A Literary-Themed UK Family Adventure (Part 1) – Planning a Trip with Teens with Lauren Eanes

This week  on the podcast Tracy chats with listener Lauren Eanes, who turned her family’s shared love of books into a literary-themed UK adventure. From Dickens’ Broadstairs and Winnie-the-Pooh’s Ashdown Forest to Tolkien and Lewis in Oxford and the landscapes of Watership Down, Lauren shares how stories shaped their itinerary - and how she kept her teens engaged along the way.

You’ll hear practical tips for planning a smooth family trip: combining trains with short car hire, using Airbnbs and meal deals to budget for splurges, and building in rest days for happy travellers. 

Packed with inspiration, logistics, and lessons learned, this episode shows how to bring Britain’s literary world to life for the whole family.

⭐️ Guest - Lauren Eanes
📝 Show Notes - Episode 176

🎧 Listen to next:

• Episode #46 – Discovering the Magic: A Guide to Visiting Harry Potter Studios in London
• Episode #13 – Trip report: A fun-filled family adventure in London
• Episode #123 – Family Fun in London: Cathy Stephens’ Trip Report

Chapters

• 0:00 Literary Family Adventure Setup
• 3:40 Sabbatical Grant And Shared Reading Origins
• 10:50 Building A Book-Based Itinerary
• 16:40 Heathrow Transfer And Broadstairs For Dickens
• 22:00 Ramsgate’s Jennings Connection
• 28:30 Ashdown Forest With Private Pooh Tour
• 36:40 London Highlights And Literary Touchpoints
• 43:40 Wind In The Willows Walks Near Cookham Dean
• 49:10 Great Missenden Without The Museum

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

In this episode of the UK Travel Planner Podcast, I chat with listener Lauren Eans about how she planned a UK trip with a family of four built around a literary theme. You'll hear how books inspired their itinerary, the highlights they enjoyed, and Lauren's practical tips for making travel with teens smoother from transport to food to downtime.

SPEAKER_02: 0:20

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK travel planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy 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, from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

SPEAKER_01: 0:54

Hi, and welcome to episode 176 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. If you're planning a UK trip with kids or teens, this episode will give you plenty of ideas and inspiration. I'm joined by listener Lauren Eanes, who used her sabbatical to design a literary-themed adventure for her family of four, turning shared stories into memorable travel experiences. Lauren shares how she created their itinerary with stops linked to Dickens, Roll Doll, Winnie the Pooh, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis, amongst others, and how they balanced sightseeing with downtime. You'll also hear how they used trains and a short car hire, why starting the trip with a private transfer from Heathrow made all the difference, and how they kept on budget with Airbnbs and meal deals. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear picture of how to plan a family-friendly UK trip that keeps everyone engaged, cross-practical takeaways you can use for your own itinerary. This is part one of my chat with Lauren next week in episode 177. She'll be back to share the second stage of her sabbatical after the kids flew home. For this episode, Lauren, would you like to introduce yourself? Tell us where you're based, who you traveled with, and when you visited the UK.

SPEAKER_00: 2:08

So my name is Lauren Eanes. I live in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I traveled to the UK in July of 2025 with my husband Nate and our four kids who are ages 18, 16, 14, and 12. And for the last week of this part of our journey, we met up with some other family as well. But the most of it was the six of us traveling together.

SPEAKER_01: 2:35

And for this episode, we're going to kind of focus on that first part of the trip when you were traveling with your mainly teenagers and a tween as well. Yeah, no, she may be 12, but she's she's been a teenager for at least a year. That's a bit of a daughter, isn't it? Because honestly, that that's what happened. Absolutely. But what fascinates me, and uh you you actually emailed me to kind of say you you love the podcast, and you told me about your itinerary, which I thought was absolutely fantastic. And it was based around literary figures, uh books that you enjoy, obviously books that the kids have been inspired by and enjoy too. So you developed this whole kind of a literary-based itinerary. So, how did you decide to do that? I mean, what was that kind of decision and how involved were the kids with all of that?

SPEAKER_00: 3:31

Yeah, so um, I'm a Lutheran pastor, and pastors are encouraged uh typically to take a sabbatical, often after like seven to ten years of ministry. And I am just starting my 20th year of ministry and I'd not had a sabbatical, so it's a bit overdue. Uh so planned the sabbatical, and uh it's four months long. Um, and there's a foundation in the United States that offers grants for pastors on sabbaticals to allow them to do things like travel. Um, I decided to apply, even though it's super competitive. I thought I'm probably not gonna get this, but it's worth a shot, right? So um filled out this crazy long application, but the main question that you had to reflect on was what makes your heart sing? Like, what could you do during your sabbatical that would make your heart sing? And I knew that the answer for me was to go back to the UK. Um, I had studied in London for a semester during my undergrad 25 years ago and just fell in love with the country and just everything British. And I really wanted to share that with my spouse and my kids. But then we had to think about like what specifically would we do? Um, and so we chose a literary theme because of the role that reading together has played in our family. Um, we're a blended family. When Nate and I got married, his kids were six and twelve, and mine were eight and ten. And we both, before we got married, had the ritual of you know reading a chapter or two of a book uh to our kids before bed. And when we got married, we thought, well, we don't want to do that separately. We'll do it together. Um, the kids were not sold on this. My kids didn't like it when Nate would read, and his kids didn't love it when I would read. They wanted their own parents' voice, but we were like, no, no, we're gonna do this. This matters. And so the first book that we read together, all six of us, was Janny the Champion of the World by Roel Dahl. And about a week into reading the book every night, I came into the kitchen one morning and the kids were sitting there eating breakfast and they were talking about the book. They were making all these jokes about pheasants and like sleeping pills and raisins from the book. And I thought, oh, like I just had this mom moment of like, oh my gosh, like reading these books together is giving our family shared stories, our new family, these shared stories. And so we kept doing it. And then, I mean, it was COVID, and we literally had a captive audience every night. We during lockdown, we would read an hour, hour and a half every night. Um, and we realized that in the four years we were able to do it before like our oldest kids hit high school, and it became a lot harder to get everybody together. Um, that in those four years we'd read like 40 books together. And they weren't all British authors, but a lot of them were. And so we thought, what if we went on this trip? What if we went to some of these places that inspired these stories that we shared together? And our oldest had just graduated from high school, so things are changing in our family, and this seemed like the perfect capstone to this season of our family's life to revisit these shared stories together. So I put all that in the grant application, and apparently they really liked the idea because we got the grant, which was fantastic. Um, and so we involved the kids in just what what books you know did you like the most? Where would you want to go to explore these things? Um, and just had fun dreaming together about what the trip might look like.

