Travel Tips from 4WW - UK Part 1

“Coach, I got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore." Ted Lasso

In April of this year, my husband Wally and I jumped on a plane and headed to the UK. It started out with Liverpool, England for him and Londonderry, Northern Ireland for me and then we filled in the journey in between. We were gone for 16 days. Here are some of our favourite things.

We flew into the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool after layovers in Amsterdam and Frankfurt. It was 14 hours from Toronto to Liverpool which ended up being a good thing because we skipped being jet lagged simply by being occupied travelling for so long. We stayed on the docks in Liverpool at the Staybridge Suites Liverpool which we loved. I would go back there right now. We had our own little kitchen, a view of the massive ferris wheel and the water, and we easily walked everywhere we wanted to. Wally is a HUGE Beatles fan so I booked us a private tour of the home of the Beatles with Mad Day Out Beatles Taxi Tours - the Gretsch (Bespoke) Tour. Ian Doyle is well-versed on every detail of the Beatles, slowly winning over Wally who likely knows more than Ian does. Standing on the streets that John, Paul, George, and Ringo did back when they were just Liverpudlian boys making some music together at the Casbah and the Cavern Club was magic. We visited the Liverpool Beatles Museum and the Beatles Story Museum the day before our tour which we also highly recommend.

We travelled by train to Kingscross Station in London where we did the very touristy photo at Platform 9 ¾ which is one of my most favourite photos of us ever. We travelled the tube to Nottinghill so I could shop at the Nottinghill Bookshop from the movie and then on to Richmond for our Ted Lasso Tour with Emmy. Being HUGE fans of this very special AppleTV+ series, we LOVED everything Emmy was able to share with us. We finished off our day there with dinner at the Prince's Head Pub which is the Crown and Anchor Pub in the show. You can request the table in the "Ted Lasso corner".

From there we travelled by train to Edinburgh and stayed on Victoria Street which was the inspiration for J.K. Rowling's Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. If you haven't figured it out by now, this trip is largely fueled by pop culture magic.

And then by plane, we made it to Belfast. We stayed at the rather spectacular Ten Square Hotel in the Spinner Suite, since, by then, our friend Noelle from Switzerland had joined us and we needed a suite with 2 rooms. We stopped in Belfast so we could take in the Titanic Experience - what a story - and so beautifully and powerfully told.

Our stop in Londonderry was a family visit for me. We stayed within the beautiful walls in an Airbnb in an area called the Craft Village. It was perfect - we were able to walk everywhere - it felt like home and I can't wait to go back. My dream is to buy my Nana's home on Harding Street someday.

Finally, we headed to Dublin for a couple of nights before we flew home. We were pretty much city-ed out by that point, so, after a quick stop on Grafton Street to take in some of the talented buskers, we jumped on a Dart Train and within 20 minutes we were in the tiny fishing village of Howth. What a wonderful place!! We discovered the home of W.B Yeats, did the spectacular Howth Cliff Walk (cannot recommend this enough!!!!), and finished off with a pint of Guinness and a bowl of potato soup at a little pub we found along the way.

“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”

John Lennon

Stay tuned for our UK - Part 2 where Butterfly Heart will share her adventure in a couple of weeks.

Disclaimer: All of the suggestions made in these blog posts are from our own personal experience. We have not been sponsored by anyone nor have we made any commitments to promote any of these businesses. They were up and running when we travelled but that may not still be the case when you travel. And they were as we described when we travelled, but, again, that may not be your experience due to a number of variables. Do your own research - and maybe check out what we found wonderful. Happy travels from 4WW.