UK Travel Planning

England Trip Report: Castles, Countryside + Iconic Sights

• Tracy Collins • Episode 168

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This week on the UK Travel Planning Podcast, host Tracy Collins is joined by Amy Carpenter from Texas, who shares her unforgettable two-week adventure exploring England with her husband, Mark.

Amy takes us through the highlights of their carefully planned itinerary, from the bustling streets of London to the charm of the Cotswolds, iconic castles, and literary landmarks. Highlights included Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason, and quiet moments at St Dunstan in the East.

In the Cotswolds, they based themselves in Bourton-on-the-Water, explored honey-coloured villages, and visited Sudeley Castle at dusk. A lifelong Jane Austen fan, Amy fulfilled a dream by visiting Bath, Winchester, and Chawton. Staying overnight at Hever Castle was a standout, giving them the rare chance to explore the grounds after closing time.

Along the way, Amy discovered a love of steak and ale pie, picked up 21 tea towels as keepsakes, and gathered plenty of tips for fellow travellers — from using trusted transfer services to the importance of planning ahead.

Whether you are a history buff, a Jane Austen devotee, or simply dreaming of your own UK escape, Amy’s trip report is filled with practical advice and plenty of inspiration for your next journey across the pond.

📝 Show Notes - Episode 168

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Speaker 1:

Two weeks in England a lifelong dream come true and plenty of inspiration for your own UK adventure. This week's episode is a trip report with Amy from Texas, sharing how she turned her first visit into a journey she'll never forget.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. Each week, 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 1:

from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planner Podcast with me, tracey Collins and my guest, amy Carpenter.

Speaker 1:

Amy recently spent two weeks exploring England with her husband, mark, taking in historic sites, charming towns and some truly special places along the way. She's here to share how she planned it, what helped everything run smoothly and her top tips for anyone dreaming of their own UK trip. Now, before we dive in, a huge thank you to podcast sponsor Deborah Harsin. We really appreciate your support. If you'd like to sponsor the show or simply buy us a cuppa as a thank you for the free UK travel tips we share every week, you'll find the links in the show notes, and I'd love to hear from you too, whether you've got a UK travel tip, a question or even your own trip report to share. Just head to our Speakpipe link and leave me a voice message, and the link is in the show notes as well. Now let's get on to this week's episode. I started by asking Amy to introduce herself where she's from, who she traveled with and how long she spent in the UK.

Speaker 3:

My name is Amy Carpenter and I traveled with my husband, mark Carpenter, who we left on the 26th of May, got back on June 7th, so we were there for a good full two weeks. Started in London, went around a big oval, but anyway, we're from texas and the great state of texas in the united states of america perfect.

Speaker 1:

So what inspired this trip, and was there anything in particular you were hoping to see, or do you?

Speaker 3:

gosh, I have been a lover of england my whole life, so this has just been a dream trip. That's really did I get to see everything I wanted to see? No, because I want to see everything and but everything that we planned you know those were history buffs I wanted to see castles and great homes and the Cotswolds and literature things, and so we got to see everything that we had on my wishlist for that trip. You know we have to make more trips, period. We're going to make more trips.

Speaker 1:

I'm very happy to hear that and, very honestly, you know I lived in the UK most of my life and there's still so many places that I'm going to. I haven't been there. I need to go and visit.

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, I'm not even nearly as excited about seeing things in the United States as I was about seeing things in England.

Speaker 1:

So we used to do a lot of travel around the UK when we lived there. We used to go every weekend and travel around. But it's really funny, since we moved to Australia and we kind of based ourselves between Australia and the UK, we do spend far more time kind of talking about what we're going to do in the UK than we do about anything else.

Speaker 3:

it's a bit ironic sometimes you don't appreciate what's in a doorstep until you're a little bit further away from it and we're a long way away from it now, so yeah, and you know in the United States is so big it's hard to pinpoint where you want to go there. I mean, I've traveled a lot around the United States, United States. But if I had a choice of spending two weeks traveling in the United States or the UK, I would have said you can see in a heartbeat.

Speaker 1:

It's a bit like Australia it's huge, there's a lot to see and do and it takes you two weeks just to drive across the state. So can you give us a quick overview of your itinerary, where you went and how you divided up your time?

