TIPS FOR UNITED KINGDOM
1. Overseas Visitors Pass. This pass gives free access to approximately 100 sites on the English Heritage List. It comes as either 9 days (54£ for two) or 16 days (64£ for two). Buy it online and activate at any of the sites. There were few places around London to use it and I was doubting its worth, but with some determination, it is of great value. Stonehenge alone covers ⅔ of the cost. In the end, we probably got used to about three times its value.
Historic Royal Palaces Pass. It gives free admission to the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace (must still buy the ticket to Royal Botanical Gardens Kew), and Hillsborough Castle. It is valid for one year. Join online at www.hrp.org.uk. Or call 0844 482 7788
In 2018, prices were 1 adult: £52 and the first 3 months free if paid by direct debit. Go to the website for the current prices of joint and family memberships.
Explore Pass for Scotland. This is much more expensive and useable for only 7 of the 14 days it is valid for. Many of the places are ones you don’t want to visit (castles can get very tiring). But as I was travelling so much, it was also good value. I used it for 3 places around Stirling Castle, 2 near Inverness, 4 on Orkney, 1 on Shetland and 3 on the Outer Hebrides.
2. Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road. Only the British Isles and some of their colonies (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Namibia, Singapore and Malaysia) drive on the left side of the road (with the steering wheel on the right). After driving on the right side for some 49 years, this can be a real challenge. In the past I have driven in NZ, Namibia and S Africa but always with the steering wheel on the right. Now I am driving a vehicle with the steering wheel on the left and I’m sure it is compounding my problem (although it is easier to drive a manual transmission from this side). All vehicles are coming from the “wrong” direction. Traffic circles are especially confusing. In the British Isles, the roundabouts can have 3 lanes and it is necessary to enter and exit in the correct lane, which takes a long time to get used to.
I make the most mistakes in two situations. After stopping briefly (for gas or at a viewpoint), I many times start out driving again on the right. It has never resulted in an issue but locals are not very understanding. The other is when one must act reflexively – the tendency is to react as if driving on the right. I pray that I don’t have an accident – that would seriously jeopardize my ability to continue the trip.
Like the US, the British Isles still uses miles and speed limits in miles/hour.
3. Where to Sleep Overnight. Anywhere works. Parking lots with views of the ocean are nicest but shopping centres, McDonald’s and highway lay-bys all work out just fine. A bathroom is ideal but not crucial with a pee bottle or some bushes nearby.
4. Buying gas. Easily the cheapest is at gas stations associated with supermarkets – Tesco is the most common and uniformly the cheapest gas anywhere in the UK. I have paid as little as 131.9€/litre in Italy, 125.9€/litre in France or 116.9£/litre in England (easily the most expensive). Certainly, avoid any of the service centres on large highways anywhere. These places though are the best places to get a shower and to sleep overnight.
Diesel is also about 2p more expensive than gas in the UK whereas everywhere else it is considerably cheaper.
In Ireland, diesel is about €1.28-1.33/litre at least 10 cents cheaper than gas.
5. Drivers. Next to Italians, the English are impatient and drive too fast. The often 3-lane circles compound problems – it’s difficult to figure out which lane to be in and navigate the circle correctly. Then there are at least 2 exit lanes. It is all very stressful and I can’t wait to hit the continent and go back to driving on the right side of the road.
People with BMWs, Mercedes, Audis and Land Rovers are the worst as they speed and are arrogant. Twice when jaywalking, I have had them speed up and swerve to hit me (Audi’s are the poor man’s luxury car and these guys are all low-class).
6. Roads. Secondary roads in Britain have no shoulders and can get very narrow. Cyclists are common and frustrating as passing can be difficult (there must be a lot of dead cyclists lying in ditches throughout Britain). Rural roads are often one-lane and passing places are necessary to navigate. Speed limits on these roads are mandatory and it is rare to exceed 60km/h. This was especially common across the north of Scotland and approaching Skye where the only road is single track.
Cyclists can compound the narrow-road issues. They have and expect to have as much right to be there as vehicles, so with no shoulders, one must often wait behind them to pass. Many don’t drive close to the edge and sometimes double up. I think they must have a death wish to cycle here.
6. Parking. Fines are extreme for tickets, especially if parking in loading zones, disabled parking and off-limits places in the centre of cities – all £60 in England and £90 in Northern Ireland. Try not to get these. But I regularly parked where tickets were bought at kiosks, never bought them and also didn’t get a ticket for about 5 months! But the fines are still high – about £50 – no wonder Brits are so keen to pay for parking. As I never planned on returning to the British Isles and certainly not driving, and all the tickets are from municipalities, I never paid them and filed them under G when they arrived at the address where my vehicle is registered.
