Expert: Willie Wallace - 1/11/2012

Question
Dear Willie,

I am Rahul Menon from Bombay, India. I, alongwith a few of my friends plan to go on a roadtrip from London to Scotland this during the Easter break this April. I have never been to London before so I am looking at some serious advice and suggestions!

A gist of what we are looking at is as follows:

1. We'll be probably 5 of us. If a few of our friends from London join in, then it would be 9. Kindly suggest the most suitable vehicle/ vehicles. We'll prefer self driving.

2. Me, being an Architect would love to visit buildings that are architecturally beautiful en route my roadtrip. We are keen on visiting the small counties, attend local festivals if any, be a part of the mountains, parks and water.

3. We are looking at adventure with sky diving high on our list.

4. We would want to visit good pubs on the way. If a beer fest is on anywhere during this period, then please do suggest. Also please do enlighten me about the whisky trail.

5. We are foodies and relish good food. So if you can suggest things that would appeal our taste buds, that would be highly appreciated !

6. Any other places, activities that you would suggest?

7. FYI- We are all 27 years old, an old friendly group of 3 guys and 2 girls from high school.

8. I am not too sure of this, but could we be able to touch Dublin in our holiday of 15 days?

Is it better to fly to places on low budget airlines instead of a roadtrip? What would you suggest and why.

Please do let me know. Looking forward to your reply.
Thank you.

Rahul.

Answer
I HAVE ANSWERED RAHUL'S QUESTIONS BELOW, BUT CUT AND PASTE THEM HERE SO PLEASE, ON EACH QUESTION, LOOK FOR THE WORD "ANSWER" AND THAT IS WHERE MY ANSWER COMES TO EACH QUESTION.  SORRY TO BE CONFUSING.

> I am Rahul Menon from Bombay, India. I, alongwith a few of my friends plan to go on a roadtrip from London to Scotland this during the Easter break this April. I have never been to London before so I am looking at some serious advice and suggestions!
>
> A gist of what we are looking at is as follows:
>
> 1. We'll be probably 5 of us. If a few of our friends from London join in, then it would be 9. Kindly suggest the most suitable vehicle/ vehicles. We'll prefer self driving.  ANSWER.  I do not think you will find anybody in London who will rent you a vehicle with 9 seats.  7 or lower not too difficult, but if you have a 7-seater, there will be no space for luggage.  We can rent you a 9-seater out of Manchester, but sadly not London.  You can drop it in Scotland, or you can take it back to Manchester.  Loads of luggage space.
>
> 2. Me, being an Architect would love to visit buildings that are architecturally beautiful en route my roadtrip. We are keen on visiting the small counties, attend local festivals if any, be a part of the mountains, parks and water.  ANSWER.  Lincoln Cathedral and Castle, York Mnster and City Wall with huge gates, Beverley Minster, Durham Cathedral and Castle, Berwick City Walls and Edinburgh for everything.  Edinburgh is a Unesco World Heritage Site, one of only about 700 across the World - Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Machu Pichu, that type of place.  Edinburgh is brilliant, Castle, Palace, three cathedrals, lots of bits of the old City Wall and the New Town - stunning Georgian Architecture - like the city of Bath, but on a much grander scale.  There are lots of beautiful ruined abbeys all across Eastern and Northern England, which are well worth visiting.  Here's a perfect example, plus the lovely Studley Royal http://www.fountainsabbey.org.uk/
>
> 3. We are looking at adventure with sky diving high on our list.  ANSWER.  Not really my area, sorry.  You will need to check with each area tourist board as you go.
>
> 4. We would want to visit good pubs on the way. If a beer fest is on anywhere during this period, then please do suggest. Also please do enlighten me about the whisky trail.  ANSWER. We operate whisky tours all over Scotland.  There is a whisky trail, but there are far better distilleries to visit off the whisky trail.  The ideal place to go is the lovely island of islay.  Together with neighbour, Jura, there are nine distilleries, at all of which you can tour and do tastings.   http://www.whisky-tours-scotland.com/
> It is a lovely place to visit and stay.  A four day whisky tour with your own driver/guide and accommodation, plus ferries and a 9-seater van (that means there can't be more than 8 of you) can cost as little as GBP2200.  That is less than GBP70 including your accommodation.  That is a phenomenal price.  Then you would be doing something really Scottish, seeing a lot of this beautiful country and also getting to tour five or six great distilleries.  Of course, it depends on when you are coming, whether we can get the accommodation and whether we have a driver/guide free.

> 5. We are foodies and relish good food. So if you can suggest things that would appeal our taste buds, that would be highly appreciated !  ANSWER.  Fish and Chips sounds like a strange thing to say, but in most of the little fishing villages up the East coast of Lincoln, Yorkshire and up to Berwick, you will be able to find lots of fish and chip shops, selling fresh fish straight from the sea.  Lovely!  Most good restaurants will be enjoyable for you but food is often a fusion of European and British nowadays.
>
> 6. Any other places, activities that you would suggest?  ANSWER. Hadrian's Wall dates from over 1800 years ago and once crossed right across the country from West coast to East.  There are many places to see stretches of the Wall, but Housesteads Fort is possible the best bit with a lot of the wall still there and the fort with lots of quite high walls still there
> http://www.hadrianswallnorthumberland.co.uk/places/housesteads.htm
>
> 7. FYI- We are all 27 years old, an old friendly group of 3 guys and 2 girls from high school.
>
> 8. I am not too sure of this, but could we be able to touch Dublin in our holiday of 15 days?  ANSWER. You either need to fly to Dublin or there are four ferry crossings from different places.  Far better to spend more time in beautiful Scotland.  It is more peaceful than England or indeed Dublin and it is stunningly beautiful especially on the North West coast.  If you go to Dublin, see some of Ireland because Dublin is just anothe city like any other, but the rest of Ireland is lovely.
>
> Is it better to fly to places on low budget airlines instead of a roadtrip? What would you suggest and why.  ANSWER. Booked in advance, you can probably get really cheap return train fares from London to Edinburgh.  You see quite a bit of countryside as you travel and then you can spend your time in Scotland.  Much better than busy, noisy England - though the English places I recommended above, really are excellent sites.   it is possible to get quite good budget flights from England to other countries, but fares inside the UK are usually not that cheap.  I just looked at http://www.easyjet.com  and flying to Edinburgh from London Gatwick on the 16th April and returning on the 28th with one piece of luggage in the hold, cost GBP82.  If there are 9 of you paying that, that is the quivalent of 10 days rental of a 9-seater van from me.  it is a shame we do not have the van in London.  Can you fly into Manchester?  We now have a branch at the airport.  You can fly direct from Goa, oddly enough, but otherwise, I think you would probably have to fly via the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  http://www.emirates.com   fly from Mumbai to Manchester via Dubai.
>
> Please do let me know. Looking forward to your reply.
> Thank you.
>
> Warm Regards,
Cheers,

Willie Wallace