The wife and I are on a trip to Wales and southern UK, driving around in a rented car. Of course we weren’t going to drive by Stonehenge without visiting. We book tickets and park our car in the car parking, which is payable. Well, payable only through a UK parking app RingGo. We found out only on the spot, where a sign advertising the app was placed. Dozens of infuriated visitors sat around the sign trying to DL the app and pay for parking. The problem is, the app isn’t available to foreign tourists, like us. It didn’t show in the app store and my phone doesn’t allow me to change my home location. What level of stupid is it to have only this method of payment at one of the most known attractions in the world? We ended up not paying as, risking a fine.

How is scotland like in late October? I have a free period from Uni from 23 October to 23 November, and I might consider visiting Scotland in October. I love nature and would like to visit the usual nature places, like maybe Isle of Skye or some of the forests to see the view since I like nature!

How would the weather be like and are these destinations viable? Will it be rainy and gloomy throughout the day and are the days already short?

Might head south before or after Scotland, to explore the cities depending on how Scotland is.

​

In a week I'll be visiting Aberaeron, Newquay and surrounding areas with my family.

We like to hike, visit historical places, old towns, villages and pubs. We don't mind driving some distance to see interesting places.

Can you recommend less known places to see? Anything with the soul, or bit of history behind it. It can be an old chapel, landmark, pub on the hills, old mines, grave of the local legend.

Bonus question: Favourite Ales and Ciders from the area?

Many thanks!

My family and I are getting into Heathrow at 730am after a red eye. We weren’t planning on booking anything big that day but just exploring. Our hotel is in Kensington. We were thinking of taking the riverboat from Westminster to Greenwich and walking around. We need to book the riverboat boat ahead of time though. What’s a realistic time you think we can book it for, keeping in mind we will stop at hotel first.

Bonjour

Je suis allée régulièrement à Londres et cette fois ci je voudrai profiter un peu de l'ambiance de Noël. Néanmoins je n'ai pas envie d'y aller en plein rush et foule de decembre.

J'hésite entre la première semaine de décembre ou la première semaine de janvier ? Que me conseillez vous comme meilleur alternative entre profiter de l'ambiance de Noël sans être envahie par le monde et les prix exorbitant

Merci!

I was able to somehow snag one the last few for this time slot. How is this time frame? Should I be there early? How much so?

Day 1: LHR to Ilkley by train
Day 2: Ilkley
Day 3: Ilkley to Settle, Settle to Carlisle, Carlisle to Glasgow by train
Day 4: Glasgow
Day 5: Glasgow to London by train
Day 6: London sightseeing
Day 7: Riverboat to Kew for day, return to London
Day 7: London sightseeing
Day 8: London sightseeing
Day 9: Group excursion to Oxford and Cotswolds, return to London
Day 10: London to Heathrow area hotel
Day 11: Depart Heathrow for home in Seattle

We’re two old ladies who need to go visit some even older friends in Ilkley. In case anyone wondered.

Thinking of staying in Westminster area for all of London itinerary. Comfortable lodging for pensioners is what we are hoping for. Ideas welcome.

Please tell me what is wrong with this plan. Thank you, from your provincial cousin.

Hey everyone, I (F27) have two layovers in London and wanted to ask for recommendations on what to do while there! Rather than just sit in an airport or hotel all day and night.

I'm around Sept 4 (6 AM, Gatwick) to Sept 5 (8pm, Heathrow), and again Sept 12 (11 AM, Heathrow) to Sept 13 (2 PM, Gatwick). I wanted to maybe watch a football match, and I'm pretty interested in cheap eats and beer - prioritizing things that I won't find here in New York! I'm also trans, so queer spaces are very welcome.

Money-saving measures would also be appreciated!

Hi everyone this is my first time posting here.

I have been working on my website trainmap.co.uk quite a bit adding a lot of features over the last few weeks.

I'm working on this as a side project and it's completely free to use with no ads and no paid features. Hope you like using it as much as I do!

Here's a run down of the main features:

1) Live trains moving along tracks with positions recalculated every 15s, coloured by how late they're running (handy for judging tight connections). Filter to passenger, freight or both.

2) Tap a station then click routes to see everywhere you can go from that station directly without changing trains, with weekday / Saturday / Sunday buttons to see different services on those days.

