10 Ways We Help You Plan Your UK Trip

Tracy and Doug step back from the destinations to share who they are and ten ways they help you plan a smarter UK trip, from the podcast and websites to consultations, products and a 30,000 strong community. Two Brits who know the UK inside out, now based in Australia, with Doug's near 30 years on the railways behind every train answer.

In this episode:

• The lived experience behind the podcast, and why it shapes the advice
• Why a real person beats a generic AI itinerary or conflicting internet advice
• Where to start when UK trip planning feels overwhelming
• Practical help for UK train travel: tickets, railcards, reservations and routes
• Cutting wasted time and money by fixing geography and removing duplication
• Honest partner recommendations, personally vetted so you can book with confidence
• Visual planning through YouTube, Shorts, Reels and station walk-throughs
• Planners, toolkits and ebooks that save hours of research
• One to one consultations, video itinerary reviews and last minute Q&A sessions
• Facebook communities for reassurance, tips and real traveller experiences

Wherever you are in your planning, pick one resource and start there. Listen to the podcast, read the articles on the website and watch Doug's videos on YouTube.

Know someone planning a UK trip? Please share our resources, websites and podcast with them. And if you've enjoyed the show, send us a SpeakPipe message or leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps. Happy UK Travel Planning!

📝 Show Notes - Episode 209

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Transcript

Welcome And What You’ll Get

SPEAKER_01 0:00

In this episode, we're showing 10 ways we help travelers just like you find smarter UK trips through our podcasts, websites, products, expertise and community. Whether you're visiting for the first time or returning and explore more of the UK, this episode will show you exactly where to find the help you need.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

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, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Hi everybody and welcome to this week's edition of the UK Travel Planel Podcast. Now Doug's here again. Hello. Can't get rid of them off the podcast these days. Honestly, honestly, at the beginning, he never wanted to do it. Now we just can't get them off the podcast. It's true.

Meet Tracy And Doug

SPEAKER_01 1:04

So this week we wanted to just do a little bit about us, about our background, and about how we're kind of how we're kind of qualified, I guess, with our experience, to help you plan your trip to the UK. We do have excellent credentials. We do, and some fantastic reviews and lots of experience. Um, in fact, I was just saying, I don't think I know anybody else in the UK who's seen as much of the UK as we have.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Between the two of us, no, I can't think of anybody else.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Exactly. So between the two of us, we've covered a lot of ground with the UK. Obviously, there's still places we still want to see.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

There's always going to be because we couldn't cover absolutely everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

I've been everywhere by train though.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Exactly. Well, you have, yes, true. So let's talk a little bit about us. Uh and there are some episodes. I think there's an episode a while ago where we did a QA, which was was lovely. Yeah. Um, and we shared a little bit about our background. But um, so I'm Tracy. So I present the podcast. You'll have listened to me over 200 and some episodes, 208 episodes if you've listened right from the beginning. So I was born in the UK, I was born in the northeast, so I'm from Northumberland originally, lived all over the world, I've lived in actually seven different countries. Uh, we're based a lot of the time in Australia, but we divide our time, so we spend time in the UK as well every year, traveling around the UK. So we have experience both as British people who've lived and been brought up in the UK, so have that knowledge of the culture and experience of being British, um, but also we experience it as visitors as well, so we kind of have it from both points of view. Um, I've lived in a few different places across the UK, I've lived in the Midlands and the North East, and I've lived in London. Um, and Doug comes with his unique experience of trains.

Doug’s Rail Network Expertise

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Well, that's right, anybody who knows me knows that I'm absolutely a train fanatic. So I was born in Burton on Train, which is in Staffordshire, but on the Staffordshire-Darbyshire border. So railway's been my whole life. My father worked for the railway, so from a very young age, we were out travelling by train all the time, and then as soon as I was old enough, I did an apprenticeship on the railway. So most weekends I'd be out and about travelling the entire length and breadth of the country. So learning all about the lines. We actually completed me, a friend of mine, we completed every single mile of mainline track in the UK. That is the truth. We really did. We marked it off, and we did actually all all lines in the UK. So from a Railway Korean, just under 30 years. I did many roles. I was a testing commission in an electrical engineer, and then I moved to the operational side, so I had a lot of experience on the West Coast mainline, and then I moved back, and then I was travelling the country doing audits, so I went everywhere.

unknown 3:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

So there's you have a lot of experience. I do have a lot of root knowledge, and I keep in touch with the rail industry. So, you know, my friends tell me that I do have a an excellent knowledge across the board of the how the rail rail system works.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

So, how this all translates for you is that you have our expertise uh and knowledge about UK travel and our experiences through train travel for Doug particularly, um, as visitors and as Brits, which I think is unique for travel in the UK, so we can help you.

