First Trip To England

[Emerson40]

The local equivalent for 911 is 999.

I like Fire Breeze's comments but they are full of cute mistakes. It's Big Ben, not "the" Big Ben. If you want a London accent, watch Eastenders, not Coronation Street (it's set in Manchester).

But that's assuming you're going to London. London is a world of its own in most ways like many big cities are. It's not at all representative of what the rest of England is like. Which cities are you visiting?

Manchester vs. London accent - there are indeed some subtle and distinct differences, but this will not be very noticeable to the untrained ear. Either show will help with tuning your ear to the accent, and also how some words are pronounced differently (basil, oregano, and aluminum / aluminium) over the pond, as well as some of the endearing turn of phrases and words used there. Goods are delivered by a lorry, not a truck. You ride a lift (elevator) between floors, you smoke fags (cigarettes), and cars have boots, not trunks. I heard the phrase "face like a cat's backside" for the first time over there, and it makes me chuckle almost every time I hear it.

Fuel is much more expensive than you are used to paying here, but the cars there are generally smaller and get better mileage. If you are just visiting London, you will not need a car at all. The Underground (MIND THE GAP), bus, and train system is very well organized and integrated, it should be all you will need to get anywhere in the city. Preload and use an Oyster card if you are going to be using the Underground a bunch. Saves a few "bob" and time - especially in the busier stations - purchasing tickets from machines / attendants.

As Boutrosboutros mentioned, London is kind of a place of it's own and not all that England is. It can be pricey, especially when dining out or depending where your hotel is situated, but if you have friends there they should be able to steer you right.
Make sure to visit some of the wonderful towns other than London - some of the friendliest people and coziest pubs in the world can be found there.


If traveling outside of London, most places can be reached by rail quite easily. Schedules are easy to read and follow, and when traveling by train, bear in mind that not all trains are equal. An express train will make fewer to no stops and get you to your destination quicker (even if leaving later) than a regular train that may make stops at every station along the line to drop and pick up passengers. The express train can cost more, but it isn't too much more and the there is value in time saved.

As mentioned in posts above, travel and medical insurance is an absolute must. As a general rule, purchase medical insurance for longer than your anticipated stay. If you are going for two weeks, get three weeks or a months worth of insurance. Just in case you take ill or have an accident in the last few days of your trip that temporarily prevents air travel back home as scheduled. Once the initial policy is purchased, it is not all that much more to tack on additional time as you see fit. A friend of ours had a diving accident that involved an ambulance, helicopter transfer to another hospital, and a hospital stay several days long. It was almost a week past his original return date before a doctor would green light him to fly back home. He had insurance, but did get a peek at the medical bills, and would have been crippled financially had he had to cover those costs personally.
If you plan to travel frequently, you may want to look into annual plans that allow a certain number of trips abroad, for a predetermined number of days. e.g. - travel outside of the country five times a year, for up to thirty days a trip.

Good luck, Bon Voyage, and enjoy England. It is a beautiful part of the world, and if your experiences there are at all like those of many who have travelled there for the first time, you will find it is more than you expected, you will not get to all the places you want to visit, see all that you want to see, and will find yourself looking forward to a return visit as you fly home.

 

[ladyinthelabcoa]

I definitely think fire breeze had the most solid advice.

Remember the UK is just more than London (it's like thinking New York City is representative of the entire US). Not sure how long or where you are staying, but I can definitely say if you can get out of London, do so! I've enjoyed some good times in Northern Wales, York and Warwick.

Like visiting any big city, use your common sense, don't do things that advertise "I'm a tourist!"- like unfolding a huge map in the middle of the street, taking constant photos, gawking and talking loudly, making ludicrous comparisons to things back home - I am reminded of the mortification of hearing a college-age American couple walk into a London MacDonald's and say, "Oh wow, finally, some real food" ).

I always took a small book of London maps, one that could be discreetly referred to with me and I also always had a small laminated tube map. Do not even fancy driving abroad and trying to navigate London yourself. The Tube is inexpensive (get an Oyster card if you are there for more than day or two!) and generally decently efficient.

