Trip report for our two weeks with Mark Seymour Tours for SW England May 20-Jun 2, 2023.
Note: I love Mark's style of touring (small group ). Mark and Liz are so wonderful, knowledgeable and delightful. They DO take care of you and help out any way possible.
FLIGHTS/TRAINS
Our flight to Tulsa-Denver and Denver- London Heathrow were fine, no issues. Left a day early before start of the tour. Then ending tour at Portsmouth. We were going to take train to Glasgow for our second part of the journey but due to train strikes we ended up taking a flight from South Hampton to Glasgow, no issues here. But upon arrival to Heathrow, took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station. Boy was is crowded and crazy. Evidently there was a train accident with pedestrian on our route. We were redirected to another train that was packed. Everyone running to the train to get on. We barely made it on, tight squeeze. Unfortunately, we had to stand the entire trip from Paddington to Bristol for about a little over 2 hours (start of tour). Arrived at train station and caught a cab to our hotel.
HOTELS
Mark's tours usually stay in hotels for 2-4 nights. Sometimes we are lucky to stay a week depending on the type and where the tour is going and doing. They are quite charming, and location, location, location is always brilliant!
First Hotel was Hotel Du Vin Avon Gorge. Only spent one night (for tour purposes) here because we were off and running the rest of the two weeks.
Second Hotel was Hartland Quay Hotel (3 nights) in North Devon. Cozy and quaint room. Restuarant and Pub is a plus. Views were spectacular.
Third Hotel was in Mawgan Porth at Bedruthan hotel and spa (4 nights). This was probably my favorite hotel. Had a spa treatment 1.5 hour massage on a free afternoon. Another hotel right on the beach and with amazing views.
Fourth Hotel was in Plymouth, Grosvenor (2 nights). Another great hotel
Fifth hotel was in Portsmouth (3 nights). Queens hotel. Restuarant and Bar. Very nice.
The hotels in bigger cities/towns were easy walking distance to our activities. Others that were tucked away in the beautiful England countryside had a restaurant and bar to fill us up with food, drinks and scenery. In these locations, our activities took us off in the vans for our adventures.
FOOD
The food at all stops, hotels, and restaurants that the tour included were fantastic. I usually don't eat much fish products at home. Can't get good product here in Oklahoma. But on our trip what I ate was great. Sausage restaurant in Bristol (favorite). Fish n Chips at Rick Stein in Padstow. Others..... Smoked salmon, mussels, shrimp scampi, chicken and pizza. The tours covers about half of the meals or maybe a tad more. We eat at wonderful restaurants, picnics on the mors & tors, and even pick up snacks at Tesco for an evening meal if you don't want to go out. Other lunches are sometimes at the museums, castles, or sites if they have a cafe' or in the small village at a local pub or wee restaurant.
TEMPERATURES
The temperatures were pretty warm (at least for me). I don't think it even rained during our stay on this trip. If it did anything, it could of sprinkled a tad at one time. There were cool breezes if we were on any part of coast. But inland, it was warm.
CLOTHES
Well, unfortunately, this was the first trip in a while that I did not pack very well. We were gone for 41 days in UK (England, Outer Hebrides, and London). May 18 thru June 27. I packed for cold, cool and warm, not HOT!! I was thinking that in Scotland it would be much cooler, but it was just like SW England on the coast, hot in London. I used by puffy vest and light jacket very little. Did not use gloves, merino wool head band, rarely used my scarf I take on every trip. Last year in Scotland and Iceland around this time, we used it all. But we survived and dealt with it.