Scotland 2015

Happy New Year!!

So after much discussion, we've finally decided what our next big trip back to Europe is going to be! Anyone who knows either one of us knows how irrevocably we both fell in love with Scotland. So we're going back! Originally, we were debating another three week trip across northern Europe (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, etc). But doing a different country every two days is exhausting!

So! We've decided to rent a car and drive ourselves all over Scotland, England, and Wales for 3 weeks! Because really-what's the worst that could happen to two blonde girls from America driving on the wrong side of the road LOL.

Everyone is always asking how we plan out our epic vacations. There's so much planning that goes into them! We're going to be documenting the entire planning process between now and then right here on our blog.

The hardest part is trying to decide where it is that we want to go-because there's so many places that we haven't been yet, and a few places that we've visited before but would love to do again. Now that we have that settled, we can begin the planning!

I came across this great website called Secret Scotland that specializes in driving itineraries. You select the number of days that you'd like to go for, and the areas that you'd like to visit, and they'll show you complete itineraries. We took the leap and bought the Scenic 12 Day Tour itinerary. It has lots of  time in the Highlands (which we both wanted) and goes to lots of places that we've never been to before.

The itinerary is AMAZING. Its 146 pages long, and extremely thorough. It provides us with driving directions for the entire trip. It offers several itineraries to do on each day. Lots of "off the beaten path" stops, detours, and scenic routes. In other words, lots of options for each day. They also list lots of options for meals (all tested by them), and little shops that we'd never know about. Tips to avoid the "touristy" routes. The best times to see certain attractions.

By purchasing our itinerary through them, we also had the option to purchase an accommodation list, which is full of bed & breakfasts and specific to the route that we're taking. Hotels and restaurants don't have the option to "buy" their way onto these itineraries either, and they've all been tested and visited by Secret Scotland. There are even a few places noted that I've seen that have mentioned "less than stellar" service or staff-and they tell you this-but worth it for_____.

So, for the Scotland leg of our trip, here is a picture of the proposed route:

We'll be flying from Newark Int'l Airport (EWR) into Glasgow to begin. United offers nonstop service for this flight-it's the same flight that we took over there last time. From Glasgow, the highlands begin after about an hour drive. Since neither of us were really fans of Glasgow, I'm thinking that we'll probably just skip it and head north right from the airport. This will also give us an extra day in Edinburgh.

For now, we're both analyzing the itinerary and where it's taking us, and organizing it into stuff that we'd both like to see, places that we want to make a priority.

Vanessa will not leave the country until we make it to the Museum of Fire in Edinburgh. It contains the history of the first municipal fire brigade in Europe. It's so old that they still have the stables on site for the horses that used to pull the trucks.

 I really want to make it out to the Wallace Monument, dedicated to William Wallace-better known as Braveheart. It's located out in Stirling, which we'll be going through. Score!!

Anyway, that's enough for now. Check back soon-we'll be narrowing down routes and choices, trying to figure out what kind of car we can live with (because Vanessa doesn't like driving anything smaller than a Ford Explorer), analyzing the flight prices, and then planning out the rest of our trip after Scotland (England, Wales!).

XO,
Larissa & Vanessa

The Escorted Tour Experience.....Part One

We promised some more info about the escorted tour that we embarked on, so here it is!

The tour that we took was operated by CIE Tours, and they were amazing from start to finish. Prior to us booking through them, we had put down our deposits with MyGuideIreland. Larissa's mother and sister booked their trip a few years prior through them with no problem. A few weeks after we put down our deposit, we got an email saying that they were bankrupt, but that our deposit was paid to the supplier and all we had to do was pay off the rest of the trip direct to them. Several phone calls later, we were notified that they never handed over our deposit money. In the end, everything worked out because the deposit was paid on a debit card which we were able to charge back for a refund, plus we saved money by booking direct through the operator. But what a rough start.

Fast forward 15 months later. We're paid, packed, and ready to go (finally!!!!!!!). The week before we flew out, we were hit with Superstorm Sandy which wrecked NJ. When we left, there was still mayhem. Larissa got her power on two nights before we left, and Vanessa still had none. Newark Liberty Airport finally got power back a few days before we left, but we were left wondering if we were going to be able to get out for a bit.

