Nearly two months ago, I reached Financial Independence (FI) and quit my full-time job. There are a lot of things I’m planning to do with my extra time off, but my first order of business is enjoying longer-term travel. Here in the United States we get a sad number of days off each year, making it nearly impossible to enjoy extended travel abroad. Most of my American colleagues don’t take more than a week off at a time and we certainly don’t feel comfortable traveling for a month or more. My husband and I spent our first month of freedom in Europe and the first week and a half of that month in the United Kingdom (UK). It was truly delightful. If you’re thinking of traveling to the UK, here’s what we did and what we learned along the way.
Our United Kingdom Itinerary
Our main takeaway from this trip is that we could have spent a lot more time in the UK, especially Scotland. We essentially did a loop as pictured above via train with a slight detour back to London for a pilgrimage to the Dr. Who Museum that my husband simply needed to make. Here’s what the entire itinerary looked like:
- Day 1: London
- Day 2: Bath
- Day 3: Manchester
- Day 4: Travel to Edinburgh via London again for a stop at the Dr. Who Museum & Shop
- Day 5-6: Edinburgh
- Day 7: Travel to London
- Day 8: Harry Potter Studios / London
- Day 9: London
UK Public Transit
We took public transportation everywhere on this trip. The London Underground ran extremely well and the regional trains in the UK were clean, easy to book, and basically on time across the board. The buses in London were great too.
One of my favorite things about the system is that we didn’t have to deal with buying tickets in London. All public transit now accepts contactless payments via credit cards or Apple/Google Pay. As long as you use the same payment method the entire time, the system will calculate whether you hit the daily limit and automatically apply your discount. That means you don’t have to worry about buying tickets or what zone you’re traveling to. You can simply calculate your route, find your train station, and walk in.
I used Google Maps Transit to figure out our routes in every city we were in. All we had to do was plug in our destination and it would figure out the possible routes, complete with timing, train or bus stations, stops, and everything else we’d need to navigate the system. It was accurate, easy to use, and it was a lifesaver as we traveled through a foreign country. Trains in London seemed to arrive roughly every 5 minutes, with most coming within 3 minutes of when we stepped onto the platform. Buses were running every 10-15 minutes. Everything was wildly convenient.
For long-distance travel, we bought a BritRail pass and made train reservations before we departed for our trip. It seems like you could easily buy your tickets the day of for most routes, but you will likely pay higher prices and risk finding sold-out trains.
Food, Glorious Food
The UK is not really known for its food, is it? But we did enjoy some options we don’t have at home while we were there. We found some good fish & chips, of course, and pies of all kinds.
Our favorite option, however, were the pubs. Everywhere they had cute little hole-in-the-wall pubs with good beer and sometimes great food. Our favorite little location was in Bath and we found it simply by walking by. It was called The Raven. A two-story pub where you order at the bar and enjoy the views of the tiny backstreets of Bath. The meal and beers we had were amazing and the ambiance was exactly what you’d want from a tidy English pub.
We also relied heavily on a non-local chain, Pret a Manger, which I missed from my days of living in Washington, DC. Pret has a variety of grab-and-go healthier options (sandwiches, wraps, and salads). So, when we felt like we needed more vegetables or needed a meal to take on the train, we typically turned to Pret.
Bath, England
Outside of London, Bath was our first stop. Bath is a very cute little town that is largely walkable. Its most famous stop is The Roman Baths, a site that was found and excavated right in the middle of town. It is an actual Roman Bath and is well worth a visit. You can book a ticketed timeslot ahead of time, which comes with an audio guide. At the end, you get to taste the water that comes directly from the underground spring, which fed the bath.
There is a thermal pool and hotel in the town as well, Thermae Bath Spa, also fed by the springs. My biggest regret about our trip to Bath is that I didn’t book time at the thermal spa.
Bath is somewhat of a writer’s dreamland. Jane Austen, who wrote my favorite book of all time, lived there. You can visit The Jane Austen Centre and go on a tour led by a costumed Austen character. (We met Wickham while we were there and he was acting quite saucy.) You can also walk down Great Pulteney Street, Austen’s old stomping grounds. Mary Shelley wrote part of the Frankenstein book in Bath as well.
There are a large number of filming sites for the hit show Bridgerton, as well. These included the Royal Crescent and Holburne Museum (pictured above). If you like that show, it’s worth taking a little walking tour past the various film spots.
Manchester, England
We spent only one night in Manchester, primarily revisiting our youth by seeing The Smashing Pumpkins & Weezer in concert. (Weirdly, the Foo Fighters were also in town that evening.) Our impression of Manchester is that it is a commuter town. People seemed like they were coming into town for work, then leaving to live somewhere nicer. It was once a textile town where every street had huge brick factory buildings producing cotton-based clothing. It still looks very industrial, but the factories are being turned into hotels and other businesses. Our hotel, the Cow Hollow Hotel was one of them. This boutique hotel had tiny but nice rooms, a happy hour, breakfast in bed, and a talkative manager.
Manchester was fairly easy to get around, at least in the downtown portion. We took the above-ground train out to the concert venue, Co-op Live, which is a brand-new facility and very well-run. Trains home from the concert were free. Despite the large numbers of people heading back to town, we got back to the hotel and into bed in around 30-45 minutes.
A Weekend In Edinburgh, Scotland
Running around the UK by train was all well and good, but at this point we were ready to put down some roots and stay in one spot for a couple of days. Next week’s post will be about our time in Edinburgh, Scotland, my favorite place that we visited in the UK. If you have any questions about the trip or navigating the UK, feel free to reach out in the comments!
