Best of the UK

After three months in the UK, and with a little time to reflect back, here is our list of “best ofs” from our summer tour.

Best nights out. There are five which stand out:

1. Seeing MacBeth in the round Globe Theater in London.
2. Having a pre-theater cocktail at the London Ritz Carlton and taking in the musical Six.
3. Seeing “Tony: The Musical” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival followed by a visit to Malone’s Irish Pub.
4. Our evening at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
5. Our night out in The Mumbles of Wales dancing with the locals to the electric ukelele of Calon.

Best Airbnb. We stayed in a lot of good ones. Our two favorites were our well decorated, spacious apartment in The Mumbles in Wales and lovely Enoch’s Cottage in Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds.

Our most memorable was staying in the Tower of the Glanusk Estate in Powys, Wales.

Best hotel. Hands down one sticks out: Hotel Endsleigh in Dartmoor Park. There really was no comparison. From the meals to the service to their extraordinary gardens this one is top of the list with no one else even close.

Best dinner experiences: There are five which stand out most:

1. Our first night out of the trip was at El Waha where we had Lebanese food in London. When we did the “what was your favorite dinner out” game throughout the trip (which we did a lot) this one was always a first mention, every time.
2. Authentic Italian at Locanda de Gusti in Edinburgh. Locanda da Gusti is a Neapolitan restaurant run by a Naples native in the west end of Edinburgh. Molto bene. Grazie mille.
3. Turkish food at The Mediterranean in the Mumbles, Wales. These Turkish immigrants really know how to serve up their native dishes. We had fantastic soup, kebabs and salads. So authentic. Teşekkürler.
4. Scottish tapas at Eighteen 69 on the Isle of Arran. Unique and interesting. It was a highlight. Who knew that haggis, Scotch eggs, and pigeon would be done in tapas form? Seasonally open.
5. Dinner at 14North, quayside, on the Isle of Mann. It was a cool little bistro just downstairs from our hotel (run by the same people). Closed on Sundays.

Best pub. Hard to choose. The top three were the Cock and Bottle in our first neighborhood in London, just because it’s where it all started and the bartenders were exceedingly friendly. The Old Inn in Carbost, because we loved everything in and about Carbost. And, if we had to pick one it would be The Bell in Stow-on-the-Wold. Maybe that’s because this is where we wrapped it up and it was our last stop. Who knows. I guess we will need to go back to confirm. Twist my arm.

Best hike. The Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye. I got perfect weather, which from those I’ve talked with is rare. But if it’s a clear day the views are absolutely breathtakingly stunning.

Best boat ride. We took a lot of ferries and two boat rides (one to visit the Isle of May from Anstruther near St. Andrews in a failed venture to see the puffins and another out of Carbost on the Isle of Skye). Our best boat (ferries included) was the eagle spotting cruise out of Carbost on the Isle of Skye. A unique experience with a naturalist to view the eagles and do a little fishing.

Our least favorite boat was the ferry ride (both to and from) the Isle of Mann. A long ride with lots of coughing humanity all around you. The island makes up for it, but the boat ride wasn’t our favorite.

Best castle. Dover Castle. So much history across so many years with amazing views. It really has no real runner up by comparison. For context, we also visited castles at York, Rye, Stirling, Edinburgh, Dunvegan on Skye, Caernarfon in Wales, Queen Victoria’s summer residence on the Isle of Wight (Osborne House) and the Downtown Abbey mansion.

Runner up: Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran.

Best Church. York Minster. So much interesting history, so many interesting things to notice. Buy the guidebook, it’s like a little scavenger hunt to find the things mentioned, if you do. Of the biggies, we also visited Canterbury Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Iona Abbey and Saint Paul’s in London.

Best Museums. We are going to divide this into three categories:

Best Traditional Museum. This probably goes to the House of Manannan on the Isle of Mann. For me, a close runner up would be the special collections section at the British Library in London. The oddest museum was the Margate Shell Grotto.

