Trip to UK for Photos

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Anjin San

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Ok, I know there's a bunch of UK folk on the forum so I'm looking for a general idea of how long I should plan for a trip to the UK next June for my bride and I…being retired we're rally not on much of a schedule. We'll be using a travel agent to do all the nitty gritty planning but giving them an idea of what you want helps get the itinerary settled in fewer back and forth emails. We'll be in London for a week in later June for a choral tour she is involved with and will plan on leaving London on Jul 2 or Jul 3. There's a symphony concert in Buxton on Jul 8 we want to go hear…the Saint Saens Organ Symphony which we've heard about 50 times in our lives…hey, it's an excuse to travel. Wife wants to visit Oxford so I figured we would pick up a car in Oxford the day we leave, do some touristy stuff in Oxford then round in Wales before arriving in Buxton on Friday Jul 7. Figured we would leave Braxton Monday Jul 10 and head up to the far north at John O' Groats to see Lands End and then head generally south back to Oxford. Loch Ness of course…and want to see a lot of castles because Scottish castles are proper castles and have a gosh darned moat…over to Isle of Islay to visit some of the scotch distilleries and some time in Loch Lomond/Glasgow/Edinburgh/Stirling/Falkirk seeing the tourist sites and again photos…then down to the Lake District/Yorkshire Dales/Hadrian's Wall area for mostly photo related things. Possible side trip to Isle of Man although we haven't really researched there enough yet to know if there's anything worth going to visit…then return to Oxford to drop the car and take the train to London for the flight home.

Looking at all those places on a google map…it's about 500 miles from the far north back down to Oxford…and I know from our previous trip to Ireland that once you get north some the roads are a bit less efficient to travel on time wise than the freeways here in the US…so my first cocktail napkin guess was about 3-4 weeks for all of that with closer to 3 being better than closer to 4 since we will already have done 9 or 10 days in country for the choral tour.

Is that a reasonable estimate or am I going either way over or way under what is needed? Being retired we no longer travel in what we used to call vacation mode where you go go go and need a vacation from your vacation once you get back…in the US we try not to travel more than 2 or 3 days in a row max and keep our freeway mileage to about 450-500 a day which is about 7 hours or so.

I might need a UK based travel agent depending on whether our previous one is still working or retired…she worked with a company in Ireland and we dealt mostly with her but the Irish company did the detailed planning since they know Ireland better than US based ones do…she had one for UK/Scotland as well but if she's no longer working maybe somebody can recommend a UK/Scotland based company with a US partnership…because it's so much easier to tell them what you want and let them figure out all the logistical details.

Anyways…for now just looking for an idea whether that's a reasonable time frame one way or the other. And I guess while we're at it then suggestions of particular things to take pictures of in any of those places would also be good and keep us at least kinda sorta on topic for a photography.

Edited to add we re wildlife and landscape shooters mostly. Some architecture, park, and other shots when in the cities but we generally don’t spend too much time there…our 3.5 weeks in Ireland we were really only in town 6 or 7 days and out in the countryside the rest of the time.

Thanks.
 
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My first reaction is - great plans and great places to visit. My second reaction is that you have listed a lot try and do in 3-4 weeks. Once you get off the main motorways in Torkshire and Scotland, you will find a lot of narrow, rural roads that a are lovely but will slow you down. July woud likely be a heavy travel time for local residents. I'm planning a photography oriented trip to Scotland in February ( Isle of Harris and the Orkney's). including a bit of time in Edinburgh and Inverness, I figure that will take about 4 weeks.. You might end up on the 'go-go' to try and fit everything in and not having the time to just enjoy and absorb the areas you visit. Maybe you could look at focusing more on on or two areas for this trip? Any of the places you mention would be superb.
 
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Difficult to give good advice without an idea of what your photography interests are - landscape, architecture, wildlife - all would influence where you might go and how long you might need there. In general if you plan to relax on your drives and stop off during the day I would not try and drive for more than 200 miles a day as roads are often congested or otherwise slow.
Have you considered joining a photographic tour or workshop in Scotland - that might provide an easy way to access locations that increase your photographic opportunities?