SPEAKER_01: 7:19

So when once you'd made that kind of, obviously you got the grant. I mean, when you made the decision about right, we're gonna go over, we know we're gonna do it based on the books that that we've enjoyed as a family reading, then how did you start putting that itinerary together? And I guess choosing which of those books were the most special or the authors that were the most special that kind of appealed to you. So, kind of how how did you start doing that? And then how did that kind of itinerary come together?

SPEAKER_00: 7:47

Yeah, um well, I really enjoy planning trips like this. I just I loved planning every single detail of this trip. And so it took a long time and a lot of research to really nail down the final itinerary. Um, you know, I read guidebooks and I was reading things, you know, looking up all sorts of things online. I um I listened to on Audible, they had um uh, you know, the great courses. Uh they have one called Great Tours, England, Scotland, and Wales. And it was this professor talking about, it's like 18 hours of this college professor talking about traveling in the UK. And I listened to all 18 hours. Um, even though at that point, like I pretty much narrowed down where we're gonna go, but I was like, well, like I might get more ideas, and I was just having so much fun um dreaming about it. Um, and then you know, of course, the the podcast uh and the website and the Facebook group helped with getting into the details too. But in terms of how to decide what books, um, we just made a list. We made a list of all the books, and we knew for sure, like I wanted to go to Watership Down. Like that was one that was like on the list. We're going there. I want to stand on the downs and look for bunnies. So that that got on the list pretty quick. And we did a lot of roll doll. And so I knew I wanted to go to Great Missenden. Um and then we just kind of filled it out from there.

SPEAKER_01: 9:26

So how long in total were you in the UK for? Was it a couple of weeks? Yeah, so this part of the trip was about two and a half weeks. Okay, so so you've got about sort of say about 17 days to kind of fill fill up. So obviously you can't go kind of bombing across the whole of the UK in that time. So you've got to kind of think logistically as well about where you're gonna start and where you're gonna end. So I kind of I know your itinerary because you shared it with me. But do you want to kind of talk about where you started, um, the different places that you went and kind of what had inspired you, which book were associated with it with that? Now we can we could spend two or three hours talking about this. I know that. And I I kind of want to go into so much detail because there is so much to talk about. But I think let's kind of pick the the main highlights that you really, really enjoyed and the kids really enjoyed as well. That you kind of went, oh, you know, that that was really special and that made that was what the trip was about. So I know when you you you flew into Heathrow and talk to us from that point and where you went.

