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Our Harry Potter UK (England/Scotland) trip: Finally!

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Like many others we had to postpone a planned trip to the UK during the COVID lockdown. After three years, we finally made it, and had a fabulous time! I'll try to keep it brief but helpful. Just an FYI, I'm a Harry Potter fan, so we incorporated many Harry Potter sites in our journey.
1) Plan ahead.
2) Book popular sites ahead (definitely paid off, and avoided disappointment)
3) We used contactless tap credit cards for most everything. We did not do an Oyster card, as you can tap and get the same daily fee cap when using the Tube.
Planning is definitely my passion. I think I memorized Rick's books on the areas we were visiting, because I had so much time to plan. We landed in Heathrow after traveling World Traveller Plus from Seattle (a splurge and well deserved) on British airways. The flight was uneventful and we enjoyed the leg space. My sister and I each brought one carry on roller board (Costco Ricardo $59 and worked great!) and one NorthFace Surge backpack as we would be doing a small bit of hiking in Glencoe, and it also works great as a daily pack to carry things. It was my sister's first trip to the UK, and I haven't been their since the mid 80s. We were using public transit.
Our first day the weather was beautiful and we took it easy and walked Hyde Park (visited the Diana Memorial Fountain), St James Park, and went a listened to a free choral concert and St. Martin's after having had lunch in their cafeteria (good, inexpensive food)! Since we were going to be in London for six days, we splurged and stayed at the Lime Tree Hotel. The room was fabulous! We had a generous twin with floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the street (not noisy). The staff was great and helpful, the Tom Tom coffee shop across the street was a good breakfast, and their is a small, neighborhood grocery store kiddy corner to that. We did not eat at The Buttery (cafe at Lime Tree), and breakfast was not included, but we loved our room and were glad we had a great place to come to at the end of a long day. We averaged around 15-17K steps a day, with some 20+K days in there. Easy walk to Victoria tube and train station.

Besides the popular sites, we also did a Tour for Muggles trip, which was a walking trip of various Harry Potter film sites in London. Very fun, and we had a great guide. Definitely recommended for Harry Potter fans. We also did the WB Harry Potter Studio tour outside of London. SOOOOOO fun! It was the first day of the Dark Arts exhibit and there were Death Eaters roaming around, wand combat lessons, and the Great Hall was filled with floating jack-o-laterns. We spent six hours there! We took the train from London Euston to Watford Junction, and then the free WB shuttle to the studio.
After London, we spent a couple days in Bath, did a Stonehenge tour with Scarper Tours. Small group bus, entry ticket is included, and you explore on your own (plenty of time). In Bath, we stayed at the Henry Guest House (wouldn't recommend). The mattresses needing updating, the Roman curtain stays were broken, so we had to duct tape the curtain closed. Area behind the headboard not clean. It's the one place we felt we had to check for bedbugs (there were none.) The hostess seemed a bit gruff and tired. Pleasant enough, but not worth the price. I would recommend checking out the Brock Street Guest House. Nice neighborhood, up near the Crescent) and from their website, nicer rooms for about the same price.
From Bath, we took an inexpensive flight on EasyJet airlines to Inverness. Wonderful room at the Castle View Guest House. Eleanor is a gem of a hostess, and the breakfast choices were delicious! She was very helpful, and recommended walking options, music options, and food options. We ended up doing a 9-12 mile circle route around the city that included Ness Walk, the Caldonian Canal, an old Victorian cemetery with a beautiful city view (I like old cemeteries). (Part 2 cont.)

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My Part 2 of this post is MIA. Hate to have to try and remember what I wrote. Any suggestions? When I click on the post in my personal area, it says it can't find my website. I don't know what that means. Help!

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5758 posts

For some reason Part 2 has been deleted. Either accidentally by you, or possibly by Andrew, the webmaster.

But I can't imagine why he would have done that, as it was totally non-controversial.

May be worth contacting Andrew on Monday morning US time. He should be able to resurrect it.

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Yes please bring back part 2 if possible. I had bookmarked it as I think it will be very helpful for a future trip we are planning. Thanks!

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32767 posts

Rick Steves Staffers To The Rescue!!

Great Team!!!