6. Sunday Closures. In many places, businesses are closed on Sundays. This is especially on the Outer Hebrides where you can buy nothing (except possibly in Stornaway).
7. Buying Propane. This has posed to be a problem as most places only sell bottled gas in enormous containers. The tank in my California is a 2.5kg blue Camping Gas (butane known as Coleman fuel is much more expensive than propane) and is fairly widely available. BBQ and some camping stores seem to be the best source. I purchased a second tank – you never know when you will run out, it is expensive and you want to use the entire tank before changing. I will probably buy a third when I travel to Africa. . My first tank (I cooked almost 100% of my meals on it) lasted almost 2 months.
8. Miscellaneous. There are some things the British Isles don’t have: a way to clean your windshield at gas stations – in NA, every pump has a cleaner with a squeegee – here you need to bring your spray bottle and sponge; there are no self-serve car washes and you have to pay someone to do it. Do-it-yourself laundromats are rare and expensive when you find them.
Some observations on the British Isles.
1. The women wear an ungodly amount of makeup – heavy cake foundation, false eyelashes, shaped eyebrows (ugh), painted nails, the works. This is especially true of young women. I think it looks truly awful, but that is just my opinion. High heels are common. I would have thought that British women were above all this.
2. Older people are very nice.
3. Young men and guys with German cars drive way too fast. They are also impatient and arrogant.
4. Roundabouts are very confusing – many are 3 lanes and you need to enter and exit in the correct lane – it is very difficult to get used to. And many roundabouts also have traffic lights – go figure. Roundabouts are also unbelievably frequent, It is not uncommon to have one every ¼ mile on large highways, especially around cities – you go from 120 km/hour to zero frequently. And all the Brits accelerate heavily up to all these circles. They don’t seem too conscious of gas consumption.
But roundabouts are better than when the intersections are controlled by lights as they don’t do lights well. There is no left turn on red (right turn on red lights is routine in NA) and the lights are not pressure triggered – you can spend a lot of time waiting on lights with no traffic.
Pedestrians don’t cross against lights and always trigger the lights so one has to stop a lot. (I am a big fan of jaywalking and crossing whenever it is convenient to not delay traffic).
There are no shoulders anywhere in England except freeways. Cyclists are common and must have a death wish on these narrow shoulderless roads. They also have an equal right to space and take up more than their share of the road.
Brits park on the street creating one-lane roads.
5. There is no free parking anywhere. And the charges are high. The tickets are also unbelievably expensive – at least £50 and occasionally up to £70. The locals always pay for parking, day or night.
6. There are a lot of morbidly obese people, or maybe these are the sort that frequent McDonalds.
7. Young men and teenagers say “fuckin’ a lot.
8. Just as in all other European countries, I could not function if it were not for McDonalds. They have the only dependable, easy-to-access wi-fi. I get my water here, dump my garbage and very frequently stay in their lots. Luckily they are everywhere and all do brisk business except in Ireland where the prices are truly over-the-top. I rarely buy food as the prices are so high compared to elsewhere in the world. McFlurrys in England though are cheap at £1.
9. Castles all charge entrance fees and are way too expensive especially as most are the same – ruins or over the top with lavish dining rooms, armour, paintings of rich people, 4-poster beds and stag heads. Most museums are free or reasonably priced and most are well done. I go to a lot of museums and am a pretty good judge of what makes an effective museum – short, concise captions are essential – no wonder nobody reads them but me.
10. Most cathedrals are the same, but there are many truly grand cathedrals in the British Isles. Henry VIII did his best to destroy most of them – but then they rebuilt them all except for the monasteries. Nobody attends church here either and most churches main function is as glorified museums. Some charge and I hate that. They are very expensive to maintain as they are so old and threatening to fall down at any moment.
11. The countryside is pretty but unbelievably redundant. I won’t miss seeing small green fields separated by hedgerows. Give me the flat prairies and grain elevators of Canada – you can see forever and we have the best sunsets/sunrises.
12. Hiking like in Canada doesn’t exist. Brits look like they are going on mountaineering expeditions to walk all these tame trails.
13. They like to go on little holidays every weekend visiting all the cute little towns, most often on the coast. The towns are packed. They shop but mostly eat in the myriad of expensive restaurants.