SPEAKER_00: 10:26

Yeah, so um, before we left, I'm envisioning that moment where it's 6:30 in the morning and we've been on a plane all night and nobody has slept, and I'm standing in a crowded Heathrow with four exhausted and and overwhelmed teenagers. And and I and and our first stop was Broadstairs, which is a couple hours away in Kent. And um, I knew from experience that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to like take Heathrow Express or Elizabeth Line into town and then take the tube to King's Cross and then get the train. But I thought, oh my gosh, I can't do this with kids who have never traveled internationally before and haven't slept all night. And um and so I think one of the best decisions we made was we decided to uh have XFA uh drive us from Heathrow to Broadstairs, which I didn't know if they would do. It's a long drive. Um, but you know, I could I wrote for a quote and it like didn't cost as much as I was afraid it might. And so I was like, all right, let's do this. And that moment when we got through customs and walked into the main terminal area, and our driver's standing there smiling at us, and he walked us just right out the door. The car was right there. We didn't have to think about anything. We just dropped our luggage and crawled in and and and rode in the British countryside for a couple of hours. It was that was a beautiful moment. So um, and our driver was awesome. I'm so embarrassed I can't remember his name, um, because he but I was tired. Oh my god, he was wonderful and just chatted with us. The kids were asking him all sorts of questions about like words that you know, this is how we say it in America. How do you say it here? And and just different customs and food and stuff. And and so we just talked the whole time and and it was delightful. And he dropped us off, you know, right at our door in Broadstairs, and it was it was wonderful. So I have nothing but the highest of praise for Riz and his crew. Um, that was so worth it, and I will probably plan to do that every time I travel. So it felt like such a splurge, but it it made our trip start well, and that was huge. That was huge. Um so yes, we started in Broadstairs, which is maybe an interesting place to start. But we I wanted to start somewhere that was a little slower paced, that was a little off the beaten track. London's a really busy city and can be really overwhelming. And I thought we need to just get used to being in England for a little bit first. And Broadstairs is not really on the radar, like it's not really in guidebooks and stuff. And so we didn't, I think we ran into one other American tourist the whole time we were there. There were British tourists there, but that was fine. Like we we wanted to like be in Britain, right? And so, and not just do touristy things. So Broadstairs was a great place to start. School was still in session, it was you know the first week of July, so the beaches weren't crowded, we had beautiful weather, so it was a great place to just settle in. Um, but the other reason we chose Broadstairs was for Charles Dickens. Um, we'd read a Christmas carol with the kids, and then the older two had read Great Expectations and one or two others, I forget, but they read some Dickens, and so I learned that Dickens spent many of his summers in Broadstairs. He actually visited there like 19 times, I think, for weeks or months at a time, and wrote part of at least part of eight of his novels there. And he had this real affection for Broadstairs, and they have a Dickens House Museum in Broadstairs that was just absolutely delightful. The man who walked us through was so passionate, and they had these interesting exhibits, um, and and we learned about just things that were inspired by Broadstairs and Dickens' writing, and that was really fun, and and it was nice to have it be on a smaller scale and not so overwhelming. So um that was our first stop. And then the other reason we did Broadstairs is because another author that we read a bunch of books um from is Anthony Buckinridge, which uh with the Jennings series, which is not super well known in the United States. Uh, but when my husband was growing up, he they had a British friend of the family who introduced him to these books and he remembered enjoying them. And so he's like, let's do one of those. So we like went on eBay and got an old book and and read it. And um, it's about a group of British schoolboys in the 1950s, and they're hilarious. We just loved the Jennings and Derbyshire series, and we probably read five or six of those books with the kids. And as he was writing those books, he was at St. Lawrence College in Ramsgate. And so we took the bus, it was an easy bus ride there, and there's nothing really to see. I mean, it's just a school, it's a you know, day in boarding school. Um, but it was fun to walk around there and we got a picture of the the blue plaque on the junior college wall honoring Anthony Buckinridge. Um uh so that was fun, and that was the other reason then for that. So when we realized we could hit two authors in that one place and enjoy the British Seaside, we were sold.

SPEAKER_01: 16:01

Oh, I just I just love it. I just love the fact that the that the kids were able to, I I think it's that connection with the past. And it's like, you know, we we read those authors today, but you know, they they they are from the past, but we can connect with it by going and visiting the places and seeing those places that inspired them or where they worked, where they lived. And it just makes it feel a little bit real, doesn't it, when you kind of, you know, you're walking in the same footsteps as these people. Yeah, it kind of gives you that connection over the centuries, you know. Um so after Broadstairs, where did you head next?

SPEAKER_00: 16:37

Yeah, so we actually took the train then from Broadstairs to Tunbridge. And we were headed to Ashdown Forest. And originally I thought, well, we'll take the train there, we'll rent a car, we'll drive around Ashdown Forest, then we'll go back to Tonbridge and drop off the car, and we'll take the train up to London, which was our next stop. And the more I looked at that, just the logistics of getting from the train station to the car rental place, we'd have all our luggage, renting the car, getting it back to the car hire place before they closed that afternoon, like all of that just felt like it caused me anxiety. And so I started looking um for a for a tour, and I found online a tour operator. Um, it's called Pooh Trux. And uh Jerry is the guy's name who does the tours. He offers private tours for up to six people. Normally he picks groups up from East Grinstead um train station because people are usually coming from London. But I wrote and said, Hey, would you be willing to pick us up in Tunbridge instead? And he said, sure, yeah, we can do that. And so again, we just stepped off the train and onto a van and off we went, and we didn't have to worry about directions. And it really was invaluable to have a guide through Ashdown Forest. He just made the whole place come to life. Um, he knew so much, not just about A.A. Milne and EH Shepherd, but about the ecology and the plants and the birds and the history. Like, I didn't know that Ashdown Forest had been used to train soldiers in World War II to learn how to drive tanks there. And so just reflecting on the juxtaposition of like this is where Winnie the Pooh was inspired, and um, and then there was war training there, you know, it just um it was really phenomenal. It was really phenomenal. And and he was so good with the teens too. Like two of them were really into it, and the other two were like, Winnie the Pooh, come on, you know, we're too big for this. But he just kept talking with them and engaging them, and at the end of the day, they admitted it was it was a really fun day. Um, all four of them really liked going down to the Pooustics Bridge and playing.

SPEAKER_01: 19:04

I was gonna ask, I was about to say, I was gonna, I had to ask that question. Did you guys pay poo stics? You have to have done poo sticks. Of course, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 19:12

Yeah, absolutely. For sure. Um and so, yeah, by the time we got to the bridge, they were into it, they were playing to win. Um and I think they they were able to put aside the I'm too cool for this and just access that kid that's still in there and just have fun and revisit some of these stories. Um, but also like on a deeper level, too. Like I said, with looking at some of the other dynamics of that forest and that space and the history there, um, and just learning more about the life of AA Milne, so much that I I didn't know. And that was that was really good. Um, and we also then we went he took us to Pooh Corner in Hartfield, which is a tea shop, and it had really good food, and it has this small museum um that was they definitely geared towards like older like teens and adults. Uh you know, it's not like a little little people place. Um and so we got to see a bunch of photos and a bunch of like one of the original like Winnie the Pooh bears and things. And so it was it's just a really enriching day. And and I think that day was a highlight um of the the whole trip for us.