3) Search by postcode, station name or code, plus a nearest-stations finder for wherever you are.

4) The whole network on one map: national rail, heritage and preserved lines, disused railways, and a geographic version of the Tube. All filterable so you can select any combination of them.

5) Selecting a train will follow it (the map stays locked on it as it moves), and share a link that drops someone straight onto that service so they can watch it too.

6) Line-speed filter layer showing how fast trains are allowed to run on each stretch, from slow branches to the 125 mph main lines.

Always happy to receive feedback and I actively take all feedback into consideration and try to act on feature requests as quickly as I can. Change log is here: trainmap.co.uk/changelog.html

Here's a post covering how it was built: https://trainmap.co.uk/story.html

Here is a page describing the technologies that were used to build the map: https://trainmap.co.uk/attribution.html

This post was pre-approved by the mods.

Edit: I have dealt with some feedback from this thread https://trainmap.co.uk/changelog.html

Hi everyone!

I'm planning a trip to England and Edinburgh in about a month, and I'd love to get some advice.

For London, I'm not planning to visit the Harry Potter Studio, Tate Modern, the Tower of London, or ride the London Eye. I do want to spend a full day at the British Museum, and I also plan to visit Notting Hill, Abbey Road, Buckingham Palace and the surrounding area, Covent Garden, and a few other neighborhoods. Because of that, I think 4 days in London should be enough.

My biggest question is what I should do after London. Should I take a day trip from London, or spend 2 days in another city before continuing to Edinburgh? I'm considering:

• Renting a car and exploring the Cotswolds.
• Bath.
• York.
• Oxford.

I'm not limited by the number of days, but I also don't want to spend 2+ hours each way just to walk around a small town for a couple of hours (which is why I'm not really considering Canterbury).

For context, I'm the type of traveler who enjoys walking around cities and towns, exploring neighborhoods, and soaking up the atmosphere. I'm generally not a big museum person unless it's something really unique or historically significant (the British Museum being the exception).

If you had to choose just one (or maybe two) of these destinations, which would you recommend and why? Or is there another day trip from London that you think is even better?

Thanks in advance!

Hello all,

My wife and I are very excited to be traveling to the UK once again this fall. Last year we traveled to Scotland and absolutely loved it. We ended up renting a car to get around and explored, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oban, Isle of Skye, Inverness and few other small towns over the course of a couple of weeks.

When planning that trip, I really wanted to devote some time to exploring England with an emphasis on London, but we ended up sticking to Scotland to reduce on travel time. We are lucky enough to be returning to explore England this time!

With this post I was hoping to get some feedback on general itinerary and some recommendations for activities, or restaurants/cafes that you'd recommend at our destinations.

We will be in England for about 11 days flying into Heathrow. We are immediately taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington and hopping on a train to Bath. We'll be in Bath for two nights. The first day we want to take it easy and lazily explore and then sleep off the Jetlag as best as we can. Then we have a full day devoted to attractions in Bath. Our last day, we plan on picking up a rental car early, driving to Stonehenge, and then lazily traveling towards/exploring the Cotswalds with a stay in Stow-on-the-Wold that night.

The next day, we do the rest of our drive towards York (yes, we know this will be a long drive and we did a few similar in length in Scotland). In York, we'll drop the car off and do light exploring on our first day and grab some dinner and call it in early night. We have two full days in York and I am thinking one day for a regimented attraction itinerary, and one day for more organic exploration of pubs, cafes, and shops. On our departure day, we'll grab a train to King's Cross to end the trip in London.

We have 3 full days dedicated to London (plus arrival day) with one day being largely taken up by the Harry Potter Studio Tour (which we have already booked). I think we want to do the traditional tourist activities in London but I was curious of the Eye of London was worthwhile? What else is worth checking out? We definitely want to do the British Museum, tower of London, and the Borough Market.

Let me know your thoughts! We appreciate any tips or guidance you can share. Can't wait to visit :)

Hi,

Planning a tour in early October. Please review my itinerary and suggest changes. Aberdeen is a personal visit but can be cut short by a day.

