[Revvman]

Hello Everyone,

Here’s a travelogue of our recent family trip to the Ireland and UK during May-June, and though I'm not much of a writer, I’ll try my best to pen down the details for benefit of anyone planning a trip to these places.

Selection of destination:
Well, with my brother staying in Dublin and wifey's brother staying in London and us having already covered part of Europe during our earlier trip, this time around the choice of destinations was an easy one as this would be a family reunion cum vacation in Europe. Also, with us and kiddo having been restricted in our travels for almost last 2 years, we wanted to break out and visit some unfamiliar places this time rather than the usual Dubai/Bali haunts.

Visa:
After some inputs from my brother and further research on the net, figured out that for visiting UK and Ireland together, there’s a special facility for only Indian and Chinese short-term visa seekers (tourists or visiting family) that they don’t need separate Irish and UK visas. The embassy endorses visa with a BIVS stamp which translates to British Irish Visa Scheme and allows visa holder to visit either/or any of the country with only condition being that port of entry should be of the visa issuing country.

Visa Process:
This was probably the most insane and stressfully exhausting part of our entire trip. Having travelled my fair bit, I never expected Irish visa requirements to be so detailed and demanding and in my ignorance/arrogance, went ahead with the Irish visa process. As I delved further into it after having paid appointment fees, I figured how much information they were asking for. To cut long story short, it’s insane the amount of your personal info the Irish embassy asks of you and by the time of your application submission, you feel totally robbed of any sense of privacy that you had prior to the application. Hence, my 2 cents, if planning a trip, try the UK visa and avoid Irish visa application at all costs….. it’ll drive you nuts!

Visa Processing Time:
One needs to fill an online application form for the Irish visa and subsequently needs to secure an appointment online by payment of fees. During the peak month of April, earliest availability was after 2 weeks. You need to prepare all your documents during this time and visit the VFS centre for submission. At the VFS, since the whole review process for VFS staff is also so detailed, it takes at least about 25-30 minutes for each application and after successful submission of documents and biometrics recording on the same day, wait for the visa starts. We got our visas exactly 4 weeks after submission.

Onto the travels…..
Arrival into Dublin:
Airport – Dublin airport is probably one of the most forgettable airports in Europe and our experience here is nothing really to write about.
Stay – As expected, we stayed for a week at my brother’s place and planned to visit the Dublin city centre along with some other sightseeing spots outside of Dublin.

Ireland is a small country and while Dublin as a city is quite beautiful with some of the old-world European charm and seaside views, due to BREXIT, it is also the only English-speaking country left in the Eurozone now. This has increased a lot of commercial activity in Dublin over the last 2-3 years with giants like Amazon, Google having opened huge offices in the city. You do tend to see the effect of this on the relaxed Irish infrastructure at some places, but mostly the city is neat, clean with amazingly warm, courteous and caring citizens. Irish people are one of the friendliest people you’ll come across in Europe.

Days 1, 2 & 3 - Onto the sights, for first 3 days we visited the locales around our residence and the city centre which is bustling with activity with great shopping arcades, coffee shops, bars, pubs, street music and good food. The usual tourist spots of Trinity College and Dublin Castle are totally, totally avoidable unless you’re a history buff and like to ensure ticking boxes while travelling.

Random shots of Dublin city




Emptry streets at just 8:00 in the evening




View from our residence


Trinity College


Old Library at Trinity College


Day 4 - Next day, we rented a Renault Megane sedan from SixT and visited the Powerscourt Waterfall on outskirts of city near Wicklow Moutains – about a 50 minute drive, followed by a visit to Lake Guinness which signifies a Guinness pint when viewed from the hill top.

