Scotland trip
- Thread starter RLD4ISU
- Start date
Driving here is even worse than Ireland. A lot of single track with pull offs. To make it worse, A sporty Peugeot 208 6sp with low profile tires that doesn't handle the huge pot holes well. Besides the driving, it's been very cool.
Men in Blazers on Instagram: "Glasgow Celtic fans sing “Stick the Coronation Up Your Ass” ahead of King Charles’ Coronation Saturday. : TW/HereCelts"
238K likes, 6,559 comments - meninblazers on April 30, 2023: "Glasgow Celtic fans sing “Stick the Coronation Up Your Ass” ahead of King Charles’ Coronation Saturday. : TW/HereCelts".
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Our trip is only half done but here are some tips.
Get reservations for dining. This isn't the busy season but it's pretty busy and a lot of resturaunts are understaffed or closed. This applies to the small towns and touristy towns. We haven't reached Edinburgh yet.
Don't drive on the isle of Skye. The rest of Scotland driving has been fine overall. There are parts of Skye that are a complete disaster huge potholes, single lanes with few runoffs, places where we came to a complete stop and had to push in our mirrors so they would clear the on coming car, places where we had to reverse for 1/4 mile to allow two cars to fit. Driving a manual on the opposite side of the road wasn't even an issue, it's their terrible roads. I've driven in rural Ireland and thought it would be similar, it's not. Pay someone to transport you. Not all of Skye is this way but if you want to hit all of the good sites, you'll hit these roads.
EVERYTHING is contactless when it comes to payment. Why the hell can't we do this better. There are some resturaunts now charging a "optional" service charge, which the locals don't seem to be happy about.
As I said earlier, the don't seen to care that they are getting a new king of that their roads are crap. They do seem to care about their health care system. I had no clue but their health care system is having some serious issues like waiting 2 years to get a scan. It doesn't matter as a person visiting but it's interesting to hear what issues are impacting the locals.
Food and drink prices are reasonable. Fuel is $1.60 per liter. So about $7 gallon. Very few ev's and a lot fewer diesels then I remember in the UK
Get reservations for dining. This isn't the busy season but it's pretty busy and a lot of resturaunts are understaffed or closed. This applies to the small towns and touristy towns. We haven't reached Edinburgh yet.
Don't drive on the isle of Skye. The rest of Scotland driving has been fine overall. There are parts of Skye that are a complete disaster huge potholes, single lanes with few runoffs, places where we came to a complete stop and had to push in our mirrors so they would clear the on coming car, places where we had to reverse for 1/4 mile to allow two cars to fit. Driving a manual on the opposite side of the road wasn't even an issue, it's their terrible roads. I've driven in rural Ireland and thought it would be similar, it's not. Pay someone to transport you. Not all of Skye is this way but if you want to hit all of the good sites, you'll hit these roads.
EVERYTHING is contactless when it comes to payment. Why the hell can't we do this better. There are some resturaunts now charging a "optional" service charge, which the locals don't seem to be happy about.
As I said earlier, the don't seen to care that they are getting a new king of that their roads are crap. They do seem to care about their health care system. I had no clue but their health care system is having some serious issues like waiting 2 years to get a scan. It doesn't matter as a person visiting but it's interesting to hear what issues are impacting the locals.
Food and drink prices are reasonable. Fuel is $1.60 per liter. So about $7 gallon. Very few ev's and a lot fewer diesels then I remember in the UK
I’ve heard that American Express is not very commonly accepted and travelers should have a Mastercard or Visa to use. Have you noticed that?
Good info to know, especially about reservations at restaurants.
Discover can be tricky as well. This was a handful of years ago but having a card that doesn't charge international fees (like Capitol One) is very beneficial.
Very few have accepted American Express. I have three cards loaded into Google wallet and I changed my default to capital one venture x. My chase charges an international fee.
Overall the trip was great and was happy with our itinerary. I would have liked to have 3 days in Edinburgh.
This may not be a real busy season for Scotland but it was swamped. You need reservations everywhere. We actually had to get reservations to a bar to just drink. They are also having the same issues with staff shortages.
Some places are charging an optional "service fee". They will take it off if you ask. Locals seem to always take it off so I did as well.
American Airlines screwed us. On the way back, we were scheduled to fly EDI-LHR-CLT-DSM. The flight from EDI to LHR was on British Airways and we had a 1 hour and 40 minute layover at LHR. The BA flight was 20 minutes late, which lowered our layover to 1 hour 20 minutes. As soon as we stepped off the plane the BA people told 30 of us that AA had canceled our seats since 80 minutes was not enough time. Long story but we had to stay overnight at a hotel near LHR. Trying to figure out if I can take advantage of the UK flying sanctions they have in place. Flew the next morning to Chicago-DSM. This whole trip was booked through AA and BA said they offered to get us to our gate on time but AA refused and canceled the seats because we wouldn't have enough seats.
