Intro [00:00:04]:

Welcome to the UK travel planning podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK travel planning website, Tracey Collins. In this podcast, Tracey shares destination guides, travel tips, and itinerary ideas as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque dress countryside to seaside towns.

Tracy Collins [00:00:39]:

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the UK travel planner podcast. First of all, Doug and I would like to wish you a happy and prosperous new year 2024. Happy new year. And if this is the year you are planning your UK trip, stay tuned to the podcast and our UK travel planning and London Travel planning website for lots more exciting travel inspiration and research to help you plan your trip. Following on from last week's episode Where we focus on how to plan your UK vacation. This week, Doug and I share 12 tips to planning a UK road trip. So if you are considering A UK driving vacation. This is the episode for you.

Tracy Collins [00:01:21]:

So let's dive or drive right in.

Doug Collins [00:01:24]:

Yeah. Okay. So if this is your 1st time driving in the UK on the left hand side of the road or want a refresher, we recommend Trippiama. This is designed specifically to prepare North American drivers for the UK roads, And it's the most comprehensive guide for Americans driving in the

Tracy Collins [00:01:46]:

UK. It consists of 360 Greet Drive and Tours, expert instructional videos and on the go resources to teach you how to drive on the left side of the road, The driving rules across the UK, how to identify and follow local road signs, and much more. You can hear more about Tripiamo In episode 12 of the UK Travel Planning podcast, there's also a link in this week's show notes for more information. We've had Excellent feedback from those who have used the Tripiamo materials to prepare for navigating the UK roads, and we highly recommend purchasing their materials. We actually have had feedback too from people who've said that the biggest regret they had was not purchasing the Tripiamo materials. So, really, we highly we recommend that you do consider going through our link and purchasing, Tripiamo to prepare you for driving in the UK.

Doug Collins [00:02:39]:

Yeah. Most definitely. Yeah. People have said that, haven't they? Yeah. Okay. So you can also check out our articles on the UK, travel planning website. These include our UK road trip itinerary planner, which has 7 detailed itinerary suggestions for you as well as the podcast episode about our road trips around Cornwall And around Scotland.

Tracy Collins [00:02:58]:

I'd say, yeah, we've done a couple of podcasts about our road trips, which are really popular. Also, we've done we did the North Coast 500. We've driven around Cornwall. So, yeah, those are worth listening to. Obviously, you listen to the podcast. You like podcasts, so it'll be worth listening to those. And, obviously, we've got a lot of detailed information on the website. So, again, I'll link to those articles in the show notes.

Tracy Collins [00:03:21]:

So yep. Should I do the next one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Okay. So with car hire, It's best to book in advance, and we highly recommend that you avoid planning your itinerary to collect your car on a Sunday or drop off your car on a Sunday Unless it's an airport because you might find that at weekends, it's actually more difficult to, be able to book a pickup or drop off.

Tracy Collins [00:03:42]:

It's also more expensive if you pick up and drop off at different locations, which we found out last year, didn't we?

Doug Collins [00:03:48]:

We certainly did. Yes. And when we're down in Cornwall.

Tracy Collins [00:03:50]:

Yeah. Yeah. So we had to change where we're dropping the car off. We're gonna drop it off in extra, but we actually changed that to the to Birmingham Airport because we had a change in our itinerary.

Doug Collins [00:03:59]:

And Last Minute Change.

Tracy Collins [00:03:59]:

Last Minute Change. Yeah. So that cost us a 100 pound for a different, drop off location. So definitely find out, about that if if you want To drop off pick up and drop off in a different location. Next, I think, is really to ensure you rent the right size of car for your needs. You know?

Doug Collins [00:04:16]:

Oh, most definitely. Yeah. Because you don't want to be, having a driving a small car and it's packed solid because that takes the enjoyment away.

Tracy Collins [00:04:23]:

Yeah. But also you don't want a car that's actually too big either. So big's not necessarily really better because there's a number of reasons for it in UK because petrol is extremely expensive, and it's probably gonna be a lot more expensive than it is in your home country. And parking spaces are small.

Doug Collins [00:04:37]:

That's right. And if you're not used to driving a vehicle that size, you know, it it can be tricky.

