Planning Ideas for a UK Vacation
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Need some planning ideas for a UK vacation? Me, too! Let’s chat. Share your tips and tricks for traveling with kids in the United Kingdom.
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The crew walking through Kensington Gardens, Fall 2014
Today it’s Q&A day! Where I give the Q, and you provide the A. 😉
I’m super excited that our family is going to be traveling through the United Kingdom this spring, and while I furiously scan the internet for the best places to visit, I also know that YOU are some of the best people to ask.
I did this years ago when we were planning our first Disneyland trip with kids and again before we took the kids to Europe the first time. How immensely helpful your suggestions have been! Our family has benefitted so much from your hard-earned wisdom. So, today, I’m turning the mic over to you as concerns UK vacation travel with children.
How would YOU plan a UK vacation?
Feel free to plan my family’s UK vacation. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Who: Two parents, Six kids, ages 8 to 19
Our kids have spent a month abroad, with about 7 days in London and another three weeks in western France. They have a small idea of what to expect, but as you know London is not the sum total of the United Kingdom. They will be ages 8, 10, 13, 14, 16, and 19 when we go, though two of the boys will have birthdays while we are abroad.
Where: the United Kingdom, plus Ireland
The boundary lines are pretty wide open. We fly in and out of London and have the ability to hire a car.
When: 4 weeks in the Spring, before summer vacations begin worldwide
Since we homeschool, we can make our own calendar, but we needed to wait until our college son was done with his finals.
How: Budget travel
Let’s say you have about $25,000 to cover transportation and travel expenses for eight people. While the dollar has been stronger as of late, in comparison to the pound, we realize this is not a skies-the-limit kind of trip.
Feel free to leave me links, book recommendations, travel spots, things to pack, tips, etc.
If you were still interested in reading A Fine Romance by Susan Branch, you might ask your library to request it for you from inter-library loan. Our library will do so for card holder’s at no charge and when I looked online there are a lot of libraries that have it. Our library has links so we can check online and fill out the request ourselves, but that would vary from library to library.
Just a suggestion, as a frequent library user and active volunteer for our local library I am probably more aware of this option. I do use it at least several times a year.
Have a great trip. I’m not fond of travel, but if I was planning a trip anywhere this would be my choice for where to go.
That’s a great suggestion. Thanks!
Hi Jessica,
Don’t worry about driving on the left side of the road in Great Britain and/or Ireland … it took my husband about 10 minutes to adjust when we went to Ireland last spring. My husband can drive anything (he has the licenses to prove it) … but he did worry a bit about being on the left side. But he did well, even in all the crazy roundabouts at almost every intersection in Ireland, and even though he shifted with his left hand! It was only he and I last year … we are planning to take our six children to Europe soon!! So I can’t wait to hear about your trip!! Good luck!!
Thanks! Good to know!
As a non traveler for the most part, we have found ourselves in some compromising situations when vacationing in the states. Even though we live here, it is impossible to know trouble spots in other states. Do travel agents or others give warnings to areas to avoid when traveling in Europe?
When we stayed in Paris, I ran locations by my French sister and she let me know what was or wasn’t safe. As for London, I did a police activity search and found a chart of neighborhoods and their safety ratings according to the Met (police). Typically speaking, violent crime isn’t as prevalent in Europe (knock on wood), but petty theft/pickpocketing is rampant. That’s when you really need to be on your guard. In my (limited) experience.
I live about an hour outside of Dublin if you have any questions.
I love;
London, so much to see and do
Edinburgh, beautiful city
Cornwall, relaxed with gorgeous scenery
Dublin, lovely vibe
West Cork and Kerry, perfection!
I can also recommend the Ulster-American Folk Museum, it’s a great day out.
Enjoy!
Thank you!
Wow such great advice here.
I am so happy you guys get to go back again. Your posts about all the planning on taking a bigger family out of the country are so inspirational and helpful.
I hope you do real posts like that for this trip. Because of your great motivation we took our family of 5 kids to the Canadian Rockies last year. We are thinking of doing another international trip this year. Thanks for giving me the push.
What airline are you flying? What was the great rate you got?
Yay! I’m so glad the posts have been helpful. We most definitely plan to give the full details on our adventures, including video this time. 🙂
Your trip sounds amazing! Some day soon we’ll explore North America, too.
We are flying Virgin Atlantic again and got amazing fares. I called last week to ask a question and the person in customer service said, “Wow. You got great tickets.” LOL!
So what is a good or great price? 🙂 How far in advance did you get tickets? Starting to research & SAVE for a trip w/ my family of 5 so this is a timely series!! Thanks!
We paid almost $9k for 8 to fly to London, nonstop, from LAX in the fall of 2014, purchased 3 to 4 months in advance. A few weeks ago we paid $5k for the same exact route for the spring of 2017, again 3 to 4 months in advance. The Virgin Atlantic agent on the phone said we got an amazing deal, so we might have lucked out. My advice would be to start researching your ideal trip specific to time of year. That’s what I have done each time, about 1 to 2 years in advance and based our budget on that, rounding up for inflation.
Thanks, Jessica! That is helpful! Happy planning to you these next few months! You’ve inspired me to to push my international travel dreams w/ my family into the next stage of planning & saving! Thanks as always!
Can’t tell you how much that warms my heart! Yay!