Most of all, have fun! I miss being able to head over to the pond. Good times were had.

 

[Bottomlover]

Just to add another thing - make sure you drive a car a bit, and definitely seek out and drive through a magic roundabout.

 

[lighterman75]

In the words of Paul Kelly, "Every fucking city feels the same."

Every big city feels the same, Britain is full of mostly small cities each a little different once you get away from the high street and away from London.

 

[BertrandRussell]

With apologies to Firebreeze...

...Get travel...insurance...

Most travel insurance is a terrible bet. Make contingency plans instead.
( Often this is something as simple as never taking the last bus. Plan on the next-to-last bus. Then if something goes wrong, you can still get the last one. )

In my experience - from traveling as much as I reasonably can since the late 60's - most vacation-wrecking problems stem from small, easily solvable problems that become big problems because the traveler lacks either the time or the knowledge to solve them.

Suppose you attempt to check into your hotel, and the clerk says. "Expedia? We don't take reservations through Expedia. Sorry. We're full."
Do you know where nearby hotels are? Do you have their phone numbers? Do you know which bus to use to get there? Do you know how late the busses run?
It is amazing how much time you can waste trying to find such information at the last moment. As hotels fill up, and as bus lines terminate service for the night, and as darkness falls, your options become fewer and more difficult. What was an easily solvable problem becomes a night of sleeping on the benches of an Indian restaurant after paying the proprietor more than the cost of a hotel.

So have alternate plans.

...
[Know]...where the US consulate is (again, just in case)...

And bring crampons and a rope so that you can scale the consulate walls before the bobbies get you.

Seriously, this England we are talking about, not some third world country full of misguided savages. There is almost no problem that is going to arise that requires the assistance of the US Consulate staff. And if there were, they probably wouldn't do it for you. And in the zillion to one chance that there there were such a problem and the US bureaucrats would help you, the Brits are such jolly good chaps that they will give you directions and probably a lift.

...converter for anything that plugs into a wall. These are inexpensive in any travel shop.

It is a good idea to have one. But they are relatively expensive in a travel shop - as is almost anything in travel shops. They are much cheaper on the net.

 

[bob53]

Couple of things I did not see above:

Bonnet - Car hood
If you rent a car be sure to not to pass on the left. They are not as harsh as the US for speed enforcement but they do enforce passing on the left. Be sure to also move back to the left immediately after passing.

I never really had issues driving on the left but when I return to the US I keep wanting to drive on the left for a few days.

I am surprised no one above mentioned the Lake District or Chester.

Be prepared in Wales for everyone in the small towns to be speaking Welsh. They will readily revert to English. Also expect the road signs to be in Welsh.

The only thing that really irritated me were the road signs always mention the next town with no mention of the compass direction.
Take the little bit extra time when looking at the map to see what the next town is and not expecting to just go north on xyz road.
That issue has been to cause of my making a few extra rounds on rotaries while I got that detail sorted out.

 

[Scotsman69]

Do NOT ever

Assume that England is the UK. The UK consists of four very different countries, of which England is by far the biggest. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are quite different. And Edinburgh, boutrosboutros, is the capital of Scotland. Scots resent being called English as much as Canadians resent folk assuming they're from the USA.

Big cities yes. But England has loads of great small cities (Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh) and loads of fantastic tiny ones (Canterbury, Chester, York, Durham). I hate how people focus on London, though I suppose it's natural.



Don't get me started on road signs.

 

[lighterman75]

Assume that England is the UK. The UK consists of four very different countries, of which England is by far the biggest. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are quite different. And Edinburgh, boutrosboutros, is the capital of Scotland. Scots resent being called English as much as Canadians resent folk assuming they're from the USA.

To add, the Welsh dont like being called English either.Some Cornish folk try and put out the idea that they are a separate nation. They arent, but they do have their own version of a Celtic language, closely related, I think to Welsh, and Gaelic.

