My husband and I had an amazing honeymoon last March (in 2019)! We spent 17 days traveling (travelling 😉) around England, Ireland, and Scotland. I planned the entire trip myself, which included planes, trains, buses, and some taxis. I wanted to share my entire itinerary including where we stayed, what cities we visited, and what side tours we booked!
As always, I wrote everything down in my travel diary so I can reminisce and remember our amazing trip. Hopefully this will inspire you to plan your own adventure!
Just to give a brief background before I begin. Our trip ran from March 6th through March 24th. The weather was obviously chilly (between 48°F to 60°F depending on where we were) but less tourists and crowds during March. The prices were also cheaper, and I booked all our flights, trains, hotels, and tours between September and January (this way you get the cheapest prices by booking ahead).
So, without further ado, here was the breakdown of our trip:
- London – 4 nights
- Oxford – 2 nights
- Cork – 2 nights
- Dublin – 3 nights
- Edinburgh – 2 nights
- York – 2 nights
- Nottingham – 2 nights
Table of Contents
Day One
London: Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, and Notting Hill
After our 10h 30min Virgin Atlantic flight (a favorite airline of mine) to London Heathrow airport, we arrived at 9:10am! After getting our luggage and passing customs (which took about an hour) we boarded the Heathrow Express train to take us to London Paddington station. I love the Heathrow Express because it is only a 15 min train ride into London whereas if you decide to take the tube, it takes about an hour to get into central London.
We stayed in the lovely Citadines Trafalgar Square Apart’Hotel which is located off Northumberland Ave near Trafalgar Square. I have stayed here before and it is wonderful! It is an apartment-style hotel with a full kitchen and sitting room. They have an amazing breakfast every morning for £7 per person and the hotel is walking distance to just about everything, including Buckingham Palace!
After getting settled, we walked down The Mall toward Buckingham Palace. We continued our walk down Birdcage Walk through the beautiful St. James’s Park. The Daffodils were in bloom which made the park absolutely stunning. We continued our walk to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament.
We then decided to visit the Notting Hill area so we jumped on the tube at Westminster Station and took the Circle line to Notting Hill Gate. We walked up Portobello Road and saw the gorgeous multi-colored buildings that this area is known for. I am a huge fan of the movie ‘Notting Hill’, so we walked past The Travel Book Shop and the home with the blue door where the character William Thacker lived (both are on Portobello Road).The famous Portobello Market is along Portobello Road also but sadly it was already packed up when we arrived in Notting Hill.
Day Two
Stonehenge, Avebury, Lacock, and Bath Tour
Today was the day for our first tour! I booked a tour of Stonehenge, Avebury, Lacock, and Bath through England Experience Tours and it was incredible! To read more about this tour, check out my tour post here. It was a long touring day but definitely worth it!
Day Three
Brighton: The Royal Pavilion, Brighton Palace Pier, and the Lanes
It has always been a dream of mine to visit the seaside town of Brighton! We decided to take a day trip outside of London and visit Brighton. We boarded a train at 9:29am from Blackfriars train station and it was a quick hour train ride into Brighton. The weather was quite windy and chilly as it was March, by the beach, but well worth the visit.
We toured the beautiful Royal Pavilion, which is an asian-style palace built for King George IV. Walking around I could only imagine being invited to his grand parties! We walked out to the Brighton Palace Pier, which had carnival rides and a large arcade, and spent time walking around The Lanes, the pedestrian shopping area. The Brighton shoreside along the English Channel was very rocky, in contrast to my sandy SoCal beaches, but gorgeous nonetheless. To read more about what to do in Brighton, check out my post here.
Brighton is a very easy walkable city and we spent about 7 hours total exploring. Brighton is perfect for that half-day trip from London. We took the 4:26pm train back to London and still had some time to explore London before dinner. We took the tube to Harrods and walked around this amazing department store! We were feeling hungry so we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus to see the nightlife and eat dinner. Piccadilly Circus always reminds me of Times Square in New York City because of the large lit banners and crowds. We ate dinner at Cicchetti, which is one of my favorite Italian restaurants in London. It is located in Piccadilly Circus and offers amazing wine and Italian tapas.
