Not the next time

I'm just impressed that two old American ladies were brave enough to rent a car and drive all over the UK on the opposite of the road! (I have a hard enough time distinguishing right and left in my daily life, I wouldn't even attempt to try that.)

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!

Stella, honestly, it's not that difficult; even for old American ladies, lol!

Seriously, after you are the road for about the first couple of minutes, it becomes second nature. In fact, when I come back to the US after driving in the UK, I have to rethink my whole frame of mind that I'm driving on the right-hand side of the road now.

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.

It’s a trivial point but in the US a disabled person parks in a handicapped spot. “Handicapped” isn’t used otherwise.

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?