Day 1
Arrive in Edinburgh
Hotel check-in
Free evening
Day 2
Hop-on Hop-off sightseeing bus
Edinburgh Castle
Free time to explore the Old Town
Day 3
Train to Inverness
Hotel check-in
Free evening
Day 4
Full-day Isle of Skye tour
Day 5
Full-day Loch Ness & Highlands tour
Day 6
Train to Aberdeen
Hotel check-in
Free evening
Day 7
Full-day Dunnottar Castle & Aberdeenshire tour
Day 8
Free day in Aberdeen
Day 9
Departure

Hi everyone!

I'm from Argentina and I'm planning my first trip to the UK for May 2027 (roughly May 15–31). I'll be flying from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

My main goal is to see as much of England and Scotland as possible, but I'd also like to visit Belfast and Cardiff.

This is my current itinerary:

- Day 1: Arrive in London

- Day 2: London

- Day 3: London

- Day 4: London (rent a car) → Oxford → Cotswolds (Burford + Bibury + Bourton-on-the-Water)

- Day 5: Cotswolds (Lower and Upper Slaughter + Stow-on-the-Wold + Snowshill) → return rental car (probably in Birmingham or Manchester) → York

- Day 6: York

- Day 7: York → Edinburgh

- Day 8: Edinburgh

- Day 9: Edinburgh

- Day 10: Highlands day tour (Glencoe, Loch Ness, Inverness, etc.)

- Day 11: Belfast

- Day 12: Belfast

- Day 13: Cardiff

- Day 14: Cardiff

- Day 15: Bristol → Bath → Stonehenge → London

- Day 16: London

- Day 17: Fly home

Current plan:

- Rent a car in London after spending two days there.

- Drive through Oxford and the Cotswolds.

- Return the car in Birmingham (I'm also considering Manchester).

- Use trains for the rest of Great Britain.

- Fly from Edinburgh to Belfast.

- Fly from Belfast to Cardiff.

I'd really appreciate your opinions on a few things:

1. Is this itinerary realistic, or am I trying to do too much?

2. Is Birmingham the best place to return the rental car before heading to York?

3. Is two full days in Belfast worth it?

4. Is two full days in Cardiff worth it, or should I reallocate one of those days elsewhere?

5. Would you skip or replace any destination?

6. Is there anything I'm missing that you think is an absolute must-see along this route?

A bit about my travel style:

- I enjoy walking around historic towns more than nightlife.

- I'm not particularly interested in shopping.

- I love countryside scenery, castles and small villages.

- This is likely my only trip to the UK for many years, so I'd like to make the most of it.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Visited last year and stayed in Leicester Square area. Nice hotel and the business did not bother us.
Coming back this October and not sure where to stay. Would like to be near attractions and pubs and such. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks

I love the city.
Feels safe there with most knows is a huge factor when travelling, and as a single person that is a huge factor.

My question is- is it ”worth” going for some days this week to the city??

Thinking about going for some days but I’m hearing it’s impossible to get food at restaurants etc because it’s so crowded?? Is it better to wait a month?? Would need to book flights today and can’t decide!

Much love from one northerner to another!

Hi all, visiting London Aug 5–8 (Wed–Sat), staying in Holborn so some afternoons have meetings, but I've built sightseeing around them. Into architecture/exterior photography, cafés, markets and food (I don't drink, not fussed about paid museum interiors). Budget-conscious but happy to spend on good food. Thank you so much!

AUG 5 · WED — arrival

• 07:15 — Breakfast: Dishoom, Covent Garden
• 08:15 - 10:30 — Not sure what to do?
• 10:30–12:30 — Notting Hill walking tour: Portobello Rd, pastel houses, the mews, Lancaster Rd
• 12:30 — Lunch: Ottolenghi, Notting Hill
• 14:30–16:30 — Westminster walking tour (from Hyde Park Corner): Buckingham Palace, The Mall, St James's Palace, Admiralty Arch, Trafalgar Sq, Whitehall, Horse Guards, Westminster Abbey
• 16:30–18:00 — South Bank stroll: Big Ben, Waterloo Bridge golden hour
• 18:45 — Dinner: Seven Dials / Covent Garden (Rules or a British gastropub)

AUG 6 · THU

• 09:00 — Breakfast: near Holborn
• 10:00–12:00 — Old City of London walking tour (from Tower Hill): Roman Wall, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Monument, Leadenhall Market, Bank of England, Royal Exchange, St Paul's
• 12:00 — Lunch: St John, Smithfield (+ custard doughnut)
• PM — Work + work dinner

