Navigating the UK: Multi-Generational Travel Tips and Hidden Gems with Lauren

In episode 108 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy Collins sits down with Lauren, who recently travelled from Australia to Europe with her family. Two weeks of their trip were spent exploring England.

They delve into the intricacies of planning a multi-generational trip, the ease of using the UK's transport system, and the joys of exploring London, Bath, and Oxford. Lauren shares invaluable tips for booking popular attractions like Harry Potter Studios and Big Ben and highlights delightful experiences at local markets and the Roman Baths.

Tune in for a treasure trove of insights and practical advice to make your next UK trip unforgettable!

⭐️ Guest - Lauren Minns
📝 Show Notes - Episode 108

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracey Collins. In this podcast, Tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Welcome to the UK Travel Planet podcast. This is episode 108, and this week I'm really excited, then, that I have an Aussie, a fellow Aussie, on the podcast to do a trip report. So I've got Lauren, who you may have heard in episode 100, who was a fan of the podcast and she traveled to the UK last year, last year, or was it this year, lauren? March this year, march of this year, I should know that you traveled to the UK in March this year and who I asked if you'd come on and do a trip report. So, lauren, it's great to have you on the podcast. Would you like to just tell us whereabouts you are in Australia, to start with?

Speaker 3: 1:19

Sure Thanks, tracey. It's great to be here. I'm from Ballarat in Victoria.

Speaker 2: 1:26

Australia, so in the south of Australia, and I was just saying to you I'm actually recording this from Perth at the moment because I'm staying at my daughter's and I'm freezing to death. So I think that confirms me as a Queenslander.

Speaker 3: 1:37

It is freezing here also.

Speaker 2: 1:39

Oh, so cool, so cool. Okay so, lauren. So tell us how long did you go to the UK, for who did you travel with, and give us kind of a brief overview of your itinerary.

Speaker 3: 1:50

Sure, we went to the UK for two weeks as part of a bigger trip. The UK component was two weeks, and I traveled with my mum, who has just turned 70. I'm sure she'll be thrilled with me for saying that my partner and our three kids who are aged 10, 11 and 10. Oh, we've got twins, two step-sons and my daughter.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Okay, okay. So multi-generational travel, then, lauren. So that has its own kind of challenges when it comes to planning a trip, that's for sure. So what was your itinerary like? I guess a good question to ask as well, then because you mentioned, you know, the fact that you had your mom and your kids is how did you decide on your itinerary? So give us a little view of your itinerary, and, I guess, how did you manage to make it so that everybody was happy with it?

Speaker 3: 2:54

Yep, so we had a week in London and then we had three nights in Bath, two nights in Oxford and then we spent a week back in sorry one night back in London before heading out on the Eurostar the next morning. As far as catering for everyone, probably the key concerns for us was restraining myself from packing too much in. Um, if it had have been just my partner and I, that would have been less of a concern. Um, but with the three kids, we didn't want to wear them out and have cranky kids and then mum is fit and healthy.

Speaker 3: 3:19

Um, but also conscious of you know stairs and things like that. So making sure that we weren't. You know being ridiculous with you know stairs and things like that. So making sure that we weren't. You know being ridiculous with you know stairs and, uh, you know thinking about, well, we'll catch a tube or get a taxi here or whatever. Just trying to be a bit sensible. Um, and probably the biggest thing I was looking at was, um, a party like, if we were on the second floor or the third floor, did we have lifts? Was there really steep stairs?

Speaker 2: 3:44

those sorts of things to think about because we had suitcases and things to lug around that's actually a really important point because I'll tell you more than more than once we stayed at accommodation and ended up on the top floor and then doug not me has had to lug a heavy suitcase all the way up, like four flights of stairs. And that's important and that's not not just actually in London, but in the UK a lot of the accommodation is quite old, so you're not necessarily going to get a lift. You know, I guess that's something I think about less, that Doug will tell me. It's like you have made sure to ask them that we're going to be on like the first floor or the ground floor if possible, so that I don't have to look if they don't have a lift. So that's a really good point to actually to think about. If you're listening, um, just check if you don't want to be carrying suitcases up three or four flights of stairs just to check or request that you stay on the ground or the first floor.

