St. Thomas and St. John

In April 2023, we stayed 1 week at the Marriott Frenchman's Cove timeshare resort. We had a 2 bedroom villa on the 5th floor of the St. John building. We took the car ferry from St. Thomas to St. John on a Sunday and a Tuesday.

Restaurants

We ate at St. Thomas restaurants 5 different nights, and ate in at our villa the 2 nights when we went to St. John. 

Mim's Seaside Bistro

When you drive from Marriott Frenchman's Cove, Mim's is on the way to Red Hook. We would definitely eat here again. They have an extensive seafood menu and we were very happy with the food. The garden salad was really good, and entree Mediterranean Swordfish was excellent with capers and kalamata olives. Our Marriott Privileges discount card gave us a free rum punch drink.

Sunset Grille

This is also on the way to Red Hook, but much closer to Red Hook. It is at Secret Harbour beach, a beautiful but small beach with an excellent view of the sunset. The sun does set behind the islands, but you have a great view here. The food was excellent and we would definitely eat here again. The roasted beet salad was very good and for my entree, the Adobo Chicken was excellent. The best part was the Mud Pie dessert, which was very large and definitely should be shared.

Oceana Restaurant and Bistro

This is probably my favorite restaurant on St. Thomas. It is past the town (Charlotte Amalie) but not as far as the airport. It is in a beautiful building directly on the water, looking at Water Island and Hassel Island. It's a little tricky to get to down some very narrow one-way streets, but worth the adventure.

13 Restaurant

The restaurant called "13" is located in Yacht Haven Grande, which is a short drive from Marriott Frenchman's Cove (towards town). The menu here is pretty small and the food was okay. The restaurant is located with a view of the harbor and large yachts. We would probably not return here.

The view from 13 Restaurant

Old Stone Farmhouse

This is a really unique venue and very beautiful restaurant.  The service was excellent. However, the food was okay. It seemed overpriced and portions were small. We would not return here. It is a long drive, almost to Magens Bay beach, and you should be prepared to have your car valet parked which is free, but bring some cash for a tip anyways. It is open air restaurant, so bring bug spray. It was a little warm, as the windows are all open, but they are not large.

Beaches

Magens Bay - St. Thomas

This is a very large beach with lots of facilities and a good amount of parking. I would recommend researching how many cruise ships will be in St. Thomas and choose a day when none are in port. You can find this at this website. If you do go here and it is busy, you should walk as far as you can to the left and you can hopefully find space on the beach with less people.

Non-Residents pay $5 per person and $2 per car. I heard it is free if you arrive before 8 am.

We tried to snorkel but it was very murky. Very fun to watch the pelicans diving into the water, often mere yards from swimmers!

Honeymoon Beach - St. John

Honeymoon Beach is on the north shore and is closest to Cruz Bay and is a great beach for swimming and wading. We drove to Lind Point Road, just off of North Shore Road. There is labeled parking for people taking the trail down to Honeymoon Beach. The other way to get to Honeymoon is to drive to Caneel Bay and take a shuttle to the beach. We parked for free - see the red star on the map below and walked the Lower Lind Point Trail all the way down to the beach, about a 10-minute walk on some rough rocky terrain - good sandals or sneakers are recommended - not flip flops. 

The trail to the beach starts just behind this sign.

The beach is pretty good size, and has bathrooms and a shower and a few food and drink options. There are beach chairs for rent, and a few shade trees as well.  The snorkeling to the right (as if you were trying to get to Caneel Bay beach) was pretty good. The snorkeling was better to the left (by the rocky area between Salomon and Honeymoon beaches).

Salt Pond Bay Beach - St. John

We really like this remote beach on the east end of St. John (approximately 35-minute drive from Cruz Bay). There is a small parking lot (gravel) and parking on the road as well. You hike about 10 minutes down to the beach. There is a small toilet building just as you arrive at the beach.

There is excellent snorkeling here! The best was a long swim into the middle of the bay where there are a set of jagged rocks that break the surface past where boats are tied to mooring balls. We saw turtles, squid and lots of fish. You can also snorkel on the left and right sides of the bay, but we did not see very much. There are two hikes you can also do from this beach: Ram's Head Trail (longer hike, we did not hike, but heard it is hot and rocky and has great views) and Drunk Bay Trail (a short trail to the other side of the island past Salt Pond, maybe 1/4 mile, which we hiked in 2022).