PS: I think it is Buxton not Braxton
 
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As a Scot living in Yorkshire, I agree with Nick above that you are trying to push a LOT into 3 weeks - the danger is, you will end up spending all your time driving, with no time to enjoy places. When I drive from Leeds to Glasgow for instance (slightly over 200 miles) it takes 4.5 hours because of the “cross country” element. I’d certainly recommend talking to a travel agent to sort out an enjoyable itinerary….
 
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With your other commitments I think you might be a bit ambitious trying to do all that in some meaningful way. You might have to separate out the things most important and potentially plan a second trip to pick up the rest. A good example is Tasmania Australia. It’s about a third the size of the UK but after 8 trips I still have unfinished business.
 
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It depends on whether you want to point shoot come what may (by which I mean whatever the weather) OR you want to have time to take great shots. 2 basic choices -- go to the great city and rural locations (you know the tourist places) and take great shots; 2) discover the great landscape shooting opportunities and take a little time to ensure you can capture the best possible shot in good light. While not mutually exclusive, the later requires more deliberation and time AND you plans will need to adapt to the weather..
 
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I also think that your aspirations are ambitious for your time frame. I think that you will get the most satisfaction from spending quality time in a few locations rather than trying to cram too much in and being disappointed. We are such a small country, but we have so much to see and enjoy.

My suggestion is to concentrate on what you can't get at home or elsewhere. London, Oxford, one or two locations in Scotland, maybe York which is between Oxford and Scotland roughly speaking (although you might not want to visit too many cities), Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, became the first European to land on mainland North America. In 1499, William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. (Wikipedia)

Check out the National Trust https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/jo...VFIXVCh0XwQjcEAAYAiAAEgIUb_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds and English Heritage https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/our-places/ where you might find something of interest.

By the way, Land's End (Cornwall) is an awful long was away from John O' Groats.
 
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I agree that your expectations are a bit too high, lots to see and quite a few busy and sometimes very narrow roads in between (don't ask how I know!).
I would as has been suggested, visit few but high value areas.

Scotland, Skye is good as well as some of the west coast towns, Oban, Fort William.
If you do manage John O'Groats, Duncansby Head is where the lighthouse is, head over the hill to the south of the lighthouse car park for a great seashore vista. It is about 875 miles (1,400 km) to Lands End from there.

Yorkshire, the Moors, Pateley Bridge, York - The Gates - The Shambles - The Minster - the snickets and ginnels, walk the wall.
Some of the small seaside villages, Staithes and my favourite Robin Hoods Bay.

Wales, Carnarvon castle is surrounded by the town.

London, best of luck there, there SO much to choose from, serious history everywhere, experience the Tube, St Pauls, Westminster, the list is endless.
If you find small lanes it can be very fruitful as to what you might find if you take some time to explore them, The Strand is good for them.
It is amazing what is hidden from sight, for instance along Bride Lane off The Strand, St Brides Church, check out the eastern wall, opposite is the City of London Distillery, worth a drink or two its gin only though, the Twining's tea shop on The Strand.
Check the lane "Devereux Court" just west of the tea shop, it takes you to the Embankment alongside the Thames.

Make sure you have good travel insurance, some cover car damage excess and if/when hiring a car I suggest that you pay the extra for it if not included in the travel insurance.

Best of luck with your itinerary.

As for Tasmania, even though I live here I am still trying as hard as I can to see it all, but I will not do so in this lifetime sadly.
 
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I travel all over the uk in my Motorhome, you won’t enjoy yourself trying to fit all that in the time you have allowed, far to much time in the car. So many more people are staying in the uk for their holidays since covid, accommodation can be hard to find. The roads are generally packed around all the main tourist routes, no freeways here. We spend more time up North nowadays, Scotland is fantastic, especially if you get lucky with the weather.
 