Speaker 2: 4:38

And I will say in the UK we start with the ground floor and the first floor is the first floor, it's not the ground floor if that makes sense because I know in the states they start with the first floor and then the second floor on the third floor and actually where I live in Australia, where it's exactly the same where on the third floor, which technically would be the second floor in the UK, so that's always interesting yeah, we were lucky to avoid that confusion.

Speaker 3: 5:03

Yes, coming from Australia.

Speaker 2: 5:05

Yes, that's true. So how did you come up? So how long, first of all, I guess, how long did it take you to create your itinerary and kind of how did you go about doing it?

Speaker 3: 5:14

It was sort of an evolving process. We started planning in sort of midway through 2022, so we had a long lead up. I think it was about 20 months that we started throwing around the idea of going and then actually leaving. Part of that was financial. You know five of us. It's expensive coming from Australia. Yes, it certainly is. So we needed that time to save. Probably took six months to really hammer down sort of the main three cities that we were going to stay in, and then the rest of it was finer details.

Speaker 3: 5:54

As far as how we started, I just literally started Google mapping, just getting a handle on geography. I was a little bit embarrassed to realise how little I knew about where things were in the UK. So once I said I had an idea about London's here and Edinburgh's here, and you know Bath is here and Oxford's here, we were initially looking at going to Edinburgh but couldn't fit it in and I just started a Google sheet and just started a big list of all the things that we might like to see and then just mapping out travel distance in kilometres and time and trying to group things together and trying to get a little bit more realistic from there and I was, fortunate enough, very early on in the planning. Probably the first month or two of hunting around, I stumbled across the Facebook page and joined there and then found all of your resources and then I was really fortunate because I avoided a whole bunch of pitfalls and there was so much great advice around.

Speaker 3: 6:55

Don't ever pack your IT degree, you know. Be aware that. You know, perhaps don't think about driving. Because we were looking at doing a hire car and those sorts of things to do more of the Cotswolds. And then we kind of realised that probably wasn't going to be a good option for us with a party of six and trying to hire a car and suitcases and things, um. So things just were naturally tailored down from that point. Um, yeah, and I think it was probably in the first six months we just started in London, um, bath and Oxford and and then trying to pick, you know, out of 50 million things that we wanted to do, what was actually realistic.

Speaker 2: 7:30

That's so true. There's so much to do, and I think that's a good point you're saying about. It's like try not to over Once you've decided and actually I think that's a huge making that decision about where you want to go, knowing how long you're going for, and then where is it that you?

Speaker 2: 7:43

you want to go, known how long you're going for, and then where is it that you really want to see? Because there are so many places. And, as you say, even when you've chosen the three places, three cities you want to go to visit, it's still once you've narrowed that down. Then you have to kind of go through the process again and then start looking at, okay, what are the things that we want to do with each of these? You know three destinations, so you decided not to drive. So how did you, how did you get around?

Speaker 3: 8:08

um, just the train, just great western railway we're on. Um, just with the three cities that we're in. Um, yeah, a train in the tube and I think one taxi, yeah and easy. Uh, yeah, it was great it were. So I kept reading that, um, the transport system was easy and in the uk, and I was like, yeah, but is it because I don't really do public transport here, because we're in a regional area? Um, so I was a little bit nervous about it, but it was so clear and so brilliant. Like the kids were having a great time, you know, on the tube, looking at the maps, figuring out how many stops we had to go from somewhere. And even my mum, who hasn't done any travelling, she was, you know, getting a handle on things and we're getting more and more confident. It really didn't take us that long to sort out the tube like half a day. And then the Great Western Railway Service we found super as well. So it was just I don't know all the signage and everything was just so clear.

Speaker 2: 9:06

I think it's, um, I think it's so. It's easier than people expect. I think it's just if you haven't done it before. Um, particularly the London Underground can feel a bit daunting, but actually it's really well set up and, as Doug always says, um, people will help you out. You just have to ask yes, um, I just gonna. Did you buy doug's ebook? Yes, we did excellent.

