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My first ever trip to the UK was a bit of a mistake-ridden mess. Basically, I got a little too excited while planning it, and majorly overstuffed our itinerary with city stops and day trips. This resulted in a very fast-paced trip that left me wanting more from every city my husband and I set foot in. Therefore, it’s no surprise that we came home feeling like we didn’t get things quite right the first time. Since then, I’ve been a mixed bag of emotions, going back and forth between regrets and wanting a do-over, to just being grateful for the things I did get to see. After all, how many people actually get to visit any of Europe?
That being said, I can’t help but feel sad that we didn’t really get to know any of the four UK cities we stayed in. One of the things I love most about traveling is getting acquainted with a location and getting a feel for the vibe there. This is especially true for historical cities. So, yes, it was an epic trip, and I wouldn’t want to un-see any of the amazing sights we saw. However, my planning was a bit too optimistic on time, and we came home feeling rushed and wanting more. What’s done is done though, and the only thing I can do now is tell you all the ways I messed up, and plead you not to repeat all my mistakes.
If you plan your trip wisely and avoid all of the items below, you’ll be off to a good start. I should know – these are all things I actually did!
10 Mistakes to Avoid on a Trip to the UK
#1 – Traveling During High Season (Summer)
If you hate crowds, but love feeling miserable in the heat, then definitely plan your trip during summer. On the contrary, if visiting during the busiest time of year sounds like your worst nightmare, then June through August should be avoided at all costs. I must have forgotten my strong dislike for crowds while planning our trip, so naturally our visit fell at the beginning of July.
High season was in full swing when we arrived. This basically meant waiting in lines galore, including 2 hours clearing immigration at Heathrow Airport. Sights like Edinburgh Castle and the Tower of London were so busy, I couldn’t even enjoy them. I actually opted out of seeing the crown jewels in both places because I couldn’t find the energy for a 45 minute wait in the baking heat.
If this doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, I 100% recommend coming outside of the summer months if you can. It will hands down make visiting sights so much more enjoyable. Take it from me – it is very difficult to appreciate your surroundings while shuffling through a sweaty human traffic jam in narrow castle corridors.
#2 – Not Buying Tickets to Major Sights in Advance
Still set on taking your UK trip during summer? If so, you should certainly try to avoid as many lines as possible. This can be done by opting to buy tickets to sights online in advance whenever the option exists. It makes absolutely no sense to waste time standing in a line if you don’t have to. This is especially true if you choose to visit in high season.
We, of course, did visit in high season, but did not buy tickets to any of our sights in advance. This meant anxiously waiting a half hour to 45 minutes to get into places like Edinburgh Castle and the Churchill War Rooms. While we worked to keep our energy up in line, we jealously watched other smart travelers who bought tickets online breeze past us to the entrance. Don’t be the schmuck waiting in line. Be one of those smart travelers and plan in advance!
#3 – Visiting the Most Popular Sights in the Middle of the Day
If you visit the UK during a quieter time of year, you may be able to get away with, say, showing up to Westminster Abbey in the afternoon. However, this is not the case if you come during the busiest time of year. If you want to be efficient with your sight-seeing time, and not have to battle other tourists to see everything, show up early. By early, I mean be in line for the most popular attractions, such as Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Edinburgh Castle, at least 15 minutes before they open. Basically what I’m saying is, “if you show up on time, you’re late; if you show up early, you’re on time”.
#4 – Doing Too Many Day Trips From a Single City
I have yet another shameful planning confession: although we stayed in the beautiful city of Bath for three nights of our UK trip, we did not spend any full days exploring Bath. So, what were we doing during our two full days then? We completely filled those days with minibus tours all over the English countryside, basically seeing every city but Bath.
We tried our best to make up for our day trips by taking walks around the gorgeous streets of Bath in the early morning before we left and in the evening when we returned. The manageable size of the city allowed us to see a lot, and we benefited from the Roman Baths staying open until 9:00pm. However, it didn’t make up for the fact that we missed so many things that you can only do during the day. This included walking tours, checking out the Assembly Rooms and other museums, and popping into local shops which generally close quite early there.
