Be Excellent To Each Other

Hallo!

A chum and his fiancée are planning to travel around the UK on their honeymoon next year, and want some suggestions as to where to go and what to see. I have a few ideas of my own, of course, but I thought I'd ask you chaps as well, as hearing suggestions from people spread all around this bitch will probably be much more helpful. They want to be here for 1-2 weeks, start in the south and work up to Scotland (or stay in one place and take trains to various cities), see plenty of natural beauty, and aren't really interested in the usual touristy things like Big Ben and the Royal Guards, etc. They also like dubstep and want to stay in a castle with a fireplace for one night. What are your must-visit places in the UK, Beexers? Your must-avoid places? Any suggestions as to types of rail passes and reasonable lodgings?

Cheers!

Tell them to check out the National Trust website for places they can stay in for a night. These are generally awesome and involve fireplaces.

Scotland is fucking miles away from anywhere, and they play the bagpipes, but even with that considered it is 10000x better than wales.

They should deffo check out Middlesbrough, Colchester, Aldershot and Loughborough as these are the places in the UK with the highest concentration of scenic beauty and national history.

Avoid Bath, Oxford, Cambridge and Durham as they are shitholes.

Places to choose from in Scotland would probably be best kept to mainland so as to avoid complicated travel arrangement. Oban or Inverness way would be nice maybe planning the trip to take in a distillery which would make an interesting thing to do. The west coast of Scotland is gorgeous for scenery so I'd go for that side and probably Oban as it would be convenient and there are also some brilliant restaurants there. I have to confess to a terrible lack of experience of travelling in Scotland though
I would second MaliA's suggestion of the national trust website though, I use that to plan days out never mind weeks
I hope they have a brilliant time, let us know what they do and what they think!

Check out http://www.universityrooms.co.uk/ because they could get rooms in Oxbridge colleges, which they'd really enjoy.

Middlesbrough town centre is a little shitty, but you'd struggle to find better countryside anywhere in the entire country than that found in Teesdale/North Yorkshire. Fortunately, I don't live in Middlesbrough, but y'know, just saying.

Lake District is rather beautiful. Well worth a visit, especially as it can be driven through or stopped at on their way up to Scotland.

South downs is really quite nice.

Maybe a day/night in brighton. It really is lovely down here.

also... make sure they go to sheffield and leeds.

Wrong side of Scotland! That way be Glasgow!

Having said that, keep going and get to Oban, and you'll be right. Nice place, spent a few days there as a youngster.

Like there's a right side! LOLZ

They want to go to the Glesga, actually! Thanks for all the responses so far, folks.

I've only been once, to see The Pixies, and it was alright. Granted, I didn't see much of it, but it didn't feel anywhere near as threatening in the pubs as I expected it to be. Maybe that's because I come from Teesside, where there's always the distinct threat of a garotting or anal raping in the air.

We were up in Aviemore a few weeks back, and that's a beautiful part of the world.

If i was driving to Edinburgh (which i suggest they go to) then i would still go up that side of the country and then go along the M8 to get there (M74 to junction 5 (Hamilton) then up the B7070 to the M8 and then to Edinburgh) , its much quicker :-)

For places in Scotland - Glasgow and Edinburgh go without saying , Stirling can be nice , as can Fort William (or at least the trip from Glasgow to Fort William past Loch Lomond)

Even when you were there?

pretty much.

PalmerSport.

What about Warwick castle? That was ace when I went there a few months ago... it may come under the touristy banner though.

There's also Stratford.

Glesga is better for house & techno (& that happy hardcore pish I suppose) than dubstep, but according to my jaggy faced pal* it's nae bad for dubstep too. If they time Glesga for a weekend (Thursday to Sunday) we'll show them around.
That said if they really want dubstep then London is probably best.

Scenery wise if they head an hour in any direction they'll find nice stuff. You can't really go wrong, and if you do it's only an hour to the other coast
*Gill will know who I mean.



Fuck knows about doon sooth, it all looks the same to me

I don't understand chinny's post. Could someone explain it?

Now I'm wondering if you're being secretly ironic.

Well that and I have no idea what he was getting at. I've very defensive about my homeland y'know.

He was suggesting that MilaA's "joke" had gone over WTB's head.

There are some nice places in Shropshire.... just a bit too close to Wales

The main problem I'd have with Aviemore is that it's a complete tourist trap. Which may be what's wanted, but if not, do Oban, then have a wander around Glencoe and Kinlochleven, then up past Fort William to Loch Ness. Then back down the other side to Edinburgh.

Is it? Good lord you Scotches have a different definition of 'tourist trap' than us Londoners.

Ah, now I've read back it makes sense. Wtb is right though, north yorks is gorgeous. Never take a forrin to middlesbrough tho. It's a shit hole.

The town itself is, it suffers from being a skiing destination. The scenery is nice enough though, lots of forest.

Oh, yeah. Well I didn't really mean 'Go to Aviemore'. I meant 'Go near Aviemore'.

My Dad used to have a farm there.

A syringe on a length of tartan string.

I'm really fancing the look of Galloway Forest Park as it's one of the best places in the world to observe the night sky with very little light pollution.

The whole place sounds brilliant - anyone been?

Yep, worked there a lot. It is quite awesome and feels very remote while you're there. Wullie was there last week meteor-gazing wasn't he?

Thanks again, folks - this has been very helpful! Any suggestions for good rail passes? Obviously, there are rarely going to be acebest bargains, but apparently the happy couple looked up an 8-day BritRail pass and shat themselves.

Aye, it's lovely down there. Good hills & if you play on mountain bikes the 7 stanes is/are worth a look.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11805466@N ... 728965714/

The one shite thing about the place is the midges, usually there's more there than in the rest of Scotland.
However, the midge forecast folk reckon they peaked early & have been tailing off all summer. Last Thursday's experiences seem to back that up, nuisance levels at dusk & dawn but peace the rest of the day/night.

Nice pics mate, apart from that pebble with the offensively racist material scrawled on it.

Fuck me them pics is exactly what I was looking for. Deffo going now - probably Sep/Oct time for best night time sky viewage without freezing my knackers off.

Cheers Wullie.

It didn't though... Which is why I was defending the place.

Nae worries. In case you didnae guess, you'll no see the Milky Way like that with your eyes. That was a fairly long exposure at a high ISO.

Also, wild camping is legal here*, if you're going stargazing it might be a better idea than staying in a campsite.
*Provided you follow a couple of obvious rules. Away from hooses, nae open fires, take rubbish back out with you, don't spend more than a couple of nights in one spot so you don't damage the vegetation.

Guy on the right just looks like he's been tossing the salad all morning. Brown tinge to his mouth area.