Speaker 3: 9:28

Yes, yeah, we go. We got a few of the ebooks to begin with. Again, as I said, we were just lucky. We just started off on the right foot. We didn't didn't make a whole bunch of errors. Um, you know, planning, which was really nice, and we had their tfl go app as well, and we used use Trainline and we, you know, again, through Doug's help, we got the family and friends card and saved a ton of money on our tickets and it's just really, really good.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Oh yeah, absolutely Well. Doug's just started doing itinerary consults, basically focused on train travel as well, which he's really excited about. He could talk trains all day, all night and his knowledge of the UK train system, honestly, is like it, it's second to none. He's just knows it so well and he's he prides himself on the fact that he's actually done every single line at least once around the uk, which is pretty good but I think he's pretty good at explaining it as well how to you know what to do, what's super patient?

Speaker 3: 10:24

yeah, yeah super kind and doesn't treat anyone like an idiot, which is really appreciated when you feel like one.

Speaker 2: 10:30

Well, you know, it's like anybody going somewhere new or doing something new for the first time. You know, we all have those anxieties, we all have those things about. I was planning a trip to Japan last year which really threw me and I was like I need a consult with somebody who knows all about Japan. I've got a few friends who do some fantastic Facebook groups and websites, but I was like I actually want to talk to somebody about this stuff because I think that also helps. And we do find that when we do the itinerary consults it's often it's just a lay in fears and just kind of fine tuning things to make it kind of better for people so that they have kind of the best experience possible. So you went to London, you went to Oxford and you went to Bath. So I'm going to ask you what were your favourite experiences and places that you visited at each of those destinations?

Speaker 3: 11:19

Yeah, it's hard, I know there's so many. We did so much, even though I said that we tried not to overpack our itinerary, we did do a lot. So for London, I would say I took your advice and our first day in London we did the HoHo bus, which was just the best experience for so many reasons. I mean, we weren't too badly jet lagged because we'd arrived at nighttime and slept, you know, pretty solid eight hours and woke up in the daytime, which was a good way to go for us. But just having that initial experience of driving around the grandest part of London and it was just everywhere you looked it was just mind blowing. It was such a great thing to do and we just had our jaws on the ground all day. Such a good experience.

Speaker 3: 12:07

We what else do we do in london? We did harry potter studios, of course, um, which was brilliant. Can't say enough good things about that. I could probably go on and on, but I'll try not to um. My partner and I did big ben, which was a real highlight. We did the big ben tour, um, which was just fantastic, wow that's quite difficult to get into.

Speaker 3: 12:27

Yeah, it's quite difficult to get into that. Yeah, it was stressful booking those tickets.

Speaker 2: 12:32

Did you have to climb up? Because I've not done it, because I get claustrophobic and that does worry me. Is it kind of tight walking up the stairs, or is it?

Speaker 3: 12:40

No, I didn't find it uncomfortable. I'm not great in tight spaces either and I found it quite good. And they're funny because they send you emails leading up to like that are quite intimidating and they're like you know, make sure you are fit enough and don't have any health concerns, and I'm like God, you know am I going to be?

Speaker 3: 12:59

fit enough, yeah, but the way that they structured the tour, there's so many levels with inside big ben which I didn't realize, and there's different rooms that lead off the stairways and you only do maybe 150 steps at a like a manageable pace, and then you'll go into one of those rooms and they'll give you a talk about a certain aspect of big ben's history and you can get your breath back and then you're just getting up the stairs again and then they stop again. So it was actually easier than what I thought it was going to be.

Speaker 2: 13:30

Okay, that's good to know. I'll have to put that on my list to try and get tickets for when I'm back in London.

Speaker 3: 13:36

Yeah, you've just got to be organised to get them.

Speaker 2: 13:39

Yes, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 13:47

I'll have to take your advice on that, I think. Yeah, yeah, so I think it's three months out on the Parliament website and then you have to, and they only put them up there once a month and you have to know what day you want to go and what time you can go, because the tickets were gone in about 15 minutes. That's always a problem for me, yeah because I'm never quite sure.

Speaker 2: 14:03

I'm not sure I might be back in September, october, but it's like trying to plan ahead when I'm never quite sure when I can fit it in and get back over. So what other things in London did you really enjoy?

