Scotland

Last year, we traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick mini-moon after our wedding in Somerset, England. We spent 4 days exploring old castles, climbing rolling hills and of course, sharing some Scottish whiskey with friends. I want to keep each part of these Trip Reports as short and sweet (and maybe picture-filled) as I can, so you can easily pick out the major details.

This is Part 6 and the final post in a series about our trip to Scotland.  

Edinburgh, Scotland –  Trip Report Index

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction

Part 2 - Flight & Accommodation

Part 3 - Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4 – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5 - St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6 - Conclusion

On our last day we just walked around and took some pictures of beautiful Edinburgh.

We bid farewell to friends with one final dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Because, when in Scotland…

It was the best God damn Mexican food we’ve had to date. And that’s from someone who calls South Florida home. We had a few pints at a local pub and made the best of our last night together. We’re fun people.

The next morning the hubster and I flew from Edinburgh to Amsterdam to Atlanta and then home to Fort Lauderdale. We’re travel troopers.

I cried as we took off on the flight home to the states from Amsterdam. My emotions boiled over and the reality of it hit me. I didn’t know the next time I would travel again. I think the Hubster thought that the finality of getting married had just hit me, but he was dead nuts wrong.

I just didn’t know when I’d be hopping on a jet plane next. Traveling is in my blood. (Thankfully that was remedied 6 months later for our honeymoon to Cambodia and Thailand.)

What would I do differently?

Hit the Highlands. We realized too late that we wanted to visit the Highlands and go “Nessy hunting.” All the tours to see Loch Ness were booked and none of us felt comfortable enough driving a manual on the left side of the road. I would also require everyone to speak with a Scottish accent if we were to drive on the left side of the road. Some people just aren’t as good as that as me. I bet they felt intimidated.

Final Thoughts

Even though I’d been to Edinburgh twice at this point, I’m still itching to get back to Scotland. There are so many places that I have yet to see and explore. I just want to put on my hiking boots and Nessy hunting hat and GO! I just can’t get enough of the Scotland.

I hope you enjoyed our trip to Scotland as much as we did.

Which was your favorite part? Which country should I blog about next?

Last year, we traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick mini-moon after our wedding in Somerset, England. We spent 4 days exploring old castles, climbing rolling hills and of course, sharing some Scottish whiskey with friends. I want to keep each part of these Trip Reports as short and sweet (and maybe picture-filled) as I can, so you can easily pick out the major details.

This Part 4 in a series about our trip to Scotland.  Stay tuned for more.

Edinburgh, Scotland –  Trip Report Index

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction

Part 2 - Flight & Accommodation

Part 3 - Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4 – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5 - St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6 - Conclusion

Arthur’s Seat

Arthur’s Seat (as in King Arthur, from King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) is part of the large and gorgeous, Holyrood Park. Arthur’s Seat is often mentioned as one of the possible locations for Camelot. It’s less than a mile from Edinburgh Castle and you can just walk the Royal Mile to get there!

You’ll pass Parliament.

Then, Holyrood House (say hello to the Queen for me, she often stays there).

And in no time you’ll be at the bottom of this beautiful extinct volcano.

The first time my newbie-hubster and I tried the trek up Arthur’s Seat, we only made it a little over half-way up. Remember how friggin’ sick I was? Yeah, it’s sort of hard to breathe with no functioning nostrils when you’re hiking.

After we left and had a few pints of Guinness, I was feeling bummed we didn’t go all the way.

Huh, huh. Go all the way…

So when my friend, Phil (affectionately called Philbert) said he wanted to try it the next day, we were totally up for tackling it again. This guy has hiked the Inca Trail in Peru to Machu Picchu!

Soooooo, basically, they were waiting for my sick ass to catch up a lot.

But we made it!

It’s a really fun memory for me. I can’t tell you how much it fills my heart to travel and discover things with friends. This trek meant a lot.

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The Ghost Tour

Have I ever talked about how I don’t “do” haunted houses or haunted corn mazes or haunted…anything. I love scary movies, but “real life” experiences? NO THANKS. Edinburgh is known for it’s scary tales, haunted alleys and ghostly folklore.

