A French's trip in the UK - advise/help !!

[Noggin]

Need a bit of help here cos, as a standardly boring brit, I've barely done anything touristy in the UK !!!

A mate of mine here is planning a trip over in August (ish, I think!). They have a relatively small car with a roof-top camping thing, so not a huge vehicle - lucky as a big part of the plan is to head to Scotland to do that route, is it the 500 ???


The poor guy has asked me if I have any info on -

camping places - apps to help with camping (they like the idea of friendly farmland camping, does that exist over there?)

Places to see/stay in that there Scotland

They want to go to Stratford, so advice on places to stay/camp and anything particular to see

Also, probably about the first stop (think they are arriving in Dover) - an overnight in London and what in particular to see in an afternoon, evening and next morning ? (I'd guess they'll have to park the car out of London and train in?).
What/where makes sense for a nice overnight in London?

They are probably late 20's/early 30's (I'm shit with ages!!) but definitely will enjoy stuff louder and livelier than I would!! LOL

Anywhere else en route to Scotland that they should stop and check out ??


Any advice at all would be useful as I've been as much use as a chocolate teapot so far !!!!


Oh, my mate speaks reasonable English (although I don't know for sure as we always speak French but some of the reps have told me he speaks English with them!) - not sure about his partner but I guess H can manage for them both

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

What sort of things do they like to do?
Have they been to Britain before?

[Taipan]

Wouldn't know where to start as thats a bit of a vague brief. So as cheesy says, we need more info. But if they know what places they are going, then they can check for sites and reviews on pitch up.

https://www.pitchup.com/

[Count Steer]

As mentioned, the brief is a bit wide. No mention of timescale either. Definitely a good idea to find a base outside London and train in for that part.

I did a figure-8ish trip round Scotland some years ago. Up the west coast, cut across to Ullapool, up to Cape Wrath/Durness/Smoo, along the top to Dounreay, cut the corner of and skipped John O'Groats then down along the lochs to Fort William and headed south, thinking of going to the lakes but just turned left around Carlisle iirc and headed across back to Newcastle. Never had a problem finding camp sites but, that was then.

Be an interesting one to pitch at one of these superduper AI/LLM thingybobs and see what marvels it comes up with!

[Bustaspoke]

It's hard to advise without more details.
How many days are they planning on staying?
What are their priorities?
If they're doing the North Coast 500 there are a few groups on FB where they will find advice.If they're going up the West coast in August tell them about the midges,there'll be lots of them...
What do they want to see in England en route to Scotland?
HTH

[Mussels]

Stratford????

[Buckaroo]

Stratford????

Upon Avon? Fronchies may like a bit of Will Shagspoke

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Stratford????

Upon Avon? Fronchies may like a bit of Will Shagspoke

Or maybe they like shopping centres, old Olympic sites and train stations.

[Buckaroo]

Good call

I forgot those places of interest.

[Dodgy69]

Avoid Stoke !

[Ditchfinder]

Make sure they know that 500kms in England will take much longer than in FR

[Sunny]

Avoid Stoke !

Or stop in and buy an oatcake and a KTM...

[ZRX61]

Did they not mention any interests at all? For all we know they may want to visit slaughterhouses & knocking shops.

[petrolpete]

I would suggest they visit Hartlepool and discover the history of the Monkey hangers....

[Taipan]

Did they not mention any interests at all? For all we know they may want to visit slaughterhouses & knocking shops.

Available as a personal tour guide to any Essex ones!

Taipans the name, debauchery is the game!

[Noggin]

Yup, you're right! I literally posted what he asked me - at least I know now it's not just my brain, there wasn't enough information

I will go back to him to ask for more info and come back ! (won't see him till the weekend or next week)

Thanx, hopefully can be more precise later

[Dodgy69]

The North Coast 500 route will be a nightmare in August. Motorhomes and cyclists everywhere. Hotels, Bnbs and pods will be hard to find , book ASAP. Camping might be OK.

There's so many places to visit, just tell them to go and have a good time.

[Supermofo]

There are a million beautiful/interesting places in the UK if you look. Maybe see if they can get a touring book of the UK that'll help them plan a route north via some nice bits. I've heard the NC500 has been a bit of a victim of it's own success and is a bit manic in summer especially some of the smaller passes. Accommodation can be pricy too, although camping will help.