That's wonderful

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Our Harry Potter UK trip Part 2!: Our Inverness walk then included going out to a point where the Ness River meets the Sea. Our feet were tired by then, so we hopped the local bus back to our guest house. Lovely walk! The next day, we did the Jacobite Tour of Loch Ness and Urquart Castle. We did the Temptation tour, which includes bus transportation to the docks. It was a fun trip. It was a chilly day, but no rain, but we wore our layers and rain gear, and were fine sitting on the open, upper deck of the boat. The next morning, we took the CitiLink bus to Fort William (buy tickets ahead, as they were only taking pre-booked tickets for our bus). We stayed at the Ben Nevis Guest House. Great value. We each got our own room here, (one with a bathtub) as the price was right. Breakfast included. Very pleasant hosts. Warning: At this point, takeaway was not allowed in the guest house, and my sister and I are still a bit wary of eating indoors in cramped spaces, and were trying to avoid getting sick (lots of coughing and sneezing people around us by this time). We arrived around 11:30am, and stored our luggage at the guest house, then hired a cab to drop us at the closest car park to Steahl Falls, a Harry Potter film site, but a hike anyone would enjoy. From the high car park, it took about 1- 1 1/2 hours. There is no cell service up here, so you have to either arrange a pick up time, or hike an extra hour or two down to the bus stop, and either take the bus (if it's running), or call a cab from here. We were hoping to also do the Nevis Range Gondola ride, but is was closed due to high winds. The second day in Fort William, we did the Jacobite "Harry Potter" Steam Train. Definitely worth it for a Harry Potter fan, and we had the extra bonus of a fellow group of travelers who were decked out (perfectly!) as various Harry Potter characters. I could say more about this, but suffice it to say, we had a great time with them joining us in our cabin while the trolley cart made its way down the aisle. Amazing! The day after that, we took the local bus to Glencoe and hiked to find the location of where Hagrid's Hut had been located during the filming of the Prisoner of Azkaban, and also the Half-Blood Prince. The folks at the Clachaig Inn were very helpful in pointing the foot trail out to us. After that, we hitchhiked (the kind groundskeeper at the Red Squirrel Campground picked us up) to the Glencoe Visitors Center as we were running short on time, and had booked a Land Rover Safari with the National Trust. This allowed us to see some things, including the Three Sisters, which we wouldn't have time for otherwise. Weather was a bit off and on this day, and we were glad we had our ponchos to protect us and our packs.
After Glencoe, we took the train from Fort William to Edinburgh. Stayed at The Barony House. Another splurge, but well worth it. Hosts are entertaining, and helpful with suggestions (yes, go see Craigmiller Castle). The breakfasts are out of this world amazing, as everything is made from scratch. The Aussie pancakes are incredible, and kept us fueled for hours. We really enjoyed Edinburgh. Easy to navigate either by foot, bus or taxi. We did another Harry Potter walking Tour with The Potter Trail. Fun host, Ryan who incorporated history and architecture info with Harry Potter sites. The Old Bell Inn pub is a wonderful place to eat. The vegetarian Haggis is very tasty! The fish and chips wonderful. We also walked along the Walk of Leith from Stockbridge to Dean's Village. Calton Hill is a nice hike with a great view.
Again, if you want to see sites such as the Edinburgh Castle, book ahead. Many folks were turned away if they just showed up day of expecting to get in.
We took a day trip to Alnwick via train (Alnmouth station, then pre booked cab) to see the Castle (another Harry Potter site), complete with broomstick flying lessons, and a try at archery. We also visited the Alnwick Gardens.

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Our Harry Potter UK (England/Scotland) trip: Finally! Part 3 of 3.
For our trip to Alnwick, we stayed at Hallow and Crux, which is located within The Dirty Bottles pub. They have four regular rooms, and four rooms with a wizardly, Harry Potter theme. We stayed in The Marauders room, which had Marauder's Map wallpaper, and a few other Harry Potter touches. Really fun without being over the top. The bathroom had lovely burgundy tile and a shower/tub combo. Since it is part of a pub, you could hear some things, but not too noisy. I wear ear plugs. The breakfast was not the greatest (but then, we had been spoiled by the breakfast at Barony House). Alnwick was fun to roam around for the day, including the Castle and the Gardens. We spent two nights and one full day there. Then, because the weather was a bit dreary, we hopped the train back to Edinburgh to spend the last day of our trip resting up, purchasing a few last gifts, and getting ready for our flight home which was the next morning.

Tips:
1) Take the time to plan ahead. Read about the area you are visiting, and decide what appeals to you. I generally read Rick Steves and Lonely Planet guides. Then I go search the web to see if there are other suggestions or little finds that may be related to my trip.

2) Buy whatever tickets you can ahead of time. If you know you are definitely going to see something, and especially if you know you only have a particular day to see it, buy your ticket ahead. Many, if not most, sites have online sales. I figured out how early tickets for certain sites/events went on sale (one year ahead/six month ahead, etc) and put those dates on my calendar, or signed up to get notified when tickets went on sale. For things like the Jacobite "Harry Potter" train, you definitely want to buy as soon as possible. Out of all the sites we planned to see, there were only a handful we either skipped because we needed a rest, or we simply did not have time for. Fun for another trip!
3) Splurge on things that matter to you. We splurged on airfare (equal to Economy Plus), and a few accommodations because we wanted to pamper and reward ourselves, have extra leg room, and also be sure we had a good place to sleep. We also splurged and bought a whole compartment on the Harry Potter train because we wanted the experience. Fancy places to eat aren't big with us, so we saved on food. We are finalizing our expenses, but I think we kept pretty close to the budget laid out in the Rick Steves Great Britain book, even with our splurges.
4) Definitely include "flex or down days" in your itinerary. We found that a rest day every six to seven days was about right. If we were still out and about, we made it a bit lighter. We dropped our laundry off to be washed and then picked it up and hung it up in our room to dry. (We don't use dryers for most of our clothes.)
5) Be flexible One day in London, when it was pouring rain, we popped into the National Gallery to get dry and discovered an amazing piece by DaVinci. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/leonardo-da-vinci-the-burlington-house-cartoon. We just stood and absorbed it, as it just was mesmerizing.
6) Have fun! Know your limits. Eat when you need to (carry energy bars and snacks). Drink water, and get plenty of rest. I'm the introvert, love the outdoors, need to "graze" throughout the day, and love planning trips. My sister is the extrovert, can go like the energizer bunny without stopping, and occasionally needs to be watched so the Tube doors don't close on her. It was our first trip traveling with just the two of us. It worked out great, and we had a wonderful trip! We wore masks when indoors (except for eating), and neither one of us got sick.
I used my credit card for everything but a few cab rides. Just make sure it has the "tapping" capability. Makes everything easy for all involved, and easy to track expenses.

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Really fascinating report to read! I actually had no idea there were so many Harry Potter-themed sites, lodging, tours, and activities.

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