Tracy Collins [00:04:42]:

Yeah. Definitely. I mean, we tend to rent an SUV. That's what we drive here in Australia, and it's just something we're comfortable with. So we tend to buy kinda Oh, we buy Rent, you know, an SUV, don't we? Yeah.

Doug Collins [00:04:53]:

We do. We do. We're familiar with it. It's a little bit higher as well, which we like,

Tracy Collins [00:04:56]:

don't we? Yeah. Definitely. So there's also a comprehensive article On the UK travel planning website, which I'll link to in the show notes, which is everything you need to know about renting a car in the UK. Obviously, don't forget relevant paperwork, Including your driver license when picking up your car. Yeah. So

Doug Collins [00:05:13]:

Yeah. And the, majority of the cars in the UK are manual transmission. So if you require an automatic transmission, you must specifically request 1. I mean, it is a bit more pricey, And there is less availability.

Tracy Collins [00:05:29]:

Yeah. We can't really stress this enough. We actually picked up a hire car in Edinburgh last year, and there were a couple who'd gone to pick up hire car, and they had not said they wanted, an automatic, and there was no no car available. And because they could not drive a manual Car. They actually ended up having to call a taxi, and They did. Yeah. They left really disappointed. And it was really, really busy, and Edinburgh, it was June last year.

Tracy Collins [00:05:52]:

You know, this is when you really gotta Think ahead. If you really want an automatic, if that's what you're used to driving, and I highly recommend it. If you are an automatic driver, Emmanuel is gonna be more stressful because even though we're used to driving a manual, we have got used to driving an automatic in Australia, and it was a bit stressful for you Yeah. Wasn't it?

Doug Collins [00:06:11]:

It was because I mean, I've been a while since I've driven with the manual again out and, driving from the car hire, garage pickup straight to the middle of Edinburgh was a little bit traumatic. And it's one thing you will stress about. It's not just stressful for the driver. It's stressful for everyone else in the car.

Tracy Collins [00:06:28]:

Absolutely. Actually, a good thing to do is really if is to have someone else who's helping navigate. So you're not gonna be sitting, listening to music, and, you know, necessarily enjoying the drive at some parts because you will have to help with an with the navigation.

Doug Collins [00:06:40]:

That's right.

Tracy Collins [00:06:41]:

Yeah. So point 5 is to pace yourself on planning your itinerary. So they UK might be small in comparison to Both countries, you know, where you're from as well may may be much smaller, but there are lots of cars on the road, lots of congestion, and it may take far longer than you expect to get from a to b. You could get stuck in traffic. Believe me, that's happened to us as well. Also consider The hidden costs when planning your route because there are some toll roads, toll bridges, and tunnels which may have charges in the UK too, So definitely worth considering.

Doug Collins [00:07:11]:

And also to consider it consider is the road the UK love roadworks.

Tracy Collins [00:07:16]:

Oh, true. That's true.

Doug Collins [00:07:17]:

They are very, very good at roadworks.

Tracy Collins [00:07:19]:

Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. So you might find yourself stuck. So I I wanted to say really on this as well is, like, if you're planning your itinerary, don't plan to drive from the south of England up to Edinburgh on a or any day, really. It's gonna be a long drive. It's gonna be longer than you expect, certainly on a public holiday or when the schools have just broken up or something like that, expect the roads gonna be really congested. Places like Cornwall over the summer months, You you don't get anywhere quickly at all because it's a lot of narrow roads.

Tracy Collins [00:07:49]:

So you really got to you cannot think, oh, on this day, I'm gonna go From here to here, it says it's only 3 and a half hours when I put it in. Really, you're gonna need to plan for longer, don't you?

Doug Collins [00:07:59]:

You do. And it always takes longer because you're always gonna have Stops. Yes. Yeah. Just tired, timers

Tracy Collins [00:08:04]:

breaks.

Doug Collins [00:08:05]:

True. True. And, you know, look at that, stop off there, and have a look type.

Tracy Collins [00:08:08]:

Yeah. Well, you wanna be able to do that as well. And I would suggest as well that you don't just do back to back days driving because that's a lot.

Doug Collins [00:08:14]:

It is. And it catches up with you. It it it after a few days, it catches up with you with tiredness and Fatigue.