Day Four
London: National Portrait Gallery, Charles Dickens Museum, an Arsenal Pub, and a Football Match
Today was my husband’s favorite day because it was the Manchester United and Arsenal Football match. We had time to explore London in the morning as we visited the National Portrait Gallery and the Charles Dickens Museum. The National Portrait Gallery has over 11,000 portraits including the Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, and William Shakespeare’s most famous self-portrait. We spent about 1.5 hours in the National Portrait Gallery, which is nearly not long enough. Afterward, we walked up the street and caught the tube to the Charles Dickens Museum, since I have always wanted to visit. Read my blog post about some of my favorite London Highlights if the National Portrait Gallery and Charles Dickens Museum don’t strike your fancy.
After spending the morning in London, it was now time for the Manchester United and Arsenal Football match. The match started at 4:30pm so we had plenty of time to head to Emirates Stadium and go to The Tollington Arms to grab a couple of pints before the match. The Tollington Arms is an Arsenal Fans only pub and you have to show your Arsenal membership cards or match tickets to get inside. The pub and the football match were absolutely thrilling!
Day Five
Oxford: Covered Market, Radcliffe Camera, Christ Church, Bodleian Library, and afternoon tea at the Old Parsonage Hotel
We left London and took the 8:11am train to Oxford where we spent two nights at Malmaison. Malmaison is a boutique hotel converted from the prison in Oxford Castle! It was absolutely stunning and an easy walk into the center of Oxford.
We walked the Oxford covered markets and enjoyed the shops as they were opening for the day with a hot coffee and pastry. We saw the Radcliffe Camera (pictured) and then booked tickets to the 12:30pm tour of the Bodleian Library because of the Harry Potter filming locations. We then made our way to Christ Church and purchased tickets for a tour because, of course, Harry Potter filming locations! In all honesty, the tour of Christ Church was not worth the ticket price and I would just admire the amazing church from the outside. However, the tour of Bodleian Library was definitely worth it! Despite being associated with Harry Potter, the tour takes you upstairs to this gorgeous library that has every single printed UK book since the 1600s. I’m talking possible first editions of very famous authors like Jane Austen or Shakespeare!
After the tour we walked to The Eagle and Child Pub to have a pint. This is the same pub that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien once drank at (can’t you tell I’m into literature)! After enjoying a cold one, we walked to the Old Parsonage Hotel at 2:30pm for afternoon tea and an early dinner. Before my trip I had googled afternoon tea locations in Oxford and this spot did not disappoint. Since the weather was chilly, we had to sit inside the hotel restaurant but outside on the patio is the actual prime location for afternoon tea. I was served a delicious 3-tiered plate with champagne and coffee and it was spectacular. This pretty much ended our day since we left London early that morning.
Day Six
Famous Cotswolds Highlight Tour
I have always wanted to visit the Cotswolds and since we didn’t have a car, we booked a tour through Cotswolds Guided Tours. This tour was absolutely amazing and we visited Upper and Lower Slaughter, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold, a secret Jane Austen village, and Great Tew. If you want to know more about this tour check out my blog post here.
Day Seven
Cork, Ireland: Saint Patrick’s Street, Cork Covered Market, and Saint Finbarre’s Cathedral
We spent a large part of our day traveling from Oxford to Cork. Just in the pre-planning phase it took a while to get the logistics of our trip correct because of the football match and St. Patrick’s Day. The easiest approach I found was taking public transportation from Oxford to Reading, Reading to Bristol Parkway, Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads, and then taking a bus from Bristol Temple Meads to the Bristol Airport. Now this may sound absolutely crazy (and it definitely was!) but I booked all 3 train rides and 1 bus ride together on Trainline.