So, what I’m trying to say is,  I have 1 picture of this tour. Mostly because I drank enough to make myself feel pretty okay to go on it (excellent coping skills, Caroline) and also because most of it is in the dark, underground, in freakin’ haunted vaults. Therefore, picture taking was not encouraged.

 

What I can say is that I had a fun time. (Thanks, pints ofGuinness!) This is something you should definitely do with friends as it made the whole tour a lot more fun and full of immature giggles. (Thanks again, pints of Guinness!)

There are several ghost tours you can take in Edinburgh. I would recommend the Mercat Tours as that’s the one we did. But you honestly can’t go wrong with most of them.

Next up, perhaps my favorite part of the trip – Seeing my newbie-hubster play a round at St. Andrew’s.

Until next time, travel buds!

Welcome to #TravelTuesday, a new series on Caroline Made This about anything travel related – from adventures to advice to all out awesome stories about traveling.

Last year, we traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick mini-moon after our wedding in Somerset, England. We spent 4 days exploring old castles, climbing rolling hills and of course, sharing some Scottish whiskey with friends. I want to keep each part of these Trip Reports as short and sweet (and maybe picture-filled) as I can, so you can easily pick out the major details.

This Part 3 in a series about our trip to Scotland.  Stay tuned for more.

Edinburgh, Scotland –  Trip Report Index

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction

Part 2 - Flight & Accommodation

Part 3 - Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4 – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5 - St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6 - Conclusion

Edinbugh Castle

Our amazing flat we rented through Airbnb was a hop, skip and a jump away from Edinbugh Castle, so we coordinated with friends and decided to hit there first after we arrived and I got all jacked up on cold medicine. Woo!

Tickets are £16.00 each for adults, £9.60 for children. They have a “fast pass” option if you pre-pay your tickets online which means you don’t have to queue at the ticket office. We didn’t have any problem and just walked right up. Additionally, they offer an Explorer Pass which gets you into 78 historical properties in Scotland. Plus, it gets you 20% off the audio tour of Edinburgh Castle. We didn’t buy the Explorer Pass, but did get the audio tour, so it could work out well for your budget if you’re going to see more than a few properties in Scotland.

The history of Edinburgh Castle is incredible. But, I won’t lie.

I came for the views.

Since I had been here before, I was pretty well aware of the detailed history…and this scary looking wax figure.

Edinburgh Castle sits high on the “hill” overlooking the beautiful city and was a good way to intimidate anyone who wanted to conquer it.

You just can’t beat these views.

Give yourself at LEAST 3 hours in the castle. It can easily turn into a day if you want to explore every nook and cranny or giant artillery.

They offer multiple-day passes if your family enjoys history and you think you’ll be heading back for more.

An important note: The castle is busier than usual during the wonderful Military Tattoo. It’s an annual event every August and something to either avoid if you don’t want more crowds or go to if you love, love bag pipes. (raises hand.)

 

The Whiskey Tour

Remember how I mentioned I was sick? Perhaps not the smartest choice, but we went on The Scotch Whiskey Tour in Edinburgh. Hot Toddy anyone?

The Scotch Whisky Experience is located steps away from Edinburgh Castle. It would seem it’s a tourist trap of sorts because the gift shop (read: WALL OF WHISKEY FOR SALE) is displayed proudly in the front. But, what can I say? It was a great little whiskey tour and we did find out a lot of about scotch whiskey.

Side note: The Scots spell whisky without an ‘e’. It’s not incorrect, but it’s tough for me to adapt to. Sorry if I switch back and forth. Actually, just deal with it, we’re talking about yummy whiskey, okay?

We decided on The Gold Tour. They had us at: “A tasting tray of four Single Malts with tasting notes.” You can choose from various tours and times, but we thought this was our best bang for our quid.

See what I did there? (quid = pound, like buck = dollar)

You begin your tour by riding in a whiskey barrel. No, I’m not kidding. The whiskey barrel takes you around the history of Scotch Whisky in Scotland via an automated ride. Think: It’s a Small World, but with alcohol and no scary automated children. Basically, it’s way better.