The beach does not offer much shade and was very hot when we were there. We brought our own umbrella. There are small "hitch-hiker" burrs in the sand by the few trees, so be careful as they can stick to bottom of your feet!

Hansen Bay Beach - St. John

This is a private beach that has parking and the family who runs this accepts anything you want to pay in their donation box to support the maintenance of the facilities. This is on the East End part of St. John, and also pretty remote and far from Cruz Bay. The snorkeling to the left of the beach, by Pelican Rock was excellent. We saw an octopus, a huge turtle with 2 large remoras, as well as a small shark and lots of fish.

Secret Harbour Beach - St. Thomas

Secret Harbour - left side

This is a small beach and very calm, protected from waves and breezes. We came here 2 different days. There is a dive shop on the beach (Aqua Action Dive Center) where you can get information about snorkeling as well as rent snorkel gear and beach chairs and umbrellas, kayaks, and paddle boards. There is snorkeling on both the left and right sides of the beach. We really liked the right side, where you can snorkel pretty far out, going around the rocks that are exposed (see photo below):

Secret Harbour - right side

Frenchman's Cove Beach - St. Thomas

The beach is very small at the resort. There is a reef close to the beach that you cannot swim over so entry into the water is only near the pier.  

There is decent snorkeling on the left side of the pier and as you swim towards the further Westin pier. We snorkeled in the morning on a cloudy day and saw a few fish - we will try again on a sunny day.

Brewer's Bay Beach

We did not spend a lot of time at this beach, but wanted to see what it was like. It is a large beach and you can see the airplanes land because the airport is very close (you can see the beginning of the runway from the beach). There were students from the University of the Virgin Islands because the campus is next to the beach as well. The sand was a little more coarse than the other beaches on St. Thomas. We heard it is also a good place to watch the sunset. 

Above the beach, there is a road you can take up to the Reichhold Center of the Arts. From the parking lot you have a bird's eye view of the runway and beach.

Snorkel Boat Trip with Aqua Marine Dive Center

We did a 2 snorkel site afternoon adventure which we loved. It is supposed to be 4 hours for $85 per person (plus tax). There were only 6 people (3 were snorkeling and 3 were diving) and 4 staff on the boat. Their 43-foot dive boat was a comfortable ride to the first snorkel location located off of Little St. James Island.  The 2nd location was off of Cabrita Point and we saw a huge and colorful sea fan forest.  

We highly recommend snorkeling with Aqua Marine. We learned so much from Ericka, our guide. Of note was the male Sergeant Major fish guarding a mass of purple eggs and holding a sea anemone that stuck to my hand when I turned it upside down.

Grocery Stores

We went to 3 different grocery stores during our stay:

• The Market - Located inland and the largest of the three. They had pretty good produce and the best prices of the three stores.
• Food Center - This is convenient when coming back from Red Hook, since you pass right by it. It is almost as large as The Market, and about same prices.
• Moe's Fresh Market - located very close to Red Hook ferry. This had more variety, and higher prices. The parking lot can be very busy and difficult to get in and out of. We stopped after getting off the ferry and it was very busy.

Car Ferry Options

There are 3 companies: Love City, Big Red Barge and Global Marine.  We liked Global Marine, because they have a place on the front of the boat to sit and enjoy the views. If you go on Big Red Barge, there is not a place to sit, so you either stay in your car or get out and walk around the car deck which is difficult because cars are parked so close together. When we were here in 2022, we took Love City and believe their ferries have outside viewing/seating that is up high, and not by the cars.

All three companies charge same price. You will pay much more for a one-way ticket, so you should look at schedule for return trip from St. John and pick a company that the times work the best for you.  When we went in April 2023, it was $65 round trip (and $50 one-way).

If the return ferry is the last one of the day for the company you have a return ticket for and it is full, you will need to buy a one-way ticket to return with a different company. We suggest getting to the car ferry dock at least 30 minutes before the ferry is scheduled to leave.