SPEAKER_01: 20:34

It's it sounds really cool. And I I have to confess that I have not been to Ashtown Forest, and I'm like, I have to go. I it's you know, I really have to. I don't know. Um it it's it's so popular a place for people to go and visit. And we often get asked about about visiting um, you know, there's so many people who love love Winnie the Pooh. It's just it's such an iconic, uh popular books, but also just the character of Winnie the Pooh himself and Piglet, of course.

SPEAKER_00: 21:01

Well, and it wasn't crowded, it wasn't crowded at all because honestly, it is a little harder to get to, and so um, so it's not a place where you're seeing hordes of tourists, which also made it special. Like we we felt like we really were, you know, could explore the place. And I think in retrospect, like we could have done it without the tour, but I, you know, I didn't know before we got there. But but you know, there are there are maps and they have different suggested walks at the forest center, and and you can access those online. And and there are little parking places all throughout where you can park and get out and walk around and then drive a little more. And but I didn't know those things. And so, and also like we if we had had a full day, like a really full day that we could take the time to just explore and get lost and find our way back out and all that. But we really like we got off the train at 10 a.m. We were back on the train at 4 p.m. So for us, the tour really helped us maximize those six hours um and see things and hear stories that we wouldn't have heard otherwise.

SPEAKER_01: 22:04

So I think that's the thing about um when you've got a when you've got a guide, they they're gonna tell you things that you you you wouldn't have no idea about because they they know all that information. They've got they either live in that area, they've done all that research. So um I always think having a guide is so invaluable and it just always enhances the experience for sure. And that's so you know you jumped back on the train. So where did you go next?

SPEAKER_00: 22:29

We went up to London and we spent five nights in London then. And um, and actually, London, there's so many literary things you can do in London, and we actually didn't end up doing a ton there that was literary, uh, just because we wanted to hit, you know, the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey and you know the places you have to go, National Gallery. Um, but we did do an afternoon tour um that was Shakespeare and Dickens Old City. And that was through um London Walks. And uh we chose it uh because it kind of fit into our schedule. Like we wanted to do something with Dickens andor Shakespeare while we were there, and this had them both, and it fit in our our time frame on a Sunday afternoon. Our guide was a Royal Shakespeare actor, company actor, and he recited like large sections of text in different places that I mean it just made the stories come to life. So that was that was phenomenal. Um, we also on our own, another one of the books we read was called Sweep by Jonathan Auxier, and he is not a Brit, but the book is is he's actually from Pittsburgh. But the book is um is based in London, and one of the key scenes takes place at the the monument to the great fire, so we made sure to go there. There are a couple other places too that we that are prominent in the book, and so we made sure we got those to those places. Um and we went to bookstores in London, of course. That was another literary thing. I really wanted to go to Daunt books, and I oh I just loved it. Love, love, love. Could have lived there, could have moved me in. I'd been happy.

SPEAKER_01: 24:12

Oh, I I'm terrible every time. I every time I go into any of the bookshops in London, I say, I'm never gonna buy anything. My husband's exactly the same. Doug was just we're terrible. We go in and go, we're not gonna buy anything, we're just gonna get ideas of what we'd like to buy. We inevitably will come out with five books each and go, so he's actually at my mom's at the moment, because he's flown over, and he's he he's realized that I have got something like 34 books that my mom was like, Would you like to please take these back to Australia? So he's now going through these books. It's just impossible, isn't it, to go in and go, oh my goodness. It's just yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:45

So yeah, we were carry-on only on the way there, and we definitely checked a suitcase back with books, full of books. We we like went to a charity shop and bought an old beat-up suitcase and filled it up with books and checked that bag.

SPEAKER_01: 25:01

Oh, that is that is absolutely perfect. So you had a great time in London. You you did to see a lot of the great things. You can't go to London without Goglet Tower London and see Westminster inexperienced and and you know, it's just and we saw a show. Yeah, just so yeah, we we we did London. Yeah, but the kids loved that. So now after after London, where did you did you take the train again? Or did you go out what did hire a car? What did you do next?

SPEAKER_00: 25:26

Yeah, so we uh took the train out to uh Slough, so not very far. We just wanted to get outside of the city, um, and that's where we rented a car. Um, and from Slough we drove then to Cookum Dean, which is where Kenneth Graham lived and was inspired to write Wind in the Willows. Um, and so that was a short drive, easy drive. And, you know, so we we balanced doing these guided tours with self-guided tours, right? Because we couldn't afford to do guided tours everywhere we went. Um, and there's a map and and descriptions of some um Wind in the Willows walks in that area on the National Trust website, and I think the Woodland Trust has it too. Um, so I just printed those out and brought them with us, and they were pretty easy to follow. It was easy to find the car park where the walks started. Um, and they were descriptive, so you knew what you were seeing. Um, it was just it was a beautiful day. We were so lucky with weather. We we really just had beautiful weather the whole time, and so it was beautiful, and it's just a lovely little town and walking through Quarry Wood, which was the the inspiration for Wildwood. Like you could just imagine like Badger there and Mole getting lost trying to find his house. And uh so that was that was great fun. So we spent a few hours uh walking around that area.