Best English Heritage Site: For Melissa, this is Stonehenge. I think for me, maybe it was the Hadrian’s Wall sites but that could be based on nostalgia and my mother’s love for the ancient Romans.

Best Historical Site: The tunnels of Dover Castle. While this is also an English Heritage site, it had to go into a category of its own. It is one of the few things that we would say is a “must do” when visiting England.

Best drives. Snowdonia National Park. The stretches of the A487 south from Portmeirion to Aberstwyth were some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve driven through and the road was a good, two-lane one most of the way, which always helps.

Runner up: Dartmoor Park near Widecombe. It was our first true country drive, and it still stands out.

Favorite seaside town. Tenby, Wales. No question. Just beautiful with great beaches, restaurants, colorful buildings and people. Loved it. (The others where we stayed were: Ryde on the Isle of Wight, Penzance, Whitby, Brodick on the Isle of Arran, Llandudno and the Mumbles in Wales. We also visited Margate, Ramsgate, Dover, Cowes on the Isle of Wight, Anstruther Scotland, Portree on the Isle of Skye. There are, no doubt some I’m forgetting).

Favorite small village. Hands down, Stow-on-the-Wold. It was our base of operations in the Cotswolds and it has all the charm of the other villages but feels like a place people live too. It was just lovely.

Favorite city. We didn’t stay in many big cities but we think for the big ones this is a draw between London and Edinburgh. Edinburgh especially during the fringe festival in August. London just has so much to offer always.

For small cities for me it was probably York, England and for Melissa it was Douglas on the Isle of Mann, but Bath England is up there. Alas, a bout of the stomach bug prevented us from seeing much of Bath but our hotel room (and, ironically, it’s bath).

Best all-around stay. Carbost on the Isle of Skye. It would be hard to compete. We were there for two weeks. We got great weather with sun 10 of 14 days, wash outs 2 and rain with breaks for 2. That’s almost unheard of in Scotland and on Skye. The village was lovely and there were local whiskey festivals with live music two of the days. We stayed in a fantastic Airbnb in a beautiful place in the world.

Places We’d Skip. We recognize that not everyone has the ability to have a “full time focus” on travel experiences and most people would only make a trip of a week or two, maybe three. While we choose our stops carefully between logistics, lodging and the place itself, these are the places we would have skipped if we had less time. We enjoyed them but there were places we liked better, so these we would put in the “ok to miss” category.

Isle of Wight. We liked our visit to Shanklin, my visit to the East Cowes Historical Society and our drive around the island. It is a geographically beautiful place but a little tired. It also takes some logistical coordination to get there on the ferry. Of all the islands we visited this was our least favorite.

Penzance. We liked our hotel. We liked the boardwalk, and we liked our day at St Michael’s Mount but we’d skip the far reaches of the Penwith Peninsula and focus on Dartmoor Park if we return to this area. Lots of driving, lots of traffic and we didn’t find the juice worth the squeeze.

Whitby. Loved the abbey and the production of Dracula we stumbled upon within its ruins. We arrived for some beautiful weather after a week of rain and found its harbor and beach quite pretty but if we did it again, it’d be ok to bypass this one.

Glasgow. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery is cool but the city itself is very gritty, a bit dirty and quite industrial. Scotland’s largest city also seems to be the butt of a lot of Scottish jokes too, so I don’t think we are alone in tossing this one into the bypass pile.

Lancaster. It served its logistical purpose for a stop before the ferry to the Isle of Mann and we liked our hotel, the Toll House Inn, but we’d skip it and go straight to the island next time around.

Llandudno. Loved our Airbnb, loved the promenade and our dinner out at Snooze Wine Bar. We’d stay in Snowdonia Park or Caernarfon next time and leave Llandudno and much of the Isle of Anglesay to the pensioner bus tours.

Below is a map with our route across England, Scotland and Wales (black dots are where we stayed, blue dots are places we visited). We are always happy to share any pieces of our itineraries or accommodations. If you’re interested in a specific place or tips, please reach out. (We also visited Northern Ireland in the summer of 2022, follow this link for our experiences there).