Speaker 3:

Sure. Well, we flew into London, obviously, and we spent the first four days there. So we did that first day. We didn't really do much, just kind of got to the hotel relaxed, walked around a little bit. We were staying in Westminster area, not very far from Parliament and Westminster Abbey. It was probably about a six, seven-minute walk. So that was nice and I didn't even realize the hotel was that close until we started walking. I thought that looks familiar, sure enough.

Speaker 3:

And then the next day we did our first big tour going to the Tower of London and we went all the way out. We stopped also close to there, at St Dunstan's in the east, the bombed-out chapel I think that was really pretty and then did a long trip across to the Dickens Museum. I can't tell you what part of London that was in, I don't remember, but it took two rides and a long walk. But I love Charles Dickens so that was fun to go see where he lived at one time. Then let's see, the next day was kensington palette, no, westminster abbey, westminster abbey and the king's gallery and the royal muse. And that was a long day, but it was. I kind of pushed two things too close together. I should not have. I should have given us a little more time um in the morning at westminster abbey than I did, and so we were kind of rushing to get to our next tour, but we made it.

Speaker 3:

And then Kensington Palace on the next day with a trip to the Victorian Albert Museum. Could have spent all day there, but our time there was kind of short. And then we had a lovely tea at Fortnum and Mason's that afternoon Beautiful store, gosh, it's a gorgeous store. So that was the first few days. And then we took a. We used a car. We did this to travel to. I decided to just use his service to get to Oxford for our rental car instead of trying to get all that luggage on the tube at rush hour. So we went to Oxford. We didn't really spend any time in oxford. We all we did was pick up our car and headed out to blenheim palace. Uh, loved it. It was such a relaxing afternoon. We spent hours there. I was a little disappointed that there was some scaffolding on it. It was kind of under construction, but I did.

Speaker 3:

I did two special. We did an upstairs tour and a downstairs tours. They were extra those. Those were so, so fun.

Speaker 3:

And then we headed on into Burton-on-the-Water to have, where we stayed for three nights and kind of just hit the Cotswolds for a few days, went to Soodley Castle and took your advice by waiting at night and when all the crowds were gone. And then we drove out to Bybery and walked around there and we went to Winchcombe, right near Sizzley Castle and Broadway, and we walked to Lower Slaughter one morning and just took it some nice relaxing days there before we headed on to Laycock Village and to Bath. We didn't actually stay in Bath, we stayed in Bradford-on-Avon and took the train into Bath for a nice big tour there. After that was Stonehenge. The next day was Stonehenge and Highclere Castle all in one day. So that was a great, great experience.

Speaker 3:

And then from there we went to Winchester for a couple of days and to Chawton so I could see all my Jane Austen things, and to Chawton so I could see all my Jane Austen things. From there we went to Hever Castle and spent the night there, and Chartwell, winston Churchill's home, and Leeds Castle the next day, and then headed back to London, took our car back to Gatwick Airport, used Riz again to pick us up there and drive us into our next hotel in London, and our last tour was a day tour, a double tour of Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle. I booked a tour there so we could take the bus with them and not have to do any traveling on our own. So then back to the hotel and home airport the next day. So it was a very full two weeks. Uh, exhausted at night, but the days were great.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love your itinerary. I really do.

Speaker 3:

I think it's a, it's a well you really, you really kind of said it with your. It's a good job. I love it, isn't it? Yeah, you said you could do this, this and this and this, and so I did it's really cool and we might actually be.

Speaker 1:

If we go I keep saying this and when this episode comes out, we may actually be in the UK doing a similar route. We're going to add a little bit more in. I think we're going to go down the Jurassic Coast and along that way as well, but, um, basically hitting all the spots that you hit as well, um, because we wanted, we also want to drive that again. It's a few years since we've done it, so we're like you know what we need, to go and do it, and I'm talking to Amy.

Speaker 1:

She did everything that we said and it went really well and she loved it, and I know we do a lot of driving itineraries for that part of the road.

Speaker 3:

I don't think we could not have done all that without the driving. We had to do the driving. There's no way we had to do the driving there's no way um.

Speaker 1:

So I did well, we I didn't drive, mark did all the driving. Yeah, doug was, doug does all the driving and he always says that you go on about drama. I do the driving and I'm like I know, but I navigate I navigate. We have important jobs. I mean that's right.

Speaker 3:

Navigate, that's right I I, we, we mastered the circle or the turnaround roundabout, whatever it is that you thought, yeah, he did, he did the pripyamo and he said that was super helpful, because it he really you know it's really good.