Trainline is my favorite website when traveling around the UK and all I needed to do was type in Oxford to Bristol Airport and it found the route for me. I have the app on my phone and it was so convenient to already have our electronic tickets for all our train rides.
Our flight out of Bristol Airport was at 12:50pm so we left Oxford at 7:30am. We flew Aer Lingus on a tiny prop plane, that freaked my husband out, and arrived safely in Cork, Ireland at 2:15pm. After grabbing our baggage, we took the 226A bus from the Cork Airport to Kent Station-Parnell Place which was where our hotel was located. The bus ride was only €2.80 per person which was much cheaper than taking a taxi into the city centre. We stayed two nights at the Jury’s Inn Cork, partly because of the location to the city centre and the fact that it was so inexpensive! It was a great chain hotel and one that I would definitely stay at again.
We explored Cork and walked up Saint Patrick’s Street which has a ton of retail stores on a quaint street. We visited the English Market (which was more of a farmer’s market with a lot of fresh fruits, veggies, and butchers) and then walked all the way to Saint Finbarre’s Cathedral. This was a stunning church that was built in 1863 and was massive! Sadly, we couldn’t go inside because it was closing up when we arrived but we did explore the beautiful grounds (pictured). My husband and I really enjoyed Cork and loved the quaint city feel!
Day Eight
Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Doolin, and Bunratty Castle Tour
When in Ireland you have to visit the Cliffs of Moher, which was actually why we were staying in Cork. We booked the Cliffs of Moher Day Trip from Cork and visited Limerick, the Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, The Burren, and Bunratty Castle. If you want to know more about this tour check out my blog post here.
Day Nine
Blarney Stone and Dublin
Now from this point in our trip you may think I am already crazy with our semi-tight timelines but you have seen nothing yet!
We were leaving Cork today to travel to Dublin and our train left at 11:25am from Cork Kent station. A sane person would just think to have a relaxing morning and walk around Cork but oh not me….I wanted to see Blarney Stone and Castle!
Just a short distance away from Cork (6mi/10.3km) is Blarney Castle and I wanted to tour the castle in the morning and then catch our train to Dublin at 11:25am. I pre-booked a taxi the night before from our hotel receptionist (as Uber/Lyft does not exist in Ireland) and the taxi picked us up at 8:30am. We arrived just before 9am to Blarney Castle and were the second people to enter the Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone! I absolutely loved touring Blarney Castle in the morning because literally no one was around. If you want to read more about my time at Blarney Castle click here.
We called for a taxi back to our hotel just before 10:30am. It was not nearly enough time to explore Blarney Castle but we had a schedule to keep.
Our train arrived in Heusten Station in Dublin at 2:00pm and we caught a taxi to our Airbnb. We stayed in the Portobello area (southwest of St. Stephen’s Green) which was only about a mile walk to Dublin city centre. If you have already lost track of the dates it’s March 15th (2 days until St. Patrick’s Day). We stayed in Dublin for three days and since we were there for St. Patrick’s Day, hotel prices were outrageous!
After checking in to our tiny studio apartment, we grabbed a taxi and went to the Guinness Storehouse. I talk more in depth about our St. Patrick’s Day festivities here so I will briefly mention how amazing the Guinness Storehouse was! Guinness hosts their St. Paddy’s Day entertainment from March 14th through the 18th and it is well worth a visit during this time. There was live music on all seven floors and Irish dancers performing all night. You get a free Guinness with your admission price and definitely visit the Gravity Bar on the top floor!
After the Guinness Storehouse closed we took a taxi to Dublin city centre and walked around Grafton Street. There are a ton of cart vendors selling St. Patrick’s Day merchandise but definitely wait for Carrolls Irish Gifts as they had the best St. Patrick’s Day gear for very inexpensive prices!
