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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Need help with London/Scotland planning
We're going to the Olympics in August, arriving on August 3 and leaving the 8th. Our ticket package comes with 2 nights at a hotel on Drury Lane (squee!!), the 6-8. We still need to book a hotel for the nights of the 3,4,and 5. I'd love to go to Scotland, but Edinburgh is a 5 1/2 hour train ride North. I don't think we're going to want to get off the plane at Heathrow and then do that ride, so should we look at southern Scotland towns to spend a couple of nights in? Where? Or is that trying to see too much?
I'll take any and all other suggestions, I just really need to get a hotel booked for those nights.
Re: Need help with London/Scotland planning
Edinburgh is about 4.5 hours by train. Most of that journey is in England, so you'd have to travel a few hours to get anywhere in Scotland. You could also fly. It's about an hour. It might be more expensive (I find the trains expensive), but Edinburgh is really worth a visit.
For the whole month of August Edinburgh is pretty much transformed. There's a massive arts/comedy/music festival (Fringe Festival) that takes over the city. There are loads of free shows to see and it's a great atmosphere.
I wouldn't pass up the chance to be in Edinburgh for the festival, but book now. The population of the city swells in August.
I'm no help at hotels, but there are a lot of B&Bs in edinburgh. If you do decide to go and need any local info, let me know what you're looking for.
We were in London for four days, and one full day was spent on a bus tour of Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge. So that's another option if you want to get out of London for a day.
We don't regret the bus trip at all, but there were quite a few things on our London wishlist that we had to skip because we just ran out of time. So I imagine that you'd miss out on a lot in both London and Scotland if you tried to do both.
Since you asked for a hotel recommendation: we stayed at the Hilton London Metropole. We landed at Heathrow, took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station, and then the hotel was less than a 10-minute walk from the station. And the Edgware Road station for the Tube was right across the street from the hotel. Super-easy. (The tour bus picked us up right at our hotel.)
Neither of us have ever been to London before, so I think I'll take the advice and stick around Town. I'll look into the Stonehenge tour, though... we definitely want to get outside the city a bit!
Thank you all!
Sounds like you've already decided, but I just wanted to agree with my other Int'l nesties - with such a short trip, I'd stick to London plus a day trip in England. It will take a half day each way to Scotland (and Edinburgh is basically the closest option) and that time can be better spent. Although Edinburgh is a gorgeous city!
BFP Apr 2012, EDD Dec 19 2012 * twin h/b at 6wk, 9wk scan * Baby A lost at 12wks, Baby B was my rainbow born at 36wks
Which hostel, do you remember? The dingiest hostel I have ever stayed at was in Edinburgh.
I won't add anything constructive since it's all been covered but just thinking about London during the Olympics and Edinburgh during the Festival gives me freaking hives. I hate crowds.
Look into the London Pass. This covered or discounted our admission to a lot of sites (except for Westminster Abbey), it included Oyster Cards for the Tube, and a guided boat tour up the Thames.
We loved the Tower of London tour with the Beefeater Guard. Westminster Abbey was probably my personal favorite thing to see. We went to Saint Paul's Cathedral and climbed to the top for a great view of the city. MH really liked the Churchill War Rooms, I was *meh* on that. We took the Tube to Abbey Road and got a picture crossing the street (be careful, there's no stoplight). We sat outside on the patio at The Orangery at Kensington Palace and had afternoon tea, sandwiches and pastries (small discount through London Pass). When we went on the boat tour, we got off in Greenwich and climbed the hill to see the observatory and the Prime Meridian. We didn't think Picadilly Circus was very impressive.
We had to skip Harrod's, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace because we ran out of time. I also wished we'd done more prior research on places to eat - we usually wound up grabbing food in very touristy areas and nothing was very memorable. Aside from these fish and chips, and a meat pie sampler at this pub. And Meantime Brewing in Greenwich had good beer. Most places didn't serve cold drinks or even have ice, blech.
Budget-friendly souvenirs: bring home some Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates, mmm. And I got some lip balm for my friend at a place called Boots (seems like a Rite Aid-type place, there were locations all over the city) and she still raves about it two years later.
I wish I'd gotten a better camera, and made it a point to take some nicer photos to frame in our house. Next time I go to London, I want a photo of Parliament from across the river. I also wish I'd gotten some good nighttime photos.
Wow, that is exactly the kind of info I need!
I was able to book the St. Giles hotel off Tottenham ct. Rd, but there just isn't much available left for those dates.