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pomkiwi said:
Difficult to give good advice without an idea of what your photography interests are - landscape, architecture, wildlife - all would influence where you might go and how long you might need there. In general if you plan to relax on your drives and stop off during the day I would not try and drive for more than 200 miles a day as roads are often congested or otherwise slow.
Have you considered joining a photographic tour or workshop in Scotland - that might provide an easy way to access locations that increase your photographic opportunities?

PS: I think it is Buxton not Braxton
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Wildlife and landscape/waterfalls mostly. Some architecture and city shots but not many. Castles of course but I consider those more landscape than architecture anyway. And yep…Buxton so I edited and fixed that.
 
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I figured it was too much probably…so will have to get my bride to pick perhaps 2/3 of what she has on the list and do the full 4 weeks…no fun driving all the time. We are happy to get up early or stay out late for nice light or to take advantage of both good or bad weather…my best Ireland shot was shot of a fisherman on the river with rod bent in pouring rain…but won’t stay around a particular location for 3 days waiting on the perfect shot…well…I would stay a day but she is a little less photo interested than I am.

I will see if any further comments come and then revise the plan after talking to her…we missed some of Ireland and though that a little less hurried traveling approach there would have been better. Mostly we are trying to just get double duty out of the trip over for the choral tour…and I would drop both Isle of Man and Islay pretty easily (they’re on her list) and also drop John O Groats on far north and maybe Loch Ness as well from my list.

Keep suggesting though…I will show her the whole thread before we compromise…and tips from UK folks will make compromising easier for both of us.
 
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There is a whole series of relatively cheap books landscape oriented published by Long Valley books titled "The Photographer's Guide to....." - Scotland, The Lake District, Snowdonia & North Wales, The North Yorkshire Coast, The Yorkshire Dales, Cornwall, The Peak District and London. I live in the UK and have them all.
We have an outbreak of Avian flu in the UK so many of the usual "Birding" locations are limited (not necessarily closed). One cannot currently go to the Farne islands to shoot puffins, and many RSPB facilities and conservancies are increasingly stringent.
I am not sure if one can still go White Tail Eagle watching by boat on the Mull; but one can looks (from a very long distance) at the Golden Eagles nesting high up cliffs. I will be taking a 400 and 800 and TC20 and still doubt I will be able to capture great shots of them unless they fly very close.
 
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Your programe is very ambitious and I agree with the comments from others that you need to be more targetted in chosing locations and the type of images you wish to capture. For landscape the Scottish Islands, the Cheviots which could include Hadrian's Wall and forts, Peak District/Lake District but these can be crowded in summer. For birds, in particular waders and warblers, I would consider the RSPB reserves around the Wash such as Frampton Marsh, Snettisham and Titchwell Marsh see https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/. Shetland and Orkney are fantastic for birds, landscape and archaeological remains.
 
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pochito said:
A piece of well meant advice:
If you by any chance decide to take a selfie with the Queen's Horse Guards, do not touch the reins!

Just being humorous ... ;)
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Yep…neither the horses or the riders have much of a sense of humor. From my time driving submarines for Uncle Sam we were in the UK several times and I was always impressed that they do the ceremonial stuff waaay better than the US Navy does…but then their naval tradition is far, far older than ours is.
 
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Anjin San said:
Yep…neither the horses or the riders have much of a sense of humor. From my time driving submarines for Uncle Sam we were in the UK several times and I was always impressed that they do the ceremonial stuff waaay better than the US Navy does…but then their naval tradition is far, far older than ours is.
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FWIW it is my personal opinion that the guard did the right thing.
 
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Agree with the comments about too much travelling.

If you want birds, then the Farne Islands in Northumbria and Bass Rock off the coast of Dunbar are wonderful destinations.
 
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Ok, back for some more questions. Per suggestions already…thanks for those…I've developed a general tentative itinerary for our travel agent to work on…it has us leaving London and touring Wales for a week before arriving in Buxton for the weekend and then another 3-4 weeks from Buxton up north as far as Loch Ness, Edinburgh, Skye, Islay, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales…and she's figuring out whether 3-4 weeks for that part is enough or whether we need more or less time and we'll go from there. Meanwhile…I'm moving forward on figuring out other logistical options.