Day Ten
Kilkenny, Wicklow Mountains, and Glendalough Tour
This tour was honestly my favorite tour of our entire trip! You may be thinking ‘what a weird and random tour to go on’ but one of my friends recommended that we visit the Wicklow Mountains and it was definitely worth it! We booked our tour through Wild Rover Tours and visited Kilkenny, Wicklow Mountains, and Glendalough. Read more about this tour here.
Day Eleven
Dublin: St. Patrick’s Day
Today was St. Patrick’s Day! The festivities of the day kicked off with the St. Patrick’s Day parade at 12:30pm so I booked 12:00pm tickets to see the Book of Kells. This was actually a pretty poor decision but 12:00pm was the first tour time of the day and since this was our last day in Dublin, this was something I wanted to see. The Book of Kells was written in 800 AD and because it was St. Patrick’s Day, there wasn’t too many people squashed around to see it. We also saw the Long Room which was a huge library and definitely worthwhile to see. At about 12:25pm we walked out into the streets and were greeted with about 500,000 people! This was why seeing the Book of Kells beforehand was a pretty poor decision because there was no way we were going to push our way through 500,000 people and position ourselves to see the parade. So we didn’t. Instead we pushed our way through the crowds for about 2 blocks and just gave up and went into the first pub we could find…which turned out to be the best St. Patrick’s Day ever! If your interested in reading more about our day of pub hopping click here.
We really didn’t do much sightseeing in Dublin at all and I felt like it was just another big city but we did get to walk around the city a bit, so that was fine for me. In all honestly, I enjoyed seeing Cork much more than Dublin.
Day Twelve
Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh Castle, Elephant House, Greyfriars Kirkyard Cemetery, High Street, and the Royal Mile
We said goodbye to Ireland and made our way to Scotland! Instead of taking the bus to the airport we opted for a taxi because we were just so tired and needed to be at the airport by 7:45am. We boarded our Aer Lingus flight to Edinburgh at 10:00am and landed smoothly at 11:30am. We hopped on the Airlink bus from the airport to the city centre, as we were staying in the lovely Apex Grassmarket Hotel located in the historic Old Town of Edinburgh. The Grassmarket is a pedestrian square featuring restaurants, pubs, and shops right underneath Edinburgh Castle. I opted to pay a little more for our room and landed with a view of the Castle right outside our window. It was spectacular and worth the tiny increase in price!
After a quick Italian lunch in the Grassmarket, we walked up to Edinburgh Castle. The city is extremely hilly so keep that in mind and wear sturdy shoes! The ticket price to enter Edinburgh Castle was definitely worth it because we saw the Crown Jewels, the Stone of Scone, the castle’s prison, and where Mary Queen of Scots birthed her son, King James VI. The castle is huge with so much to see and do but because we were on a time crunch to see Edinburgh in less than a day, we only hit the highlights that were listed on the castle map.
These next sightseeing attractions are all about Harry Potter because I am such a huge fan. We walked to West Bow Street, which is said to be the street where JK Rowling got her idea for Diagon Alley. The street is curvy, narrow, very colorful, and full of Harry Potter inspired shops, especially one called The Boy Wizard. We then walked to the Elephant House to see the literal birthplace of Harry Potter. This was where JK Rowling sat by the window, looking up at Edinburgh Castle, and wrote her book. The line was very long just to grab a seat so I snuck in and went into the ladies room to check out all the fan writings on the wall. Just up the road from Elephant House is Greyfriars Kirkyard Cemetery, where it is said that JK Rowling walked around to get inspiration for character names. This cemetery is supposed to be one of the most haunted cemetery’s in the world so I ran in to see Tom Riddle’s gravemarker and left as quickly as possible! If your looking for more magical Harry Potter locations in Edinburgh, read my post here.