Why Human Help Beats AI

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Now, obviously, we are moving into a world where AI is kind of starting to dominate everything, and we'd be remiss to say or try to ignore it, the fact that we know that some of you are sitting thinking, I'll just put my itinerary into AI, and it'll give me an itinerary, and that's it, I'll be sorted. Um, but we want to kind of in this episode just tell you how we, with our expertise, we can help you save time, money, and stress planning a UK trip. And we offer something unique that you will not get from AI. Um, that we are here, we will listen to what you need, what your what your unique wants are, what your travel style is, what you want to see, what you do, and we will be honest with you as well when you're putting together our itinerary.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Because everybody's different, everybody has different wants, needs, expectations.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Exactly. And often when you're putting stuff in AI, you're getting it will agree with what you're saying, it will give you outdated information, it will provide we'll it will give you probably too much, in fact, overwhelm. We've had people on our Facebook group say we they've they've looked at AI and just went, Oh wow, it's just too much. Yeah. Actually, what we want to do is talk to a human being so that we can put an itinerary together. So now we can do that in a number of ways, and we're going to talk in this episode about how we help you do that. Now, we've had and we had a complaint a few months ago by somebody who listens to the podcast, and we did an episode about what Doug can do for you around train travel, and they were like, Oh, didn't like that episode because it was all it was just you guys promoting what you do. We have to promote what we do because if we want to continue doing what we want to do, if we what we continue providing the fantastic resource and information we do, we need to tell you what they are.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, you have to showcase your skills exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

So that's what we're doing. So, this is what this episode is about is about what you can find from us and what we have that will support you. So the

Start Planning Without The Overwhelm

SPEAKER_01 5:57

first way that can help you is when you don't know where to start. So we can help you create a plan because we know that planning a UK trip can feel overwhelming because there are so much, there's just so much choice, so many places to choose from. So you've got England, you've got Scotland, you've got Wales, you've got London, you've got countryside. You've just got so many places to think about. Then you've got to think about how you're gonna get around. Are you gonna go right by train? Are you gonna drive? Are you gonna book tours, or you're gonna do a mixture? So basically, the podcast, obviously, listen to the podcast now. Got a back 208 episodes to listen to the podcast to help you, and obviously our websites as well. So uk travelplanning.com, LondonTravelplanning.com as well. They help by we've got lots of articles which will help you um with your planning by breaking it down step by step. So lots of beginner-friendly resources and planning frameworks. So do check out the website for that.

Train Travel Made Simple

SPEAKER_01 6:54

So the second way that we can help you is when you're confused about UK train travel. So this is over to you, Doug, for this one.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, well, first off, I I understand it's the UK rail network is complex, the uh confusion of guards, tickets and passes of national rail cards, seat reservations, luggage. It's it's not straightforward, and there's sometimes there is multiple answers, and it's all about what suits individuals in the best for the best fit, really. And so I would I do appreciate it. So on our website we have a whole section given over to train travel, UK train travel hub, and on there you can see is uh an ebook. I've written uh a guide to UK train travel which gives you step-by-step instructions regards all those things I've just said, and there's itineraries on there as well, actually, to help you along, choosing your your uh direction of travel. So I've got YouTube as well. YouTube as well. I forgot almost forgot my YouTube channel. Um there's some videos on there already when I make try and make it easy, I try and talk you through exactly the problems we face. It's uh it's like a almost a fly on the wall. I'll do it exactly as I'm doing during the actual journey. So when somebody steps in my way, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna go back and do it again. So it's actually live travel.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

It is how you do it, so how to get from London to Bath, how to get from London to Edinburgh, all those sorts of podcast episodes. How to get from Heathhow into London, those sorts of things absolutely, and also you can actually um access Doug as well for specific help around train travel, isn't that right?