From Newark, we flew nonstop to Glasgow, Scotland. CIE met us right outside of customs and transferred us to the hotel. The first night, we stayed at the Glasgow Thistle Hotel, which was very sleek & modern. We both got to the hotel and crashed for a few hours.  After that, we were off for some sightseeing around town, followed by a trip to Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. {if you're ever in the area and have the opportunity to visit, definately check it out!}. They had everything from a $20 million dollar Salvador Dali painting, to Egyptian Mummies and dinosaurs.

Nessie & the cows

oh hey! It's St. Patrick! in Scotland!

The $20 million dollar Salvador Dali painting that ate their entire budget one year.

After the museum, we had a group "welcome" dinner where we got to really talk and meet everyone for the first time. 

For day two, it was an early bags out day for the long trip up to the Scottish Highlands. We got to make a few photo stops-the highlands are absolutely STUNNING.

doesn't this look like a post card!!!

it took a few tries to get this photo without being photobombed by the two busloads of Asians who pulled up behind us.

 We also made a stop at the soldier's memorial.

We were both super pumped because this was the day that we got to to go Loch Ness. And the closer we got, the more abundant the Nessie merchandise became. And of course, we bought a ton of it.

Nessie with Nessie

Nessie hat? sure!!!!

Included in the tour was a cruise on Loch Ness. We were on the last one of the day, and with the sun setting, it was beautiful. 

my god was it freezing!!!

From Loch Ness, it was onward to Nairn for the night. We stayed at the Newton Hotel, which is this HUGE country estate. One downside to the escorted tours is that while we stayed at some pretty cool hotels, we get in late and leave early, without any time to really explore the grounds unless we had more than one night in a certain place.

They had yaks on their property. Larissa really wanted to run over there to pet them but we ran out of time :(

This was also the night that we got to try haggis for the first time with dinner. If you don't know what haggis is, go to google.com and look it up. This is what it looks like:

It looks like someone cracked open a can of dog food and arranged it pretty on a plate. Maybe they did-it tasted like dog food. I think Nessie's face sums up how it tasted (and for the record, we both sucked it up and tried it)

All of the above was just from out first two days in Scotland!! We have so much more for you, so check back soon!

And if you're interested in taking the tour, here's the link for their 2014 Taste of Scotland & Ireland: Tour Info

Til next time!

XO,

Larissa & Vanessa

Two Chicks Who Travel

The Many Perks of Autumn Travel

Hello Everyone!

Our favorite time of the year is beginning-FALL!!!!!! Cool weather, hoodies, apple cider, and pumpkin EVERYTHING! Autumn is our favorite time of the year to travel hands down. Almost every one of our vacations that we've taken together has been around this time of the year. 

Besides the fact that we both love the cooler weather, there is another reason that we travel later in the year, and that is cost. Typically, after Labor Day passes, vacation packages and hotels are cheaper since this is considered the "off season" in many places. We got an awesome deal on a 12 day Scotland & Ireland package last year. We booked the very last tour of the year that they operate which began on November 3rd. We were able to get it at their absolute lowest price and it worked out fantastic. The last tour of the year was $700 cheaper than going at their peak travel time in the summer months. On top of that, they offered a discount of $300 for paying off the tour in full within 30 days of booking. All together, we were able to save about $1000 per person, which we used to add another week and a half onto our vacation.

 When we first started kicking around the idea, we were both a bit nervous about going so late in the year with regards to the weather. We're happy to report that Scotland and Ireland are absolutely STUNNING in the fall!

Nessie at the beginning of our trek into the Scottish Highlands

Hanging out at the soldier memorial. One of the few pictures that we were able to take at this location that weren't photobombed!

Loch Ness. Stunning. Enough said.

The outskirts of Edinburgh.....the greatest city in the world!!

 One of our other favorite benefits of traveling during the fall is that it's significantly less crowded. There will always be tourists-but there's definately less, which means more time to see what we want to see and less time fighting the crowds.

Neither of us packed anything heavier than a light jacket, and that was fine the entire time. Even in Poland late November, it never got any cooler than 50 degrees.

Our next post is going to be featuring our absolute favorite city in the whole wide world.......EDINBURGH!!! Check back soon!

To Tour or Not to Tour

If you asked us a few years ago whether we would ever consider an “escorted tour” for travel, I think we would have shook both shook our heads and said “not a chance!” You see, patience isn’t exactly either one of our virtues. When we go out to explore, we have my own rhythm and pace that we've developed over the years-and it just so happens that a majority of the time, it’s quicker than everyone else’s. Group sightseeing has never been our thing. Prior to this particular trip, we've booked tours on vacation, only to either cancel them, or ditch the group and go off on my own.