Speaker 1:

It's really good and we do recommend anybody that's driving. We we say it. I mean it's just, it's not expensive. I keep saying it's not an expensive. No, no, it's amazing and you'd be crazy not to. If you're going to drive in the uk, even if you drive on the left, like we do in australia or new zealand, still do the course, because you do not know the rules of the road and the change. There's things that change. So I think it's really good to do now. What were your? And this is a really hard question, but I'm going to ask you, what were your highlights or favorite experiences from the trip?

Speaker 3:

Well, top three was the Soodley Castle. Loved, loved, loved, loved the Soodley Castle. The history, the tour guide was great, the weather was beautiful and just all of the history that is in that place. That was probably my favorite tour and I would go back there in a heartbeat, even repeat that one. And I came home talking, you know, telling my children about it grown children they weren't nearly as excited as I was, but and looking at things and but I just loved, loved.

Speaker 3:

Stately Castle. High Clear Castle tour was wonderful. I did not know it, but I actually booked a special tour date. Didn't realize they were. It was a special day. They were only letting two tours in the house that day, so we were in the afternoon tours 60 people. But they divided you up into two small, much smaller groups. It was a very thorough tour. Off the house manager I think I don't remember his name. He did it. They looked great. We were into lots of, lots of rooms, lots of detail. But it also included signed books by lady carnarvon and, um, a nice full pea. So we got to have that as well. So that, and it was a gorgeous, gorgeous day. So I did not realize it was going to include the tea and include the books. I thought it was just a ticket for a tour, so that was. That was special, uh.

Speaker 3:

And then our, our stay at hever Castle was really absolutely worth the splurge of spending the night there. We were in the outer buildings that were built, I think, in 1922. I believe that's what they said but it felt like you were in a building that was, you know, tudor age, but it wasn't. And they let you walk around the grounds after all. The crowds had gone, and so we walked around the lake and it still I didn't realize that it stayed light in England so long. I mean, it was 10 o'clock before it was nighttime and so we walked for a while.

Speaker 3:

There was some rain that day, but we did lots of walks and my husband's just telling me he found a pillbox, a World War II pill box, on site and he had to go home, go back to the hotel or back to our room and look it up. Why would there be a pill box at Heber Council? But he found it. Um, so that was. Those were my, I think, probably my three favorite tours. Uh, but I also loved our time in the Cotswolds. So it's just really hard to hard to pick a favorite. I was going to say world. So it's just really hard, to hard to pick a phase. You don't have things that old in the states and if they, if you do they're, they're primitive.

Speaker 1:

You know maybe some native american sites or some really simple um buildings in florida for when the spanish owned that, but you, just, you just don't have, you just don't have that kind of history I mean there's thousands and thousands of years worth of like right, right from, if you go up to orkney to scarabray, um, you've obviously got stonehenge, and then you've got all you know, you know all the castles, and yeah, I mean, it is crazy, there's so much, there's so much history and so much choice of what period of right you want to be interested in, delve into, follow you know, whether you're interested in the literary side of stuff. You know, I've just I've just written, actually, a jane austen itinerary, which is something I also want to yeah, I've read it well.

Speaker 3:

I read what you put on our, what you put on the website.

Speaker 1:

I saw that yeah, and I was like, oh, I really want to do that, I really want to do that, but doug's like, no, I don't think. So I'm like I have to find some fellow travelers who wanted to do the jane austen itinerary with me, yeah, yeah, because that would be really cool. But there is, there's just. There's just so much to do, so many places to go, so many areas to discover um, that it can be, it can be mind-blowing. So I know we talked about kind of the, the favorite, you see, enjoy the castles. And actually I went to um high.

Speaker 1:

I've been to Highclere a few times and I did a tour last October with Melissa Jones, who was on the podcast in December because she went over to London solo and she was like do you want to come and do some stuff with me? Um, and we went to to um, to Highclere, and it was. It was the same because Doug and I had visited before and it was just a. We just kind of wandered through the house but we weren't kind of told anything. But we did the one in October and it was great because it was with the manager. He explained everything.