SPEAKER_01: 26:58

Oh, perfect. And then did you hop back in the car and then go off somewhere else? We did.

SPEAKER_00: 27:04

This was a long day. And in retrospect, probably would have split this up into two days. Um, but yeah, we were trying to fit a lot in. So we drove then to Great Missenden, which is where Roll Dahl lived for um 30 plus years and wrote all the books that we know from him. And it didn't take long. I mean, they're not, it's not far. Um, but by the time we did the the morning stuff, we only had a few hours in Great Missendon. And I there were so many details on this trip. And I'm really proud that almost everything went off without a hitch. This was my one mistake. I, for all the time I spent on the Roll Doll Museum website, I completely missed that they are not open on Wednesdays. And of course, we were there on a Wednesday, and so we pull up and I'm like, no. Um, but we made the most of it. The museum has like, like on the website, they have a countryside trail and they have a town trail andor a village trail walk. And um, so we had those so we were able to walk around and see the Matilda Library and the petrol pumps from Danny the Champion of the World and the house that was the inspiration for Sophie's orphanage and BFG. So that was great, you know, even though we didn't get into the museum, we definitely still got to get like the feel of his books and his inspirations. And we walked up to his um memorial, the Rolldoll Memorial, where he's buried, and just a really peaceful spot. We enjoyed just sitting there and and relaxing. Um, so we definitely still did enjoy Greatness and Den, even though I just have to go back someday to go to the museum. And we didn't get to do the countryside trail because that's a little longer, and I really that takes you like into the woods that were the inspiration for Danny the champion of the world. So so I just have to go back. That's that's all there is to it. Absolutely, absolutely. But we did, we we ate dinner that night at the Nag's Head, which was Roll Doll's local, and and it it's really cool place, just full of character. It is like from the 15th century or something, and the food was good, that was one of the best meals we had, and just a really lovely place to visit, and felt like, oh, like we're sitting in the pub where Roll Doll used to sit.

SPEAKER_01: 29:29

So that was fun. That's cool. That is really cool. So obviously, this is quite a long day. So you had your meal in the pub, and then what did you did you stay in the area or did you head off somewhere?

SPEAKER_00: 29:40

Yeah, no, then we drove to Oxford.

SPEAKER_01: 29:44

I mean, the beauty of the fact that you were there in July is that the days are very long, so you've got a lot of hours of daylight, which would help. Um very much did.

SPEAKER_00: 29:54

Yeah. Um, and we'd had a good meal, and so the kids just kind of they started to doze off in the car. We got ourselves to Oxford. It wasn't that long of a drive, but um maybe an hour, yeah. And so yeah, got in kind of late, but but that was all right. We were in Oxford, so that was wonderful. Um and so we had planned to do Oxford as um sort of self-guided. I had purchased um an app. Um it was like a scavenger hunt. Um, it was called Treasure Hunt Oxford. And I convinced my daughter, the 16-year-old, to do it with me that morning. She was the only one I could convince to even try it. Because they all thought this is just gonna be stupid and cheesy. And it was actually a lot of fun, and it gave us a really great overview of the city. Um, so that was an inexpensive way to just yeah, get an overview and get our bearings in Oxford. So that was great. And that morning, then we actually realized we were doing really well on our food budget. We were spending a lot less on food than we had planned, and so we were like, we have a little extra money. Like, why don't we just do a tour? Why don't we do a Tolkien and Lewis tour? Because that was was why we were there in Oxford was to explore their lives there. And so I jumped online, I managed to book a private tour with a guide from um, well, I think it was just on via tour, but it he was through Visit Oxford, and it was focused on Tolkien and Lewis, and the girls opted out, so it was just four of us plus the guide, and so he really personalized it for us, and because we were such a small group, he was able to take us places that you know, behind the scenes that you wouldn't be able to do with a bigger group. So that was was really special. Um, we went into the he took us into the gaffer's office at Blackwell's bookshop, um, which is like the original office that's been preserved. And he like pointed to a chair and he's like, that is probably the chair where Tolkien sat to like sign his contract for these books. I was like, oh my gosh. Um, so that was cool. And he took us to some places in in one of the colleges that tour groups usually don't go. And so so that was really special. And again, made the splurge worth it to get to to do behind the scenes. Um, but I think you we could have done Oxford on our own. There's so much there to see and do, and there's so many resources. Um, I had listened before we went to a to a like a walking tour on on just on Apple Podcasts. Someone has like a guided tour of Oxford that they've recorded. And you know, we could have done that and gotten a lot out of it still. So yeah, but the tour was fun. It was good.

SPEAKER_01: 32:45

Yeah, yeah. It sounds good. And what did the girls do? Did they just have a chill out day?

SPEAKER_00: 32:50

Yeah, because as previously mentioned, the day before was kind of long. And so, yeah, and the 16-year-old had like gone exploring with me in the morning. Um, but the 12-year-old was just like, I'm done. I need a down day. And we were like, Yeah, we get that. And so, yeah, the two of them just hung out at we were at an Airbnb and they hung out there while we were doing the tour. And everyone was happy. So it was good.

SPEAKER_01: 33:13

Yeah, I think sometimes it's good to have those kind of built-in days that you can have that bit of flexibility, I think, just because it can get tiring. And I always think it's like by the time you get to like day seven, eight, nine, ten, it's it can get a bit full on, and you're like, right, I just need it, just a little bit of a breather to then appreciate things a little bit further on in the next few days that you do, I think it helps.