Used global entry in Chicago and had zero wait at customs and security. We used apple tags for our bags for the first time and I'd highly recommend doing the same.
This may not be a real busy season for Scotland but it was swamped. You need reservations everywhere. We actually had to get reservations to a bar to just drink. They are also having the same issues with staff shortages.
Some places are charging an optional "service fee". They will take it off if you ask. Locals seem to always take it off so I did as well.
American Airlines screwed us. On the way back, we were scheduled to fly EDI-LHR-CLT-DSM. The flight from EDI to LHR was on British Airways and we had a 1 hour and 40 minute layover at LHR. The BA flight was 20 minutes late, which lowered our layover to 1 hour 20 minutes. As soon as we stepped off the plane the BA people told 30 of us that AA had canceled our seats since 80 minutes was not enough time. Long story but we had to stay overnight at a hotel near LHR. Trying to figure out if I can take advantage of the UK flying sanctions they have in place. Flew the next morning to Chicago-DSM. This whole trip was booked through AA and BA said they offered to get us to our gate on time but AA refused and canceled the seats because we wouldn't have enough seats.
Used global entry in Chicago and had zero wait at customs and security. We used apple tags for our bags for the first time and I'd highly recommend doing the same.
I can't recall if you mentioned this or not, but did you have to go through customs at your layover city on the flight to UK? (where?)
Did you have flight delay insurance via your credit card on the way back?
Yes at LHR or whatever your first stop is in the UK. Then in Inverness, nothing.
I think the only benefit the credit card would provide me outside of what BA provided was things like meals. I'll have to check, they were on capital one venture x.
Also, want to mention that EDI had a very good priority pass lounge. LHR's was just ok but not as good for breakfast.
LHR is a complete mess compared to somewhere like OHare. Getting between terminals is the worst I've ever seen. Looking back, I wouldn't do a connection there that had less than a 2 hour layover.
Also, i've never experience a country that felt safer. I saw multiple people in Edinburgh leave phones, laptops, bags on their tables unattended while they went to the bathroom. I've seen this in rural areas of Europe before but this as stunning to experience in a decently large city.
The royal mile as expected was swamped. Probably good to check out one time and then move on. The royal yacht was pretty interesting to see.
The royal mile as expected was swamped. Probably good to check out one time and then move on. The royal yacht was pretty interesting to see.
I had the opportunity to chat w/ an organizational psychologist for the NHS while I was there and it was an interesting conversation. Basically, their conservative party (the Tories, who has been in control for decades and championed the disastrously bad Brexit) has been underfunding the health system, making them waste money on stupid administrative **** instead of modernizing, and trying to privatize as much of it as possible for decades.
Also, watching Highlander for the first time while heading to Scotland seems like a good idea. On a plane, it's not a good idea
Sorry for your issues! So essentially what you're saying is they "overbooked?" I feel like airlines should be fined for this. Airports/airlines constantly do this and it is a pain to have to deal with.
Every time we fly, we generally run into some type of issue. So anytime we go anywhere, we almost expect something to go wrong, because it usually does. Kind of sucks, but it's "part of the travel."
No, I don't think they overbooked. It seemed to me that they just don't leave room for any variances and they've probably have a history of holding up planes waiting for transfers. LHR is a complete joke but they should account for this when they allow customers to book. I had no clue that the expected time to get from one terminal to another can be up to 45 minutes. They literally take buses from terminal to terminal. I'm just guessing here. There were 30 people in line and I was probably the calmest of the bunch. They were yelling at the BA ee's but my anger was at AA, who was nowhere to be found. All 30 people ended up having to stay overnight.
I called AA because I still wasn't assured that my flight was going to happen the next day. Complete idiot on the line. They actually charged me to upgrade my seats after I had already paid for upgraded seats on the cancelled flight
I'm going to get all my documentation in a row over the next few days and then I plan on going full on attack mode. Even now, I never got one email or alert in the app that my seat to Charlotte was cancelled. Not to make this political but I'd love to see Biden get the bill passed about passenger rights. These airlines have to start paying up for their screwups.I give airlines a break when it comes to weather, which is why when we fly somewhere nice in the winter, we usually added an overnight stay in Houston, Dallas, etc.
