Our adventure to the United Kingdom began with an invitation to a wedding in Wales, UK. We had traveled to Shrewsbury, England, once before and never forgot how much we loved driving through Wales and the small country roads, with their high hedges, little pubs, and small inns. This current trip was going to be just as exciting.
We travel to the United Kingdom very rarely due to both a crushing currency exchange rate (currently, the dollar loses about a third of its value once you step into the UK) and a prohibitive departure tax of a shocking $211 each for non-revenue passengers.
Our visit began with an excellent flight on Virgin Atlantic Airways from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Manchester Airport (MAN), followed by a very efficient train directly to the city center, and a perfectly situated Marriott Hotel right next to the train station.
We didn’t really experience Manchester on this trip, and once we arrived, we took a one-hour train ride from Manchester to Liverpool on the Trans Pennine Express. This journey can be easily booked on the National Rail website. We must point out that a very valuable suggestion for using trains in the United Kingdom is to buy either a Single Senior Passenger Pass or a Two-Person Passenger Pass, each costing £ 35, which provides a 33% discount on any train in the UK for a year; this makes traveling by train so much more affordable.
Once Maureen and I arrived in central Liverpool, we were very impressed to find that the city is extremely walkable, with what seem to be pedestrian walkways fanning out across the entire central city area. We walked the entire pedestrian zone to what is known as the Royal Albert Dock, an area featuring numerous restaurants and bars overlooking the Mersey River. We got the impression after talking to several locals that Liverpool is being gentrified, whether they like it or not. You see many beautiful older buildings, as well as many newer buildings with futuristic designs, right next to each other.
As you would expect, there was a “Beatles influence” throughout the entire city. We did not visit the famous Cavern Nightclub because it is not the original Cavern Club, but rather a rebuilt version of it.
Upon returning to Manchester, we were disappointed to find that there are virtually no restaurants open in the city after 9 p.m., except for a few fast food establishments.
The next day, we took a train on the Great American Train Line, which made 17 stops, to the famous Welsh city of Cardiff. Cardiff is a beautiful, modern, and very low-key city, with pedestrian walkways everywhere and numerous restaurants, bars, and shops.
One area of the city that we particularly loved was Cardiff Castle, located right next to Bute Park. Both of these were beautiful places to visit, and we ended the day by taking a boat cruise out to the Cardiff Bay Area, an entertainment zone close to the ocean with many restaurants and bars, complete with the Wales Millennium Center. This area is approximately 1.5 miles from the city center.
To travel to the venue for the wedding, we passed through the famous Welsh town of Swansea, a beautiful college town that is just elegant to drive or walk through and has many beaches. The wedding took place in a small town on the other side of Swansea, called Gower, and again, the scenery featured lush foliage and beautiful single-lane roads.
We found the people in Wales to be extremely small-town, loving, charming, friendly, welcoming, and accommodating people, and this attitude should never be surrendered to the rest of the world. This is a unique area of the world.
We need to talk about the wedding. Seemingly, weddings in Wales are of a 12-hour duration, and this wedding began at noon and ended close to midnight. This wedding was similar to those in the Midwest, where food is served in courses without interruption of music and dancing, but what is so different is that once the main reception dinner was over, there was about a 1.5 hour “halftime”, and following this “halftime”, the music and dancing lasted until midnight. Guests who were not invited to the reception joined the post-dinner party to enjoy the dancing and music.
On our final day, we took a nonstop train from Cardiff back to London’s Paddington Station. The trip takes anywhere from 2 to 2.5 hours, and again, using our discount card, you can either take the Heathrow Express or the brand-new Elizabeth Subway Line to Heathrow Airport. The difference in fare between the two train lines is the number of stops each train makes; the Heathrow Express is a nonstop, direct train to London Heathrow, taking 15 minutes.
At London Heathrow Airport most hotels have given up their hotel buses since the Pandemic, and it’s a disaster going from the airport terminals to the hotels. You have a choice of public transportation that is inexpensive, but you may have to lug luggage to the upper deck of the bus and the bus may be over crowded, or you can take the Hotel Hopper Bus at 7 pounds per person which arrives every hour or half hour and is very crowded, or a taxi with a minimum charge of what I believe is approximately 21 pounds.
Here is the issue: you cannot determine, or want to take the chance, of not having some reliable transportation back to the airport. The cost of an Uber back to the airport from the hotel (1.8 miles away) is an astounding £49 ($66) and as high as £71 ($96). The hotels themselves recommend a company called ‘WeKnow’ (bus), which is a lot less expensive at £10 per person. But for another £6, you can have a private ‘Uber-like’ car to the airport from the hotel ($35). Again, the Hopper Bus brings passengers to the airport from hotels either once every half hour or once every hour, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to get onto the bus, and this is the same for public transportation. You cannot walk to the terminals, and due to this transportation issue, we would not recommend staying at a hotel near London Heathrow. If you’re worried about missing your flight, the problem begins at your hotel, way before you get to the airport. There is a Hilton Garden Inn within the airport next to Terminals 2 and 3, if a reservation can be secured at this hotel.