I once spent an entire night offending a Canadian (deliberately) by "accidentally" confusing Canada and USA, after he kept calling me English. He got the message in the end. Try not to make that mistake, if in doubt, go for British as that covers all of it, apart from the Irish.

For clarification and or more confusion, there is a wikipedia page that explains the difference between UK, Britain, British, British Islands etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminology_of_the_British_Isles

In my next post, I should probably attempt to describe the rules of cricket, and the offside rule. They are far more straight forward....

 

[fire_breeze]

With apologies to Firebreeze...



Most travel insurance is a terrible bet. Make contingency plans instead.
( Often this is something as simple as never taking the last bus. Plan on the next-to-last bus. Then if something goes wrong, you can still get the last one. )

In my experience - from traveling as much as I reasonably can since the late 60's - most vacation-wrecking problems stem from small, easily solvable problems that become big problems because the traveler lacks either the time or the knowledge to solve them.

Suppose you attempt to check into your hotel, and the clerk says. "Expedia? We don't take reservations through Expedia. Sorry. We're full."
Do you know where nearby hotels are? Do you have their phone numbers? Do you know which bus to use to get there? Do you know how late the busses run?
It is amazing how much time you can waste trying to find such information at the last moment. As hotels fill up, and as bus lines terminate service for the night, and as darkness falls, your options become fewer and more difficult. What was an easily solvable problem becomes a night of sleeping on the benches of an Indian restaurant after paying the proprietor more than the cost of a hotel.

So have alternate plans.




And bring crampons and a rope so that you can scale the consulate walls before the bobbies get you.

Seriously, this England we are talking about, not some third world country full of misguided savages. There is almost no problem that is going to arise that requires the assistance of the US Consulate staff. And if there were, they probably wouldn't do it for you. And in the zillion to one chance that there there were such a problem and the US bureaucrats would help you, the Brits are such jolly good chaps that they will give you directions and probably a lift.



It is a good idea to have one. But they are relatively expensive in a travel shop - as is almost anything in travel shops. They are much cheaper on the net.

While I absolutely stand by on having a trip-cancellation insurance (aka travel insurance) and knowing where the consulate is (I never said going in there). Having travel insurance allowed me to return quickly and have my trip refunded several times due to unforeseen family illness and deaths prior (and during) my trip -when many airlines do not refund the tickets - and it paid for 3 days of clothes when my luggage was late (not to mention when my travelling companion, who has travelled extensively, got pick-pocketed of his wallet in the safe part of Baltimore; knowing where the consulate was enabled him to get a passport and credit card replacements), I complete agree with you and will emphasise your point on having a contingency plan and NOT to panic if something goes awry.

You have hit it square on the head: Be informed. I think that is the number one travel rule if you go anywhere. Be informed and use your head.

 

[Scrubber]

I'd be happy to give some specific comments if you let us know whereabouts you are thinking of visiting, or, alternatively, the type of thing you would like to do or see.

 

[LallyH]

Minor things to bear in mind....

Free refills of soft drinks isn't the norm in the UK
Queueing is
Tipping is not mandatory but polite, and usually 10% of the total bill
Public transport timing is not to be relied on and is subject to cancellation at short notice, so have a plan b

 

[boutrosboutros]

Assume that England is the UK. The UK consists of four very different countries, of which England is by far the biggest. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are quite different. And Edinburgh, boutrosboutros, is the capital of Scotland. Scots resent being called English as much as Canadians resent folk assuming they're from the USA.

Tee hee. That was a typical Englishman thing to say, wasn't it? I'm actually half Scottish. Blame it on a brain fart.

 

[midlandsfun9999]

Tipping is much more dependent on service too. Don't tip poor service.

If you hire a car you can only overtake on the right. And drive on the left but I guess you know that.

Manual gearboxes are more common than automatics so make sure you get the right type!

Plenty of apps for tube maps etc in London.

Probably best to avoid London if you want to know what England/UK is really like, though London does have lots to offer!

 

[Scotsman69]

Celtic languages are complex

and no visitor to these isles need to grapple with the complexities, unless s/he's a linguist, and wants to. Most visitors have difficulty coping with the amazing variety of dialects of 'English' - hundreds - in a nation state smaller than most US states in area, though not in population.

