for your early arrival in Edinburgh? Will you be staying in London afterwards?
If you have R a c h e l or R o n as your guides, please say "Hi," for me
Say "Hi" to Bets for me, also.
Enjoy. I'll shut up now. : )
Alan
Hi Alan - Sorry I took so long to answer you but I had given up on this thread. We've got a few things planned for our spare time before we report for duty. We've booked for the Royal Yacht Britannia and Real Mary Kings Close, we'll take a ride on the hop-on hop-off bus and we have tentative plans to walk the Royal Mile foraging for food and drink. We fly out in just 6 days time.
Rod
Regards,
Jan
It may not sound like it from my comments below, but we truly loved this trip. I was just reading the itinerary for E,S,W 2015- some significant changes. A couple of notes regarding your 2014 small group itinerary based on our July 2013 small group trip:
1. If you don't mind paying extra $ you can get a room with a "castle view" at the Sheraton. We did and though we weren't in our room much, it was a worthwhile indulgence to us.
2. Bring camera to welcome dinner- Bag Piper in full Tartan regalia piped us from cocktail hour to dinner, and read (performed with vigor) Robert Burns' famous "Ode to the Haggis."
3. Edinburgh Castle, was a real bust in my opinion- very crowed, not all that much to see- a few signs and dioramas to see while in the long slow line to see "Crown Jewels" which were less than impressive- mediocre crown, scepter, and sword- that's it, that's pretty much all there was. I guess my impression was colored by my total misunderstanding what the term "crown jewels" meant. Stirling Castle is much more interesting though much of what you see is a reconstruction- the interiors of Stirling are brightly colored and photograph well. The 2015 tour visits the "Whiskey Experience" which I believe is right outside the castle's Tattoo area on the left. Royal Mile- souvenir shops, Tartan shops, small pubs and restaurants, interesting church or two. A couple of blocks to the east is the museum, not bad. You have more time than you need to walk the main part of the Mile. Those who didn't want to walk after touring the castle could take the bus back to the hotel.
4. After touring Hollyrood Palace- go around to the left side of the palace to the adjacent ruins of the abbey.
5. After Hadrian's Wall stop (I would have liked to have seen one of the other Wall sites too) we visited some landed gentry and had lunch at their old estate. Hosts were Penelope and (filling in for his dad) was her second son Rory. Good lunch and very interesting discussions about land ownership, taxes, primogeniture, etc. I don't think it was listed on our itinerary- just a pleasant Tauck surprise. It is not listed on your itinerary either, but it is listed for 2015.
6. Dove Cottage, very small, so only half our small group got to see it. Fine with me. I just wandered around Grasmere and had some ice cream.
7. The visit to Levens Hall was great- very photogenic front and gardens, (no photography inside) interesting interior with leather covered walls, interesting history, etc. and the tour of the incredible topiary gardens lead by the head gardener was fantastic even for someone like me who has a brown thumb and doesn't do any gardening.
8. Not much time to do much of anything but walk around, window shop, feed the swans, etc. in Ambleside and Bowness.
9. Chesters, interesting old walled town, quite busy and crowded with tourists. Interesting church and city architecture. Your tour differs from ours after that- we stayed in Portmeirion- I don't know why they took out that quirky but very interesting place- we loved it. Maybe it was too far from Caernarfon or undergoing refurb. Make the effort to climb the steps to the Caernarfon battlements - great views of the castle, city, and estuary.
10. If you have the time after visiting Shakespeare's house, walk down to the Avon river- on weekends there is an open air market by the Avon river. A canal boat basin where a number of interestingly decorated canal boats dock is nearby.
11. Bath- Roman baths ruins were very interesting as was waterfront area. Guided walking tour of Royal Crescent and Circus (circle) were a bit too long. A real Jane Austen town (she lived there)- lots of movie locations for movies based on her books- ask your wife
12. Stonehenge- new visitor center should be open (good and bad news)- your bus can't get up close, but I believe a shuttle is provided. Unlike years ago, you can't get close or touch the stones, the encircling path is at least 20 yards away.
13. Blenheim Palace (Churhill) was really awesome- learn how to use your camera without flash. It is one of the few places you can use a camera, but can't use flash. Ask the your guide/bus driver if the bus can make a quick photo stop so you get get a shot of the famous bridge at Blenheim which will be on your left just before you exit the estate gate.
14. Oxford, OK but too crowded with tourists and wandering hordes of foreign students who come there in the summer to learn English. They don't necessarily behave badly, just big noisy groups that clog the streets and sidewalks- while talking loudly on phones or texting.
15. Windsor Castle was good. Thankfully most repairs to the fire damage were done. I don't know if more of the palace will be open, but what you see is interesting. Don't bother watching the entire changing of the guards- it is long and not much really happens. Personally, I would skip it all together. If you really want to see that sort of thing wait until London and go to Buckingham Palace.
16. Royal Horseguards hotel was in a great location- right on the river within a few blocks of Parliament, Westminster Abby, Trafalgar Square, and has tube station across the street. We hit the "London Eye" (has a new name?) which is just across the river, across the Millenium Bridge, after we cleaned up a bit and got organized. We ordered tickets online. Don't plan on a room with a river view unless you make arrangements on your own ahead of time. 2015 tours stay in the Savoy.