Speaker 3: 14:16

Well, it wasn't directly in London, but when we went to Windsor, st George's Chapel in Windsor was just amazing Such a beautiful building and quite an emotional experience being in there. There's just an atmosphere about that building and I think, with Queen Elizabeth being the second being- buried there as well, you know fairly recently. It's just a very serene, stunning building to be in. It just blew me away. It was really surprising.

Speaker 2: 15:16

It's really interesting. It is a really interesting chapel to visit actually and I was there in June and the queues. There was a lot of queues to go in and they do have to move people on because obviously a lot of people want to pay their respects to the late Queen. But yeah, I agree, I think it's a very special place to visit. We've just actually put out a couple of articles all about visiting Windsor, just to say to people to double check if you really want to go to see St George's Chapel, because it's not open every day and people want to be disappointed by that. And I actually just put a little video together on YouTube as well about Windsor just to show people kind of what to expect.

Speaker 3: 15:56

It's an amazing place to go.

Speaker 2: 15:58

Yeah, absolutely yeah. I'm glad that you got out to visit, and it's easy to get to, isn't it? Yes?

Speaker 3: 16:04

Yeah, we were staying in East Putney. It's a little way out, so we just caught the train directly from Putney. So it was like 40 minutes there and back, straightforward.

Speaker 2: 16:15

Easy peasy and then in Bath. What did you enjoy?

Speaker 3: 16:24

So we did a walking tour in bath, um, and we found that, uh, so good. Uh, it was one of the blue badge um tours through. Get your guide, yeah, um, and we we had our tour guide's name was jim and he was brilliant. He was so friendly and he adapted his tour for the kids, um, and telling them, you know, all sorts of interesting stories and some toned-down ghost stories and, you know, went and found the vents in the road where the hot air comes out from the baths with the water running underneath the roads, and the kids were fascinated by that and he was just brilliant.

Speaker 3: 16:58

So that was a really good experience in Bath and the Roman baths themselves was. I mean, I knew that it would be good. I had no understanding of how good it would be. The kids were so engaged. We got them the audio tour listening sets and that worked really well, particularly for the boys. They tend to learn better through listening rather than reading things. So they were just running around soaking up so much information and coming back and telling us what they'd learned. And the, the displays and the way that they've set up, you know, the information and stuff it's. It's a beautiful display in itself, but it's so informative and interactive as well, which was just a really great way of spending a morning.

Speaker 2: 17:41

Oh yeah, I second that. Actually, I took my mum last year for her 80th birthday. She hadn't been before and she was blown away by it. It's just fabulous. They've done such an amazingly good job of how they present that history. Yeah. And it's a fabulous place to visit as well. Honestly, you can't go to Bath without going to see the Roman Baths. You really can't. No place to visit as well, honestly, you can't go to bath without going to see the rubber baths.

Speaker 3: 18:03

You really can't. No, you just can't. I mean, you see that iconic image of the bat, of the main bath itself, but there's so much more to it that you just probably, they probably don't show enough. I don't think, I don't think that they promote their museum underneath clearly enough because it's so good yeah, that's possibly true, possibly true.

Speaker 2: 18:20

And and did you do some tours from Bath? I know you mentioned Stonehenge.

Speaker 3: 18:26

Yeah, so we did a bus tour from Bath which was a day tour.

Speaker 3: 18:31

It's a combined Stonehenge, avery, stone Circle, laycock Village and Castle Combe perhaps and then driving past Silbury Hill and the horse, the white horse, whose name I can't remember, yeah, so lots of different things as we were driving past as well. It was just a brilliant day. Stonehenge and Avebury Stone Circle that I can't seem to say properly today were fantastic and the kids loved that. Stonehenge and Avebury Stone Circle that I can't seem to say properly today were fantastic and the kids loved that. They loved being able to run around the stones and touch them and hug them and they sat in the devil's chair and were threatening to run a hundred times around and clockwise to summon the devil, and they just had a great time.

Speaker 2: 19:17

That's Avery. I will just taste an egg. I just can't do that stuff initially with us. They won't be very happy.

