And the adventure begins!

We flew into London at about 11AM their time. Customs was shockingly simple and to be honest I had been worried about it from the before we even landed. With todays world issues, and President Trump making travel difficult for others, I had considered other countries making it uncomfortable for us as well. My hands were sweating as we rolled up to the customs officer with our carry on luggage and I was convinced that by that sheer fact alone, Id look suspect and need to be interrogated. "Her hands are sweating, she's clearly up to more then just visiting Loch Ness and taking selfies with Big Ben."
The reality is always much less interesting then my imagination and we sailed right through. The customs officer was very friendly and funny and we went through within minutes. He also humored me when I proudly declared how excited I was that the UK was my very first passport stamp! *Swoon*
We dragged our carryons out to our car and was met with a very talkative driver full of tips for our stay. I highly recommend Blackberry Cars.  Not only was our driver friendly and knowledgeable, the car was a well taken care of Mercedes and the price was very fair. Much lower then the traditional Black Cab, and although more then The Tube, much easier when dragging around multiple bags.
Our first stop was at our hotel, The Rubens At The Palace and I cannot say enough things about the hotel and staff there. They go out of their way to ensure your stay is perfect. From the doormen to the reception to the concierge. It was all amazing. Very clean with amazing views of The Royal Mews. Its located right across the street from Buckingham Palace and a short 10 to 15 minute walk to Big Ben and the London Eye.

We dropped our bags in the room and then wandered over to Big Ben. Its very busy in that area with tourists from all over the world and of course, the occasional British worker trying to make their way to and from work/home through the masses. 

We took our required Big Ben pics:

Fun fact: Big Ben is the giant bell inside; the tower is actually called Elizabeth Tower, but no one calls it that. :)

Big Ben and my head.

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Next up, we walked over to The London Eye. The view from the top of it is amazing and its considered the number 1 paid attraction in London with about 3.5 million visitors a year. If its a clear day, they say you can see as far as Windsor Castle on it. 

Fun fact: Model Kate Moss has ridden it 25 times! 

A stow-away.

Next, as it was getting dark, we found our way to the pub The Two Chairmen. Its claim to fame, is its one of the oldest working pubs in Westminster, London. The name comes from the two men who would be hired to carry the wealthy through the streets of smelly, muddy, dirty London on sedan chairs. Across the street from the pub was a theater called the Royal Cockfight, where the wealthy would bet on cock fights. The chairmen would wait for their next fare across the street at the pub and then when called, two chairmen would pick up their next passenger and off they would go!
Its believed that yelling, "Chair Ho" was how the upper class would attract their attention and resulted in the word, "Cheerio", heard today.

The staircase in the Two Chairmen.

 Tha bar in the Two Chairmen

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First Fish & Chips with peas.

Outside of the Two Chairmen

We ended our day at the hotel with some amazing tea and cookies! Only day 1 of 21 total days on our Whistle Stop tour of the UK!

Home Away From Home

     
    So last post I talked about our flights and how we get them cheaper. Not cheap, but cheaper. But that was due to my love of direct flights. Today, I thought I'd talk about our stays! I started booking them a year ago as well. Can you see the theme here? Again, I was told, ITS TOO SOON! YOURE CRAZY! However, I was able to use that time to find some interesting places and not just last minute, here's whats available type places. And since we know no one in the UK...its obvious we have to book somewhere, everywhere. I had a lot of different ideas for where to stay in all our destinations. Some I wanted for the experience, others for the location, and yet others cause they were inexpensive. Let me break them down by area:
Ireland
The very first place I booked for our entire trip was actually for our stay in Dublin! The criteria here was:

1. Close to sights; preferably walking distance to many.
2. Inexpensive
3. Provide a "Ireland" daily life feel.

This was my luckiest find. I found it on Air BnB after scouring tons of websites. The reason it stood out to me is that it has a balcony overlooking Patrick St and is right down the road from St Patricks Cathedral. Its also within just a few miles of Temple Bar and Ha'Penny Bridge, as well as the Guinness Storehouse. Since we will be there during the St Patricks Day festival, and the parade comes down Patrick St, its the perfect spot to watch the parade from. Right on the balcony!

Photo Credit: www.AirBNB.com

Next up is our stay in Waterford, Ireland. This choice was a little bit more about my long time fantasy to live in the medieval ages and be a proper lady. :) Staying in a castle at some point was also on the list of must do's, so I chose Waterford Castle in Waterford. It sounded lovely! You have to cross Kings Channel to get to it, as it sits on a 310 acre private island. Its a 16th century castle! Whats not to love? 

  

Last for Ireland is our farm cottage stay in Fermoyle. The criteria here was that it be close to Cliffs of Moher, and be inexpensive. I found this stay pretty randomly. I stumbled across it on www.tripadvisor.com while searching an area south of it. Its cute, charming, and what my imagination thinks any good farmhouse in Ireland should look like. Meet, Fermoyle Farmhouse, our 350 year old cottage for 1 night.