SPEAKER_02 8:26

You can indeed. So I have question and answer sessions, uh, we do video sessions, and we also do the one-to-ones, which includes chatting about uh train travel and where it fits into your broader picture of your whole trip.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Absolutely. So if you need help with train travel, uh come to us, come to Doug, and he will be able to um provide you with assistance. So now whether that's through the website, through his videos, or whether you have a consult or Q ⁇ A with that.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

That's right. And the feedback we've had from people who've done that is very, very positive.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

I'm a normal person, I'm easily head on with, so you know, I don't buy it.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Absolutely. So,

Avoid Costly Itinerary Mistakes

SPEAKER_01 9:02

point number three is the third way that we help you is um if you're worried about wasting money, we will help you avoid costly mistakes. So that's what we can do. Basically, we look at things like you know, where to stay in London, um, checking that you haven't overpacked your itinerary, um, talking about the different, I guess we're talking about rail passes and rail tickets and and that's right.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

It's an investment you make to employers to go through your itinerary. Um the feedback we've had from people is we have actually saved lots of time and money. Yeah, I was thinking at a concert we did a couple of weeks back where we saved them time when they were duplicating and doubling back, and we actually managed to find an extra day for them.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

We did actually we managed to add York into their itinerary, uh, which they which they hadn't done. So we can kind of help with that geographically as well, how things make sense.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

I also because I have such good good route knowledge of the UK where all the lines go and all the train routes go, I can actually bring that experience to actually streamline your your travel plans by train.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Perfect. Number four way that we help you is when you want honest recommendations because we only recommend partners we trust.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

We do.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

So

Trusted Partners And Honest Picks

SPEAKER_01 10:41

I mean we personally experience lots of tours, hotels, and the different services that we talk about. Um, you know, and I do a lot of that outreach and talking to new partners, go meeting up with them, um, and then we go on the tours we try out so that we know how good this different services are, the different tour operators that are that we actually recommend to you guys.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

I have to point out here, Tracy is very picky. She's got people knocking on the door, asking to work with us, and but you want to personally vet everything and everyone first.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Absolutely do. I I recommend companies because they consistently deliver great experiences, and that's what that's what we want for you. We don't just list kind of random stuff. We want you to experience the best. And so we partner with uh the best. And you know, as I've said as well, and the previous comment about um saving money is that you know you will get discount codes as well, which will help promo codes, which will give you some um, you know, off some of these church companies as well, which will help you save some money on things. Um, number five is that uh when you need some visual help, uh we have YouTube videos to show you

Visual Help Through YouTube

SPEAKER_01 11:51

what to expect. And I guess this is at the moment, this is where Doug's excelling. I will will be on YouTube soon doing lots of videos with lots of advice. But at the moment, Doug is basically concentrating on our trains.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

I am, I'm trying to work hard at this one. I don't have any formal training doing videos. I have so each video I try and do is a little bit better than the last one. So apologies. What's in all, I do my very best, and I'm trying to deliver a better product every single time. Well, you're doing all right, we've got a couple of thousand followers on YouTube, and I also trust me, it's not nice listening to my own voice all the time. I don't like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

But honestly, uh, we know that um, you know, some of you like to listen, some of you like to watch, some of you like to read. Um, so we thought sometimes, and I know myself, I like to see things.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

I think it helps as well. So we are really working on that.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

When I'm trying to do videos around some of the bigger London stations, they are big places, they can be confusing. So to see somebody showing you the direction to walk in, and we're coming in from this entrance, you know, it does make life easier.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Yeah, because you're kind of familiar with it, aren't you? Yeah, yeah. So and also we do have uh shorts and I have reels, so you can check out on Instagram, um, and also you know, I we're share on stories, so there's lots of things to to see, yeah, um, which will help. Uh point six is when you don't have time to research everything, so you'll find that our products will save hours of planning.

