Trafalgar · Britain · September–October 2017
Amazing Britain: Our 8-Day Trafalgar Tour
We travelled on Trafalgar’s Amazing Britain tour from 30 September to 7 October 2017: eight days, starting and finishing in London. Edinburgh brought back memories of New Zealand, the Scottish Highlands brought Braveheart to mind, and the bus covered a lot of ground.
Watch our travel film
Britain in eight days.
Eight days around Britain · Film runtime 4:32
Our route around Britain
Our original film description records the main stops below. We also shared a photograph of Ludlow from this trip. The map connects these recorded stops in route order; lines show the sequence, rather than the exact roads. It is an overview, not a record of every roadside stop or overnight hotel.
See the recorded route stops
London → Stratford-upon-Avon → York → Durham → Edinburgh → St Andrews → Pitlochry → Scottish Highlands → Loch Lomond → Glasgow → Liverpool → Ludlow → Bristol → Bath → Stonehenge → London.
England · Heading north
From London to Shakespeare country and York
London was our starting point, with Stratford-upon-Avon, York and Durham on the journey north. In Stratford, one of our photographs records a figure we came across in Shakespeare’s hometown. In York, we photographed York Minster—one of the landmarks that still appears in our trip posts.
This part of the route gives a sense of how much the tour fits into a short week. You move between towns and cities rather than settling into one base, and the distances are part of the experience. That is useful to bear in mind when comparing an eight-day coach tour with spending the same time in just London and Edinburgh.
Scotland
Edinburgh, with a little reminder of Dunedin
Edinburgh is one of the places we remember most clearly. It reminded us of the little castles you see in Dunedin, New Zealand. We used to live in New Zealand, so that connection made the city feel familiar even while we were exploring somewhere else.
It was our own association rather than a checklist of landmarks: those castle-like buildings brought a little of our former home into the trip. Our photographs from the visit include the city centre, the Queen’s Gallery and the gates at Holyrood Palace.
Scotland · St Andrews to the Highlands
A Braveheart moment in the Scottish Highlands
The Scottish Highlands reminded us of Braveheart. That is the image that stayed with us from this part of the journey: the landscape bringing a film to mind, without much effort on our part. We are describing the feeling it gave us, rather than identifying a filming location.
Our trip records also include St Andrews, Pitlochry, Loch Lomond and Glasgow. We photographed the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral and visited Blair Castle. Another original post records a visit to Blair Athol distillery, including whisky tasting at the end. Those smaller details help fill out the journey between the larger city stops.
We have not labelled the castle or distillery as included or optional: our posts confirm we visited, but do not establish how each was charged on our departure.
Back into England
Liverpool, Ludlow, Bath and Stonehenge
Our film records Liverpool, Bristol, Bath and Stonehenge on the return towards London. Our Ludlow photograph adds another stop to that record, showing the town’s traditional houses. Stonehenge also appears in a post we shared when we published the Britain film.
The change of scenery is part of the appeal of a route like this. The practical trade-off is the travelling needed to link it all together. Looking back, “lots of time on the bus” is a more useful description of our week than simply counting how many places we reached.
What to know about the pace
Our clearest advice is to take the travelling time seriously. This was very fast-paced. Eight days sounds like a reasonable amount of time until you spread it across this many stops and add the journeys between them.
If your priority is an introduction to several parts of Britain, this kind of itinerary offers breadth. If you want long afternoons to wander, or several unhurried days in each city, compare the daily route carefully before booking. A shorter list of destinations may fit that style of holiday better.
For us, Edinburgh’s reminder of Dunedin and the Highlands’ Braveheart feeling remain the personal memories that stand out. The film gives a quick look at the wider trip; our recollection of the bus time gives the other half of the picture.
The current tour itinerary—and how to read it alongside our 2017 trip
Our dates and London start/end come from our original booking. The route above draws on our film description and dated trip posts. The schedule below is Trafalgar’s current advertised outline, not a verified day-by-day reconstruction of our 2017 departure.
- Day 1: London, Stratford-upon-Avon, York and Leeds.
- Day 2: North via Durham to Edinburgh.
- Day 3: Edinburgh.
- Day 4: St Andrews, Pitlochry and the Highlands.
- Day 5: Highlands to Glasgow.
- Day 6: Gretna Green, Lake District and Liverpool.
- Day 7: Ludlow and Bristol.
- Day 8: Bath, Stonehenge and London.
The current programme broadly overlaps our recorded stops, but hotels, meals, visits and timings can change. Check the official Amazing Britain itinerary for the departure you are considering.
