Here's a rundown on some of the trip's highlights
By Nicole Pensiero
It was a bit of a contradiction: I was traveling solo on a 10-day trip to Great Britain, but was hardly alone. How so? Well, I had set off to visit some highlights of England and Scotland via a motor coach tour (please don't call it a bus, as our guide gently reminded us) - meaning I was on my "solo" vacation with 40 strangers.
I'll admit: I was a bit anxious about traveling overseas alone (even on an escorted tour), simply because I'd never done it before. But traveling as a "single" on a large tour proved a great way to not only meet new people, but also enjoy time on my own. This whirlwind vacation was, by turns, exhilarating and exhausting, but I was enthralled by all we experience. The trip moved quickly - we spent eight nights in five different cities: three nights in London; two in Edinburgh, Scotland; and four more one-night stays throughout England.
I lived out of my suitcase rather than unpacking it, likening the trip to a "sampling menu," where I'd get a little "taste" of various towns, cities and attractions as we went along. With its blend of structured and free time, traveling on an escorted tour meant I could easily meet up with old friends who live in London and cross paths for lunch with former co-workers in Edinburgh, who just so happened to be there at the same time I was.
View from the top of the Victoria Tower, the lesser known of the two towers of the Houses of Parliament, towards Big Ben, the River Thames and the London Eye, Westminster, London, London, England. Signing up for Gate 1 Travel's 10-day Classic England & Scotland hadn't been my original plan for a spring getaway, but when plans to travel with a friend apart I was left to ponder a solo April vacation - or none. I opted to go it alone and the affordable Gate 1 tour included airfare, all hotel stays, a full breakfast each morning, three included dinners and admissions to many sites. Plus, our group had the knowledge and organizational skills of a witty and well-versed guide named Michael, who made it his job to ensure everyone got the most from their vacation.
The England and Scotland road trip was basically a circular "loop" from London south to the city of Bath, up to Scotland along the west coast, then then back to London via the historical cities of York and Cambridge. There were also six other "day" stops along the way - including a visit to a privately owned home in the Lake District for tea and scones.
The daytime visits - like a three-hour visit to the mysterious, ancient Stonehenge, and a few hours in the picture-pretty Cotswolds region -- were brief; mainly a way to explore something of interest enroute to our final destination of the day. But these "quick hits" also proved an ideal way for us to cover lot of ground - both figuratively and literally - in a condensed period of time.
Here's a rundown on some of the trip's highlights:
Bath: Our southernmost stop, this is the English city where Jane Austen wrote many of her best-known stories in the 1800s, and is home of the amazingly preserved 2,000-year-old Roman Baths, a World Heritage Site. Our one-night stay at the five-star MacDonald Bath Spa Hotel was actually a high point of the vacation, so magnificent was this property. Built in 1835 as the home for English General Augustus Andrews, this elegant structure had many "lives" over the decades - a private home, a boys' school, a nursing academy, and in use by the government during the Second World War. A three-year restoration to the tune of PS22 million (about $15 million in U.S. dollars) restored the property to its former glory, and it reopened in January 1990 (with Princess Diana in attendance for the dedication). In addition to its beautifully appointed grounds, the Macdonald Bath Spa Hotel does, indeed, have a spa, part of which is open to guests at no additional cost.
Liverpool: A must for any Beatles fan, our daylight hours in Liverpool were pretty much limited to a three-hour bus tour led by a step-on guide (we arrived at the sprawling port city at 3:30 p.m. after a full-day journey from Bath that included a stop at Stratford-upon-Avon -- hub of activity at the present, as 2016 marks William Shakespeare's 400th birthday). The guided tour of Liverpool took us past all the famed Beatles attractions, including a stop at the Cavern Club and the former orphanage that inspired the song "Strawberry Fields Forever." Our Jurys Inn hotel was perfectly situation only feet away from the lively Albert Dock along the Mersey River.
Grasmere: Quite possibly the prettiest of all the storybook villages we saw, Grasmere is a gem of the picturesque Lake District region in the Northwest corner of England. It's also where the poet William Wordsworth lived in Dove Cottage for the last 14 years of his life, and the town where he's buried. Charming and quaint with lovely gift shops and cafes, Grasmere is the kind of place you promise yourself you'll visit again.
Edinburgh: We were fortunate to have a two-night stay to properly enjoy the Scottish capital. This is a magical city - complete with a castle on a hill at one end and a palace at the other. (IN fact, the stroll between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace is known as the "Royal Mile" for that very reason). There are plenty of cultural attractions in this city of nearly 500,000 people. I even discovered one that's now a restaurant called The Dome. Built in the 1800s, this splendid building was initially a physician's hall and then a bank. For the past 20 years, it's been a restaurant (with two restaurants inside, actually, and four private dining suites). The food was luscious, the prices reasonable, and the setting - with a domed stained-glass atrium - utterly fantastic.
London: We began and ended our trip in London, spending three nights - two at the start and one at the close - at the chic, centrally located Park Plaza Victoria Hotel. Our first full day in London included a three-hour tour of the city. Having visited London more than a dozen times over the 15 years, I almost skipped it, but decided to partake the last minute - and was glad I did. The daffodils were in full bloom outside Buckingham Palace - where we stepped off the bus to get a closer look at the grounds - and when our morning tour concluded, we were dropped off at Trafalgar Square to enjoy the rest of our day on our own. There is an ever-changing and endless array of things to see and do in this bustling city, where most museums are free to visit, and a few hours at the indoor-outdoor market known as Covent Garden pass like minutes. For more ideas about what to see in London or other popular UK destinations, check out: www.visitbritain.com
Nicole Pensiero is a South Jersey-based freelance writer and a member of the North American Travel Journalists Association.