Travel Book slams Great Britain...

[girlwithnoname]

I have wanted to travel around England and Scotland for many, many years, but this book isn't giving the best reviews...

Correct link!


As I am definitely heading to UK and France next summer, I would like some advice on where to go!

Edit: Oops! The previous link was NOT correct, obviously.

The dress is cool though--can't wait to get it!

[black francis]

Count me in for a stay at Loch Ness getting drunk and searching for Nessie when I'm not so scared of flying. And I have a friend in Edinburgh I'm supposed to visit one of these days. Again when then flying is less terrifying or teleportation has been worked out with no Star Trek The Motion Picture type incidents.

[girlwithnoname]

You can get on a boat.

[black francis]

Waaaaaaaaaay worse than an airplane. At least a crash would kill me. If I was on a ship that was sinking I would grab the nearest heavy object and bash myself on the head until I was no more. The last thing I would want is to be eaten by a shark.

[withahip]

Every time I've been to both places, I've had a good time. Forget that guide book.

Find an Australian backpacking married couple with a Type A wife and let her plan your trip while you enjoy the sites.

[kook]

"With so much fabulous free stuff to do in London, it’s a wonder that people still join lengthy queues to visit pricey Madame Tussauds."

London is not necessarily all about Westminster Abbey and Tower Bridge. There are parks and pubs to hang out in and people in the UK are generally quite open and friendly. Scotland has some of the most beautiful scenery as does Wales. If you want to rush about between monuments and palaces, eating what's slopped up to tourists nearby, ticking boxes having "done" whatever sites you will generally be ripped off - in any country, and still not have a proper sense of the place.
The Lonely Planet is what it says on the tin, a GUIDE, not a bible to be religiously adhered to.

[girlwithnoname]

Yes, all the "tourist-y" stuff. Of course I would like to see it as I pass by in the car, but it's difficult to get the "feel" of a place by going to such places. It would be nice to meet people and enjoy some beer in a pub!

I do have some colleagues who from Scotland and England, and I'll be asking them for travel advice as well. Any other advice or suggestions would be welcome!

[fat cherry]

get that book by cope and go see all the ancient monuments - you might bump into him and he'll give you a big fat doobie and introduce you to the missus, and the kids, avalon and boudica. Or you could follow the bun's leylines tour. that'd take you out of the way a bit. I once got pissed on a boat on loch ness too. i was young and foolish then, obviously, but strangely enough on holiday with my dad and his mates. And you could go and see smiffy's band. Have a word with Cheesey, he'll tell you where you can go that's pretty in Hingerland too, once you get out of the slums. ANd yes, try some nice warm beer, thats probably been brewed in australia but brought over on a boat slowly so it still tastes like authentic old pigswills winter mild. And go see a local dentist who'll put your teeth back where they started. Actually you could go to a footy match and get that, though you'll have to go in the wrong end and know which chants to use, otherwise you might be greeted with a friendly handshake and a few jokes about proper football, the war and what youse guys really did to mr bin laden.

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Yes, all the "tourist-y" stuff. Of course I would like to see it as I pass by in the car, but it's difficult to get the "feel" of a place by going to such places. It would be nice to meet people and enjoy some beer in a pub!

I do have some colleagues who from Scotland and England, and I'll be asking them for travel advice as well. Any other advice or suggestions would be welcome!

England - probably the best places to go as a tourist are London, Cambridge or Oxford. Cambridge and Oxford particularly as you still get the country feeling as they aren't very big. If you want pure countryside then maybe Devon, Dorset or Cornwall. As FC says, you need to have a word with Dr Cheese - the Lake District has spectacular scenery further up north (people tend to be more chatty as well to strangers up north). South you'll come across more the quintessential English villages with thatched cottages, churches, village green, yocal village idiots and chavs hanging around outside village halls or bus shelters getting pissed on cider, smoking and stuff. Village pubs are always tops, better I think than the majority of city pubs, decent reasonably-priced grub and some with good selections of beers. Some of the brewery-owned village pubs can sometimes be crap, however.

Wales is great, worth visiting. I loved my time living there, miss the landscape. Never been to Scotland.

[fat cherry]

living, as i do, near the dreaming spires of oxenford I'd say dont bother, pretty as they are and as jolly as some of the pubs are, and the countryside is a bunch of fields that go as far as the nearest motorway. I'd suggest a few gritty northern towns, leeds, manchester and the 'pool, natch, each of which is in easy trucking distance of a few hills. East coast - scarborough, filey and bridlington for jolly times, cliffs falling into the sea and the North Sea will freeze your bollocks off. Went to devon once, it was miles away. Do like cornwall though. You could use bunny album covers as a guide - cornwall, north wales and some forrest near rickmansworth (or maybe not) - oh and iceland but thats not strictly the UK any more.

[fat cherry]

you could even use your VT chums as a guide, literally - and with the modern internet thingy you wouldn't have to actually meet us, so result!!!!! As I've said there's not much around here apart from an old university and a few motorways, but smiffs up black country way, jimbo north of the border, cheesey in cumbria, shaz down south - and evils too if he's still around. sorted. ohand scouser in liverpool. what's not to like.

[Dave Smith]

Bring five nubile female friends with you,and me and my mates can give you a helping hand around Birmingham.

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

living, as i do, near the dreaming spires of oxenford I'd say dont bother, pretty as they are and as jolly as some of the pubs are, and the countryside is a bunch of fields that go as far as the nearest motorway.

You are probably quite right there, so forget that suggestion. And what time does it take to look at the buildings... all of ten minutes. Other than that not much to do or see... punting with one of those guides in a straw hat that supposedly provides the history of the colleges, but is really making up things as they go along.

[fat cherry]

well history-wise theres lots of stuff thats assocaiated with the BIG things you learn about in school and it was a bit of a centre for civil war shenanigans - for example it was only recently that a mate pointed out to me why north parade is actually south of south parade, which i thought was just some crazy oxford thing, like having your second main course after your pudding - but there you go. And there's the martyrs cross, which is around the corner from where the actual bonfire was. And there's a brick in the wall on the high street that says it wasn't far from there that robert boyle, or was it hooke, either way, it again isn't at the place its going on about, did some stuff. And the prison is now a hotel. Up the road is blenheim palace and you can stroll round capability browns gardens whilst the earl snorts god knows what up his upper class hooter. But most people just want to know where it was the inspector morse fell over and carked it at the end of the last series. Either way its kind of interesting. BUt countrside, meh, as you yanks say. And why would anyone want to go to madame tussauds (sorry hip, shoud that be two swords, lol) I've no idea. But takes all sorts I suppose. Think I prefer an ancient monument thats a bunch of stones on a hill and you can pretend people used to live there. I took my kids to a couple once (theres the rollright stones not far away, and once, somewhere in cornwall) and they're going, er, what is it we're supposed to be looking at, its a hole in a hill, this is why we've been walking for, like ten minutes? Instead of being in the car? Bonkers.

[fat cherry]

and I forget - i know this bloke because he beat me to first prize in a photography competition - the bloke who does the oxford ghost tours, and goes by the name of..... wait for it .... bill spectre. Brilliant. Better than his photography anyway, which is OK, but a little bit twee.

http://www.ghosttrail.org/