Not the next time

The eating utensils and corkscrew

We have those; you don’t need to bring them with you.

Three nights minimum if you want to enjoy and explore a place.

Laura, I agree. When I was in England a few years ago on my 6 week solo trip, I think the minimum amount of nights that I stayed was 4 or 5, and in some places 6 and 7, and it made such a difference in my enjoyment.

The eating utensils and corkscrew

We have those; you don’t need to bring them with you.

Haha, funny, Trelawney!

The eating utensils and corkscrew

We have those; you don’t need to bring them with you.

Haha, funny, Trelawney

I guess you were anticipating having wine, and not Guinness - LOL!

I still don’t know how I should have handled the phone problem. Getting a SIM card from Ireland didn’t help. Setting up international calling before I left didn’t help.

I just keep coming back to this thread. 😊

Laura, what was your phone problem? When I was in Iceland, Sweden, and Norway this year, I decided to use a pay-as-you-go eSIM called Bdengi, and I loved it. It works great, and it avoids the problem of having to get a new eSIM for different countries, and so on. You just pay for the data as you use it, and you keep a small balance in your account. When it's used up, then it pulls from your credit card and fills up your account again (you set the amount). It's so simple, and it uses good connections in each country. The data price changes according to what country you're in, but it posts the price of each country.

I used it for about 10 days in Norway because I ran out of data on my T-Mobile plan, and I only spent around a little over $6. Very inexpensive and very easy to use.

Laura,
Glad you had fun! Just fyi, a handicap placard/sticker from the US probably won't be recognized in Europe. You might need to try and get a temporary one from wherever you are. Just not sure how. (This came up a good while ago on the forum. I don't recall the details.)

Setting up international calling before I left didn’t help.

What type of phone do you have? Did you have roaming turned on?

I agree with you on longer stays. I'm over doing one-nighters, lol.

Trelawny, sometimes I've wanted my own fork or spoon when I've gotten takeaway...particularly some kind of sweet to eat later in the hotel room.

Laura, I have just gone to an assortment of a spork (which I hate), and some heavier plastic-ware.

So happy you enjoyed driving and had a wonderful time!

Just to point out that the word handicapped is definitely not used in the UK. I know it is still in daily use in North America so I understand why you would use it but you will upset many people if you refer to them as handicapped here. Just one of the many ways in which we are divided by a common language! The more acceptable word is disabled.

The more acceptable word is disabled.

Johnnew, that's actually true here in the US as well. I have a grandson who has some very grave physical disabilities, and we use the words "person with a disability" or "disabled person", rather than handicapped. That is what most disabled persons prefer.

And for that matter, most people prefer the word accessible when it comes to items that can assist them, such as "accessible parking" or "accessible restroom" and so on. A car sticker would be called a "disability parking placard."

That said, I do agree with Judy that you cannot use an American disability placard in the UK, since they are issued by the state in the US. Having said that, there are some local communities that will recognize them and possibly allow you to use them, but it's on a town-by-town basis, so you do risk getting ticketed if you use it without checking with them first.

Mardee - that's interesting. I do however still often see US posters on travel fora often use the word handicapped, hence my post to avoid any upset. Accessible is also often used in the UK.

In the UK accessible parking permits are often known as ‘blue badges’ so you might hear mention of ‘blue badge parking’. Only mentioning it to avoid terminology confusion.

Emma, good idea. :-)

I’ve heard of Blue Badges being the highest echelon of tour guides in the UK, but didn’t know that designation applied to certain parking spaces, too.

As for the original question about items not to bring anymore, I was just about at the point of not bringing little travel bottles of shampoo or packets of soap, as every place seems to now have those, along with hair dryers. Just today, though, I’ve learned that an apartment where we’re staying in Salisbury doesn’t provide any soap or shampoo, so they’re coming with.

I’ve still been bringing my small, packable camping towel, for an emergency, but it’s never left its Ziplock bag in many years. No beach swimming done since before Covid, but there might still possibly be a need for one, right? It seems someone once advised, “Don’t forget to bring a towel!”

I would love to stop bringing shampoo and conditioner but using the hotel provided ones inevitably leads to hair looking/feeling like straw. I know, it’s a first world problem but man, it’s real.

You’re so right, Luv2Travel.

Then there’s the all-purpose, combo soap/shampoo (conditioning shampoo?) in one bottle that some places have. How does that differ from dish soap?

Yes, when we were abroad the "blue badge" was those with a placard (I never did see a tour guide with a blue badge). And no one gave me a problem even though I forgot mine. We could not do the walk from the car park up to the fort on the east end of Hadrian's Wall, but the worker at the car park told us to use the small road that took us up to the gift shop. We still had a climb, but it was doable. We just had to wait for the cows to cross the road.

Agree in principle with the no-brings. I don't know if there's plausible denial for carrying a corkscrew for self-defence in the UK nowadays, but if so I'd still choose to buy it upon arrival and leave it behind as opposed to packing it in hand-carry.

I've never brought bespoke rain-shoes...a spot of leather waterproofing spray prior to the trip and my gore-tex Mephistos haven't ever allowed water inside unless I happened to submerge them up to the laces

Phone...we've got TMobil, calls inside Europe and UK are $0.50/min (used to be $0.25) but honestly I can't recall the last time I placed a call whilst on holiday. Texting is free. My spouse can't go a day without having a gab with family and friends so they're all equipped with What's App.

Driving in the UK...feels more intuitive to me, esp a manual as I'm left-handed...my US daily car is a manual and changing gear right-handed is one of the many awkward contortions forced upon us living in a 90% right-handed world. One new annoyance in the UK though are most newer cars have the turning signal lever on the left side as they are in Europe, which makes it impossible with RHD to singal a lane-change and change gear simultaneously.

By far the biggest hazard (mostly in Ireland and Scotland) are two-way roads 1,5x the width of a car, with either hedges or stone walls on either side and no shoulder.

Completely off topic, I'm bemused by the notion that "disabled" is perceived to be less pejorative than "handicapped." It brings to mind other terminologies that have been adjudged toxic by one group or another. I have plenty of friends who qualify, and none of them has expressed a preference. Most regard their "handicap sticker," as they call them, with great affection.

The offence comes from the interpretation that people are ‘cap in hand’.
Apparently that is not where the word comes from but the connection still causes offence to many so isn’t used.

There are a couple of other words that are more commonly used in the US that cause offence over here. I believe Beyoncé and Lizzo amongst others have changed their lyrics when it was pointed out.

Thanks for reporting back. I agree with a lot of what you said, Laura.

If you’re on private property then whoever has authority can allow you to park in disabled spots even if you don’t have the blue badge. If you have an obvious disability then usually it will be fine.

The blue badge is essential for parking on yellow lines, resident street parking bays and things like that.

If you’re on private property then whoever has authority can allow you to park in disabled spots even if you don’t have the blue badge.

Helen, that happened to me when I was staying in Castleton. I was spending 5 nights in a pub there, and when I got there, the car park was all filled up. I wasn't sure where to park, so as I pulled my car off to the side as I saw someone who looked like he worked there and asked him what I should do. He told me to park in the blue badge spot. I looked at him a little questioningly and he said, "Don't worry, it's okay. We're allowed to let you park there." I felt extremely guilty, though, and was still trying to decide what to do when another car pulled out and, luckily, gave me a space to park in.

I brought my temporary handicap parking pass with me to Paris and it got me and a companion into many museums for free and helped me gain access to elevators in places.

It helped me a lot. I was also in a walking boot so that made my disability easy to see and everyone was so friendly and accommodating.

Some museums will charge the pass holder, but the companion gets in free - that is true for the US as well.