Lake Guinness


Day 5 - On our 5th day of the trip, we planned a visit to the very famous Cliffs of Moher which is actually across the country from Dublin towards the west side of Ireland. It was a 3-hour drive, mainly on the highway but with about 70 kms. in the countryside. The drive was beautiful and mesmerising and I’m so glad we rented the car instead of taking the tour bus option.
Cliffs of Moher




Day 6 - This was the most anticipated day of our trip to Dublin as for many years both myself and wifey had been wanting to attend a Bryan Adams’ concert and for some reason or the other, had not been able to do so. We visited the 3 Arena Centre in Dublin for the show and had an amazing time with the guy still belting out hits after hits as if he’s still in his 20s. Energy levels were electrifying and it was well worth the wait.

Day 7 - This day was mostly reserved for rest and packing for onward journey to Glasgow.

On to Scotland
Now, Scotland is a country mainly known for its natural beauty (Scottish Highlands and lakes) and there’s not really much to see/do in the cities. The most beautiful and highly recommended country sides are Isle of Skye, Fort William and Inverness which form a triangle with their locations on map. Since we planned to drive all through the Highlands, it didn’t make sense to stay in either of the 2 big cities of Glasgow or Edinburgh as the drive to/from these cities is around 5 hours each. Hence, as per a friend’s suggestion, we booked a cottage in Fort William which is a beautiful town 2.5 hours north of Glasgow and is quite central to both Isle of Skye and Inverness, reducing drive time to each of these cities by almost half in comparison to the bigger cities.

Day 8, 9 - We arrived in Glasgow city on day 8 and spent rest of the day and next day exploring city centre dotted with some old world architecture and shopping streets.

Day 10 - Rented a car from Enterprise through booking.com and by lunch time, we were on our way out of the city to Fort William. Arrived at our cottage in the evening after lunch stopover in the beautiful city centre.


Our cottage in Fort William


Day 11 to 13 - Were forced to rest for the next 3 days due to a flu that I caught sometime during our travel from Dublin to Glasgow. Thanks to the spacious cottage that we had booked, everyone got their space to relax and not feel too claustrophobic while down with flu.

Day 14 - Since this was our only trip day left in Fort William before we headed to Edinburgh, we decided to visit Isle of Skye which is about a 3-hour drive to the northern highlands. It’s a mesmerising place with beautiful landscape, cliffs, lakes and waterfalls and not to forget the scenic drive. Very much worth the trip.




Our ride in Scotland








Day 15 - We started in the morning for Edinburgh and booked a villa in the city for 1 night as next day was our onward travel to London. Arrived Edinburgh city at around 3 in the afternoon and went straight to the “must do” Edinburgh castle. Honestly, after taking a tour of the castle and being used to the forts that we have in our country, everyone was feeling “bas ye hi hai”. Apart from the view of city that one gets from the castle which is sitting atop a hill, there’s nothing really to write about the castle visit.
View of Edinburgh city from the Castle




Piping his way in the rain


Day 16 - Handed over the car at Edinburgh airport and onwards to London.

Travel tips for Scotland:
Since it’s the beautiful countryside that you’ll be visiting Scotland for, avoid staying in the cities for more than 2 days. Look for top rated independent villas, cottages on Airbnb, Booking.com, rent a car and you’ll be set. We stayed at this highly rated (on Booking.com) cottage about 8.5 miles ahead of Fort William and the stay was excellent. I had a word with the owner and he was enterprising enough to offer a good discount to anybody booking directly with him. His contact details are:
Thistle Do Fort William
Contact: Gregor, grybacki@gmail.com

Days 17 to 20 - We spent the next 4 days doing the city stuff in London, visiting must do places like London Eye, Big Ben, Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park etc. and while we still had a day left, everyone was already so tired and so over London that we preponed our return home by a day. On our last day of the trip, since our flight home was for late at night, we scooted on a bolt taxi to one of the adventure parks on outskirts of city called “Chessington World of Adventures Resort” and had a great day. Came back and straight to airport for our flight home.








