Keep Calm and Pack Bags

Returning to Britain After 31 Years - Sticker Shock

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving."
Lao Tzu

The Journey Begins

If you're reading this, you are probably aware of our love of travel and adventure.

Usually, we prefer to travel during what used to be called the "off season." Unfortunately, the off season has changed considerably since COVID. More and more people are travelling at what used to be the quieter times of year, and the end result is that prices have risen considerably over the last few years.

When I - or should I say we - haven't gone anywhere in a while, I get antsy. Myrna, not quite as much. I scroll through posts from some of my Facebook friends who are off in faraway places and find myself wondering why I'm not somewhere else.

That said, I never envy people who travel in summer when schools are closed. That period is off limits for us. We haven't taken a major trip during the summer in recent history, and we're quite happy to leave that particular season to everyone else.

This time around, we're heading to England and Wales, leaving home on Labour Day and travelling during what used to be the shoulder season. There is a reason we're leaving on Labour Day, and I'll get to that later.

We fly to London on September 8th, arriving early on the 9th. After two nights in London, we hit the pavement and begin our road trip. Actually, we'll be hitting the pavement in London right from the start, since "pavement" is British for sidewalk, and we will definitely be doing plenty of walking.

On Day 3, we'll pick up our rental car at Heathrow. The last thing we want to do is drive out of London, especially after the experience we had 31 years ago! From there, we'll try to stay off the motorways whenever possible. We much prefer the scenic roads, even if they take a little longer and occasionally lead us somewhere we hadn't planned to go.

The Route link above gives you a bird's-eye view of our approximate path. I say approximate because anyone who knows us knows that our routes have a tendency to change once we are actually on the road.

Our major destinations this time are the Cotswolds, Wales, Liverpool and Manchester.

The Cotswolds will give us a few days to get reacquainted with England. Wales is a bit of a side trip - and a secret one at that. We're heading to Aberdyfi to surprise our two good friends that you may have read about in earlier trips. Shhhhh! But , in the end, we might get the surprise ... more to come.

From Wales, we'll make our way to Liverpool for two Hard Days Nights following in the footsteps of the Fab Four. From there, we'll have a one-night stand in Blackpool, which I've always thought of as something of the Coney Island of the British Isles.

Then, it's on to Manchester for two nights, where we'll walk the cobblestones of Coronation Street and explore a little more of the city.

After Manchester, we have two days to make our way back toward Heathrow. Cambridge is currently on the map, but those two days are very much TBD. Nothing is set in stone, and that's exactly how we like it. We'll see where the road takes us.

We'll return the rental car around 6:00 PM on the 22nd and spend our final night at the airport. Our hotel is right at Heathrow, which means that on the morning of the 23rd, all we'll have to do is walk to the terminal for our early flight home.

Why Labour Day?

There is actually a good reason we're leaving home on Labour Day.

Last summer, I bid on - and won - a gift certificate at the Lakeshore General Hospital Foundation Golf Tournament silent auction. The prize was one night, including breakfast, at the Montreal Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel.

It turns out to be a pretty good way to start an international trip.

Our flight doesn't leave until 6:40 PM the next day, but being able to stay right at the airport means we don't have to deal with the traffic getting to Montreal-Trudeau on Tuesday morning. And traffic around the airport has been horrendous lately with all the construction. In my experience, the Tuesday after Labour Day is one of the worst traffic days of the year. It's as though everyone suddenly gets back on the road at the same time after the summer.

So instead of fighting the traffic, we'll have a leisurely morning, enjoy the hotel, have breakfast and a relaxing lunch at the hotel's Bijou restaurant and, if the stars align, make use of a couple of airport lounge passes we have.

We were originally going to pay for a late checkout from hotel, but decided we'd put that money to better use and enjoy lunch instead. Not a bad way to begin a trip.

A New Look

If you've seen one of our trip blogs before, you'll certainly notice a big difference this time.

With a little help from AI — mostly ChatGPT — I (or should I say we) redesigned the entire navigation and flow of the blog. The goal was to make it easier to follow the trip as it unfolds, while still keeping the personal, photo-heavy style that has always been part of our travel journals.