It was getting late so we walked down High Street and the Royal Mile all the way down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Unfortunately, by the time we walked the Royal Mile it was already closed, so we returned back up toward the Elephant House where we spotted a really cool Frankenstein pub and went in to grab a couple of pints. Later that night we returned to the Grassmarket area for a Sticky Toffee Pudding at a pub across from our hotel. If you’re interested in what else there is to do in Edinburgh, read my post here.
Day Thirteen
Loch Ness, Glencoe, and the Scottish Highlands Tour
One of the things I wanted to do while in Scotland was see the Scottish Highlights, so I booked a tour with Rabbie’s Trail Burners to see Loch Ness, Glencoe, and the Scottish Highlands. To read more about this tour, check out my tour post here.
Day Fourteen
York, England: Micklegate Bar, Shambles Street, York Minster, St. Mary’s Abbey, York City Walls, and a local pub
We sadly left Scotland and took the 11:30am train to York, England. We arrived at 2:00pm and walked from the train station to our amazing B&B (bed & breakfast) called Holmwood House. I absolutely loved York and it was probably one of my favorite cities we visited on this trip. We walked into the city center and walked through the Micklegate Bar entrance, which is a gorgeous fortress entry point into the York City Walls. York is surrounded by a medieval wall that was originally built by the Romans in 71 AD!
To read more in-depth about everything we saw in York, read my post here.
We walked the medieval streets and walked down Shambles Street to the beautiful York Minster. York Minster is a massive church built in the 14th century. We opted not to go in because there was still so much to see and do in York. We walked to the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey that was built in 1088 and then later destroyed in 1539. The York Museum gardens surrounded the abbey ruins and we walked around until they kicked us out and closed the gates. We then made our way along the River Ouse walkway and found an access point to get up on the York City Walls. The wall is very narrow and only allows for one-way traffic so we exited the wall when we made it back to Micklegate Bar.
We walked back toward our B&B and found this small, homey pub called Crystal Palace that was definitely a local watering hole. Everyone knew each other and before long the locals invited my husband to a game of Blackball, which is the same as pool. He won some and lost some, but we had so much fun chatting with the locals!
Day Fifteen
York: Jorvik Viking Centre, Clifford’s Tower, Fairfax House, and Shambles Farmers Market
We spent another day in York, which was plenty because we ended up running out of things to see! We enjoyed our complimentary homecooked breakfast from our B&B and walked back to the city centre to the Jorvik Viking Centre. The Vikings were a big historical part of York and they created this museum (basically an awesome Disneyland-esque ride) that showed you what York (or Jorvik) looked like when the Vikings inhabited the city in 960 AD. Like any Disneyland ride, it ended in the museum and gift shop! I would highly recommend visiting the Jorvik Viking Centre because it was very cool and informative! We then walked to Clifford’s Tower which was once a part of York Castle. It stands on a large hill and is the only portion that still remains of York Castle that was built by William the Conqueror.
At this point in our day we were running out of things to do that actually interested us so we ended up going to the Fairfax House. This is a Georgian townhome that was built in the 1740s and is still intact with furniture from the Georgian period. This might seem like a strange “museum” to tour but it was absolutely stunning and the ticket price was worth it! Afterward, we made our way back to Shambles Street and went to the Shambles Farmers Market to fill up the rest of our day. I loved exploring York and two days is all you need in this beautiful city!
Day Sixteen
Nottingham, England: Nottingham Castle, Robin Hood statue, City of Caves, and Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem
We left York and ventured down to Nottingham on the 8:30am train. It was a quick trip so we arrived at 10:30am and checked-in to our hotel Mercure Nottingham City Centre, which was a cool old boutique hotel but definitely haunted. We were staying two nights in Nottingham and the first night around o-dark-thirty the lights in the bathroom started flickering on and off multiple times. Faulting bathroom wiring? Probably not. The next night I was so paranoid that I closed the bathroom door and refused to sleep facing the door!