From Dover itself you have Dover Castle which is well worth a visit, I'm not too clued up on Kent but parts of Folkstone are surprisingly nice, Rye is very nice, Whitstable is a decent stop off and has a train line straight into London. Then there is Canterbury which would make another decent place to stop.

London in a afternoon/evening/following morning will barely scratch the surface. I'd suggest they have a look at what they want to see and then plan around that. Pending where they go, I'd recommend walking half the time, often people get 2-3 packed tubes taking 20 mins for a 10-15 min walk above ground. Personally I'd avoid Leicester SQ/Oxford St etc unless they like touristy (shit) shops and LOTS of people. With London I find I can only manage an hour or so before I need to go to a pub for a pint to get away from all the people pissing about in my way. Something like the Tower of London (not going in cos that's hours alone), Tower Bridge and a walk down the South Bank is fairly nice and covers a fair few sites. Buck Palace is meh, and full of pedos , but the parks are nice esp in Summer.

Stratford on Avon is nice. Stratford is a massive shithole, I'd only go to see the not so mighty Hammers. Stratford on Avon is also in/near the Cotswolds and that's lovely. Going north from there you have the Peak/Lake districts on the way to Scotland. But I'm not clued up on the North, it's full of Norvorn Monkeys.

Some surprisingly nice places in Essex, but doubt they'll go that way so won't bother. Same with Suffolk/Norfolk coast.

Edit: Must be French books of a sort like this - Doh. Links didn't work! but
Lonely Planet Best Road Trips Great Britain
DK Road Trips Great Britain (Travel Guide)

[mboy]

How long have they got?

Cos not being funny, but unless they plan on spending 12hrs a day driving and not seeing anything, it’s 2days each way at least to get to the NC500 from the south of England, and you want to allow 5 to get round it… And August is PEAK tourist season (read motorhomes and buses blocking single track roads for hours at times!)…

If they’ve got anything less than 2 weeks in the UK, I wouldn’t bother going to do the NC500. They’ll miss too much other good stuff going past it, just to get there.

I’m 45 so these days not so clued up on nightlife anywhere, but purely in terms of nice places to see and experience then would recommend all of these are considered too… By the way, aside from Stratford on Avon being Shakespeare’s birthplace, it’s really rather dull and very little to do there aside from get into fights with locals (it’s VERY rough these days of an evening, you wouldn’t go out for a quiet drink in town on a Friday or Saturday night there!)…

-Northumberland… Way quieter than the Lakes, much cheaper, more to see, just avoid Newcastle really… Holy Island on a clear day is a sight to behold! And Kielder Forest is just epic…
-Scottish borders… Northumberland but posher, and with a different accent… Stunning place!
-Dumfries & Galloway… Like Devon but without the tourists… Absolutely stunning part of the world to see and explore! Also a gateway to…
-Norn Iron… Worth a trip on its own! Stunning place, so much history, beautiful scenery, friendly people, amazing food (combine with a trip to ROI for 2 weeks total id suggest)
-Wales… Pretty much all of it except for the M4 corridor… Stunningly beautiful country, the west coast has incredibly beaches, the interior has big hills to walk up.
-Cotswolds… Combine with Stratford on Avon… Very quaint and picturesque and lots of lovely pubs to sit in and soak up the atmosphere…
-Exmoor… Another stunning part of the country that’s much quieter than the usual haunts… Epic roads down there too!
-Devon & Cornwall are obviously stunningly beautiful too, but August down there can feel like all of London has decamped down there too (same for the Lake District), so would best advise visiting them in quieter months.

I’m off back up to Scotland in a few weeks, staying near Pitlochry just on the Southern edge of the Cairngorms and hoping to explore a bit more round there too, so hopefully will have a bit more of an opinion of round there soon too (only briefly flown through on a motorbike before).

I’m not really one for cities I’m afraid, but a newcomer to the UK could do worse than spend a day exploring Bristol and Bath for a nice day out…

[gremlin]

Whilst we're here, my mate Zark from the planet M'janth in the Nebular 54 system is visiting Earth soon. Anybody got any tips on what he should do/see?




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