Northern Ireland

For Belfast, the criteria was also pretty simple:

1. Close to sights

2. Inexpensive

I found our stay here because I was entertained by the idea of staying somewhere haunted. I know, I know. (I found one of my Scotland stays the same way.) The Dobbins Inn started its life in the year 1200 as a castle tower house. It has gone through some different stages, including being split up as 2 townhouses. The rumor is, its haunted by an early resident, who was having an affair, and upon her husband finding out, he murdered them both! 

Photo Credit: www.DobbinsInn.com

Scotland

The criteria for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland was:

1. Inexpensive

2. Scottish feel 

3. In old town

After relentlessly searching the internet for stays in Edinburgh, I located a flat in old town Edinburgh via www.EmbraceScotland.com Its a self-catering flat, close to the castle and other areas we want to see and I felt like this might be one of the closest ways to feel like I live there. Which is always my goal. Apparently this building was a 18th century coaching inn frequented by the cities candlemakers. Love that history!

Photo Credit: www.tripadvisor.com

Next was our stay in the Highlands for 2 nights. I didnt have too much criteria for it to meet except inexpensive. I stumbled across our stay here, the same way I found the Dobbins Inn. Looking at haunted locations. :) I'm pretty excited to meet the ghost of the Green Lady they say hangs out there, and it also checked off castle stay as well! So we get two castles! Yuuus! Queue me pretending to be a lady of Downton Abbey or, since we are in the highlands, queue me preparing to touch stones to see if I can travel back in time like Outlander. The stay in the Highlands is in Dingwall in the 12th century Tulloch Castle. 

Photo Credit: Tulloch Castle

England

And last but certainly not least our stays in lovely London. London is the first and last legs of our trip. Criteria for London was:

1. Location

2. Location

3. Location

We will be at The Rubens at the Palace on the first leg. Its right next to Buckingham Palace, with some rooms overlooking the palace. I'm super excited about this stay, also thanks to its great central location and close access to the things we want to see. 

Our last stay in London will be The Eccleston Square Hotel. Its a tech nerds dream. It comes with a iPad for use, walls of glass that you can swipe to make clear or opaque, etc.

All in all...I'd say I found some great places to be! Some have romantic histories, some have murdererous histories, some are haunted, and some are super modern. They all appeal to me in their own their way and I cant wait to explore and share them all!

Up, Up, And Away

Okay! You've done your research and decided you want to fly to London Heathrow from Seattle, WA in March of 2017. You start looking for flights. You know you want a non stop cause you want to be there as fast as the plane can get you there. Checking the normal sites like Expedia, Hopper, & Skyscanner, you see the prices vary from $800 per person to the sky's the limit. You want the best deal, so let me tell you about what we did to get a pretty decent deal on our flights.
We opened a British Airways Credit Card a year prior to booking our flights. We basically ran every single bill we could through it to earn over 100,000 Avios. Since they are bills we have to pay normally, why not?
Avios are the same as miles with other cards. With this card, you earn 1 Avio for every $1 spent. We earned our extra rewards as well, such as a bonus 50,000 Avios when spending $3000 in the first 3 months and a "free travel together" ticket for spending over $30,000 in the first year that is good for up to 2 years. Travel together is a ticket where when you purchase one ticket, you get the second for "free" when you book the same flight and seating. The reason I say "free", is that unfortunately, you still get to pay British Airways super high taxes and fees for the ticket. More on that in a bit though.

So lets show an example of how I saved $600+ on our tickets. Right now, if you look at their website, for the same dates I chose, you see this result:

                                                                                                                              A total of over $1900 for both flights. When I originally booked about a year ago, it was over $2400. By using avios points to pay for my flight and using our travel together ticket, we got the flights themselves for FREE. We do still have to pay taxes and fee, however. That totaled about $1300. Now, I know what you are thinking...that's still kinda high! I agree, if you are just looking for the cheapest flight possible with layovers and odd times. Lets look at that next.
Please keep in mind, that I booked us on a direct flight, no layovers, with more ideal times to arrive and leave. No late night departures, or 3AM arrivals.
I took a peek at Expedia, putting in the same criteria and filtered by cheapest flights.  I've also used some of my other favs, such as Hopper, and SkyScanner with similar results. Here's what I got for cheapest:

                                                               



Not only is it $300 more, it also has a 2 hour layover in San Francisco. I don't know about you all, but I tend to avoid layovers if it can be helped. I want to get to my destination quickly!
I know credit cards aren't everyone's favorite thing, but in this case it helped us get the flight we wanted with no layovers, for at the very least $300 or more in savings. The Avios can also be used for hotels and rental cars, with rental cars being a really good value. I'll speak more on that on another post.
Last, lets talk about taxes and fees. British charged me $680 per person, so that's about what it was per person per flight. When I compare to other carriers, they tend to be higher on British. I wish I could say why. Maybe their food will be better? One can hope.
Let me know your thoughts! Do you use a travel rewards card you love?