Europe Pt. 5 - Motorhome roadtrip in the UK
Check out our 15-day road trip around Scotland and England, including Isle of Skye, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Liverpool.
Flickr Album - UK
Renting a motorhome and driving around the UK was a big goal we wanted to tick off on this year away.
We always knew it would be an ambitious, expensive venture, but one we knew would be worth it. In the end we did manage to find a very good deal with a British motorhome company and got ourselves an amazing 2-berth motorhome for £85/day. Yes, a bit out of our budget, but not too crazy. Having that covered, let's get to it.
Thanks to suggestions from a lot of different friends, we had the UK mapped out with plenty of must-see spots across England, Wales, Scotland and even Ireland (which was scrapped early on in the planning stage due to ferry costs). However, what began as an ambitious plan to tour the entire United Kingdom ended up much smaller: with a trip around Scotland and a few days in England sandwiching the start and end.
Because the UK is so much smaller than the distances we’re used to travelling in Australia we thought we’d be able to cover a lot more ground than we did. What we didn’t take into account was how slow it is to travel in a motor home (generally we’d have to double the time Google Maps recommended), how tiring it is to be driving every day and more importantly, how expensive petrol is in the UK. Finally we didn’t realise how much we would love Scotland, and paired with the good weather we were experiencing (most of the time), it made it very, very hard to leave.
Click here to jump straight into our motorhome adventure
England
Tower Bridge, London
London
Our UK adventure actually began well before we picked up the campervan. We spent just over a week in London, which was packed with friends and family: some familiar, others we hadn't seen in a while. It definitely made London feel like a home away from home, we were staying with Alex's good friend Mandy (who gave us her bed to sleep in no less! - yes, we tried to argue against it) and alongside spending time with her, we caught up with a few more people:
All the friends and family we caught up with in London
We are both so grateful for all the wonderful people we have in our lives and everyone that travelled or took time out to see us in London- thank you! I hope we expressed it enough, but we love you all and seeing you on our travels is the best part.
Friends aside, we had mixed feelings about London itself. Yes, it is definitely a happening place, with so much to do, see, eat, drink and explore (especially when compared to Sydney). We did spend some time wandering around, checking out the markets, pubs and landmarks, but the weather really got to us. It was reasonably cold and incredibly wet for late summer, and I have to admit we both felt a bit irritable and annoyed at the fact of getting soaked (we refuse to buy an umbrella so we're stuck with our rain jackets) and the constant grey skies. Maybe it's just that we're not used to it (or that we don't have proper gear), but at times we felt like we couldn't live in that city!
But anyway, London will always be there, and I'd love to come back and experience it a bit more.
Sneaky trip to Exeter (and Bath), for Alex
Exeter
As chance would have it, we found a cheap deal on car rentals, so logically (or not) we hired a car for 2 days to drive down to Exeter to revisit my old uni (where I went on exchange for a semester). It was something I really wanted to do, and it didn't look likely to happen on our campervan trip (as it would take us south when we needed to jet up north). It had been 7 (!) years since I was there, and as chance would have it I was lucky enough to catch up with my friend from Exeter, Leonor, who now lives outside of London. So after catching up with her and reliving stories of our glory days in old Exeter, I was then able to go there and take Fernando to all my old haunts.
I guess this is what getting old feels like, I was swept up in nostalgia walking through the town, enjoying a scone with jam and cream on the quayside, visiting where I used to live. It was a very indulgent little trip but a great treat for me. On the way down we also went via Bath, which was Fernando's first foray into English towns (because you can't count London, really). A bit touristy for his liking, but a cute and necessary stop all the same.
The Motorhome
Our little home for two weeks
This was Alex's first and Fernando's second motorhome experience, making it a relative novelty for the both of us. There's quite a bit of work involved: you're driving a beast of a car, you need to keep paying attention to water levels, turn the gas on/off, dispose of your greywater and toilet cassette every now and then, etc. But we both agree that this is the utmost experience of freedom and minimalist living. The fact that you literally have your home with you at all times is very liberating, and it means you can always keep moving forward, instead of having to head back to the hotel at the end of the day. Also, not having to unpack for two weeks was a solid plus.
At the same time, though, living in such a limited space for 15 days truly put our relationship to test, as we had to tread around eachother very carefully as to not get too much in each other's hair. Having said that, we did learn how to maneuver around one another and fell into a good routine early on and thoroughly enjoyed our little home on wheels:
Dinner is served!
Our home on wheels
Set for the night
Scotland
Isle of Skye, Scotland
We cannot stress enough how pleasantly surprised we both were with Scotland. We always wanted to go there, but in reality we knew very little about the country until we got there - and we pretty much fell in love straight away. The scenery is spectacular, the cities are full of character and the people are genuine and lovely. Super friendly, quirky and with a lovely accent which we could hardly understand, the Scots are one of a kind.