Tracy Collins [00:08:20]:

Absolutely. And I think, don't think driving in the UK will be the same as what you used to at home. So road conditions, size Size of the roads, speeds, congestion, roundabouts, motorways, single track roads, high hedgerows, blind bends, and even livestock Stock in the road may be very different from what you're used

Doug Collins [00:08:38]:

to. Most definitely so. Yeah. So it's plain and simply put. The next one is Don't drive in London.

Tracy Collins [00:08:45]:

Yeah. 0.7. Yeah. Don't drive in London. Really not gonna I don't need to say anything more than that. Those people who have have said, Why did we do that? It was crazy. Really, I would not I've it's years since I've driven in London, and I don't think you could pay me enough to driving London.

Doug Collins [00:09:00]:

You don't need to.

Tracy Collins [00:09:00]:

London London Public Transport. Don't need to. Yeah. Public transport is excellent.

Doug Collins [00:09:05]:

Yeah. So next one is prepare for the Famous UK weather, and consider the time of the year when you're visiting. The weather is changeable, and you can get all weathers in one day. Even in winter, freezing cold, the sun can shine, and the sun is low in the sky, and it you know, you've got to take that in consideration.

Tracy Collins [00:09:22]:

Yeah. Definitely can have an impact On your driving. Myself. Yeah. So point 9 is to book accommodation with parking. Some accommodation may only have limited spaces or on street parking, which may have a cost. So we recommend booking accommodation with Private parking where possible. We found that accommodation with on street parking can be an issue issue later on the day as spaces may be taken, and then you may end up Parking some distance from the accommodation, and then you've gotta walk, take your luggage, and all the belongings out of the car for quite a distance.

Tracy Collins [00:09:57]:

Yes. So it's really important to do that, and we have got links to lots of articles, accommodation articles, and we do put in there, Accommodation that does have parking, particularly in some of the major cities in the UK, you're gonna struggle. You know, Edinburgh is really difficult for parking In a place like so you really need to plan ahead when you're booking accommodation and look for that parking space because you don't wanna be driving all day, and then you're, You know, you're parked 20 minutes away from the accommodation because that's not much fun.

Doug Collins [00:10:27]:

Exactly. If the weather's poor as well,

Tracy Collins [00:10:29]:

it's Yeah. Yeah. It's just not a lot of

Doug Collins [00:10:32]:

fun. Okay. So the next one is download the relevant, route planning apps. There's quite a few out there, and, obviously, you got lots Google Maps. But we also just in case IT fail, we always carry a paper map done with.

Tracy Collins [00:10:46]:

We do. We always have a print map with us as, with With us, and we do use, I know, your favorite, app, but it's also on website is the AA Route planner.

Doug Collins [00:10:56]:

Yeah. I I do like that one. It's, it's a long established company in the UK, the a a, and I find it very reliable, and you can put in your different times of the day. Do you plan on Traveling, and you can avoid toll roads, motorways. You can sort of select the it gives you sometimes 1 or 2 options, the route that you wanna So you obviously got the fastest one, and then there might be a more scenic one, which obviously is gonna take a little bit longer. So you choose the the the route that you Wish to Take.

Tracy Collins [00:11:20]:

Okay. That's great. I know often when we do itinerary consults and people kinda talk to us about potential routes that they're considering taking through the UK, often we'll share some different maps and different options and kinda talk through those with them.

Doug Collins [00:11:33]:

So Yeah. We do.

Tracy Collins [00:11:34]:

Give them more scenic routes. Or if they're looking at getting from, You know, a to b faster will say, well, this is probably your best bet, and we also kinda will recommend where to avoid.

Doug Collins [00:11:43]:

Yeah. And, also, when when you look at that, you can sort of, put in some stop off locations that you might not previously considered.

Tracy Collins [00:11:51]:

So it's actually yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So parking in UK can be difficult, if not impossible at times. In fact, we in Yorkshire last year, we struggled on a couple of locations that we actually could not Getting a parking space at, which is it's so disappointing when you really wanna go visit a place and you've got a near you you on a your itinerary and you get there and you literally cannot find a a car parking space.

Doug Collins [00:12:16]:

Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:12:17]:

So a useful app is Parkopedia, which provides info on parking spaces in UK in UK cities, including length of time, cost, and availability, so that's probably, worth downloading. We do recommend that if you're going to some of UK cities and if they have a park and ride scheme, that you avoid Driving completely into the city and you take advantage of that park and ride scheme. So I will just explain what one of those is. So, basically, it entails parking out of town, in a free car park and then taking a provided bus into the city. So there there is a a a you have to buy a bus It's usually not too expensive at all because they're trying to encourage people not to drive into the city. Yeah. Yeah. So we've done that quite a few times.