We've got iPhone XS Max (the A1921 version which everyman.com says is the US/Canada model and not the A2101 which they say is the global). These are unlocked and might get replaced in the next couple months by iPhone 14s…which I presume will be unlocked but don't know if the US version will work over there.

So…first question is does anybody know if the A2921s will work over there…and if so is it better to get a local SIMM or use AT&Ts International Data Plan which will cost us $100 a month. We won't need voice service at all…everything will get forwarded to google voice and we'll get voice mails via the web in the evening. We will need either a data plan so we can use Apple Maps/Google Maps for navigation…or we can use a stand alone navigation app if there is a good one ya'll recommend…or we can just buy an inexpensive standalone Garmin/TomTom/whatever UK GPS from Amazon before we leave…and I'm going to check and see if our Garmin Nevi 760 can get UK maps as well.

Second question…if the Xs max won't work over there what stand alone GPS app should I get to use there?

Any other suggestions? As I noted…we'll have wifi in the evenings in the hotels and can stop by McDonalds or pub or whatever to borrow a bit of wifi during the day if we need it I presume…but having data available while traveling would be good unless it's going to be outrageously expensive…but then we'll probably spend $20K in total for the total 6 weeks we'll be there anyway so a couple hundred for data doesn't really amount to much I guess.

OTOH, I guess we could also just pay for the optional GPS in the rental car assuming that's a normal thing over there these days…in the US anyway you can pay $10 per day or something like that and get one, but since we'll have the car for a month it would be cheaper to just buy one. I'm just researching possibilities at this point.

Thanks for more help and info.
 
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I think youve done a good job with your new tentative itinerary. I think you will love the Buxton Opera House. Its a wonderful piece of history. Its local to me so used to go there a few times per year. The more classic/traditional the performance the more it felt like being transported back in time. I never thought I would ever go to a ballet, not alone enjoy it, but to see a Russian ballet company on tour performing Swan Lake in that place was simply magical.

We have cafes/coffee houses everywhere usually with wi/fi. Big chain places, whilst free, tend to make you sign up to their portal which I've never liked. Costa Coffee is one chain but it is free (last time I was in there)

It might be worth checking with your friends who have travelled to the UK recently or US traveller forums on some of the techical/connectivity issues. Do the likes of Lonely Planet guides cover some of these these topics/questions?
 
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As you are coming to the peak district I would get yourself a copy of The Photographer's Guide to the Peak District Paperback – 1 Sept. 2014 by Ellen Bowness (Author)

There are similar guides for Scotland and many other places in this series.
 
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I’m with those who’ve already mentioned that you’re trying to cover a lot of ground, even over 3-4 weeks. One of my favorite ways to travel is exploring backroads in an unstructured way, and England is a wonderful country to do it in - there’s a nice surprise around most corners and curves. A few years ago, we spent 6 days just exploring the Cotswolds - walking, driving, and biking - and discovered so many hidden gems, including a working sheep farm, where we ended up staying for two days (it doubled as a B&B). Similarly, we set off from the Cotswolds toward Oxford, and stumbled upon Braughton Castle (actually a manor house), which was closed to the public, but the owner happened to be by the gate, and invited us for a private tour and lunch. We would never have experienced this had we been in a rush to the next destination. My advice is to cut your itinerary in half, and spend more time in and around those places you do visit. Sometimes, less is more!

Whatever you decide, have a wonderful time!
 
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Anjin San said:
We won't need voice service at all…everything will get forwarded to google voice and we'll get voice mails via the web in the evening. We will need either a data plan so we can use Apple Maps/Google Maps for navigation…or we can use a stand alone navigation app if there is a good one ya'll recommend
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For a data plan, I would suggest looking into Keepgo. Feel free to use this referal link to check it out http://keepgo.refr.cc/hrvermeulen :cool:

I have used them for trips to Africa and other areas not covered by my phone plan and when your phone supports an eSim, you are golden as you can just add it to your phone and enable the data plan exclusively through the Keepgo eSim when you are abroad. It works very well.
 
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