But briefly, there are five living Celtic languages that I know of: Galician (Spain), Breton (France), Welsh, Irish Gaelic, and Scots Gaelic. The two 'dead' ones are Cornish (Kernow) and Manx (Isle of Man.) They're 'dead' in that there are no longer any surviving speakers who learned the language from their cradle, though language enthusiasts in Cornwall and the Isle of Man are attempting to resurrect them.

Irish and Scots Gaelic are closely related, and speakers of either can communicate with each other, rather as Swedes and Norwegians can.

All the others, I think (I'm no expert), belong to a quite different, but still Celtic, language family. (One is P Celtic, the other Q Celtic, but I can never remember which is which.) I'm told that Bretons and Welsh can understand something of each other's languages, but with more difficulty than Scots and Irish. But Scots or Irish Gaelic speakers share only a few words, and fewer pronunciations, with Welsh speakers.

And on a final and different point, to confuse the visitor... 'our' monarch (I'm a republican, but a million miles from the US variety) is called 'Queen Elizabeth the Second'. She is undeniably QE II of England, and arguably of Wales and Ireland (which were effectively English colonies during the reign of Elizabeth I of England). But Scotland was a separate state and monarchy during her reign, so she was never monarch of Scotland. QE II is a gross historical mistake by the English establishment.

This fact is evident if you examine post boxes and PO vans in England and Scotland. In England they carry the letters 'E II R'. ('R' for regina, Latin for queen.)

In Scotland you will not find these letters on any postbox or PO van. This is because, shortly after the coronation in 1952 (I think...), when the first postboxes bearing 'E II R' were erected in Scotland, they were immediately blown up. Not terrorism, nobody was hurt, but red cast iron, and maybe a few letters, were blown to bits. After a couple more tries which had the same outcome, no postbox or PO van in Scotland has ever borne 'E II R'. The English establishment conceded to the undeniable historic fact that in their arrogance, they'd made a huge mistake.

I'm proudly Scots, but like most in the UK we're a mongrel nation, so I have English and Irish blood in me too. I know and love much of England, Wales and Ireland, and their people.

A warm welcome from me to any visitors to our curious and beautiful wee islands. I hope you'll all get as warm a welcome as I have received in many countries on five continents. And it's odd... when I take my kilt with me when travelling abroad, the welcome is even warmer...

You're all welcome here. But if you're a racist, it would be diplomatic not to let it show in Scotland. Some of my fellow-citizens have problems with that, and aren't as diplomatic as I am.

To add, the Welsh dont like being called English either.Some Cornish folk try and put out the idea that they are a separate nation. They arent, but they do have their own version of a Celtic language, closely related, I think to Welsh, and Gaelic.

I once spent an entire night offending a Canadian (deliberately) by "accidentally" confusing Canada and USA, after he kept calling me English. He got the message in the end. Try not to make that mistake, if in doubt, go for British as that covers all of it, apart from the Irish.

For clarification and or more confusion, there is a wikipedia page that explains the difference between UK, Britain, British, British Islands etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminology_of_the_British_Isles

In my next post, I should probably attempt to describe the rules of cricket, and the offside rule. They are far more straight forward....

 

[quietlylooking]

A warm welcome from me to any visitors to our curious and beautiful wee islands. I hope you'll all get as warm a welcome as I have received in many countries on five continents. And it's odd... when I take my kilt with me when travelling abroad, the welcome is even warmer...

I need to plan a trip to Scotland.

 

[Scotsman69]

You

are quite forgiven, laddie.

Tee hee. That was a typical Englishman thing to say, wasn't it? I'm actually half Scottish. Blame it on a brain fart.

 

[Scotsman69]

You do indeed.

You'll be made most welcome lass.

I need to plan a trip to Scotland.

 

[BertrandRussell]

Do NOT Assume that England is the UK. The UK consists of four very different countries, of which England is by far the biggest. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are quite different. And Edinburgh, boutrosboutros, is the capital of Scotland. Scots resent being called English as much as Canadians resent folk assuming they're from the USA.