The one thing that will look familiar is that I'm still using SmugMug to host most of our pictures and short videos. The Picture Galleries link at the top of every page will take you to the galleries, with a separate gallery for each destination and another one for some of the short videos.

Another new addition, and one that will hopefully be appreciated by our French-speaking readers, is the Translate to French button at the top of each page. The translation is provided through Google's website translation service. While it isn't always perfect (and occasionally produces something that makes me scratch my head), it has improved considerably over the years. The translations seem to do a much better job of understanding the context of a sentence rather than simply translating each word individually. So even when my English doesn't make perfect sense, there's a pretty good chance the French version will!

But there is something more important about these blogs that hasn't changed at all.

As in the past, these online travel journals are really for us. They give us a place to record where we've been, what we've seen, and — perhaps most importantly — the little things that happened along the way that we might otherwise forget.

Someday, when our travelling days are behind us, we'll be able to sit back and revisit these adventures. We'll have the pictures, the stories and the memories all in one place, and hopefully be able to reminisce about the days of yore.

That's really what these travel journals are all about.

So, if you've followed our previous adventures, welcome back. And if this is your first one, welcome aboard. We hope you'll enjoy coming along for the ride.

And Then There Was the Sticker Shock

Of course, before any trip can begin, somebody has to pay for it.

And that brings us to what I've been calling the Sticker Shock part of our trip planning.

It started with the airfare.

On the surface, airfare to London can look surprisingly inexpensive. But that attractive price is usually for the bare-bones fare. No checked baggage, no refunds and no changes allowed.

Now that we are seasoned travellers - and by "seasoned," I mean old - booking non-refundable flights or accommodations is a little too risky for us. Securing our air transportation was therefore our number one priority.

And we have yet to figure out how to travel for more than a couple of days without checked luggage. Myrna is not exactly what you would call a light traveller, while my carry-on is usually packed with electronics - laptop, drone, cameras, tripods and enough chargers to power a small village. Between the two of us, travelling light remains one skill we have yet to master.

So, for flexibility and to avoid getting to get nickeled and dimed for checked luggage and seat selection, we upgraded to the Air Canada Flex fare.

The total cost came in just under $3,900 CAD for the two of us. Had we wanted to fly Business Class, the fare would have been close to $12,000. That's roughly $1,000 for every hour we're in the air.

Needless to say, we'll be flying regular Economy - but with the up-charged Flex fare.

UPDATE - Thanks to a wonderful friend, we were gifted a Status Pass. This means that our flights will now include priority Check-in, Security Clearance and Baggage Handling and Boarding. It also includes access to the lounge in both airports. What a great gift!

The second dose of sticker shock came with accommodations, especially in London.

Our "modest" hotel, the Ampersand in South Kensington, was chosen primarily because of its location. It's close to the Piccadilly Tube line, which gives us a direct connection to Heathrow when we arrive and will make getting around London much easier.

The price looked quite reasonable when quoted in British pounds. Then I converted it to Canadian dollars.

Suddenly, it didn't look quite so reasonable. Two nights came to more than $1,300 CAD.

Apparently, there is no longer much of an off season in London.

Renting a car presented another challenge.

I actually considered renting an electric vehicle. We've been driving EVs at home for more than four years, and an electric rental would also guarantee that we wouldn't end up with a manual transmission.

After driving in one-pedal mode for several years, I have a feeling that driving on the "wrong" side of the road, with three pedals under my feet and a gearshift in my left hand, might be a little overwhelming. I'm pretty sure my brain would have enough to deal with just figuring out which way to turn!

In the end, we went with Budget. The prices we were seeing from companies such as Enterprise and Avis were considerably higher, and it looks like we'll come in at under $1,000 for the 12 days we'll have the car.

I'm sure Budget will try to sell me every possible form of insurance when I pick up the car. We'll see how that goes.

And so, with flights booked, hotels reserved, a rental car arranged and the first hints of sticker shock already behind us, we're ready to go.

England and Wales, here we come.

And, as always, we'll see where the road takes us.

Special Note