I now have a new general rule: at a minimum, one full day should be spent in any city you ever stay in. Only after that should you even consider venturing outside of it, or you may miss it like we did!
#5 – Staying in a City for Less Than a Day
Our short stint in York is yet another mishap from this UK trip that taught me a lot about planning. The issue stemmed from the fact that we never really had room for York in our itinerary. However, after seeing awesome pictures of The Shambles on Instagram and reading about the city in my guidebook, I felt the need to squeeze it in anyway. Unfortunately, the best I could do was a quick overnight between Bath and Edinburgh.
Our train from Bath to York rolled into the city in late afternoon. This only gave us time to stop at one pub and then head straight to the free 2 hour walking tour at 6:00pm. After the walking tour, we managed to stop at one more restaurant for dessert before heading back to our inn to catch the end of England playing in the World Cup. The next morning, although we had to check out, our inn graciously watched our bags for us while we visited the York Minster. Then it was time to catch our train to Edinburgh.
If this sounds exhausting to you, that’s because it was! Not only did we have no time to rest between cities, but we didn’t even have time to take York in properly. Although I’m not upset about seeing some of this city, I vowed after this to never travel anywhere for less than 24 hours again. I highly suggest that you also adopt this more sane and economical way of traveling.
#6 – Factoring in Travel Days as Potential Sight-Seeing Days
Before I made this UK trip, I thought 10 days was long enough to see a whole country. Ridiculous, right? It’s true though – I actually thought we could just bounce around to different cities and do it all! What I didn’t realize is how time consuming it is to actually settle into a destination. Every time you move around, it’s time to pack up all your stuff, make sure you get to the train station on time, find your next hotel or Airbnb, and settle in all over again. If you can fit in seeing even one sight on a travel day, you are winning.
The best advice I can give you is to leave travel days completely open. If you make it to a sight, great, but if you don’t, you haven’t lost any time. It’s really nice to have an open schedule in case you need an evening off, or if you just want to orient yourself with a new city. With all that walking you’re likely doing, it certainly doesn’t hurt to take a break for some mid-trip rest & relaxation.
#7 – Staying in More Cities Than Your Trip Duration Allows
As mentioned above, this trip taught me that 10 days actually isn’t very long. Realistically, we could really only do three cities in this amount of time, but we chose to see four. Oddly, you have to have some discipline when planning a trip. It’s easy to see all the travel eye candy out there, and fall prey to your own wanderlust. Whenever I catch myself doing this now, I internally say “Bad Theresa!” and go back to planning a much more realistic trip.
As a rule of thumb, when planning your UK trip, make sure you can spend at least one full day in each city. Otherwise, it’s time to narrow down your stops so you can give each one the proper attention they deserve.
Travel Savvy Tip: It’s always good to make sure your UK trip budget allows for several stops as well. The more you move around, the more expensive things get. Think expenses like train tickets, cabs and Ubers to your lodging, and fees every time you book a new hotel or Airbnb. Sometimes staying in one place is more economical.
#8 – Doing a Double Decker Bus Tour Rather Than Walking
During our stay in London, we devoted two hours to riding around on a double decker bus. We rolled right past all the best sights, and did our best to understand the guide over the loudspeaker. While riding around on the bus, you do your best to take photos as you attempt to also take everything in. I learned the hard way that pictures taken from a bus absolutely suck, and you’re better off just focusing on the tour.
After this trip, I am decidedly done with bus tours. From now on, I’m either joining a group walking tour or doing my own walk to see a city. After doing a couple walking tours now, I realize I much prefer their slower pace. They allow for more time to take in and appreciate your surroundings while moving through the city with your own feet on the pavement. Even when we don’t physically enter every sight, I still feel that it’s a better experience when seeing things right before us on the ground than zooming past them in a bus.