One of the things that really got our interest was their love for a good story/tale. While we were there we heard quite a few stories/legends about kings and criminals behing beheaded, about The Great Plague in Scotland, about the guy who's supposed to be The Worst Poet Of All Times, about Greyfriars Bobby, the dog that kept watch of his owner's graveyeard for fourteen years and, of course, the Loch Ness Monster. The stories are everywhere, and people take them very seriously.
Alex and Greyfriars Bobby, the dog who stood by his owner's graveyard for 14 years
For easier navigation, below are the key cities we visited during this trip, in case you want to jump straight into one of them.
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Loch Laggan, Scotland
- Isle of Skye, Scotland
- Inverness, Scotland
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Jedburgh, Scotland
- Liverpool, England
Edinburgh
A beautiful, sunny day in Edinburgh, Scotland
Stop one on our Campervan trip: we started our time in Scotland with an absolutely stunning Sunday in the nation's capital, Edinburgh. We were staying in a great campsite just an hour's bus ride out of the city so we had the whole day to enjoy ourselves with no worries about parking or navigating our big motorhome around the busy streets. We enjoyed Edinburgh so much, actually, that we decided to spend another day in the city before heading off north, getting a much more "authentic" experience on day two, with grey drizzle and cold.
We both loved Edinburgh, it was a city we agreed we could see ourselves living in: the city has life and character, but is also small and charming. It's a bit grungy in places but it's also very green, with a beautiful park in the city centre as well as having hilly surrounds. Whilst there we enjoyed an interesting walking tour, where we were told lots of stories and painted a picture of Scotland's bloody past. To follow this up, we indulged in the very touristy, but amusing all the same, Edinburgh Dungeon, where small scares and dramatic acting tell you gruesome stories from the past (some real, some more questionable).
Day two in Edinburgh was rain and grey skies which brought out a new character in the city
Loch Laggan
View down to Loch Laggan
True to the beauty of our campervan trip and the spontaneity it inspired: Loch Laggan was a perfect example of this. We needed a midway point to stay on the way up to Isle of Skye and after consulting our handy campsite app, we landed on a little carpark on the side of Loch Laggan. This was to be our first night "freedom camping" in Scotland but our nerves were put at ease when we rolled up to the carpark and saw two other motorhomes set up for the night. We met our neighbours, a friendly (albeit hard to understand) Scottish couple who have been campervanning in Scotland for the last 25 years (England's roads are terrible and France is too far, apparently). And our new friends shared with us that this very parking lot we had randomly chosen was, in their (probably very knowledgeable) opinion, the best freedom camping spot in Scotland!
Well, it didn't take us long to figure out why they thought that, and it was so beautiful in fact that we put off the Isle of Skye for another day and spent 2 nights in the spot. The parking lot was far enough off the main road so that you couldn't hear the traffic at night and it sat at the start of an incredible walk, with the most stunning views:
Loch Laggan walk
Loch Laggan walk
This was probably one of the biggest highlights of the trip, we were wishing we stayed a third night there as the serenity and beautiful surroundings were next to none. If you ever find yourself up that way, it is well worth a visit.
Isle of Skye
Busy roads on the Isle of Skye
The Isle of Skye is super popular and a huge drawcard for Scotland. However it is also known as the Misty Isle, and for good reason, so you have to be very lucky to catch a clear day. Of course your chances are increased in the summer months, but we thought our luck had run out when we arrived on the isle: it was grey and rainy with terrible visibility (yep, we understood the misty name alright) and the weather forecast for the days ahead didn't show any signs of clearing.
True to the famous UK weather however, by that afternoon when we arrived at our campsite, the clouds parted and we were met with an absolutely beautiful, sunny and clear afternoon finishing with the most gorgeous sunset of the trip so far:
Sunset in Isle of Skye
The next day miraculously turned out to be perfect weather, we managed to see all the main sights and experience for ourselves the magic of the island. Yes, it was way more touristy and busy than the rest of Scotland, but even with our big motorhome we didn't have many issues on the road or with parking, the roads are narrow and there are a lot of one way traffic roads however, so driving is slow and cautious. Here are some of the highlights:
Smiling because the sun showed itself after a miserable day of rain!
The Quiraing
The Quiraing
Eilean Donan Castle
Inverness
Inverness waterfront
Not quite ready to leave Scotland, we decided to take a gamble and drive over to Inverness. I can't really remember the reasoning here, but it was another chance that paid off (at this stage it was looking like you just couldn't go wrong in Scotland). We loved Inverness so much that we once again extended our stay to two nights at the campsite we were at so we could have a full day to enjoy the town.