Speaker 1:

It was really thorough, thorough, and then we had a lovely afternoon tea in the book, so, but I think it depends what month you book, what type of toy you can have. They change it, um, but yeah, I highly recommend that. That. I also thought that was that was absolutely brilliant, um. So so talk to me a little bit about the jane austen stuff, because we've kind of mentioned it. So I know you went to bath, you went to winchester, you went to chawton, so tell me the highlights of that. What did you love about that?

Speaker 3:

um, well, our first jane austen stuff was in Bath, the Jane Austen Center. I had tea there in the Mr Darcy Tea Room, so that was fun I'm such a Jane Austen fan, not even just the books but the movies as well and just walking around, we did a walks tour in Bath so we got to see some sites that were in some of the movies and some of the places that our tour guide even brought out, some of the places that were described in the books and but not necessarily in the movies. But it was a setting that Jane Austen described in some of her stories, like in Persuasion. And so that was our first Jane Austen, but the best, uh, even some of the movie sites in Laycock Village. You know some of it. Some of those movies were filmed there. So that was great.

Speaker 3:

But in Winchester spent a whole day at Chawton, loved the Jane Austen house. But we also went to Chawton house, her brother's house, and that was a really neat little tour. There weren't a lot of people there it's probably not, as I don't know, maybe it's overlooked or people just don't go but it was a very neat tour of her brother's house, just right down the street and where she spent a lot of time. They had costumes from some of the movies there, they had some original manuscripts and some other things to see. So that part was great.

Speaker 3:

And then things to see, so that part was great. And then the you know, we went to her uh, winchester cathedral and uh saw where she was buried and no, I didn't realize that she was buried so early in the morning and kind of secretive and or not secret, just kind of you know, no big fanfare, um, so that was all the the jane austen things that we did and I loved every minute of it, bought lots of stuff, so spent too much, spent too much money in the gift shop at the jane austen and house, but that's okay don't.

Speaker 1:

Don't talk about gift shops. Oh my goodness, on the museum and the gift shops in some of these places like the best. Just, oh my goodness, every time it's him, I always buy something vna. Oh my goodness, museum shops like it's him, I always buy something V&A. Oh my goodness, museum shops Like Doug knows. Now he's like how long would you require in the gift shop.

Speaker 3:

Because he knows Mark didn't, and Mark never stopped me. So I ended up. I didn't intend to, this wasn't planned, but I started buying tea towels at every gift shop, one that had an image or something to do with wherever we saw. So I came home with 21 tea towels. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but I have 20 tea towels and they're not going to be used as tea towels.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to mess them up. No, it's true, I've got quite a lot as well in my drawing and I actually started putting some up on the wall because I've got a lovely cotter and I put on the one that kept falling down. I was like, so I'm gonna have to frame it if I'm going to put it up but yeah, I've got a few frames.

Speaker 3:

I haven't put them in there yet and I figured out how I could put them on a rod to kind of hang them and change them out, because you know, I don't need 21 tea towels on my wall. I'm also going to make, I think, some pillows.

Speaker 1:

Well, I was just about to say that. So I used to make quilts and I'd love to go back to quilting actually, because it was something I really enjoyed, but you could make a fantastic quilt out of them.

Speaker 3:

You know, I didn't think about that, but I've never quilted, so maybe out of my skill set.

Speaker 1:

No, honestly, it's easy, especially if you've got the same shape Pelicace. Yeah, Now, was there anything other than tea towels that you bought, that you kind of I've got a bit of a thing at the minute with? I mean, I always buy fridge magnets just because they're easy to carry.

Speaker 3:

I did buy one fridge magnet it's Jane Austen but bought a tote bag, bought a lot of soap for friends back at home Cause I was worried about buying too much, that I didn't want things to break in the in the luggage. But I did buy several bars of soap for some friends that I work with my daughter, my son's girlfriend. So we went to in Lake Hawk. There was a a little craft show going on in one of the buildings with just local people with the things that they had made. So I bought a couple of pairs of earrings from a little lady that made earrings from the flowers in her garden. So and that was that was uh, that was kind of special. So that's that's. And books not too many books because those can get heavy did buy all like the souvenir guides. Oh, lots of postcards. I love postcards. Yes, yeah, there was a lot of those?

Speaker 1:

yeah, yeah, tea and cookies. Yes, not cookies.

