Assuming you have read the other two parts of this topic <<Part 1>> <<Part 2 >>, this part will take on the much more mundane topic of traffic signs and roads. The number and type of signs in the UK is large, so there is no way to cover all of them. This government website covers the ones the government thinks are the most important. Generally, triangular signs with red borders are …
Ok, so we have our rental all checked out. But before you fire it up, do a thorough checkout so you know how to operate it—handbrake, cruise controls, gearing, instruments, fuel filling locations (and what type fuel it takes), options on the dashboard, heater, etc. Driving is going to take a lot of your attention, so having to figure out how to get the cabin temperature where you want it while trying to figure …
When we first lived in England in the middle ‘70s, Jake was there as a US Naval officer on exchange to the Royal Navy. Therefore, he was covered by what was then called the “Status of Forces Agreement,” which covered what was and was not required of the military forces assigned to the UK. Among them was that Jake had no requirement to obtain a UK driving license within a year. He could drive in …
Let’s get serious here, traveler. It rains in England. Often. In fact, if you look at London climatological data, it rains in London every other day, on average. So, if you plan to be in England, you can assume it will rain sometime during your visit.
What do you do when it rains? I have three words for you: “Brolly,” “Mac” and “Wellies.” Now before you go off in a huff because I used foreign …
We were asked by a visitor to the site about the issue of tipping in the UK.
Americans are known as generous tippers. I think it’s because we think people who serve us in restaurants, hotels, garages, etc., don’t get a sufficient wage, and that thinking is probably correct. However, in other parts of the world the wages those folks get are more substantial and tipping is not essential to their financial survival.
So, the …
Let us talk money, in particular, currency. We don’t mean the actual expenses of the trip but, rather, the current currency in the United Kingdom. We’re talking pounds and pence.
The currency of the UK is the British Pound Sterling, or just the Pound. Another slang term for it is a “quid.” The symbol for the Pound is “£.” The Pound is divided into 100 pence, abbreviated with “p” and pronounced “pee.” In folding money, …
You are in England, at the airport, have passed through His Majesty’s Customs and have entered into the Arrivals area of the airport. What will you see? What is next?
First, you’ll see a couple of hundred people holding up signs with names of people, or companies, or organizations, written or printed on paper, or on an electronic tablet. 
If you have booked a driver to take you somewhere (we’ll touch on that subject later.) …
In Part One we covered two options on when to fly to London Heathrow airport. The two options are what we call the “lost day” and the “red-eye” flight. For the details, go back to that post. Bottom line, if you fly all day, you end up losing that day just in travel. But the good news about the lost day plan is that we can just go to bed, have a nice long …
(UPDATE: I have updated this article to get the most recent schedule for flights and to add multi-leg journeys. The original article only considered non-stop flights.)
Let’s take a look at the subject of flights from the US to London. We live near the Washington, DC area so the focus will be on that area as we know it pretty well, but we have looked at other cities (Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and …
(UPDATE: This post was made back in 2018 and since then the economic culture in the UK has shifted quite a bit. Today, in 2024, cash is used much less than before. In fact, some businesses are now cash-free, that is, they ONLY accept credit/debit cards. And virtually everywhere now takes credit cards, using the “tap and pay” cards with smart chips in them for speed. However, you will use some cash for things like …