#9 – Not Making a Detailed Itinerary for London
There is so much to do and see in London, and so little time to fit it all in. If you plan on making the most of each day in London, you have to go into it with a plan of attack. Otherwise, you will arrive and immediately become overwhelmed by the choices before you. Upon arrival, my “plan” amounted to more of a list, and left me confused on where to start and what to prioritize. Let’s just say this led to stress and frustration that could’ve been avoided.
Don’t forget to consider the logistical issues of navigating such a large city. Places like London can only be properly managed with a detailed plan in order to be smart about your sight-seeing. For example, you’ll want to hit a bunch of sights close to a certain area one day, and then hit everything in a totally different area together on another day. You do not want to waste precious time hulling yourself back and forth across town, while burning money in the process.
Just remember – London is HUGE. You couldn’t see it all in a whole month, let alone a few days. Pick your top 1-2 things to see each day, and make sure to visit those first. The last thing you want to do is spend time thinking and deliberating on plans during your trip. Your time in London is short already, so make sure you do the bulk of any decision-making before your arrival.
#10 – Spending Less Than 3 Days in London
I knew London was sprawling when I went to plan out our time there. In fact, it may have been the biggest city in land area I’ve ever visited. Yet, I still felt that allocating only two full days to our London stay would be enough.
It wasn’t until we actually arrived that I began to understand the true overwhelming nature of this city. London is filled to the brim with sight-seeing opportunities, from historical cathedrals to hip street markets. There are so many must-see sights, and you are truly doing yourself an injustice if you spend less than 3 days in the city. Of course, if you only have one or two days, I suppose it’s better to see London with limited time than not at all.
I will say, though, that if you do only spend two days in London, as we did, you will surely leave feeling unsatisfied. It’s simply not possible to do justice to the multitude of world class experiences this city offers if you can only breeze through it all. My two days there certainly left me wanting more, and honestly, even three days is pushing it.
• • •
Mistakes are going to happen when you travel, as my planning for our England and Scotland trip clearly shows. Sometimes it’s impossible to really know these things until you take the trip and see for yourself. However, if you manage to avoid any of the above mishaps I made, I guarantee you’ll have a much more smooth and satisfying trip to the UK. That being said, no matter what you do, there are so many amazing things to see in all of those countries. They will certainly leave you wanting more no matter what. I guess that just means you’ll have to plan a return trip!
Have you ever been to the UK? Did you make any of the same mistakes above? Do tell…
I’ve been to the UK twice. Once with my Mom when I was 16. We stayed four nights in London, two in Edinburgh, and one in Stratford upon the Avon. Then in 2017 my husband and I a spent three weeks – a night in Manchester, 2 nights in Lllandudno Junction, 2 in Aberystwyth, 4 in Cardiff, 2 in Harlech, 2 in York, 2 in Edinburgh, and 5 nights in Glasgow. We purposefully avoided London because we’re Medieval history nuts and we wanted to see Welsh castles but knew if we went to London we’d spend what time we had there. (I had a weekend function in Glasgow to go to so we had to spend time in Scotland.) We had train passes so it made the train travel easy as you just got on the train going where you wanted to. If you missed the one you were planning on, you could grab the next one. We also joined Cadw, the Welsh historic preservation organization, it gave us entry to all the Welsh sites and half price admission to English Heritage and Scottish Heritage sites. (If you have memebership in one you get half price to the others in your first year of membership and free in your second year and after. Also included are the Northern Ireland and Manx history sites). We still didn’t see everything and I’d want a few more nights in Cardiff but I don’t think we were too rushed.
Hi Sarah! First off, what awesome trips! It sounds like you did a good job planning, giving each city at least a full day. I’ve found that for smaller cities, one dedicated day spent there is usually plenty. Thanks for commenting!
Reading this as a person who lives in the UK (near York actually!) is really interesting! I’m so glad you did more than London, and enjoyed it. I think it’s made me realise that we often forget what is on our doorstep. I might have to go to York with my tourist head on. Also, if you come to the UK out of peak time you’ll be in for some dreary days.
Thanks for your comment, and glad you found it interesting! Also – I’d love to come back out of peak time and experience some dreary British weather – Scotland too! Being from Ohio, I am prepared lol.