Our Family Holiday to the UK 2003
London - York - Beamish - Shrewsbury - Banbury
We're back from the UK and boy did we have a great time!
Interested in what we did, where we did and what we discovered? Please either click this map (it's interactive) or look in the section below. We hope that you will be able to use this resource to help plan your own family trip this year or in the near future.
How We Set Up Our Trip Things to Bring On to Day 1 Back to the Y2KFAM Main Page
The WWW is a wonderful tool. We did virtually all our planning using it.
1. John picked the country while Linda and Christina picked most of the places to see. Virtually all the sites were family oriented, though later in the trip there were a few individual diversions.
2. John did virtually all the travel plans on the Internet (plane, cars, hotels, etc.). Plane fares were especially good to do. Using Washington DC to London as a base, John shopped for fares on a variety of internet sites. Fares were as high as $700 per person round trip, but John was able to get a fare for $315 per person with one stop in Montreal. A substantial savings!
3. John also downloaded all the maps needed from the Internet for the locations to be driven to during the trip.
The internet saved us $$$$ over travel agents and 3rd party vendors. We also used the internet to:
John also set up a 3 ring binder that had (in order) all of the reservation confirmation receipts, tour tickets and maps needed for the trip.
A Bank Check Card: Use your bank check card or credit card to make purchases. ATMs (or cash machines as they are known in the UK are everywhere. Cash machines are usable just like they are at home. We used our bank check card everywhere to buy things and have ready cash. The exchange rates are better and transaction fees are much lower than anywhere else.
A Cellular Phone: Get a cell phone that is GSM capable. GSM is the type of cellular system that is in use in 130+ countries (and the US to a large extent). John's new GSM cell phone was able to use the local French and British cell networks; it came in very handy especially for letting the bed and breakfasts know how late we were running!
A Power Converter: If anything to recharge your camera batteries or your cellular phone, it's a very useful tool.
Passports! Make sure your Passport is up to date- Remember, children's passports expire much earlier than adults!
On to Day 1 Back to the Y2KFAM Main Page
This page was last updated on 11/25/2003 through no fault of your own.