Anyways, back to Nottingham. Nottingham seemed so cool to visit with the legend of Robin Hood, but in fact it was just a big dirty town. I was actually really disappointed in Nottingham and have no desire to go back but we did see some interesting things…
After checking-in we walked to Nottingham Castle, but surprise, it was closed for refurbishment. It was quite a long walk so that was a disappointment. We did get to see the statue of Robin Hood outside of Nottingham Castle so that was pretty cool. We walked all the way back towards our hotel to the City of Caves. Since there was not much to see and do in Nottingham besides shopping (which my husband refused to do) we paid for a 12:00pm tour of the City of Caves which turned out to be the highlight of this city. The City of Caves is about 850 underground caves build in sandstone under the city. We put on our hardhats and walked underground for the tour. The caves were first dug around 900 AD and were used for family housing, beer cellars for pubs, leather tanning, and bunkers during World War II for the air raids. An interesting fact is the medieval tannery was built underground in 1250 and is the only one that still exists in England today. Tannery workers did not end up catching the plague back then but they did die around the age of 25-30 because of all the noxious gases and chemicals they were breathing in.
I had read about the Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem which is the oldest inn in England from 1189. The pub is built into the side of a sandstone cliff and the food was okay but I can now say I visited the oldest inn in England?
As you can see our time in Nottingham was only okay and not worthwhile. If we had another day here, I would probably have liked to do a Robin Hood tour or go out to Sherwood Forest.
Day Seventeen
Chatsworth House
One of the main reasons we even stayed in Nottingham was because it was the largest, historical-ish city near Chatsworth House.
Chatsworth House is a huge private residence near Bakewell in the Peak’s District that was used as Pemberley in the 2005 Pride & Prejuidce movie. Yes, yet another of my fascinations apart from Harry Potter.
Getting to Chatsworth House from Nottingham using public transporation made for a long day but it was the cheapest option. We took the 9:19am train (9:47am actually with our first train delay) from Nottingham to Sheffield. Then from outside the Sheffiled train station, we boarded the Peak Line 218 bus to Chatsworth House. The bus ride was an hour long because of all the stops but it was the fastest bus to our final destination and traveling through the Peak’s District was lovely.
I had pre-purchased our tickets beforehand which saved us a lot of time getting inside the House because we were able to get into the pre-booked line. The House was absolutely stunning and it was a self-guided tour with a helpful handheld informational listening device. Some of the highlights were the Painted Hall, the library and music room, the sculpture room, the dining room, and many bedrooms. We spent about 3.5 hours total seeing the House and walking the gorgeous gardens.
One of my favorite things that happened was while we were in the music room, a random stranger sat down at the piano and started playing a famous song from the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie. It honestly gave me chills and made me so happy to be visiting this gorgeous House.
Day Eighteen
Nottingham to Heathrow Airport
This was our last day and was dedicated to traveling from Nottingham to Heathrow Airport in London. This was the only time during our entire trip where nothing went according to how I planned it…and of course this was the day where we needed to catch our flight back home!
We boarded our train at 7:30am that was supposed to take us from Nottingham to London St. Pancras train station. We sat on the train for about 10 minutes not moving when I discovered that all trains into London were cancelled for the day because of some overhead wires that were blocking the tracks. The conductor told us that the train would take us as far as Luton (about 36 miles from Heathrow Airport) and buses were going to be arranged at the Luton train station to take us into London. We figured nothing else could go wrong as the train had arranged transportation for us to get to London. That was until we arrived in Luton and saw about 100 other people from different trains all waiting for the London-bound buses.
After an hour of waiting and still not getting on a bus, we decided we needed another way into London or else we were going to miss our 2:35pm flight home. I ended up just calling an Uber for $75, which doesn’t seem like much except I had already spent $85 on our original train tickets. I had the Uber take us to London Paddington instead of Heathrow Airport because I already purchased our Heathrow Express tickets ahead of time and figured we might as well use them.
We made it to the airport in time and thankfully that was the only mishap that happened on our entire 17-day trip!
Until next time,
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