Vacationing in your neck of the woods!

[KarenB]

Hello!

My DH and I were talking about a summer vacation (2005) and the idea of England or Ireland came up. We have traveled around the US quite a bit, headed into Canada a few times, and this summer we will be on the 7 night Western Magic cruise.

How do we even begin to plan a trip to England or Ireland?? It would be DH, myself, and our DSs ages 15 and 16.

Thanks for any hints, information, and suggestions!
Karen

 

[shellbell]

Hiya KarenB

Where abouts were you thinking of going? London is a great place ti visit and stay visit this website www.londontown.com It tells you all bout the sights you can see, eating out, Hotels, shows to see. London also has the underground which is a very quick and easy way to get around London. It is a little expensive but it such a great place to visit.

Theres a lot of history to see aswell. And theres something for all ages.

Scotland is a very beautifull country www.visitscotland.com

I have never been to Ireland but believe it too is a beautilfull Country

Hope this is of some help

Michelle

 

[Clarey]

Hi Karen here is a great site if you are thinking of visiting the South West of England, Westcounty. Its really worth a visit

 

[daipp]

Don't forget Wales with all its' beauty, castles and history. The Welsh were in Britain a long time before the English!!

 

[Andrew Bichard]

Karen,

I have lived in the UK for 57 years, and have only just scratched the surface.

I have lived in London for 25 years and there's a huge number of things still to do, and places I haven't yet visited.

You have to remember that though the UK is much smaller than the USA, it's places to visit are packed much closer together.

Other posts have suggested some good web sites to start your search with.

Why not tell us what your family interests are and how long you have to visit and we will be better able to make suggestions.

Andrew

 

[vernon]

A couple of things to, maybe, give you some pause for thought.

Hotels in the UK (and Europe) often are not set up to take 4 people, you may need to get the boys a separate room. This is possibly going to increase your cost quite considerably.

The UK ( London in particular) has some great museums and art galleries, most are free to ente. However, in my experience, there is a limit of how much "culture" you can expose boys of that age before they get bored and rebel. You will need to preplan some things that they will be interested in or it's going to be a LOOOONG vaca for them ( and you ).

My personal view would be you may be better served by leaving it a few years until the boys have moved on to college and to take the vaca as just a couple , logistically it's going to be much easier, financially it will be much less of a burden ( I also think the exchange rate might be less hurtful by then) and going as a couple would allow you to concentrate on things that interest you but are likely to strain the boys concentration levels. It would also allow you the option of taking a relatively cheap and quick side trip in to say Paris or Rome. Paris can be reached in about three hours by the excellent Eurostar train service from London and Rome is probably the "best of the rest" as far as "short haul" European cities is concerned.

You may feel the boys would benefit from a cultural trip to Europe ( indeed they may well be the type that would enjoy and appreciate it) but if they are like most mid/late teenagers I'd gamble that if given the choice of a week in Europe with mom and dad or spring break in florida with their school friends ( and 20,000 other 18-22 year olds) they'd prefer the spring break in Fl.

 

[KarenB]

Thank you all for the great and informative replies. We feel so comfortable planning vacations in the United States (with some research and communication to others). I feel SO lost planning, or just thinking, about a trip across the Atlantic. My DH and I are very lucky in that our children enjoy vacationing with us-at least for now-and they do enjoy cultural activities. But Vernon, you do give me something to think about and it may be different next summer.

I have made a file of websites to look through this summer and I suppose the best thing to do is sift through the information and decide on some more specific areas of interest.

Thanks again and hopefully I will be asking you vacationing questions soon!

Karen

 

[DavidUK]

hey!

The official 'visit britan' website is at...

http://www.visitbritain.com/

Good luck and hope you have fun in the UK

David