Travel tips for London:
Keep your Uber account ready for use in London as getting around is quite tiring by walk and will leave you drained. Local cabs are expensive and you get to travel in some of the most well-kept, high end cars through Uber and similar apps like Bolt, Free Now. Our Bolt cab to the airport was a Jaguar XF ;-)

While most people will suggest staying on the outskirts to save on high accommodation costs in the city, I suggest otherwise….. it’s much more convenient to stay near the city centre and explore the city than having to travel every day from outside. Having said that, I’ll suggest booking an apartment through Airbnb or Booking.com instead of booking a hotel as hotels just don’t provide any worth of your money.

Note to Mods: Since this is my first travelogue, please feel free to make any changes/modifications as deemed necessary.

[JoshMachine]

Excellent travelogue, thanks for sharing

A 20-day trip through the Isles is delicious! Loved your countryside pics, the cliffs and the tony Scottish city-side views. As you stated rightly, renting a car there is anyday better than travelling around in a tourist bus.

Unfortunate that you caught the flu, must have been a downer during such travels.

The mention of Dublin reminds me of my own travel there few years ago. I had also visited in May (on a office trip), spent few days and was enthralled by the beautiful city.

The magnificent Spire of Dublin is a sight to behold:-



Thanks again, for sharing your lovely experiences!

BTW, how was the Citroen drive?

[Revvman]

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

Excellent travelogue, thanks for sharing
The mention of Dublin reminds me of my own travel there few years ago. I had also visited in May (on a office trip), spent few days and was enthralled by the beautiful city.
…
BTW, how was the Citroen drive?

Thanks! So we had the Citroen C5 manual for our entire duration in Scotland and it was a very new car in top condition. "Sublime" is the word I'll use to describe the drive experience. The car simply glides over any undulations without any of the passengers feeling anything and since there are hardly any expressways in Scottish Highlands and all the roads are those twisting, turning 2-lane, well maintained tarmac roads, it was a joyful experience to drive in that landscape. The car never felt short of power and ride was supple yet planted. The car rental company changed my booking from a Nissan Qashqai to this one at the last minute and after this experience, I was more than happy that they did

[Arun_S]

Excellent Travelogue....

Originally Posted by Revvman

Visa Process:
This was probably the most insane and stressfully exhausting part of our entire trip. Having travelled my fair bit, I never expected Irish visa requirements to be so detailed and demanding and in my ignorance/arrogance, went ahead with the Irish visa process. As I delved further into it after having paid appointment fees, I figured how much information they were asking for. To cut long story short, it’s insane the amount of your personal info the Irish embassy asks of you and by the time of your application submission, you feel totally robbed of any sense of privacy that you had prior to the application. Hence, my 2 cents, if planning a trip, try the UK visa and avoid Irish visa application at all costs….. it’ll drive you nuts!

Yes...I had travelled to Ireland via office, the amount of documents they ask is really insane.

They asked me to Provide Form-16 for last 3 years, my salary account statements for 6 months. I felt I am applying for Home Loan instead of travelling .

[lordtottuu]

Originally Posted by Revvman

Visa Process:
This was probably the most insane and stressfully exhausting part of our entire trip. Having travelled my fair bit, I never expected Irish visa requirements to be so detailed and demanding and in my ignorance/arrogance, went ahead with the Irish visa process. As I delved further into it after having paid appointment fees, I figured how much information they were asking for. To cut long story short, it’s insane the amount of your personal info the Irish embassy asks of you and by the time of your application submission, you feel totally robbed of any sense of privacy that you had prior to the application. Hence, my 2 cents, if planning a trip, try the UK visa and avoid Irish visa application at all costs….. it’ll drive you nuts!

I was in London a little bit before all the COVID related insanity started and I'd wager the UK visa isn't any better either. They actually wanted copies of my real estate holdings! Malicious compliance or not, I printed out every single one of them and sent them in.

And they took 4 weeks to approve the visa as well. Compared to the 2 day wait for a German Schengen, it's pure bureaucracy.

[ajay_satpute]

Nice travelogue. Thanks for sharing.

Trivia - One of the interesting scenes from Harry Potter movies (HBP), was shot at Cliffs of Moher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0mVNFCcMXQ