Speaker 3: 19:21

Yes, yes, avery you can't do that Stonehenge. The Stonehenge was brilliant for its own reasons. Um the visitor center there was really really good and um address warmly would be my tip there. It was pretty chilly on the hill, yeah it can be, and I'm so.

Speaker 2: 19:38

I'm really happy to hear you say this, laura, because, um, often in the Facebook group we'll get quite strong opinions. It's really funny. There's strong opinions about Oyster card versus contactless with travel on the tube. There's strong opinions on whether you need cash or you don't. And then the third one that there's really strong opinions about is whether you should go to Stonehenge or not, and I am a firm advocate for going to Stonehenge. Why would you not want to go to Stonehenge? I just can't. I don't understand it. It's an amazing place to go and visit. The museum's excellent and wow. I just go, wow, wow every time I go, and it doesn't matter how many times I've gone. I've been multiple times.

Speaker 3: 20:22

I always just love going. Yeah, there's such an atmosphere about the place. Um, I think if you go with the expectation that, no, you can't walk through the stones unless you go through on one of the tours, you can actually get a lot closer than what we expected that we could. Um, you get right next to the heel stone. You know we got photos next to the heel stone and looking out over the plains where you can see, you know, the excavations and the old highways and things you know, and there's a lot of really great signage. You know the kids had plenty to keep them interested and, as I said, the visitor centre was really, really interesting and really well done. I don't know. We had a great time. I recommend it to anyone.

Speaker 2: 21:03

Yeah, it's brilliant. No, no, I recommend absolutely, absolutely second year on that one. So, um, you went to Oxford as well. Oxford is another favorite of mine. I there's always the Oxford Cambridge debate, because I'm kind of I'm kind of a little bit tipped by Cambridge. I just love. I love Cambridge doesn't mean I don't like Oxford, I do Just. I think Cambridge captured my heart a couple of years ago and I kind of go oh, so talk to me about Oxford, what did you enjoy about Oxford?

Speaker 3: 21:30

Yeah, so we had a couple of nights in Oxford. Unfortunately, when we were there they were doing an alumni dinner at all of the colleges so we couldn't get into the colleges themselves, which we were initially a little bit down in the mouth about. But we did do a walking tour through Get your Guide as well and, again, the tour guide that we had there was brilliant adapted things for the kids, amorata. So being able to be standing in the footsteps of C of CS Lewis and Tolkien and hearing those stories and seeing what colleges they went to, and seeing the um inspiration for Aslan and, you know, the lamppost and things like that, that was spine tingling for me yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I get that also.

Speaker 2: 22:15

I remember standing there looking at the gun oh, this is so exciting because I'm a big fan lying the witch in the wardrobe, I mean, you know, yeah, one of those books isn't it? So, yeah, and that that's the special thing about oxford, I think. Uh, there's obviously the harry potter connection that people always love and it is a beautiful architecturally beautiful city. It really really is um.

Speaker 3: 22:35

There's so much history yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 22:37

I'm glad to hear as well that you did. I I always recommend as well if you're listening, you know what Lauren's saying is correct but do these walking tours. You know, and we do have links on the website to tours that we recommend and that we've done in Bath and Oxford, because you will learn so so much more if you go on a walking tour than you will if you just try and wander around yourself using Google Maps. And they're not that expensive, no, but 100% worth doing.

Speaker 3: 23:06

Yeah, and I would say that about Oxford too. Oxford's quite I guess it's quite understated in the things that it celebrates, in that it doesn't have big signs saying see, as Lewis stood here looking at you know the lamppost.

Speaker 2: 23:20

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3: 23:22

Or it doesn't say you know, tolkien went to this college in a big you know? Black and white sign. You really need someone who's in the know who can point these things out to you. Otherwise and I had done my research before we went, but I would have missed a whole lot of things if we didn't have the guide. So totally agree with what you're saying there.

Speaker 2: 23:42

Yeah, didn't have the guide, so totally agree with what you're saying there. Yeah, no, absolutely it's. It's 100 always worth doing it. Um, you know, and if you don't want to take a private one, a group tour is absolutely perfectly fine as well. I mean, I was lucky last year and I booked group tour in cambridge and it ended up just being me and my friend lucy, so we had to have a private tour, which was amazing, absolutely quite small.

