I have been wanting to go to England for years. Still probably won't get there for a few years yet, but....
I am wondering what are the must sees there? I would want to go for like a month or two and try and stay in different parts of the country for like a week at a time. I am a country girl so, while I would plan to at least visit London (because it's London), but then try and stay in the country for the most part.
I was looking at hotels (not liking how 'classy' they were) and B&B's (Loved the look of some of them!). What would be the best type of places to stay?
I would love to be able to take a 4 day cooking course out at River Cottage (Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall) as well.
So far on my list to visit are: Yorkshire, London, Dorset,
Add other must sees to my list please! Countryside is a must, animals (all types) and of course lots of horses!
We recently got a girl at work who is here visiting her dad for the summer and she is from England. I am picking her brain as well. Just have to bring a pen and paper next time.
Not sure... I've never left North America. I still need to learn to drive in a big city. This is a couple years ahead for me.
I'm not sure what I would do to get around, rent a car seems like it would be the best option for going out in the country... but it could get interesting driving on the the other side of the road and all.
Some people have no problem driving on the other side. Others really struggle. At least that's what my family and friends have experienced.
I'm going to Ireland this fall, and the advice I've gotten is when visiting England, etc. and Ireland B&Bs are the way to go. I'll have more of an opinion after I return, I suppose.
Have fun with the dreaming, planning, and the trip!
I did a similar thing in reverse and loved seeing the 'real' USA.
I became vert friendly with a group on the net and stayed with different ones of them started in VA - very like the UK in many ways, went to NC which was like being in a sauna, then to ID which I absolutely loved then on to CO which was also beautiful.
I didn't drive I was driven by these people!
So, I would suggest that you either start or finish in London as that is where you will fly to and from. Whatever you do I would say do not even attempt to drive in London - I know the city fairly well but never drive there. It is easy to get around with the trains and buses.
UK roads are nothing like those in the US. Even the motorways (freeways) aren't straight and, as said, it can take far longer to travel any distance because of the amount of traffic and hold ups on the roads.
Gas prices are astronomical, (gas $7.8 pr US gallon) (Diesel $8.13) Trains are easier but also costly.
Traffic lights are different in that they are rarely overhead, but by the side of the road and we have roundabouts and I never saw one of them in the US!
Dorset is a beautiful area - as is Yorkshire. A rough distance of 250 miles but without hold ups will take over 4 hours to get to.
I will be living on the Isle of Wight and would be more than willing to have you stay and take you around there and possibly Dorset too (I am living in Dorset at the moment) so places to stay are easy to find (with friends)
The West Country ( Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Cornwall) are all beautiful. There is such diversity of landscapes.
Make friends with people on forums and then you will find cheap lodgings!
Try and time your visit for one of the major equestrian events. Badminton horse trials is on first weekend in may, Bramham is early june (normaly around the 2nd weekend), Burghley is last weekend in august. Royal Windsor Horse show is on the first of May (during the week), Great Yorkshire is on in early july. There are major events on most weeks during summer if you wanted a "British" equestrian experiance
Deffinatly take a trip to the Lake district and to Snowdonia if you can!
Youth hostels are your friend if you want to do it on a budget and most of them are actualy quite nice.
My favourite places here are London, The Souths Downs are fabulous, Durham Cathedral is stunning (where "Elizabeth" was filmed), York is an interesting city, Dorset beaches are lovely but travelling around Dorset and Cornwall can be absolutley awful, Oxford is another great city. There are lots of beautiful villages all over the place.
The New Forest for wildlife and the ponies (which look fine in the summer but can be in terrible condition in the winter), you will see cattle and sheep and ponies all over the roads there.
For beautiful horses you should try some of the big Shows, - South Of England (local to me:wink or similar. I'm sure if you have some dates we could find events which are on then.
Shropshire is beautiful, rolling, green, horsey, and very very English. Plenty of B&B's. Hills, valleys, Ludlow, Bridgnorth. Near to Worcestershire and Wales.
Planning a tour of the UK from Saska is quite a daunting task. For a Canadian there is just so much to see in England. First you have to consider how much time you have to look at what you have decided to see. Secondly you have to work out how much money you have to spend. And then there is the question of whether you are a watcher or a doer.