Speaker 3:

Biscuits, fortnum and mason's no, yeah and yes and coronation biscuits from uh kensington palace and and highclere castle sold uh shortbread, so bought all that too. Nice big fan of shortbread now, wasn't before, but I I just don't think I've had any really good shortbread oh, no, love shortbread, yeah, it's good, yeah, we ate it. There's none of it left. We've eaten it all right, we're gonna.

Speaker 1:

we're gonna pivot slightly away from about around food, even though I could talk we're gonna go back to food from around food, even though I could talk we're going to go back to food in a bit. But I know you mentioned about how you got around, so obviously you hired a car. You picked up the car in Oxford, you dropped it off at Gatwick. I know Mark did the Trippiama course and found it useful. How did you generally overall find the driving experience?

Speaker 2:

Or how did Mark?

Speaker 1:

I should be asking him, shouldn't I? How did Mark find the driving experience? Or?

Speaker 3:

how did mark? I should be asking him, shouldn't I? How did mark find the driving experience? I don't think he found it very relaxing, I know he didn't. He got used to it and he did a fabulous job.

Speaker 3:

But the first couple of days were a little intense. Um, mainly on the just the little back roads in the cotswolds that are not big enough really for two cars and, and you know, not used to driving on that side of the road and getting too close to the side. And but he did a fabulous job. You know the motorways and the roundabouts really didn't give him much issue. It just I can't believe the speed limit is this fast and I said, well, you don't have to go that fast. And we didn't.

Speaker 3:

But that was a little unnerving. I thought I don't know if the people in the you know, Americans could do this that well. They're too impatient, Tempered road rage, so. But he, it was hard, he would. I don't think he would have done as well if he had not watched the trip. He almost stuff that was very, very helpful. He even felt, he even tell, he'll tell you that. So it was tense the first couple of days. For the driving. Parking is amazing, Like they park anywhere and they drive anywhere and they park in the street and there's. You know those. You don't do that here either. So, plus, our roads are so big and our cars are too big.

Speaker 1:

So it's just, it's very different what sort of car did you rent out of interest? Did you go for a smaller car?

Speaker 3:

it was uh it was an mg something a medium suv type little little.

Speaker 3:

You know it's not. I thought when we got there, he he gave us a different car than the one that we had registered for, because he looked at our luggage and I think he thought that wasn't going to fit. So it was a hybrid, little hybrid, mg, I mean it wasn't super big but, um, it was very comfortable, but it was still, you know, maybe a little bit bigger than comfortable as far as driving. You know, a little smaller one, but I'm not sure.

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure if our bags would have fit anything smaller that's always a bit of an issue Now getting around to London, I know you used Riz X for cars a lot. I mean, we work, we work. We love Riz, yeah yeah, and he's like a celebrity. Now I think people are disappointed. Don't get Riz, cause Riz has got a great team. It's not just Riz, he has. Yeah, yeah. Actually we didn't have it.

Speaker 3:

I talked to Riz on the phone. He actually called me a couple of days before we left, because I'm not used to the 24 hour clock, and when I booked our pickup from the airport, I booked it at 3am instead of 3pm and he thought that called me in the States and said I don't think this is what you want. And he was exactly right. So we walked through all the rest of my bookings to make sure I had the timing right, and so communication was great. Yeah, we used them four times, back and forth to the airport and back and forth to our rental car, so we're three different drivers. But we didn't get Riz. We had Mohammed and gosh. I can't remember the rest of the names, but they were both. They were all three of them were great.

Speaker 1:

They're great. He's got a. Really he's got a. He's got a great team. He's actually um picking up my daughter from Heathrow and approximately three hours time Cause she's she's. She flew from Perth um 17 and a half hour flight, so yeah, Communication with him was really really easy.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that was.

Speaker 1:

He's amazing.

Speaker 3:

He's got a brilliant team and then getting around london itself tube bus we never did the bus in london, uh, except that one bus tour, but not the public bus um, walking in the tube. And once we figured out how to read the city mapper app, that was all we needed and it got first. Our first trip to the tube, we went down the the wrong side of the station to the eastbound instead of westbound I don't remember which, if it was circle or district line or something but somebody was very kind there and I said, oh, you need to go on that way, and and after that we knew, we knew what we were doing. So that was a great resource and it really didn't have any issues with the tube, except for we went to.