SPEAKER_00: 33:35

Yeah, absolutely. And we we tried to build some of that into the schedule, and then we told the kids ahead of time, like there are going to be some activities that are mandatory, fun. Like you can say, can I skip this? And we will tell you no. Like there are some things you have to do. You just have to do. But then there will be other things that that we will say. Like, if you really are like, I'm done, I need to relax, like we will respect that and we'll figure out a way to make it happen. It was easier with the older two, right? For if they needed to opt out. We weren't gonna like leave the 12-year-old home alone in a strange city, right? That wasn't gonna happen. But um, but we really tried to be flexible when we could. And that made them more willing to do the mandatory things because they knew that like they did have some autonomy, they did have some say in how this trip was gonna go.

SPEAKER_01: 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:20

Um, and so yeah, yeah, that worked out.

SPEAKER_01: 34:24

So after Oxford, what did you do next?

SPEAKER_00: 34:27

Yeah, so then we drove down to Whitchurch in Hampshire, which is where Richard Adams uh wrote Watership Down. Um, and again, for that one, I just found some walking guides online. Um, there's the Watership Down Trail, which is a 24-mile circular walk. We were not gonna do 24 miles. Um that was not gonna happen. We we were able to do a good portion of it. We probably did about four miles of walking, and we got to see a number of the key places in the book. Um, we did not see any rabbits, sadly. Oh yeah, but I mean, but just to like be like, oh, like this is the farm where you know they, you know, where fiber had to be, you know, they had to escape from there and all that, you know, like just like this is where this book take but took place. Uh was really cool. And the landscape there is just beautiful. It's just beautiful. Um it's in um, it's in an area of what is it, area of outstanding natural beauty. Yeah. Um the North Wessex Downs landscape. And so it was gorgeous. We just we walked through foot like woodlands and farmlands and up the high chalk ridge. And so even if it wasn't for the book, like I would have enjoyed that day very much. It was a lovely, lovely place to walk and just yeah, be out in the country.

SPEAKER_01: 36:03

Yeah, and that sounds really good. And was is this nearing the end of the trip now? Because I know you then head to Paris. So is this the bit where we know?

SPEAKER_00: 36:14

So then we spent a few days. We drove to we stayed in the town of Westbury, which is outside of Bath. So Nate's cousin and his wife, he's he's American and he married a British amazing British woman. They're a great family, and they've got a son. And so we spent the weekend hanging out with them, and they took us to bath and we walked all around there. They showed us around and we walked up the the cliff. There's a white horse there, and um, so mainly just hung out with them and and the kids got to meet uh their cousin and and hang out with them, and so that was that was great. Um Jane Austen fans.

SPEAKER_01: 36:57

I have to ask, is there any Jane Austen fans in your family yet?

SPEAKER_00: 37:00

Yeah, I mean we we like walked past the Jane Austen Center and I took a picture, but I like Jane Austen, but nobody but I but I but it's not like an obsession with me, and nobody else in the family was really interested. So that was all right. That was all right. It was good just to just to see and you know pretend I was in Bridgerton and you know, just it was good to just walk around.

SPEAKER_01: 37:27

That's to be doing um baths are lovely city as well to base us off for for a few days. I mean it's just did you go to the Roman bus? Did you please tell me you went to the Roman bus?

SPEAKER_00: 37:38

It no, so I've been there before. Like when I when I when I was there 25 years ago, I had I had done all of that. And I was like, guys, you're gonna love this, it's gonna be cool. And they were not interested. So I was like, guys, but all right, I'm not gonna pay for it if you're not we don't want to do it. So a couple of us went into the Bath Abbey and and walked around there, which is just gorgeous. Um but yeah, they decided they didn't want to do that. What are we doing? But again, I tried to really honor. Yeah, like I didn't need to go. I'd been there before. And so I'm like, if you really don't want to, okay. Like this is your vacation too.

SPEAKER_01: 38:17

And so and they're only young, you know, when they grow up when they're older, they might go, actually, that's something we want to do. But yeah, I think that's good. No, I think that's true. You you have to, you gotta kinda, as you say, give them a bit of the autonomy and a bit of space for things that maybe don't interest them as much.

SPEAKER_00: 38:33

Um right, and maybe, like you said, maybe it will later. It it gives them an introduction, it gives them a taste of things. Exactly. So from there, then we went back to London and we met up with um Nate's parents and my dad and my aunt and cousin. So they had all been doing their own travels through the UK um for that week before. And then we all met up and uh did some things in London that day. So that allowed us to check Harry Potter off the list doing the Harry Potter studio tour. Um and and my daughter really wanted to do a Jack the Ripper tour, and so we did that. She's a true crime podcast person. So so we did that. That was it was fun. It was a fun day. And then we got up the next morning very early and got on the Eurostar and went to Paris. So we spent two nights, three days in Paris. And um the 12-year-old was desperate to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, so we made sure that happened at sunset. She was very specific. Top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, and it was everything she had hoped for and more. It was a beautiful sunset that night. I mean, it was just incredible. So we did that. We also, the the literary thing we did there was um going to the Victor Hugo House um museum. Um, one of the last books that we had read with the kids before it just got too hard to do was Les Miserables. And so it was an abridged version, I will say that, because it's a super long book. But even the abridged version is very long. Um, but we had read that together and then we had gone to see the musical here in the States uh last year. And so we had to go, you know, and check out his his recreated apartment there uh in Paris. And um yeah, it was interesting. You know, it's sort of sensory overload in there. That guy had some colorful taste. Uh so a lot of a lot of history that was probably more interesting to me and my husband than to most of the kids, but uh but still worth worth checking it out. And we went to in Paris, one of the intersections where like the barricades were in Le Miz. And so they were able to imagine that. And um yeah, so that was it was fun. But but again, we we did sort of an intro to the city type thing of you know, seeing Notre Dame and you know, just going to the the key places. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 41:08

So that was really fun. And then the kids went home and your pet well, what happened to the city?