Tracy Collins [00:13:03]:

We did that in Oxford, didn't we? This year, Actually, we went to the park and ride, parked the car, and then took the bus into the center of Oxford. We've done that before in Winchester. We've done it in Durham. Numerous cities across the UK have a park and ride, so just do a search when you're planning to see if there's a park and ride. This is if you only plan to visit, you know, during your trip when you've got another destination in mind for the rest of the day, but rather than avoid having To try and find somewhere to park, and they do free parking in the UK. Nope. Nope. Doesn't really happen.

Doug Collins [00:13:36]:

So very, very

Tracy Collins [00:13:37]:

rarely. Very, very rarely. So you need to have some cash, because some machines will still only take cash and coins. Though we did find last year that some require access to an app, which could which can cause issues. We struggled because we couldn't actually Download the app. And then because I, I couldn't make phone calls from my phone, what we weren't able to phone and sort out, being Telstra Park. So I guess the key to this is have some cash because we could have paid that car, parking machine, but we didn't have cash. The only other way to do it by an app, which we just struggle to download.

Tracy Collins [00:14:13]:

So often in the Facebook group, I hear people say, no. You don't need any cash whatsoever when you go to the UK, and I would I Always disagree with this. Take some cash with you, particularly, you know, if you're doing a driving trip, you want to have some cash on on on you. And some places that you may be going to, for example, if you're going to Far North, Scotland, or more remote areas, you may not be able to use your card to pay, because the card machine might be down. And then so you need to have access to some cash.

Doug Collins [00:14:42]:

Yep. Most definitely so. And there is, parking apps, but sometimes local council runs, so they're different throughout the country.

Tracy Collins [00:14:50]:

Yeah. There's not 1 app that we could say just download this app and that that would get you sorted. It just unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. So tip number 12?

Doug Collins [00:14:59]:

Is don't leave things in your car, A viewing your car. It it put your valuables hidden away, stored away. And some of the high cars we found ourselves don't always Include a parcel shelf, to hide things from view. And so I've been harassed, and never once have ever been refused. Yeah. Yeah. I'm unclear as to exactly why they take them out, but it asked for 1 to be put put back

Tracy Collins [00:15:22]:

in. Yeah. But absolutely do not leave If valuables in your car really genuinely don't if, you know, to check-in your accommodation, put your suitcases in your accommodation. If you're You're stopping off. Take the valuables out of your car. Most definitely. Because you there's nothing worse than you're on holiday. You come back, and somebody's broken in your car and nicked all your stuff.

Tracy Collins [00:15:42]:

Horrible. You you know, just not a nice feeling. So just remove that temptation for somebody walking past your car by just taking your valuables out. That's just really important point to think. Yep. So really, in conclusion, the the UK is a great country for a road trip, isn't it?

Doug Collins [00:15:58]:

Oh, certainly is. Yeah. Yeah. Most certainly.

Tracy Collins [00:16:00]:

I I mean, there's possibilities you can to satisfy all interests from coast to coast because so we show that these tips will help you plan your ideal driving holiday. There's certainly loads Inspiration on the website about what you can include in your road trip.

Doug Collins [00:16:15]:

And if a UK rail adventure is something that you are considering, or you maybe want to combine a road and rail trip, don't miss next week's episode where we share our tips For planning a train trip itinerary.

Tracy Collins [00:16:27]:

That's right. So that's that's a very exciting episode, especially for somebody who loves train travel as much as Doug does.

Doug Collins [00:16:32]:

I certainly did.

Tracy Collins [00:16:33]:

So you'll find links to relevant articles and the excellent Tripiamo resource in this week's show notes at uktravelplanning.com forward/episodes-79. Just remember, take your time, stay safe, and have fun for lots more exciting travel inspiration and resources to help you plan your trip. And if your plans involve travel further afield, don't forget to tune in to our Global travel planning podcast for practical tips and info to help you make the most of your worldwide travels. So from both myself and Doug, until next week, happy UK travel planning.