Speaker 3:

When we went to the victorian albert, we went back to the station that we came from and it was. They had closed the closed the entrance, so we had to find another way. But we noticed some other couple looking on their phone and trying to get around us, and I bet they're doing the same thing. So I asked her and she they were actually from London and she said follow us, we'll find it. So we ended up just tagging along and we never used the bus, we just used the tube and walked brilliant, a lot of walking yeah, yeah, the weather was great, so we didn't.

Speaker 3:

We didn't have any issues with all that yeah, they've had a great.

Speaker 1:

They've had a great summer, apparently, um, so I'm hoping it lasts until September, if we do get over there um, it was lovely last september, so hopefully it will be now. We talked briefly before about the fact that he stayed in the westminster area, so were there any um? We could talk about london. So obviously, where he stayed, did he stay in the same place both times or did he change?

Speaker 3:

no, we changed. We were at the Westminster London Curio Collection right next to I guess it's PEMS House, which is what MI5 or MI6, one of those right next door to that. So that was kind of interesting Nice hotel.

Speaker 1:

It's top secret. You're not allowed to say.

Speaker 3:

It was. You know, we had a river view from our window and that was a nice, a nice place. And then, coming back on the the end of the trip, we were a little bit closer to I wanted to be close to the bus station where we were picking up our tour. So we were at a west west, western buckingham palace small but is. It was built into a couple of two or three that looked like had been townhomes or row homes, so the layout was kind of quirky. The room was small. Yeah, mark says it was tiny. It was actually kind of. They called it our Harry Potter room. It was like the cupboard under the stairs, because our door was actually kind of at the bottom of the staircase, behind the staircase, and it was just little, little quirky room. But it was clean and safe and they were kind and and it was two minutes from the bus, so perfect, it was exactly what we needed. We were just there for two nights exactly perfect.

Speaker 1:

So what about your other accommodation options? Oh gosh they.

Speaker 3:

you know most, I won't tell you most of them we got from your website, or at least through bookingcom. We stayed at the Lansdowne Guest House in Burton-on-the-Water. That was wonderful. Did you get people there to work?

Speaker 1:

Did you get people next door for a drink?

Speaker 3:

No, we didn't go to the Mousetrap. I don't even remember the names of the places that we ate there. A couple of pubs in an italian place, and had ice cream one night for dinner and, um, their breakfast was wonderful. They have a lovely breakfast and the staff is is super, super kind. Um, and then in burton and bradford on avon, we stayed at temple's yard, which it was an old mill, a textile mill I think, but it was just also just um, a two or three minute walk from the train station. Uh, so that was why I chose that place. But it was a little boutique inn with a real food was excellent, and one night they were having a lot of acoustic music, so that was fun, that we opened our windows and we could just hear it from downstairs. That was really nice.

Speaker 3:

Then we stayed at S Mays in Winchester, which she's just an Airbnb with one room, but it's a beautiful room, really good location, just a couple of blocks from the downtown area in Winchester. She was super accommodating. You know she texted me. Let me know when you're going to get here. I'm going to help you with parking, because parking in Winchester was not easy. She was actually out in the street in front of her home a Georgian building, and then she saved. She saw an empty spot and she went and stood in it and saved it so we could park there. So she was a wonderful hostess and so we were there for two nights and then one night at heaver castle and that's.

Speaker 1:

Those were all the places that we stayed I'm gonna add they were all great I'm gonna add heaver to it because I haven't stayed at heaver castle.

Speaker 3:

It's kind of on my wish you told me that we could stay there, so I and I it was. It was really really. They have a lovely breakfast too.

Speaker 1:

That comes with it, yeah yeah, I've been on a can stay and I've been like you know. So, if you're listening, he the castle invite doug and I to stay. We'd love to um. So well, let's talk about food. So talk about your favorite thing of some of you mentioned shortbread, which is great. I'm glad you enjoyed.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah short shortbread's probably my favorite thing. Yeah, we did the fish and chips um. I think the best meal that I had was a steak and ale pie that we had at um the henry the eighth inn right outside of fever castle that we walked to um. That steak and ale pie was marvelous. I also really enjoyed I had a couple of coronation chicken sandwiches.