SPEAKER_00: 41:16

Yeah, so we took the Eurostar back to London, and then the next day we put the kids on a plane at Heathrow, um, and continued on on our journey, which I think we're gonna talk about more later.

SPEAKER_01: 41:31

Yeah, we're gonna talk about that next, that'll be in next week's uh podcast episode. So yeah, that'll that'll be good to talk about what you did after the kids had gone home. So that's really good. Yeah. But I think before we get to obviously next week, we're gonna talk about how that uh how you planned that and what that looked like. Um I think it'd be really useful to just talk about the little bit of the logistics of traveling with four kids too. So this, you know, how did you how did you find the trains? How did you find driving? Because I know those are kind of questions that we get asked a lot. I mean, you did the right thing by picking up a car outside of London. Um, I say that all the time because driving in London is not something to be taken lightly, and I just say that don't do that. Just it's like if you're listening to the podcast now and you're thinking about hiring a car in London, don't. That's all good.

SPEAKER_00: 42:20

Yes, I like fully support that decision. Do not do it. We were so glad we did it the way we did. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 42:26

Yeah. So how did you find the trains? How did you find uh the drive? And I know you use the trippy ammo um to help prepare you for driving, and I know that's a it's an extremely good resource. Um, and I'm sure I'm sure the train stuff that obviously Doug Doug's the train expert, so I'm sure a lot of the train podcasts and hopefully resources would have helped you with that.

SPEAKER_00: 42:46

Yes, they absolutely. In fact, that one train episode came out shortly before, a couple weeks before we left. And even though all our plans were in place, I just listened to that one ravenously. Like, okay, like just any of the other details. And there were, there were a few details that I was like, oh, that's really good to know. So yeah, the train stuff from Doug is so helpful. You know, we didn't really have any trouble with the train travel at all. It really is, it's so much better there than it is here in the States. That, you know, for us, it just felt so smooth and so easy. You know, I booked all of almost all of the trains before we left. Um, I just used the National Rail app and you know, that just leads you through, you know, and then you click and it takes you to whichever train service you're using. And so I downloaded those apps. It took a little bit of time. Like that was something booking the train tickets. I felt like I just needed to spend a lot of time just poking around the websites, playing around, figuring out how these things work. Um, and putting that time in on the front end made it worth it because everything was very, very smooth and easy once we were there. Everything was like on our phones, on our app, put it in Apple Wallet, good to go. Um, and we never had a trouble finding seats together. Um, I think one of the trains, we were split up a little, but we were all in the same coach. Um, but most of them, they did not require seat or even offer seat reservations, and it was not a problem to find seats together. Um, we were carry-on only, as I said, so we weren't dealing with huge luggage situations, and so the trains were easy from that standpoint. Um that definitely makes sense. So, yeah, I love train travel. And I I would have done all trains for the whole trip if if we could have made that work. Um, but because some of the places we were going were a little harder, even if they were they like they aren't hard to get to by train, but they're hard to get from one to the other by train. Yeah. Um, so we didn't want to like have to keep going back into London and back out again. And so so that's why we rented the car for the second half of the trip. And we rented, I mean, it was a big vehicle, and on some of those backcountry roads, it was harrowing.

SPEAKER_01: 45:06

I can imagine.

SPEAKER_00: 45:07

Yeah, they're quite narrow, but yeah, but um, but it was okay. Like my my husband really just adapted pretty quickly to being on the left-hand side of the road. And um, I was the navigator and and and it was good. Um the Tripyama was great. Um, the the little episode on roundabouts is like totally worth the price of admission. If you don't do anything else on Tripyamo, make sure you watch that because roundabouts we have roundabouts in the US, but they didn't, they're not like the roundabouts in the UK. Um, we have cute little circles that are very lame, um, but they're like hardcore roundabouts in in the UK. And and once you get used to it, like once you there's a logic to it. And once you learn that logic, then it's not hard. Um, and so that episode, I think, really of the Tripiano really helped so much. Um, but but all of it was good. We were glad we did that. That was worth it. Yeah, so in terms of like accommodations, we're a family of six, like we hotels really didn't make sense. And so we used Airbnbs for everything except, I guess the night before we left for the Eurostar, we were in a hotel right by St. Pancras. So we could get up at 5 a.m. and get over there.

SPEAKER_01: 46:30

And I have to tell you, Lauren, that's the same hotel that we stay in when we catch the we've tried a lot of the hotels around uh because we get the early train over to Paris or Amsterdam. And when I saw the hotel, I was like, oh, that's the one we stayed at last December when we went over to Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_00: 46:47

Um it's you know, pretty, pretty decent price and feels pretty safe. And yeah. So yeah. So other than that, though, we were in Airbnb's and that was wonderful for us and the way that we travel. Um, the first place we go every time we arrive in a new town, we'd go to the grocery store, we'd get food for breakfast, food for lunch. Many days we would we would pack a lunch um and take it with us. Um, we did a lot of meal deals for dinners. Um, being in a crowded, busy restaurant at dinner like is not relaxing for us. And so to be able to just throw something together real quick that was good price and pretty healthy, um, and just have a relaxing night in each night after a busy day out was great.