When we finished up the quick ride, the employee who was letting me out of barrel asked me where I flew in from. I enthusiastically said, “England.” She looked quite confused, but smiled nonetheless.

I looked at my newbie hubby and said, “What the blimey was that about?”

He said, “Well, basically, you were sleeping in a whiskey barrel before she let you out, so she probably thought you flew in from the states today and were jetlagged…”

Did I mention I was really sick?

Moving onto drinking…

We went into the “Sense of Scotland” room and got a quick lesson about where each scotch whisky comes from Scotland and how the notes taste different depending on which region they are from. I FELL ASLEEP AGAIN. I swear it was awesome, I was just so sick. Don’t base going on this whiskey tour on my sad state of sickness. It’s a great tour!

Next, we went into THIS ROOM:

It’s the oldest and largest display of scotch whisky in the world.

And. it. is. glorious.

Glor-i-ous.

After that we had our flight, errrrr, tasting of whiskey. The water is given in case you want to put it in your whiskey. I didn’t use my H2O. I was feeling mighty good again! Thank God for good pals and their peer pressure ways.

Next up: Our trek up Arthur’s Seat (twice) and The Ghost Tour.

Until next time, travel pals!

Welcome to #TravelTuesday, a new series on Caroline Made This about anything travel related – from adventures to advice to all out awesome stories about traveling.

Last year, we traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick mini-moon after our wedding in Somerset, England. We spent 4 days exploring old castles, climbing rolling hills and of course, sharing some Scottish whiskey with friends. I want to keep each part of these Trip Reports as short and sweet (and maybe picture-filled) as I can, so you can easily pick out the major details.

This Part 2 in a series about our trip to Scotland.  Stay tuned for more.

Edinburgh, Scotland –  Trip Report Index

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction

Part 2 - Flight & Accommodation

Part 3 - Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4 – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5 - St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6 - Conclusion

Flight

We got married in Somerset, England which is about 2 hours southwest of London.

Quick! Cute wedding break:

Instead of going back to London, Heathrow, we took a one-way flight from Exeter, England to Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s a quick 1 hour 30 minute flight from there. London would have been more expensive and added another 2 hours (driving) to our trip. We chose the ultra-cheap carrier, Flybe, at the recommendation of a seasoned-traveler friend of mine who was actually going with us too. Ever heard of Flybe? Neither had I! I usually just flew Ryan Air while trying to save money flying in Europe.

Anyway, had I known then what I know now, I probably would have tried to use points, but that said, you can’t pass up $125 (including luggage) for tickets to fly to Scotland with your friends. It was well worth it!

The Exeter Airport is adorable. I mean that in the nicest way possible. The security line was quick.

And we were on our way to Scotland in no time.

Did I mention I was really sick? All the stress and travel related to a wedding overseas hit me in one snot-filled swoop and I had the nastiest cold known to (wo)man-kind. Super, right? So the plane ride wasn’t anything spectacular to me. I basically was just trying to not be that annoying person blowing her nose a lot.

But I was. Sorry ’bout it.

We landed a bit late and shared a cab with our pals to our separate, respective accommodations. It would have been cheaper to take the £4 Airlink bus that goes from the airport to the center of town. Check it out. But, again, I was feeling like shit and blowing snot out of each nostril like it would earn me money, so I just wanted to get to our place.

Which ended up being spectacular.

Accommodation

I found our flat through Airbnb. I really enjoy saying, “flat.” Our flat. Ha! Anyway, I didn’t have enough points for a free hotel stay yet (now I do *dusts off shoulder*) and I wanted to get a unique experience, not just a buffet breakfast in the morning.

Airbnb is great for an authentic, local experience. If you haven’t heard of it before, the basic gist is that people rent out their apartments, houses or rooms in a house for a pre-determined amount of time. Airbnb has a great satisfaction policy if you aren’t happy with your stay. In my opinion, the owner takes on more of the liability. That said, be smart. Only rent from people who have good reviews and you should be fine. If someone doesn’t have many reviews or has a bad response rate, even if the place looks fan-fucking-tastic…NEXT! We’ll definitely being doing this again after such a great experience.

