Great Britain: Spring - April 2016

This this Part 1 of my 40 Days Spring Adventure with my mom. What can I say? A journey that you should do at least once in your lifetime and never to be repeated :P I think it is simply too long. For me personally 3 weeks holiday is just right. More than that, I am too homesick to enjoy fully the foreign culture and quirks :P

We started our journey flying from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow. Our first time flying British Airways. Foodwise British Airways is quite good but everything else I think they fall short of the Middle Eastern airlines like Qatar Airways and Emirates.

We then stayed at AirBnB accommodation in Mortlake (Zone 3) for 5 nights before joining Trafalgar Tours 8 Days Britain & Ireland Delight. After the tour we flew to Salzburg for our Part 2 of 40 Days Spring Adventure :)

This trip is many firsts for my mom and I. First time we flew via British Airways and Ryanair. First time we joined international tour company like Trafalgar. This is also the longest time we've been abroad at one stretch and naturally the first time we bought annual travel insurance. My mom's first time staying in AirBnB accommodations. My mom's first time in close contact with lots of foreigners in a group. My mom's first time taking lots and lots of public transportation in foreign countries. Before this when we go together, we will follow tours from Malaysia so no need to take local public transportation :P This trip is also the first time we encountered a pancake making machine during breakfast :)

Our time in London was so short. Since my mom's first visit to London in 2004 was only for a day and a half, I tried to cover as much as possible this time round. She likes parks and flowers. I on the other hand was trying to cover some sites that I read in historical romance books :P Needless to say we did not manage to cover all the sites. Good excuse to plan for another trip to London huh?

If you like flowers, second half of April is the best time to visit Great Britain. You will find tulips everywhere. There are lots of other blossoms too :) We also encountered a lot of swans during this trip :P

Our itinerary was as follows:
17 April 2016   Kuala Lumpur - London
18 April 2016   London
19 April 2016   London
20 April 2016   London
21 April 2016   London
22 April 2016   London
23 April 2016   London - Stratford-upon-Avon - York - Leeds
24 April 2016   Leeds - Lake District - Gretna Green - Glasgow
25 April 2016   Glasgow - Edinburg - Glasgow
26 April 2016   Glasgow - Belfast - Dublin
27 April 2016   Dublin - Glendalough - Dublin
28 April 2016   Dublin - Kilkenny - Waterford
29 April 2016   Waterford - Cardiff
30 April 2016   Cardiff - Bath - Windsor - London
1 May 2016      London - Salzburg

The Trafalgar's ground tour costs US$1042 (RM4427) each. I like Trafalgar's standard operating procedure in dealing with their customers. I like how they rotate seats in the bus so that everybody get to experience sitting infront, middle and back. However, for this particular trip our tour director, Michelle did not follow the rules. Instead of asking everybody to move two seats clockwise, she fixed the seats for us and we noticed that some people get to seat infront almost throughout the trip! This is the problem when human "playing favourites" interfered with a proven system :(

Trafalgar on the whole is very professional. Their cost savers tours will give you lots of free time on our own if you decide not to join their optional tours. For this trip we joined only one of the optional tours and it costs us an extra GBP17.50 each. Trafalgar's tours costs are excluding tips so make sure you bring enough cash to pay gratuities to the tour director, bus drives and also the city guides.

Trafalgar's option on food is also quite limited. They don't really cater for special diets. You can request upfront for seafood but in reality they still provide you with the standard meals. It would be better if their tours only provide for breakfast with other meals as optionals.

 

I have uploaded 600 pictures and 1 video for your viewing pleasure. I enjoyed my time spent in Great Britain. I was pleasantly surprised with Ireland wacky weather, 10 minutes of snow or rain and then the sun comes out! Love the flowers and the beautiful sceneries of the countryside.

You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtags specific for this trip:
#mks2016GreatBritain #mks2016England #mks2016Scotland #mks2016NorthernIreland #mks2016Ireland #mks2016Wales
 

Njoy!!