Speaker 3: 23:58

Yeah, I think there was maybe two or three other people plus us.

Speaker 2: 24:03

Yeah, perfect, perfect, okay. So what sort of places did you stay in in the three destinations that you were at?

Speaker 3: 24:12

Yeah, so because there were six of us, it was challenging in that regard to find accommodation. It was an affordability question for us to stay more centrally, because we were going to have to book two or three rooms potentially. We just couldn't find the right combination of, you know, bedding. So we stayed in Airbnbs every night in the UK, except for our last night in London where we booked a couple of rooms at the Premier Inn at King's Cross because we were nice and close to the Eurostar then, but, yeah, stayed in Airbnbs.

Speaker 3: 24:44

I know that there's been plenty of horror stories, but we had really great experiences with our Airbnbs when we were over there, so we were lucky. We were really happy with our location in East Putney I know, yeah, that sort of goes against the advice because it's, you know, half an hour or so out on the tube, but it worked really well for us. One of the bonuses we thought we were staying right across the road from our primary school, so it was a really lovely neighbourhood. We've kind of felt like locals, wandering up to the supermarket and the tube and the local parks and things. So you just see a different side of what life is like, I think.

Speaker 2: 25:55

And it's really funny because actually I remember I'm sure you asked in the Facebook group about East Putney and you know we do. If you stay in London for a short period of time and you know you're pushed for time, then staying in central London is always a good idea, I think. But but and I will tell you this, so we stay it's very expensive. London is incredibly expensive and we know not everybody is going to be able to swing. Especially this you know we had six years ago and it's it starts adding up. But actually so I have a very good friend who lives in east putney. I remember when you asked about that, so I tend to.

Speaker 2: 26:27

Sometimes we'll stay in central london when I go back, but more often than not we'll stay uh with my friend terry, and it's very easy to get in uh, it is a direct direct and a direct um tube line. But also what's really interesting and I think you're right, what you've kind of and I think that'd be great for the kids as well is because you're slightly out but you get to see normal life for Londoners and you're commuting in with everybody else who's commuting in. That's the only thing I would say. Sometimes it can get incredibly busy at the commuting hours, getting seats on those tube trains in and out. Um, we did try and avoid pay care. Yeah, yeah, because yeah, well, it does get really, really busy but it is actually pretty quick to get in. But yes, I was quite happy because I did spend a bit of time in in the uh, early 90s in in east putney and now I'll go back quite often to visit. So, yes, it is a nice place to go and I was glad it worked out.

Speaker 2: 27:18

It worked out really well for you guys, that's really good and also having it yeah, and having Airbnb as well as what you could. You could prepare your own food, which again helps with like costs and stuff, because I know how expensive it is, which kind of takes me on to kind of the food question is did you have any favourite foods that you tried when you were over? I know this is your. Was this your first trip out of Australia? I know it was your first trip to the UK, but was this your first?

Speaker 3: 27:43

trip. I have been overseas to a couple of other destinations, but for the rest of my family it was the first trip.

Speaker 2: 27:49

Okay so, and obviously there's a lot of close ties between Australia and the UK, so was there anything that you like, food that you particularly enjoyed? Like you didn't try any Marmite versus Vegemite.

Speaker 3: 28:03

I didn't try any Marmite, no, I think I have tried it before I. Yeah. So we went to. We gave the meal deals a red hot crack, I will say, because, with you know, with kids looking for sort of familiar foods and then trying to save some money, that was a wonderful tip. You know, sometimes when we're out during the day it's just a nice, quick and easy thing to go and grab a sandwich and a drink, et cetera. And then some nights when we were just falling in a heap in our accommodation because we'd had such a big day, then throwing some things in the oven was nice and easy. So thank you for that. That was really, really handy to learn about.

Speaker 3: 28:44

As far as the kids, you know the Instagrammable, you know chocolate-covered strawberries. The kids loved them. They got them both at Borough Market and Greenwich Market. Yeah, they couldn't get enough of them. And the juice bars that they have there as well, with the you know freshly squeezed smoothies and things. They couldn't get enough of those either. I'm like good, get some fruit and veggies into you, because we're not probably eating the best.