I suppose London is a must for you but can you afford to stay there for long? It is one of the world's most expensive cities to visit. It is also very crowded with probably nine million people living in it at any one time - that's if they all stood still long enough for them to be counted.
No, you can't plan to drive - the traffic is fast, crowded and chaotic. And you have to drive on the wrong side of the road under the ever present eyes of the traffic cameras. And where will you park it at night?
My suggestion is that in the first year you book yourself a riding holiday. In doing so you'll make some friends and you'll learn for yourself what you want to see on the next trip. But even that holiday will be expensive.
Another route would be to make a pen friend - whom you could make a deal with ie you visit them and they visit you.
It is quite likely that if your family is of British origin that you'll have some relatives in the UK. Try finding them.
For an American or Canadian, the British are yet another group of stubborn foreigners who happen to speak a version of the English language. But the common language hides a multitude of differences in philosophy.
If you were a New Yorker, then I'd say "Pop over for a few days of sightseeing in London" and then come back when you have saved more money. But a girl from rural Saska - well remember the UK is only 95,000 square miles in total on which about 66 million people live and that there are more languages spoken in London than any other city in the world.
Within a few miles of where I live you can visit stoneage ruins, a ruined Roman town, several medieval castles. You can ride a horse, enter a dressage competition, watch a football match, go to the opera, attend a concert, swim in the sea, climb a small mountain, sail a boat, etc etc etc etc - ie do whatever is your fancy. However to watch the Queen's birthday parade or visit The Tower or walk down Oxford Street or enter the Houses of Parliament, then you'll have to stay in expensive London. Anyway it would be better if you could find a Londoner to show you around.
Start making a list of what you want to see and then start saving your money. (But don't neglect your horse)
London is an amazing city but so crowded in the summer I think you miss too much and its so expensive too
I love Edinburgh and the UK has some wonderful coastal towns all around though Pembrokeshire, Wales is about my favourite place for beaches.
I miss the Cotswolds most of all, Cheltenham is my 'birthplace' and all the rural villages around there like Bourton on the Water are just lovely and still so 'Olde English' as are the Shropshire villages
There are County Shows all through the summer where you'll see the UK horse show scene - quite different to the US one
Look up some of the ancestral homes like Blenheim, Warwick castle etc too and places like The Black Country Museum.
If you hire a car and have only ever driven an automatic then specifically ask for one as driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road will be enough to deal with - most UK cars are manual (stick/gear stick operated)
Thank you all! You are wonderful! I am just actually sitting down and figuring stuff out. England has always held me in fascination. Getting an idea of what places to see is what I have on my mind right now.
I have a rather dislike for touristy stuff. I want to learn about the country and the people living there. That is why I want to go for a month or two. Maybe for the first time I'll only go for a couple weeks. I am in the process of making a friend from there (the girl at work). She is telling me a lot about England and has a bunch of tips.
I want to see London, but not stay there for more than a day. I don't like cities, just not my thing. What I would love to do is stay on a farm and help out for a week or two.
I really don't think I'll end up renting a car... just not worth the hassle of trying to drive on the other side of the road and make sure I get everything right, while being there for the first time.
I'm not a beach person. I don't swim so beaches aren't a big interest for me. Though I wouldn't mind seeing the ocean (I've only seen it once, in WA).
Ha ha, most people don't swim off the UK coast either - too cold! But don't discount the coastline because it's attached to the sea. Remember there can be wonderful countryside to walk in with the sea just over the cliffs.
God you'd get hypothermia if you concidered going in the sea on most days of the year! occasionaly we get a vert very warm day where swimming is possible though (and the beaches are rammed on those days)
Foxhunter, difference is that you live in the south of the country! The Isle of wight is lovely but It is protected from the worst of the weather by the north of france and the english channel, it is also not directly to the Atlantic Ocean.
Having lived in Scotland, North Wales and Hull (all by the coast) I can confirm that you would not be able to go in the water in winter. Not unless you had a death wish. Heck when I lived in Scotland I went surfing in summer and went in full Dry suit with wetsuit underneath and nearly froze solid, In summer you could just about get away with going in the sea in North wales or HULL. But in winter 3ft of snow on the beach does not bode well for going in the water
HA ha ... beaches can be fun to ride on and often swimming is a part of that riding although unintentional!