English is a relative term. I'm currently on vacation in Amish country in Pennsylvania. Here, even I am English.

So are the Frenchmen who were here last month. The inkeeper says that they were not amused.


( And, yes, in case of emergency, I know where the nearest Indian restaurant is. )

 

[lighterman75]

Got to say, I didnt realise that about the postboxes. Everyday is a school day. When I've been there, I have never noticed it.

To add to the confusion, the Scots may be getting independence in next years referendum.

and no visitor to these isles need to grapple with the complexities, unless s/he's a linguist, and wants to. Most visitors have difficulty coping with the amazing variety of dialects of 'English' - hundreds - in a nation state smaller than most US states in area, though not in population.

But briefly, there are five living Celtic languages that I know of: Galician (Spain), Breton (France), Welsh, Irish Gaelic, and Scots Gaelic. The two 'dead' ones are Cornish (Kernow) and Manx (Isle of Man.) They're 'dead' in that there are no longer any surviving speakers who learned the language from their cradle, though language enthusiasts in Cornwall and the Isle of Man are attempting to resurrect them.

Irish and Scots Gaelic are closely related, and speakers of either can communicate with each other, rather as Swedes and Norwegians can.

All the others, I think (I'm no expert), belong to a quite different, but still Celtic, language family. (One is P Celtic, the other Q Celtic, but I can never remember which is which.) I'm told that Bretons and Welsh can understand something of each other's languages, but with more difficulty than Scots and Irish. But Scots or Irish Gaelic speakers share only a few words, and fewer pronunciations, with Welsh speakers.

And on a final and different point, to confuse the visitor... 'our' monarch (I'm a republican, but a million miles from the US variety) is called 'Queen Elizabeth the Second'. She is undeniably QE II of England, and arguably of Wales and Ireland (which were effectively English colonies during the reign of Elizabeth I of England). But Scotland was a separate state and monarchy during her reign, so she was never monarch of Scotland. QE II is a gross historical mistake by the English establishment.

This fact is evident if you examine post boxes and PO vans in England and Scotland. In England they carry the letters 'E II R'. ('R' for regina, Latin for queen.)

In Scotland you will not find these letters on any postbox or PO van. This is because, shortly after the coronation in 1952 (I think...), when the first postboxes bearing 'E II R' were erected in Scotland, they were immediately blown up. Not terrorism, nobody was hurt, but red cast iron, and maybe a few letters, were blown to bits. After a couple more tries which had the same outcome, no postbox or PO van in Scotland has ever borne 'E II R'. The English establishment conceded to the undeniable historic fact that in their arrogance, they'd made a huge mistake.

I'm proudly Scots, but like most in the UK we're a mongrel nation, so I have English and Irish blood in me too. I know and love much of England, Wales and Ireland, and their people.

A warm welcome from me to any visitors to our curious and beautiful wee islands. I hope you'll all get as warm a welcome as I have received in many countries on five continents. And it's odd... when I take my kilt with me when travelling abroad, the welcome is even warmer...

You're all welcome here. But if you're a racist, it would be diplomatic not to let it show in Scotland. Some of my fellow-citizens have problems with that, and aren't as diplomatic as I am.

 

[silverwhisper]

nitesiren, for how long will you be staying, and where? i think you'll get even more relevant suggestions with that information.

i've been to england only once, in 1998*, so anything i could possibly contribute has either already been addressed or is likely dated.

ed

*hell of a honeymoon!

 

[OldGitUK]

From my perspective of having been to the US more time than I can count and quite a few different places, east, west. I have found the differences going that way really very small so I cant see that the differences going from there to here are going to be any bigger.

I go to france a lot too and the differences are much bigger - completely different language for a start.

I went to Japan once - that was very interesting - most of the time I had very little idea of what the fuck was going on.

So in summary USA -> UK or the other way round is really no big deal.

Although the cost of filling your rental car with gas will probably freak you out