Speaker 1:

That was really yummy um, do you know the story of coronation chicken, the sandwiches? No, so the way, in fact. Now, this is as far as I know. So if anybody's listening and going tracy you're not right, then then do correct me. Leave my message on speak pipe and say you're wrong, but as far as I know. So if anybody's listening and going, tracy you're not right, then do correct me. Leave me a message on Speakpipe and say you're wrong. But as far as I'm aware, for 1977, it was the Queen's Silver Jubilee. So at the time I was 10. I'm giving my mum my age and there were street parties throughout the whole of the UK. There were street parties. The whole roads were shut down, we got dressed up, it was wonderful, it was really part of the atmosphere and the weather was really good, and one of the competitions was to come up with a sandwich and Coronation Chicken was born. So there you go, and it's really tasty. I also love Coronation Chicken.

Speaker 3:

I've looked the recipe up. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to see if I can make some Coronation Chicken myself. So several times we just ate at for convenience, we ate on location. You know, we ate at Sootley Castle and we ate at Kensington Palace and we ate at the little booth right outside of Winchester I mean not Winchester, westminster Abbey and big meal at Fortnum and Mason's for tea. That was dinner, that was totally. We couldn't even finish it all. So we ate there and the lunch at Highclere, and then a few pubs in Brighton, a few pubs in Burton-on-the-Water, and I wish I could remember their names, but I don't. I don't remember what their names are.

Speaker 1:

There's so many places to eat there In Fortnum and mason. I always go to this like the like the parlor, as you come up, I think it's on the second floor, second or third floor, I should know um, because I go there every time and they have um scotch eggs with this piccadilly, um, and I I'll go every time. So scotch eggs were invented at fortnum and mason. The guy was telling me that last time I ate there. But they are. They are absolutely delicious, these scotch eggs and piccadilly. They're really good. I actually haven't. I must do an afternoon tea. At Fortnum Mason we try to do an afternoon, at least two or three afternoon teas every time we go back. Obviously for market research, it's essential that we try as many afternoon teas as possible.

Speaker 3:

I did two teas and ended up with three because I didn't know about the one at highclere. So that was. Yeah, that was that's a.

Speaker 1:

That's a happy accident. Happy accident. What about snacks and things like lunchtime? Did you try any of the meal deals? I?

Speaker 3:

get no, I guess we can try any meal deals. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by meal deal.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so meal deals are if you go into somewhere like Marks and Spencer's Only Food, simply Food. Oh, they sell sandwiches, crisps and a drink for a set price, so they're my favorite way to kind of save a bit of money for lunchtime.

Speaker 3:

We did go pick up some snacks. Is it Tesco? Yes, tesco Express? Yes, yeah, okay Went into a couple of those and and grabbed snack food to take back to, um, our room and burton on the water had a. Well, it's a grocery store, but the uh, co-op, a co-op. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So we went, we went into a co-op store and bought a few things there too yeah, you've got basically like they have met big stores, like mega stores, and then they have the small kind of high street ones. So Marks Spencer, simply Food, and then there's the Sainsbury's Tesco Express Co-op. They're all really good to go in to just get if you just want a sandwich and a drink and a piece of fruit or chocolate or whatever. They do really good deals and I am ridiculously excited about the fact that I can go and buy sandwiches from Marks Spencer soon.

Speaker 3:

Honestly, it's like we did go to Marks and Spencer, but I bought a sweater or a jumper cardigan because I left mine at home and it was full.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I do that too. I also go and buy clothes. But they just had this summer Marks and Spencer's have done a strawberries and cream sandwich. I think it's obviously inspired by the Japanese fruit sandwiches which we loved when we were in Japan, and I've heard it's delicious. So I'm hoping. I don't know if it was a limited edition. So maybe now, with Wimbledon well over with, they might not be doing it. But I saw that and I was like I'm going to try one of those. I think this sold out pretty quickly. But yeah, I mean, oh, yes, I know what I was going to ask you. Please, I'm praying that you did go in here. Did you go into the cafe at the V&A?

Speaker 3:

No, we didn't. I'll have to go next time. No, we didn't, sorry.

Speaker 1:

Next time, next time it's beautiful yeah, absolutely our.

Speaker 3:

Our time at the vna was not nearly as long as I would have liked to have been. Uh, it was rainy, uh, we had had that long. Yeah, where were we that morning? Kensington palace, I guess, and anyway. It was just my feet were hurting and we I wanted to get. I got my clothes all wet because it was that was the rainiest day, so we had. We went back to the hotel to rest for just a little while and then headed back out to Portland and Masons. So yeah, it was just a. We only got to see a couple of floors in Victoria, and not even all of that.