Located on the river Ness, and not too far away from the famous Loch Ness (Lake Ness), Inverness is a really cute, picturesque town perfect for runs, walks or cycling along the river. By this stage we were really easing into the motorhome lifestyle, so our time spent here was mainly enjoying the sun, strolling through town and reading and relaxing back at the campsite, not a bad life!
Walking into town in Inverness
Ride to the famous Loch Ness (no monster spotted)
We also enjoyed a tour of the Glen Ord whiskey distillery, just outside of Inverness. Neither of us are huge whiskey drinkers, but having been to countless wineries and breweries it was fascinating to learn about the process of producing whiskey.
Outside the Glen Ord Distillery
Glasgow
View from the Glasgow Necropolis
We had heard from others of the big difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh (despite being so close to one another) so we were keen to check this out for ourselves. It was definitely a noticeable difference: especially as we arrived in Glasgow in a grey and rainy day which amplified its grungy appeal, whereas we had gotten the chance to see Edinburgh at its best, on a beautiful sunny Sunday.
Regardless, we both really enjoyed Glasgow, it's got a much more industrial feel to it, with factories and breweries operating right in the middle of the city. But with that comes this effortless cool, and the city is full of pubs, cool trendy places and street art . One of the main attractions of the city is the Necropolis (cemetery) - I guess that says a lot about being grungy.
Street art in Glasgow
Street art in Glasgow
Glasgow also has the amazing Kelvingrove Art Gallery which is roughly split into two main sections - a museum on one side and an art gallery on the other. Amazing art with free entrance, well worth the visit.
Art installation at Kelvingrove Art Gallery
Jedburgh
Jedburgh Abbey
With only a few days left and only having done Scotland, we decided to start making our way down - but our love for Scotland could not let us cross the border with England! So we once again picked a city at random near the border (on the Scottish side, obviously) - and that's how we landed in Jedburgh.
Jedburgh once was a prominent city, but that throughout the centuries lost its importance and it is now home to only about 4,000 people. With a seemingly complicated history between the Scots and Brits, the city has some amazing historical buildings such as the Jedburgh Abbey and the Jedburgh Castle Jail.
Jedburgh Abbey
In all honesty, it is a city with not much to do at all except for some pretty walking trails, but we were once again very happy to stay for a couple of days and enjoy our last minutes in Scotland. Very heartbreaking to cross the border back to England.
Liverpool
With our mate John Lennon, Liverpool
We finally made our way back to Liverpool on day 12 of our 15-day long trip. What was meant to be a 50/50 split between Scotland and England turned out to be a Scotland trip with a bit of England in between - no regrets.
Our stop at Liverpool had one main reason: to see, live, breathe and experience everything related to The Beatles. And that's what we did.
We spent our limited time in town going to the Museum of Liverpool where they had an exhibition on John Lennon and Yoko Ono; to The Beatles Story (an amazing exhibition on the band) and doing a Beatles tour, appropriately named The Magical Mystery Tour.
Strawberry Fields, Liverpool
Penny Lane, Liverpool
The Cavern Club, where The Beatles played 292 times
Liverpool was certainly another highlight for us. Living and breathing everything The Beatles was obviously a dream for Fernando, but it honestly did convert me too - so much so that I couldn't get The Beatles' songs out of my head for many days after. The Beatle mania would be considered tacky if it wasn't for the locals' obviously and outwardly genuine love for their hometown band. You can't help but be affected.
Aside from the Beatles, Liverpool has a lot else going for it. The port in the city carries a lot of history, some good - like that it's where John Lennon used to come and swap jazz records for rock 'n roll - and some not so good - I had time to visit Liverpool's slavery museum, which opened my eyes to the part Liverpool's port played in the British slavery trade. Today, the port is full of bustling with life, full of bars and restaurants and a lovely path you can walk along the water. It was one of our favourite cities in England and I am sure we'll be back,
On our final night we were lucky enough to be invited to dinner by Alex's friend Phillipa and her husband Paul, who recently moved back from Sydney to just outside Birmingham. It was a fantastic way to wrap up the trip, enjoying familiar faces over a home cooked meal outside our tiny motorhome. Thank you Phil and Paul! Your hospitality was warming and concluded our UK trip in the best possible way.
Wrapping up
Alex at our campsite in the Isle of Skye, Scotland
We always had high expectations for this road trip, but we still were very surprised. The freedom of driving around without knowing where we'll spend the night, of being able to cook lunch on the side of a beautiful lake, of wild camping and spending the nights in parking lots and enjoying each part of the UK while driving or walking were experiences we will never forget.
So, what was the highlight of your trip so far?
From now on, whenever we get asked this question (and we have been asked it many times already), I think we will both be happy to include this motorhome experience. Life is amazing on the road, but when you carry your bed, your toilet and a full kitchen with you - now that's something truly special.