I’m your textbook definition of a Type A person: Hours upon hours of hunching over my computer on my couch, planning and planning. I enjoy planning usually more than the actual trip.
This was the first time I got to plan a whole trip by myself. Like how riddles are fun for kids, logistics are fun for me. Train times, walking distances, and what’s worth seeing and what’s not worth seeing in a city are my favorite things to debunk.
However, there are times that I love going with the flow, or having someone else take the reins. Taking an expensive trip to a place like the UK did not afford me this opportunity. I wanted to be able to get the most out of my money while also seeing a lot of what the UK had to offer.
I had three weekends, from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening, during this program, where I could go wherever I wanted.
After consulting train routes, time constraints, things to do, and, of course, Reddit, I settled on 3 areas. For the first weekend, London was a given since we were already there for a program. For the second weekend, I chose to do more cities: Manchester and Liverpool. I also added Conwy Castle to this weekend, a beautiful piece of architecture and history on the north coast of Wales. For my third weekend, I decided to do a bit more nature-centric trip. I chose historic York as a base, and went to the coastal cities of Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay, passing through the North York Moors National Park. I originally also wanted to go to the Yorkshire Dales National Park, but public transportation was virtually nonexistent there.
I don’t regret any of the places I chose, and it went really smoothly until the very end when I had to pivot away from the Yorkshire Dales. I’m really happy that I planned everything out beforehand, because I wouldn’t have had any time to do it during the program. I got to get the most out of my weekends and make memories that will last forever.
I even had a tab in my master planning document covering things to do, eat, and shop in Oxford in case I was bored or needed a backup plan. I loved having something I could fall back on if my friends and I didn’t know where to go and spend our time.
Moral of the story: if you like planning, plan. And Reddit is your best friend.
Pictures: Top – Whitby; Bottom – Robin Hood’s Bay