Speaker 1:

So it's all right, you can add it into your itinerary next time. Yeah, absolutely for sure now. Well, were there any challenges along the way or things you'd do differently next time?

Speaker 3:

no, I really don't think I would have done anything differently. I mean, I read the travel planning website. I don't know how many times I looked up every small detail I could find and read about. That kind of information was just very, very helpful Booked everything that I could book ahead of time. That made it easy. Everything went really smoothly because I knew what to expect. We just didn't have any problems on the trip, which is, you know, can't always say that and that might not happen next time but we really didn't have any trouble. Everything went just as I planned it. I'm a planner and I like that itinerary and you know, mark didn't always know exactly what we were doing every day. He just kind of followed me along and I said we have to leave now. And I even printed my itinerary and slap and said you know, these QR codes and the cell phone may not work, or maybe there's no reception, or a couple of times I had to use the paper, the paper ticket, because, uh, it didn't work.

Speaker 1:

so I was glad that I did that no, no, I think that I think that's a smart thing to do. And, um, you, you, I mean I love the fact that you, you used our websites. Uk, oh, absolutely. You listen to the podcast, you're a podcast fan, which is always great. And, um, and you did a consult with us as well, so we did you guys and chat through and help you with the itinerary and I even and I bought some of the download, guides too, and toolkits.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I did that as well. So perfect, perfect. It was overwhelming to start planning and I don't think I didn't know where to start. So the consultation was was perfect, and we did not vary from what you and Doug planned very much, other than I couldn't get tickets to the Globe at a good time. I couldn't get it fit in, we couldn't do. We had to choose between Westminster Abbey and, like the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. You know, we just couldn't fit it all in, so, but the route that you mapped out was ideal. It worked perfectly.

Speaker 1:

So perfectly perfect, just what I love to hear. So, amy, the the usual question at the end of every podcast. What would be the one tip for someone planning a similar trip to the UK for the first time?

Speaker 3:

so the best tip I could give anyone is to to read everything. There's not really a question that you couldn't answer on that website Everything I needed to know. The only thing that threw me that I didn't really expect was so many things that were on the 24-hour clock. You know like a 1700. I was constantly subtracting 12 to keep track of what time it actually was or where we needed to be somewhere. But you know the little things on how to use the tube and all the apps that you suggested that we downloaded. I made a little folder on my phone and put all the england apps on there and so we can do the tfl go and the city mapper and the bookingcom and city guy go, get your guide. And that was the best piece of advice that I could use is to use your consultation service because it kept it from being overwhelming.

Speaker 3:

I didn't know where to start and I think I could plan a trip around that area again by myself. But you know, going in the northern part, I'm not sure even because just the timing, getting the timing right, how long is it going to take to get there? And can you really do this by walking or is that, you know, stupid and and all of those that and other thing is to use. Um, I would use and put out the the extra money to use xfa transfers in a heartbeat. That saves so much stress from how how are we going to get all our luggage on the tube at certain times of the day and or is it going to rain, or how far is the tube station from where we're staying? It was, it was totally worth every cent. I don't think it was overcharged at all. It was totally worth the money to do those transfers and I would do that again easy easily, brilliant, brilliant.

Speaker 1:

Well, I always say that. You know, I think when you when arrive, when you get on the plane, it's the start of your vacation. And when you arrive at your destination, for me being, I just want to arrive, and I say this all the time, so I'm sure people listening to the podcast go. I know we're not just going to say but I just want to arrive and be met, I want to be whisked to my hotel. I don't want to have any stress, I don't want.

Speaker 1:

I've been on a long flight, I'm tired, you're, you're more you're, you're just less aware of everything. And I just think, even you're excited because you're in a new place. But you know, at that point you arrive at an airport, it's not that great much fun, is it, arriving an airport. You have to, but you've got to. The sooner you get out there and get to your destination, the better. So, yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. But it's been amazing talking to you, amy, and catching up all about your trip. So thanks so much for coming on and sharing your trip. Thank you for asking me. No, it's been a pleasure to chat to you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks once again to Amy for joining me and sharing her UK trip report this week. You can find all the links mentioned in this episode in the show notes and, if you enjoyed the podcast, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. It really helps others to find the show. Until next week, though, from me, as always, happy UK travel planning. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK travel planning podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you and you never know. You may receive a shout out in a future episode, but, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week, happy UK travel planning.