Enjoy the magic of the UK during the festive season (Christmas message from UKTP and partners)

Are you ready to embark on a festive journey across the UK with us this holiday season? With the joyful chimes of Christmas bells ringing in the air, join your host Tracy Collins and a variety of guests as they light up your holiday vacation plans with unique experiences around the UK.

From the glittering Christmas markets in Bath to winter walks in the far North of Scotland, from the fairy-lit cottages of the Cotswolds to the historic Christmas decorations at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, we cover an exciting range of attractions, adventures, and personal traditions that make the UK magical during Christmas!

Each guest shares their favourite Christmas traditions and attractions, painting a vivid picture of their respective regions during the holiday season. Imagine caroling in the stable with donkeys at Puffin Croft, or capturing the festively lit city of London through your camera lens! And don't forget about those pleasant countryside walks in warm boots and the joy of discovering unique gifts in the shops of the Cotswolds!

Tracy and Doug also share their plans for a traditional British Christmas, which of course includes tuning into the King's speech on Christmas Day and a football match on Boxing Day. So, cosy up with a cup of hot chocolate and let's plan the perfect UK vacation together this Christmas.

Show notes - Episode 77

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. In this podcast, tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Hello and thanks for tuning into the UK Travel Planning Podcast. With less than a week to go, doug. Ho, Ho Ho and I would like to wish you a very merry Christmas, happy holidays wherever you are in the world.

Speaker 4: 0:54

Happy Christmas.

Speaker 2: 0:56

We hope you have a joyful festive season spent with your nearest and dearest. We have a festive message from our wonderful partner, sharing their favorite things to do and see in their respective areas of the UK over the holiday period.

Speaker 4: 1:10

Happy holidays everyone. Merry Christmas. Since I was here from my tailored tours just giving you a couple of tips on where we would recommend going for the Christmas season, my top pick would be Bath. They've been doing just over 10 years of Christmas markets and last year they had a complete sort of refurbishment of the city to make sure that they spread it all throughout, so rather than just have like a little square which can get quite crowded. It was really really nice last year and they've got some very good local crafts, nice wines, nice food, like woollen cardigans and hats and scarves and all these different lovely little things.

Speaker 4: 1:52

And you can mix it in with our regular day tour to Bath and Stonehenge and Stonehenge, bath, cots worlds. Just go see there. Extend your time there as well if you need to, so you can be in complete control of your itinerary, see the markets and maybe we'll even get a bit of snow, which is nice, and the snow is just phenomenal when we go to places like Castle Coom and Lake Hawk just to see these lovely little villages in that winter scenery.

Speaker 5: 2:20

Hello and happy Christmas from Salian and Robert from North Coast Explorers, based here in the far north of Scotland. You may be familiar with myself. I did a couple of podcasts earlier in the year for Tracy and we're very happy to be included on this very special Christmas edition. I know she wanted us to share one or two of the things that we love to do around this time of year, and I think number one for us has to be getting out and having a really good walk. The fresh air up here in the winter is wonderful. The light is beautiful up here if you get reasonable weather, and even if you don't, we just wrap up and enjoy what there is. So, yeah, it's certainly our time for a bit of downtime and to do enjoy our beautiful coastline.

Speaker 5: 3:18

From a Christmas point of view, one of our favorite things to do is to go to our little petting farm nearby. It's Puffincroft and it's based in Johnna Grotes. On the Croft there are donkeys as well as lambs and goats and tiny Shetland ponies, and what she does at Puffincroft is she'll hold carols in the stable together with the donkeys, and there's Christmas lights and there's mince pies and probably blowing a hoolie outside, but we all join together, complete with hand bell ringers as well. So it's incredibly festive and it's one of the things we do probably around this time of year, just before Christmas, and join with our local community and enjoy some carols. So that's going to be us, probably right now. So bear us a thought wherever you are in the world, and in the meantime, we wish you a very happy Christmas and Hope to see some of you next year.

Speaker 3: 4:29

First of all, I want to wish all of your listeners, tracy, a very happy Christmas, and if you're up and about in Yorkshire, one of my favorite things to do is to go and see the Christmas decorations at Castle Howard. You will not be disappointed. And I'm going to give you one other suggestion, and that's to look up. Just north of Yorkshire is a dark sky reserve, and you can go and see the stars at Dolby Forest. They're incredible. They're particularly dark and shiny around Christmas time. Merry Christmas everybody.

Speaker 6: 5:00

Merry Christmas to everyone. My name is Domi and I'm London photographers from scale and studio, and I wish you all the best during this beautiful time. I hope you are coming to London and we're going to have the chance to meet my favorite things to do in the city to take, of course, pictures during the Christmas and, as well, to eat all this yummy Things and drink hot wine. So I hope see you soon and all the best, ciao.

Speaker 7: 5:28

Hi, everyone is John from John England soars. My favorite places to visit during the festive season are Leeds Castle in Kent, beautiful place decked up with Christmas decorations and trees, coupled with a visit to the historic Canterbury with its medieval streets all gleaming in Christmas lights. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2: 5:57

And our final message from our partners this year comes from Victoria of Cotswold teacup tours.

Speaker 8: 6:03

Merry Christmas UK travel planners. The Cotswolds are particularly beautiful at this time of year, with all the cottages lit up with fairy lights, the pubs have real fires glowing and the shops are full of gorgeous gifts to buy. My favorite activity this time of year is to wrap up warm, put on my way boots and go for a long country walk. Merry Christmas everybody.

Speaker 2: 6:29

Thanks to our partners for those lovely Christmas messages. Doug and I will be spending time with our nearest and dearest and enjoying a traditional British Christmas with all the trimmings, binging, lots of British TV and, of course, tuning into the King's speech on Christmas Day and going to a football match on Boxing Day. Which I won't be doing. Links to our partners can be found in this week's show notes at uk travel plannercom.

Speaker 6: 6:53

Forward slash episode 727 until next week. Happy UK travel planning.