Planners That Save Research Time

SPEAKER_01 13:12

So we have got some fantastic planners. Now, Doug has already mentioned his uh guide to UK train travel.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah, that's right. A bridged version is exactly how the ticketing system works and the passes and the different train companies and how it all fits together.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, and absolutely essential tips, things that you need to know, just like how soon to arrive at the train station, do I need to take food and drink? That's right. All that sort of stuff is included in that. It's actually our best seller. Uh it it it's just sell so well, and we've had some absolutely fantastic feedback about that. So if you're considering traveling by train, honestly, that is that's the first place to start, is to start with the guide. Uh, we also have um you know best of Britain itinerary planners. I have a London map, which is again very, very popular, which shows you lots of kind of the best places to stay, the different uh guide to the different um attractions and things to do in London. Uh, we have uh planners as well and toolkits. So I will share all those different products that we have. Um, you know, our London planner as well is very, very popular. We're always uh putting together new products and looking at what we can provide, which will be helpful. And I know next year we're looking at doing some workshops on how to plan a visit to London, Edinburgh, York, Bath, Oxford. So those will be individual workshops how to plan a different strategies how to plan a train trip or something that you're gonna do a workshop on. Um so those are are gonna be coming uh soon. So, as I say at the moment, our products are really popular. I will link to the different uh ones we've got. We've got a few for London, we've got a general kind of UK itinerary one, and then we've got the uh train the train guide. Um, so point seven is when you want personal help, we offer services tailored to your trip, don't we?

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yeah, and

Personal Services And Reviews

SPEAKER_02 14:57

again, this is feedback we've had of people don't regret contacting us for us to go through our itinerary or help them to put together the itinerary in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Absolutely. So let's just talk through the different services we have. So I guess the first one we have is a one-to-one consult with myself and Doug.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Um so you can basically book an hour with us, go through your itinerary, or chat through where you're at with your itinerary if you even want us to kind of give you some pointers to start putting it together. And we've done that before in the past with people. You basically book an hour, have that consult, have that chat. We can help you, you know. Is see sometimes it is just to be able to start brainstorming. Yeah, yeah. So we could do that. Um, we also do a video itinerary review. So if you put your your itinerary together um and you want us to have a look at it, we can do that. And so we have a look through itinerary, make some changes, make some adaptations if necessary, answer your questions, and we send that back in a video. Actually, that's the one that recently we got, and we just kind of edited the the itinerary and said, Look, how you you've given us plan A. This is plan B. What do you think of this? And actually, they're gonna do plan B. They're really, really happy with that. Yeah, and that's saved them a lot of time as well. Um, obviously, as well, you've got the uh train plan and help with Doug. So you can book you could any of those services the want-the-one or the video, you can have that around train travel.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Um whether it's one specific question that you know it's gonna take a bit of talking around, or it's looking at different options, or just actually clarify some points. Uh, but if it's it's pivotal to your whole trip, you know, and that's uh it could be a sticking point for you. It helps sort of feel you know your whole mindset that it's gonna physically work.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Absolutely. Well, you can because there's a 30-minute QA as well with Doug, where you can talk about specifically about trains, about your train plans when you're putting it together. So if you'll prefer to do that, and there's also a new QA where you can talk to myself and Doug, and it's this is about your last minute questions because we know often, and then a few weeks before your trip's coming up, you've got all these questions and things going through your head, and you're like, Oh, I just want to. In fact, we've just done that recently with somebody, just answered questions, and again, that's a 30-minute session, so you can book a book that um and go through those last-minute questions, those things that you're not 100% sure about that you want to talk to somebody with the experience and knowledge that that we have, that we can we can do that. So we've done that around you know, multi-generational trips, first-time visitors, if you've got limited time, we've done it through some quite complicated rail itineraries, road itineraries. Um, basically anything that you bring to us, we we'll have we'll have experience all of all have seen before, so it's not a problem.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

I can't think of much we've not come across.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Absolutely. So point is when you want advice from real travellers, um, so as well as our kind of advice and knowledge and experience, we do have uh

Community Advice From Real Travellers

SPEAKER_01 17:41

some really good Facebook communities as well, don't we?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Yes, that's right, we do. Yeah, we've got uh one specific UK train travel uh tips group, uh which is a focus obviously on train travel.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yeah, we've got London travel planning group and a UK travel planning group. So altogether we've got well over 30,000 uh members. And obviously, what's really good is you can also ask in that from other people to get some other views, get practical tips and reassurance, inspiration. Um, you know, and exact again, there's thousands of members, so they can you know can ask people's opinions as well or or thoughts. Um, you know, if maybe you're traveling to London, you've got a baby, and you want to know a bit about how do we get around London with a baby, and somebody in the group may have experienced that. So you can ask those questions. So that's really useful. So worth joining if you're on Facebook, I'd recommend um joining our uh Facebook communities. Definitely so. Um point number nine, I guess this takes back come back to the AI, I guess, is when the internet feels full of conflicting

Cut Through Conflicting Online Tips

SPEAKER_01 18:41

advice. Um, we can focus on practical experience-based information, and that's what we do. Um, because there's a lot of generic content online, isn't there now?

