United Kingdom Travel Guide

We’ve traveled around the UK a few different ways, from weekends in London to road trips through Scotland, Wales and the Cotswolds. Having a car has taken us well beyond the cities, which is how we ended up walking down to Three Cliffs Bay in December, driving through the Scottish Highlands and spending New Year’s Eve in the Cotswolds.

This United Kingdom travel guide brings together everything we’ve written so far. London has its own hotel guides, Scotland covers our road trip from Edinburgh into the Highlands, and our newest section covers three winter days in South Wales. We’ll keep adding to each region as we go back.

London

We’ve been to London several times, and where you stay makes a big difference in how much of the city you can cover. It’s one place where we’re happy to leave the car behind and walk or use the Tube instead. With so many neighborhoods to choose from, we’d rather pay attention to location than spend part of every day getting across the city.

Our London guides are still growing, but we’re starting with where to stay, including the neighborhoods we’d look at for a first trip and hotels at different price points. Read our Where to Stay in London guide →

Wales

We spent three nights in South Wales right after Christmas, using Cardiff as our base. We spent time in the city, drove out to the Gower Peninsula for Three Cliffs Bay and stopped at Castell Coch and Abergavenny on our way out of Wales.

Cardiff worked well as a base because we could walk around the city when we wanted to stay close and still have the car for the coast. Three Cliffs Bay ended up being our favorite morning of the trip, even in December. If you’re deciding whether South Wales is worth adding to a UK trip, start with our Wales Travel Guide.Read our Wales Travel guide →

Scotland

Our Scotland trip took us from Edinburgh into the Highlands by car. Edinburgh gave us the city part of the trip, then we headed north through a completely different side of Scotland. Having a car gave us the freedom to stop along the way instead of building the trip around train routes.

For now, our Scotland road trip is together in one guide, from Edinburgh into the Highlands. We’ll split Scotland into separate destination sections as we add more from the trip. Read our Scotland Travel guide →

The Cotswolds

We arrived in the Cotswolds after leaving Wales and spent New Year’s there. It was the last part of a winter road trip that had taken us from the Netherlands through France and Wales before continuing into England.

Our first Cotswolds guide covers that New Year’s trip, including where we stayed and what New Year’s Eve was actually like. We’ll add more of the villages and places we stopped as we build out this section. Read our Cotswolds Travel guide →

Know Before You Go: United Kingdom

Best Time to Visit
There isn’t one best season for the whole UK. We’ve traveled here in winter and at other times of year, and the w

Currency
British pound (£).

Language
English. Welsh is also an official language in Wales and appears on signs throughout the country.

Driving
Cars drive on the left. We usually travel around the UK by car, especially when we want to get outside the cities. If you’re bringing your own car from continental Europe like we do, remember that the steering wheel will be on the opposite side from most UK cars.

Getting Around
You don’t need a car for London. For trips like the Gower Peninsula, the Cotswolds and the Scottish Highlands, we prefer having one. It lets us stop where we want and makes traveling with Rex much easier.

Travel Tip
Don’t underestimate driving times once you get outside the cities. Smaller roads can make a relatively short distance take longer than you expect, so we don’t plan UK road-trip days based on mileage alone.