After narrowing down our Airbnb options in the city and generally knowing we wanted to be close to the “Old Town” area, we decided on this gem. We were greeted promptly (even after our flight delay) by the owner’s friend who helped us up 4 flights of stairs with all our luggage. No lift. That’s elevator in British, mates.

Hey, so, have I mentioned yet that I was really sick? No? I could barely breath as it was. 4 fucking floors with luggage, a backpack and my purse, which was essentially another piece of LUGGAGE…?! No way! I stopped on the 3rd floor, waving my white flag, gasping for air through my mouth, desperately looking for a snot rag. He probably thought I was just some out of shape American.

Wait a second…

Anyway, the trek was worth it. I mean…come. on.

The flat is right next to Edinburgh Castle, with stunning views of the entire city, as well as a fully equipped kitchen, double bedroom, TV and free wireless internet. Oh and a washer and dryer, which any long-term traveler knows is brilliant. (Trying to sound as British as I can.)

After explaining we could call with any questions, giving us some great pub recommendations (duh) and telling us to enjoy our mini-moon, we were left to enjoy some bubbly.

How sweet, right?

Next up, Edinburgh Castle and The Whiskey Tour. Mmmmm.

Until next time, travel buds!

Have you ever done Airbnb? Have you ever thought about renting a place instead of a hotel? Any questions about our fab flat?

 

Welcome to #TravelTuesday, a new series on Not Your Average Gal about anything travel related – from adventures to advice to all out awesome stories about traveling.

Last year, we traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick mini-moon after our wedding in Somerset, England. We spent 4 days exploring old castles, climbing rolling hills and of course, sharing some Scottish whiskey with friends. I want to keep each part of these Trip Reports as short and sweet (and maybe picture-filled) as I can, so you can easily pick out the major details.

This the first part in a series about our trip to Scotland.  Stay tuned for more.

Edinburgh, Scotland –  Trip Report Index

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction

Part 2 - Flights & Accommodation

Part 3 - Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4 – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5 - St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6 - Conclusion

 

Introduction:

First, decide if you want to go to Amsterdam or Edinburgh. Then agonize over that decision for a week, annoying your soon-to-be-husband with a long list of “What if’s.” Long story short: We had the opportunity to travel with my fun fam to Amsterdam after our wedding.

Quick! Cute wedding break:

I had been to Edinbugh before but I knew my soon-to-be-hubster would puffy heart love it. Ooops, I mean super masculine heart love it. We had a few friends who were going to Scotland after our wedding and a few waiting to see where we’d choose.  I hadn’t been to Amsterdam before but it was on my list of places to see. I was really torn. I even made a pros and cons list. In the end, Scotland won and we decided to enjoy a few bagpipe-filled days with our pals.

(Basically, I knew I’d want to kill my family after being with them for so long during our wedding and then spend more time with them in Amsterdam.)

Just kidding. Love you guys.

Not really kidding. Love you guys!

So after that, the planning began.

Planning:

We mapped out how long we wanted to stay and chose the itinerary around the best prices for flights back to the states and also when I needed to be back to work. Minor detail.

We had 4 days to explore what Edinburgh and St. Andrews had to offer. It’s funny, even over the course of a year, my travel planning has changed since this trip. I really utilize the awesome travel blogs I follow, download apps for various cities or countries and even download the good ol’ Fromers travel guides. But for Edinburgh, perhaps since I had been there before and also since, you know, planning a wedding overseas is slightly time consuming, I didn’t download or research much. Normally, and in upcoming blogs about my travels, there will be more “in-depth” planning. Promise.

I used these following apps:

 

Before we took off across the pond to get hitched, I knew we wanted to go to:

• Edinburgh Castle
• St. Andrews to play a round (The hubster didn’t know about this. WIFE OF THE YEAR!)
• King Arthur’s Seat
• A pub, any pub, a pub, any pub

Follow along for the next post where I explain just how cheap our flight was and what a kick-ass-bomb-diggity place we got through AirBnb.

A place with a view…

Until next time, travel buds!