SPEAKER_01: 47:34

I think it's really fun as well because it gives you that flexibility. You can get up, have your breakfast, everybody can have the breakfast at their own pace. As you say, you get the chance to go and explore some of the supermarkets, which are amazing in the UK. Yes, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like the meal deals are brilliant. And then, and as you say, you get back, you can relax in your own place in the evening and cook your meal. It's also really good if you're budgeting as well to do that because eaten out with a family of six, it that's soon gonna add up. But it's not it is not cheap to eat out in the UK.

SPEAKER_00: 48:05

Um but talking about no, and as I said, like that that helped us be able to do other stuff because we were saving way more money than we thought. And so we were able to put that towards other priorities, and that was great. And we did eat out at restaurants too, but just not every day.

SPEAKER_01: 48:20

So I was gonna ask you, we're talking about food. Then was there anything in particular that you or the kids really enjoyed in restaurants or cafes? Was there anything where you went, oh, these are this is good?

SPEAKER_00: 48:29

Yeah. Um, we we went to duck and waffle in London, which is up on the you know, 40th floor, uh overlooking the city while eating brunch, and it just has a cool vibe. Um, so it's that's a good place, I think, for teens. They they liked that a lot. Um, I mentioned the Nag's head in Great Missendon. That was great. Um in Broadstairs, there was this restaurant called Please Sir, um, like because everything's Dickens theme. Um, and they served smash burgers. And we we were just kind of looking at the menu outside, and the owner saw us, and he's like, Oh, you guys, like, come in. This is gonna be the best burger you've ever eaten. He said, I know that's a bold claim saying that to Americans, because Americans know they're burgers, but this is gonna be the best burger you've ever eaten. And we're like, well, okay, we'll give it a try. And I have to admit, it was definitely up there in the best burger I've ever had. It was really good. Uh so yeah, that's called please, sir. Um, and we had some great Indian food along the way too, just from like little hole in the wall places. I think the Brits have the best Indian restaurants. So I know absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 49:35

So if you're gonna, if you kind of look back on your trip now, is there anything that you would change or add to your itinerary if you did it next time? If you get the chance to do it again, what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_00: 49:48

Yeah. One place that we had to drop from our itinerary because it just didn't make sense geographically, was um to go up to the Lake District and see the Beatrix Potter stuff there. So I'd love to do that. That would be great. Um, I I would love to do go to Torquay and do the Agatha Christie stuff there. Oh, and and um Whitby for Dracula. That would be fun.

SPEAKER_01: 50:13

There's so many places to go to, isn't this? I know it really is the gift that keeps giving the UK when it comes to to writers, because it's this, or it's just it is amazing. Um now this is a kind of the opportunity to give a bit of a shout out to any of the tour guys or companies that were made it, and and hopefully uh, you know, I'm really interested in talking to the guy that does those poo poo tours because it sounds fabulous. Um who were the kind of standouts that you went, oh, this was just worth the money, just fantastic, really made our trip.

SPEAKER_00: 50:47

Yeah, yeah, definitely Jerry at Poo Trek. That was that was great. Um Riz and his drivers at XFA. I mean, just they are phenomenal. Um they really, like I said, it it's it started out our trip so well. Um was so glad um that that they did that uh for us. And gosh, I mean, really everything we did was great. I have I have no complaints at all.

SPEAKER_01: 51:17

I just love the UK. It just sounds like an absolutely uh wonderful, wonderful trip. So, you know, at the end of every episode, I ask the same question. Um, so what would be your one tip for parents who are planning a themed UK um itinerary with teens?

SPEAKER_00: 51:36

Well, we sort of we already touched on this, but I would reiterate to make sure you build in rest time and play time. Um, we spent one full day each week not really doing anything, just hanging out at the house and relaxing. And that was absolutely necessary for all of us. That was hard for me because I really wanted to pack in as much as possible and make the most of every minute. But I mean, sometimes you just need to stop and relax and have time to absorb everything that you're seeing and experiencing. And I think the teens needed that even more than we did as parents. And so building in that downtime was really important.

unknown: 52:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 52:16

Well, it sounds like you had an absolutely phenomenal trip. I'm so glad you sent me that email, Lauren. A really good. I'm so glad as well that our resources and that you love the podcast and and everything that that Doug and I do and our team put together was really helpful as well. It's always, it's just always so lovely to hear that. Um, and I'm really looking forward to chatting to you next about the next part of your trip, which we're gonna be going out next week. Um, but for this episode, thank you so much, uh Lauren, for coming on in and sharing your trip. Thank you. It was fun. Thanks once again to Lauren for coming on this week's episode of the podcast. You can find more information about the tours that Lauren did and the Airbnbs that she stayed in as well in this week's show notes at uktravelplanning.com forward slash episode 176. If you'd like to share your own UK travel story or have a question, head to our Speakpipe page. You'll find the link in the notes and leave me a voice message. And if you've enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave a review on your favourite podcast app as it really helps others to find us. But as always, until next week, 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 uktravelplanning.com. 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.