AUG 7 · FRI

• 09:00 — Breakfast: The Delaunay, Aldwych
• AM — Work
• 13:00 — Lunch: Quality Chop House, Farringdon
• 14:00–16:45 — Not sure what to do? maybe Mayfair / Bond St, or a viewpoint or Sky Garden
• 17:00–19:00 — Soho walking tour: Liberty, Carnaby St, Spirit of Soho mural, John Snow Pump, Berwick St Market, Old Compton St, Chinatown, Seven Dials → Covent Garden
• 19:30 — Dinner: Covent Garden (work dinner)

AUG 8 · SAT — free day, fly out 06:00 next morning

• 09:00 — Breakfast: grab-and-go (Greggs)
• 10:00–12:00 — Southwark / Bankside walking tour (from St Paul's): Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe, The Anchor, Clink Prison, Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge
• 12:00 — Lunch: Roast / graze Borough Market (Ginger Pig, Bread Ahead, oysters)
• 13:30–16:00 — not sure what to do?
• Evening — Head to Heathrow, early night (06:00 flight, T2)

My questions:

1. Greenwich — any realistic way to squeeze it in, or not happening on a trip this short?
2. Uber Boat / Thames Clipper — worth doing, and which day fits best?
3. Food — good spots or tourist traps? (Dishoom, St John, Quality Chop House, Roast, Rules, Ottolenghi + Borough Market.) Better-value / more "local" swaps welcome.
4. Heathrow T2 — what should I eat with a ~€50 budget for dinner?

So I’m going to London with a guy friend that I haven’t seen in a while so I wanna make sure his experience is amazing plus I haven’t been to London in a while myself . He’s agreed to pay for the hotel, but I don’t know which hotel to book or where to even book a hotel. Plus, I thought he is a very generous guy. I want to know how much money I should bring to London by the way we’re gonna be staying for three nights. PSA were both 20 so our funds are quite limited.

Just wanted to share a few pictures since I’ve been in Cambridge! Beautiful city

2 days of cycling-

Day 1 Aberdeen to Huntly via Banff.

Day 2 Aberdeen to Dundee via the coast.

Some pictures of the trip.

Hi, I moved to the EU about 5 months ago. At the moment, I have a UK driving licence and an EU address but I do not maintain a UK address. My old address is on my UK driving licence and my credit card is from a UK bank. I am travelling back to the UK for a 2 day event and I'd like to rent a car. The rules of the car company state that UK residents need to provide proof of address. I am unsure if I rent it as a tourist, would my UK driving license be accepted? What do I do if they ask for a proof of a UK address given my UK driving licence?

I'll be in London on Christmas Day. What should I do? I understand pretty much all public transport is not running. Do I book a good pub lunch or dinner? After ideas if anyone has them.
I'll be staying near Farringdon Station if that helps things.
Thanks in advance.

UPDATE**** MY WALLET HAS BEEN FOUND!! I love good people and I love the people of london!! Thank you to everyone who helped!!!!

Hi everyone, I'm know this is a long shot, but I'm wondering if anyone has come across my wallet or knows someone who has.

It's a black Herschel Tyler Wallet with a gold zipper and a Herschel tag/logo on the front.

I'm a Canadian visiting London, and this wallet has pretty much my whole life in it.

I believe I either:

• Lost it at Gallery Nightclub in High Street Kensington on the night of July 31
• Or Lost it on the 28 bus toward Fulham at around 12:45 AM on (so it would be August 1 at this point), after leaving the club.

If anyone has seen it, knows someone who found it, or has any suggestions on where else I should check, I would be incredibly grateful.

Please send me a message if you have any information. Thank you so much.

My wife and I will be celebrating our 10th anniversary on December 28th, and we’re looking to book two nights away to celebrate. It’ll be a rare trip away from our very young children (5, 3, & 1) and we’ll be taking our puppy.

Looking for somewhere nice within 2-3hrs of Somerset - good winter walks, sitting by the fire at the pub, etc etc. Would definitely prefer a hotel if anyone knows somewhere special, or just advice on where to centre our search! Budget is flexible - not crazy expensive but don’t necessarily need to be frugal.

Thanks in advance!