Speaker 3: 29:11

So I'm like, yeah, you can go get some smoothies, that's fine. We. So I'm like, yeah, you can go get some smoothies, that's fine. Um, we had a traditional sunday roast and sticky toffee pudding, which was super yum. I got to try yorkshire pudding that I'd been hanging out to try, which was really really good. Um, we had a sunday lunch in um oxford at the angel and greyhound um, which I couldn't recommend highly enough. They were brilliant, they're their service. But and they were so kind to us because we had all of our suitcases with us that day and they were so accommodating and called us a taxi and you know, they were just wonderful.

Speaker 3: 29:43

And what else did we? So we went to the Bath Bun Tea Shop. I really wanted to go to Sally Lund's but we just couldn't make it work that day. But we really enjoyed that experience experience. It was a lovely little sort of quintessential English experience with fantastic service and you know English teacups and sauces and teapots and the kids just thought that was it a bit. So that was a really great experience as well.

Speaker 3: 30:07

Another sort of English experience we had was at the Raven in Bath. Our tour guide actually recommended the Raven to us. They have a limited menu but they specialise in bangers and mash and pies basically, but they do them very well. They were super yummy. So everyone went home very full and very happy from there. And then in London we went to the Serpentine Bar and Kitchen in Hyde Park on our first day when we were touring around on the hop-on, hop-off bus, and that was a really lovely experience. Really lovely food and coffee and sitting on the lake watching the white swans because we've only got black swans in Australia, so that was pretty cool and Harrods Food Hall. Of course, that was an experience. It is only takeaway, though I will warn people that you can't prop in a corner and eat like we tried, because the security guard moved us on.

Speaker 2: 30:57

Yeah, we'll move you how busy was it in march? Because I do, I do kind of advise to really avoid it when it comes to it. Well, even last may it was crazy in june. It's been so, so busy, couldn't get moved around, but it's, it's a lovely. I mean, I love, I love food, so it's just really good fun. And it's so expensive though. I think I bought I bought like a croissant last year with um avocado in it. It was delicious, but I think it was about six quid or something ridiculous. I was like, oh, even more, maybe even more, um. So I enjoyed every bite of that, I tell you, um yeah, it wasn't too crowded, it wasn't, it was manageable so as well.

Speaker 2: 31:38

How did you find that?

Speaker 3: 31:40

yeah, borough market was sort of verging on quite crowded like we had to make a bit of a safety plan for all of us to make sure we didn't get separated um and have some sort of rendezvous points, because it was pretty full-on um and with the younger kids they're a little bit worried. We actually ended up in joining Greenwich Market, actually more than Borough Market. Even though Borough Market was great, and I'm really glad that we went, greenwich Market still had a really great variety of food, was easy to get around and they had all of the local artisans and market sellers there which were great to talk to, and they had lots of the local artisans and market sellers there which were great to talk to, and they had lots of really cool things to buy that were a little bit different, that we could bring home for gifts and things. So we spent quite a lot of time and money at Greenwich Market.

Speaker 2: 32:25

It was really good. And you spent a bit of time in Greenwich as well, didn't you? That was one thing I was going to ask you. Yeah, we spent the whole day. Yeah, greenwich is. I love greenwich. It's one of my favorite places to visit and you know, if you're in london long enough, really greenwich should be included in your itinerary. And also it's a bit different. You're getting out of kind of the the center. It's a little bit less crowded, less busy. Um, you got the kids to run around in the park, so you've got the market. It's really nice. Did you go by um boat down to greenwich?

Speaker 3: 32:54

we did. Um, we had the london pass, so we had the uber boat on that and we got the ferry all the way from sorry, the uber boat from wandsworth pier, which wasn't far from our accommodation, which was super convenient. So then we got a river cruise on top of our day out at greenwich as well, which was really nice to see things from different angles, get some different photos, go onto Tower Bridge, all those cool things, yeah. So that was a really fantastic day out at Greenwich. It was really good. We did the observatory as well, and the Cutty Sark, yeah. And you know, at times I thought, oh, I'm going to lose the kids, but as far as attention span, but they were really interested in everything, and the interested in everything and the Cutty Sark is really interactive, surprisingly so. So the kids had plenty to do within the hull of the ship itself which surprised us.