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Oh, that's right. It's not telling for your individual wants anything.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Exactly, exactly. Whereas I guess we're practical, realistic, it's all based on lived experience. I mean, we've just spent I've I've been in the UK the last couple of months travelling around, you've been here for over a month now, and we've been all over the place, haven't we? And we're this is and we do all of this research to help you guys. So we go to the places, we take the trains, we stay in, we take the tours, we we leave, we find out about left luggage, we drive around, we do all of those things.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Um admittedly, me travelling by train every day is not a burden. I will confess that.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

You do enjoy that. And so it's based on you know, we're traveling around as you would be traveling around, so we can share that. Um, and again, I don't know anybody else that does that in the UK. A lot of there are a lot of people out there that focus on specific areas, but we are the only ones that give you the entire UK, and yeah, and we'll show you how it all pulls together for completion. Exactly, exactly. So we'll look at everything. Uh and point 10 is when you just want to enjoy your trip, our goal is to help you travel with confidence. So we

Travel With Confidence And Joy

SPEAKER_01 19:55

bring it all together, don't we? So that's right. Yeah, so it's about kind of less stress, but that's right. More confidence, better experiences, and make the most of your time in the UK.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Most definitely.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

And I guess that's why we do this, don't we?

SPEAKER_02 20:09

We do it, yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

We do, because we we absolutely love it, and we love it. I tell you what, I love it when walk down the street, I walk down the road in London or Edinburgh or wherever, and we get recognised.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Or Doug gets recognised by his legs.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yeah, well that that's a story that that's in Edinburgh on the Edinburgh tram. That's a bit of a you might have heard that in a previous episode.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

It's true though.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Um, but it's lovely. We love it when we meet you. We love the train of weeks back. Oh yes, on a train, that was amazing. We got on a train, randomly jumped on a train, uh, where was it, Lucas? Yeah, uh, got on the train, and this lovely lady called Rose. Hi, Rose, was sitting on the train and she kind of looked at me, looked at Doug, and she went, That might be a strange question, but are you training Doug? Are you travel planning? We're all like, Yeah, yeah, and that was wonderful. So that was just so lovely. We love it. We love knowing how much we've helped you plan your trip. We love the emails we receive, we love the speak pipe messages that we receive. Yeah, um, our partners love the fantastic feedback that they receive from you guys as well. So, you know, it's just wonderful. I couldn't ask for anything better. So we just need you guys to continue your support. Listen to the podcast, um, read the different articles on the website,

How To Support Us And Share

SPEAKER_01 21:19

watch Doug's YouTube videos.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Yes, please. And please give me some feedback on that. I have broad shoulders. If you could tell me how I could improve it and things to to change, I would listen. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

I think you're doing really, really well on that. Um, yeah, and our products and services are there to help you plan your best trip. We're real people with real lived experience and real knowledge that we have from years. I mean, I'm nearly 60, I shouldn't say that. Nearly 60. Um, Doug's not quite as old as I am. No, no. Um, but we have just got so much experience, and we really want you to access that.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Definitely so.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

So start with one resource, start with the one that appeals. Listen to more podcast episodes, or go to the website, or go to YouTube, or go to Instagram, or join our Facebook. Choose one of those things. That's a great place to start and start putting your you know, think where you are on your planning process at the moment, where you're up to, which part of what we offer can help you the most.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Definitely so.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Um, and if you know anybody who's planned a trip to the UK, please share our resources, yeah, uh, website, podcast, etc. etc. with them. Again, it really helps. Uh, next week we'll be back talking about more travel in the UK. Uh, but until that point, Doug, should we say 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.