17. Be prepared for crowds and a slow go through Westminster Abbey- if it hadn't been for the Vox each of us had, we would not have been able to hear our guide who was often out of sight as well.
18. They are not part of the Tauck Tour, but after Westminster, I highly recommend you visit the Churchill War Rooms nearby. Our local Westminster guide offered to show those of us who were interested how to get there and dropped us off at the entrance.
19. You get a brief history lecture about the Tower of London and Beefeaters before the farewell dinner and the "Ceremony of the Keys" afterward, but you don't get a tour of the Tower compound or anything in it- no Crown Jewels, dungeon's of historical interest, etc. If you want a full Tower tour, you will need to do it on your own if you stay extra days and have the time. Dinner in the Tower is not on the schedule for 2015???
20. We stayed an extra day. We took the tube and spent part of the day at the British Museum- incredible antiquities, could spend days there- then we took the tube and spent several hours at the open air market on famous Portobello Road in the Notting Hill area. The British Museum is free. If you are short on time they have tailored suggested lists of things to see- "Top XX things to see if you only have XXX hours."
21. You need an extra 3 -4 days to do London right and that might not be enough!!
That should give you a few things to think about.
I stayed at the Savoy last year, lovely hotel, as soon as you check in everyone remembers you by name. One warning though, we ate at the Gordon Ramsay restaurant there and it was extremely disappointing both food and service and of course expensive. We have eaten at the fancier Gordon Ramsay at the London restaurant in the London Hotel in New York and it is much more of an 'experience' even if even more expensive.
If you can squeeze as many days extra in London at the end of the tour to see as much more as you can,I recommend it. Alternatively, if this tour is your first to Britain and now you feel confident to return on your own, go back just to London in the off season and spend at least a week seeing the sites with less crowds
My wife was in the part of our group that got to visit Wordsworth's tiny Dove cottage. She said the guide was great and that she really enjoyed the little tour (she was an English major in college).
When you are scheduled for lunch (usually a quick lunch) on your own- tiny open air place in a side alley off Royal Mile in Edinburgh, a decent Pizza joint in Stratford upon Avon, Pretamanger in Chesters and Bath (and a close copy in Windsor). Pretamanger (recommended by our guide) was our go-to place for a quick sandwich or salad and a beverage. We ate at the "Buttery Inn" in the village of Woodstock near Blenheim. London- just about any pub. We actually thought the food was better on the ESW trip than our recent Alps trip, certainly less expensive.
Just to add a couple of things. Walking around the wall in Chester is a nice opportunity to see almost everything there, including the locks, the race track, the river, downtown, the clock, some restaurants/pubs.
I haven't looked at the new itinerary, but it sounds from the comments above, that some things have changed. August is obviously a great time in Edinburgh with the Tattoo. I hired a car and driver to go to St. A.n.d.r.e.w.s to walk around the course and then follow the coast for a nice drive through some very interesting fishing villages.
I don't know how they changed the Glasgow visit, but it was short, with a quick visit at the church, and there wasn't much time to see much on your own. It was basically a drive through.
Blenheim Palace (Churchill's home in his youth) is a great place to visit, but the time there just isn't enough. We visited it in 2003 when we stayed in Woodstock at "The Bear" hotel ( Liz T.a.y.l.o.r and Richard Burton stayed there on at least one of their honeymoons) on a trip on our own and spent the entire day at the Palace. The outside grounds are amazing and huge. We walked down by the river and the flower gardens. The marsh area is a great place to visit, but you do start to get a good distance away from the main house. You can also pay extra and take a golf cart drive to the lake and the bridge. I think they have "raised" the bridge a bit. When we were there it was partially submerged. Even so, the Tauck tour gives you an opportunity to see a good part of the place.
Royal Horseguards was a great hotel. We stayed two extra days there (four total) and I purchased a "London Pass" for those two days (maybe it was three, don't remember for sure). It was an unlimited tube pass and "free" pass to most of the major tourist attractions in the area. We got our money's worth the first day. Yes, Churchill's War Rooms was a great tour. We had an issue with a next door neighbor in the hotel (not a Tauck member) with loud music and smoking in a non-smoking room. Night management did nothing except try to move us into a room half the size of the one we were in. I told him that we didn't do anything wrong and were not going to be punished. I talked to the day manager and told her if it wasn't taken care by the time we returned from our morning tour, I would be making a call to Peter Tauck. When we returned we were put into the penthouse apartment for the final three nights.
By the way, I did email the hotel before we left on the tour and asked if we could get a room with a view of the Thames and we had a great view for our first night. I honestly didn't expect to get it, but I figured the worst that would happen is they would say, "No." The apartment didn't have much in the way of views....the outside views were mostly roof lines, but the inside was fantastic.
If you are spending a couple of extra days the "London Pass" is a great investment. Go to their website.
I am going to go back during June and July, 2015 and rent a flat in London to spend a relaxing two months seeing what I have missed in my last three visits there. Flats are expensive, but two months are cheaper than a two week Tauck tour there. I plan on going to the Wimbledon tournament while there too. I already have people lining up for visits which will be nice (two bedrooms are a requirement for the flat, obviously).
We took the train to Liverpool for three days before flying to Shannon. We rented a car and drove to Penmaenmawr, Wales to visit relatives.
It's a great trip....enjoy it.