More than once I have taken soaking wet riders back from a beach ride and returned them to the boarding school that rode with us, looking more like drowned rats than children!
Once I even managed to return seven - out of eight - soaking wet. This was in April so the water was cold too. I told them that if any of them cried they would walk back - none ended up walking.
Loved the pictures! Keep um coming! It's always been in the back of my head that I would someday move to England. That is why I want to go and visit for more than just a couple of weeks. I want to see what it is really like there and what part I like best.
Foxhunter, that's awesome! I know about the getting wet unintentionally while riding. LOL! Lots of fun!
The only time I've ever seen the ocean was in February, on Long Beach, in Washington. My whole family had bad colds and ear infections, but means how it was our first (and maybe last) time to see the ocean we played a bit in the water anyways.
It's so weird to see water and no end to it. Just crazy! And yes that is coming from a mountain/prairie girl. To give you a bit of history, I grew up in the rocky mountains in Montana, and then my family moved to SK when I was 10. We did move back to Idaho for a year, but came back to SK after that.
Foxhunter I'm afraid I'm also a 'no swim in the sea' wuss!!! My sons and DH are braver souls but not me. I can recall a few hols when I dared go in - one in Saundersfoot when it so was hot I got courage G. Guitarist You'd need a work permit of sorts to do a paid farm job and some good insurance to even do voluntary work. No rounding up cattle on horseback really but lots of farms are glad to take seasonal workers when its busy in harvest times, most of the field scale veg growers and fruit use foreign students from eastern European countries
What sort of farm work did you have in mind?
With farm work I mainly meant helping out around the farm with whomever I am staying with. I will look in to more of the work permit thing as well. There is also an organization that is called WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms) which I might look into. We had WWOOFers come where I used to work. They were from France and somewhere else (I can't remember right now), and one of the neighbors had workers from Germany, England, France, and a couple more places.
This company hire a lot of overseas seasonal workers and they are spreading into organic growing now - they have locations in various parts of the country. Accommodation isn't 5 Star - mostly caravans - but you get paid and meet a very diverse lot of people!!! They would be able to advise on permits & agencies who organize these things etc Shropshire's. Family farming since 1952.
If you just wanted to stay with a host farm owning family then try putting an advert in the Horse & Hound or one of the Farming mags like the Farmers Guardian.
You might also find someone through one of the Agricultural Colleges by asking them to post something on their notice boards for you
Clava, back in the 1980s my brother and I rode from Petersfield to Eastbourne one year, and from Eastbourne to Petersfield the following year. We stayed three nights in b&bs . I am very surprised that no one has yet set up a trail riding centre on a commercial basis. Up on the trails,mountd on a horse, it is as though one is in a different world from busy Sussex.
Those rides left memories for a lifetime.
Then of course you are fit to ride from Talgarth across the Cambrian mountains to the Irish sea at Ynyslas - as long as you have a sturdy Welsh Cob to carry you.
Clava, back in the 1980s my brother and I rode from Petersfield to Eastbourne one year, and from Eastbourne to Petersfield the following year. We stayed three nights in b&bs . I am very surprised that no one has yet set up a trail riding centre on a commercial basis. Up on the trails,mountd on a horse, it is as though one is in a different world from busy Sussex.
Those rides left memories for a lifetime.
Then of course you are fit to ride from Talgarth across the Cambrian mountains to the Irish sea at Ynyslas - as long as you have a sturdy Welsh Cob to carry you.
Back in the early 80s my parents ran a trekking centre / holiday thing and I used to take rides of children on our ponies out on the South Downs - hours of fun! I've walked to Eastbourne but never ridden it, although we did put a girl up who was riding the whole of the South Downs a few years ago.
Not really 'a place' but you can stay in premier in at tong village which has a riding centre just down the road, a riding centre about 10 minutes away and a field of two horses next door to you its in west yorkshire and there are some great walks round there! Posted via Mobile Device
I recall chatting to a guy in Ireland who ran his place with WWOOFers. I hadn't heard of them befor then, but yes it might indeed be your way in. Sounds fun!
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