Speaker 2: 33:42

I think they do a really good job in the UK actually with a lot of their historic kind of the way they display the history and the way they develop the museums. I went to see the Mary Rose in Portsmouth at the Historic Dockyard a couple of years ago and I was absolutely blown away. If you go back to the UK I'd highly recommend it. I reckon the kids would love it. How they have presented that is astounding. It's just it's probably the best museum I've ever been to in the world the way they've done it.

Speaker 2: 34:13

It took them a long time to do it, but wow, it is fabulous.

Speaker 3: 34:17

Yeah, yeah, they do do it well, we didn't see a disappointing display anywhere. We went really.

Speaker 2: 34:24

No, I think it's really well thought out how they do it, the curators, and how they present it. They do just such a good job of it and a lot of them are free. Actually, a lot of places like the museums in London, like the V&A, which is my favorite Everybody will know that if you listen to the podcast. I'm a bit obsessed with the V&A. You know, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the British Museum, all those they're all free, which is great.

Speaker 2: 34:46

You know, it's a fabulous day out, okay. So, lauren, you spent a few weeks in the UK. There was your mum, yourself, your partner, three kids, so kind of you're going to have learned a lot of stuff about you thinking, okay, if anybody's travelling to the UK, what would be your tips? So, going for the first time, like all you guys, what would be your tips that you'd share.

Speaker 3: 35:10

Yeah, so probably three main tips. I would think, Of course, checking out the Facebook group, the podcast and the website, because I'm not just saying that. We were so fortunate to get in with those resources early and I thanked you and Doug many, many times while we were away going. That is, you know, thinking well. Tracy said that this is exactly how it's gone and our day has gone to plan. We were able to just avoid a lot of hassles. We didn't miss out on the things that we wanted to do. We were prepared. I've discovered I'm quite the planner and everything just went really smoothly because of those things. So I just can't highly recommend them enough and say thanks enough, so thank you.

Speaker 3: 36:00

The other thing I would say around booking things, I wouldn't book more than one thing per day, and when I say book, I mean actually lock yourself in for a time slot more than one of those a day, because it just gets stressful and it doesn't allow that spontaneity to creep in. Or if you want to wander through a park or go and sit down and people watch for a while, you're taking away that freedom. Or if the kids get tired or someone gets unwell or whatever. It's just not allowing for that freedom. And then make sure you do your research on what you need to book ahead, because some things have plenty of flexibility and other things do not. Probably the three standouts for us for that in london was harry potter studios, as you know. You've got a book well ahead for that. Um and big ben and uh, what was the other thing I was thinking of? There was sky garden, so got to be on top of that for those free tickets.

Speaker 3: 36:52

And then probably a bit of a left field tip from my own personal experience is keep a journal while you're away, because you see and do so many amazing things and for some people it'll be a trip of a lifetime. Um, and it's great, particularly if you're going with your family and the kids are younger, and we've had a lot of success with the kids writing their own journals, and then I kept a really detailed journal. We were able to revisit those memories and go oh, I forgot that we did that and it wasn't that funny and we're so glad we did that experience and yeah, so that would be, you know, a bit of a left field tip, I think, while you're away, give a journal.

Speaker 2: 37:28

That's lovely. That's a really, really good idea, Lauren. So thank you so much for coming on to this week's episode of the podcast. It's lovely to talk to you?

Speaker 3: 37:35

Oh, you're very welcome. It's been a pleasure to talk about it all with you again.

Speaker 2: 37:41

That's cool, and so all of the places that you mentioned, so the different restaurants and obviously the different destination, will be in the show notes for this episode. So it's going to be episode 108. So it'll be uk travelplanningcom forward slash episode 108. Um, so you can catch up with, uh, lauren's different tips as well, that she shared the different places that she went, and, um, and a few photographs from your trip as well, we'll put in there in the show notes. If you don't mind, that'd be great. Um, yeah, otherwise, um, as always, I end the show with the same words every week, so I'm sure if you're listening, you're probably going to say them along with me. So until next week, happy uk travel planning.