So naturally, when we took the jump and booked escorted tour of Scotland and Ireland, we were a bit hesitant. The anxiety only worsened when once we delved into our research. 5am wake up calls? A strict schedule to stick to? Spending two weeks traveling on a bus with complete strangers? We weren’t getting that warm and fuzzy feeling that we normally got every time we’ve booked a trip. Worse yet, we convinced that this trip was doomed after our very reputable travel agent (whom Larissa's family has dealt with for years) went bankrupt after we paid my deposit, without forwarding our money to the tour operator. Did we mention that the agency was located in Ireland? This trip was turning into a disaster a year before we even departed.

So, all of these issues aside, let’s break down the escorted tour experience:

The Good: 

International travel is expensive, and since you’ve flown a few thousand miles, it stands to reason that you want to see as much as possible while you’re there. Escorted tours let you do just that.

The amount of cities and attractions that our tour operator managed to cram into 13 days was absolutely astounding. We saw more castles than we have fingers. We stopped in more cities than we've made it to in the several previous trips COMBINED. Our tour guides were world class-which is a huge compliment coming from us since we are not that easy  to impress. We even had multiple tour guides, and they join the tour in the area in which they specialized in. They knew exactly where all of the scenic areas are in between destinations, and we stopped pretty frequently to stretch out and take some pictures.

The Scottish Highlands from the beginning of our trip. Did we mention how friggin beautiful the entire country is?

Just about all of our meals were included in the tour, and what an experience they were. We were treated to everything from 5 star restaurants to authentic ethnic foods, and even to homemade, fresh-from-the-oven scones and jam. And for the non-adventurous eaters (ie. Those who aren’t fans of haggis), we were afforded many different options.

Accomodations on this tour were all 4-5 star hotels, and included sprawling estates, modern, big city hotels, and even a converted castle.

The bad:

Since one of the perks of escorted travel is getting to see so much, then the downside is that you’re giving up a large portion of your sleep time to get it done! On most days, we were awake sometime between 4-5am, with breakfast around 6am to be on the road for 630-7am. Did I mention that some nights, we didn’t get into the hotel until 9pm or later? The first few days are definitely the roughest since your body is still trying to function on US time.

Over the course of our two weeks, we covered several hundred miles via a luxury motor coach. It was by far the most luxuriously appointed, comfortable motor coach we've ever been on. But it was still a bus, and you were still trapped on it for several hours a day. To someone with a bad back like Larissa, we were very anxious going into the trip, but it wasn’t nearly as terrible as we thought it would be. But it’s still a bus. And you’re still trapped on it. A lot.

Our CIE bus for our two week tour

One of our many photo op stops

The ugly:

As we mentioned earlier, we have my own special pace, and it’s probably faster than yours. While we were given time to explore on our own much throughout the tour, we came to equate the parts where we were supposed to “stick together“ as torture. Not going to lie-we ditched the group more than once at some of the busier attractions.

The other biggest turnoff for us is that as a group, you have no choice but to rely on everyone else to be on time. Our days are planned out, as we found out the hard way, down to the minute. Our group was lucky enough to be blessed with “the purple sisters” as they became known for their neon purple jackets. They were late. Constantly. Every. Single. Day. They were so late one morning that we nearly missed our ferry-the only one of the day-which would have stranded us in Scotland with no hotel accommodations since we were due in Ireland that night. And even after we made the ferry by the skin of our teeth, guess who was late getting back on the bus to drive off of the ferry? Of course, none other than the purple sisters.

So, what’s the bottom line you ask? The verdict is that there is no way that we could have planned this trip out on our own and gotten to see as much as we saw, for as little as we spent. It was such a great feeling knowing that our gratuities were paid for, our meals were paid for, our attraction admissions were paid for. And we'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.  Just hopefully minus the purple sisters.

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to our new blog. As many if you know (or maybe you don't), we love to travel. It's a full blown addiction. We spend every penny on travel, and at any given time, we probably have two more trips booked. We're always fielding questions-like how can we afford to go to Europe for three weeks? How do you get the best deals on plane tickets? HOW THE HELL CAN YOU TWO AFFORD TO GO TO EUROPE FOR THREE WEEKS? We'll be answering lots of questions, and sharing our favorite spots with you.

We're still in the process of getting the blog up and running, so be sure to check back soon!

XOXO,
Larissa & Vanessa
two chicks who travel