Our 2023 Itinerary

• Saturday - Magen's Bay (no cruise ships)
• Sunday - St. John - Honeymoon Beach
• Monday - Aqua Marine Snorkel Trip - St. Thomas
• Tuesday - St. John - Salt Pond Bay & Hansen Beach
• Wednesday - Secret Harbour St. Thomas 
• Thursday - Frenchman's Cove & Secret Harbour St. Thomas

Updated Turks and Caicos, Providenciales

In fall of 2022 and January 2023 we stayed at The Sands. The Sands has a great location on Grace Bay. All beach amenities are included (umbrellas, palapas, sailboats, kayaks, paddle boards and snorkeling gear). The resort also has bikes and tennis court and rackets available for no charge, and is walking distance from several excellent restaurants. They have reasonable junior suites with kitchenette as well as 1 and 2 bedroom suites with full kitchens and laundry.

Restaurants

Coco Bistro

Beautiful venue and amazing food. Highly recommend and must make reservation before arriving on island. The blackened grouper is outstanding. The restaurant is outdoors amidst very large palm trees that are beautifully lit. On the same property is Coco Van which is very casual and seating is similar, with some picnic table and high table options. Food at Coco Van is excellent but served on paper and not as upscale as Coco Bistro. Coco Van has excellent fish tacos.

Coco Bistro

Da Conch Shack

This is a casual restaurant with great location on beach. Some of the tables are on deck and some are in sand. It can be windy here, and you can request a reservation on the deck which would be a little back from the beach, but still with a view. I would try to arrive before sunset. 

The restaurant is in an area called Blue Hills which is a little drive from Grace Bay hotels. Highly recommend ordering the "Pirates Pot" (for 2 people to share). And if ordering a side salad be sure to specify you would like it before your meal. Wednesday nights are their busy night, with entertainment.

Da Conch Shack

Bella Luna

Excellent Italian restaurant. We ate upstairs and the menu had lots of delicious looking options and the terrace upstairs has a treehouse feel. Next time we plan to try eating downstairs (outdoors). The menu downstairs looks like pizza and calzones and the vibe looks more casual.

Magnolia

View from Magnolia

The view from Magnolia is up high of Turtle Cove and a great place to see sunset. Service was slow and food was good.

Hemingways

Excellent location close to the beach and a delicious menu. We ate here for dinner and they have a great breakfast as well. Recommend making reservations for arrival before sunset. Hemingways is located on The Sands property.

Snorkeling

Coral Gardens

We were very happy with the variety of fish here. It is a busy and popular place, but if you swim around the orange buoys and go further out, the coral is better. Since it seems a little more shallow here, the fish are closer up and brighter colors since more sunlight (less deep). 

We saw turtles, stingrays, lionfish, and lots of parrot fish.

Smith Reef

In my original post, I mentioned a shortcut to avoid the beach walk from the gravel parking lot by Smith Reef. There is now construction and a new home so this access is no longer an option. The parking lot was sometimes full in February but  there was still street parking at the end of Coconut Road.

We saw several stingrays and turtles, as well as a lobster and many colorful reef fish.

Snorkel Boat Trip

Here is the dock Caicos Adventures uses

In October we booked a half day boat trip (morning) with Caicos Adventures on their 50 foot "Top Gun" boat. We went all the way to West Caicos and their boat was very fast. is There were 3 other couples on the trip and we made 3 stops for snorkeling. It was too rough at the first stop, so we had to find a different place to snorkel. As a result, we think a couple of the snorkel sites were pretty close together. At one of the sites we saw a large nurse shark. We saw lots of fish as well as a lobster.
 
Overall we were very happy with Caicos Adventures and would use them again. After snorkeling they had a good selection of beverages and a variety of wraps. It was the off season and they were not running these trips daily, but we were happy they could accommodate us. In October 2022 we paid $140 per person for the half day trip and currently in 2023 same trip is $150 per person. They would have picked us up from our resort, but we chose to drive ourselves to the dock.

Grace Bay Beach

Travel & Leisure magazine published TripAdvisor voted it best beach in the world in 2022

Scotland and England 2022

September 9 through 25th we rented a car at Heathrow and drove north to Scotland, returning to end with 2 days in London.

Oxford

Upon arriving at Heathrow, we rented a car and our first stop was the town of Oxford. We had time to wander around Oxford before our tour of the Bodlein Library. There is not a lot of parking available, but we were able to find a pay-and-display lot on St. Giles Street (£12 - 2 hours maximum). Otherwise there are outlying park-and-ride lots which are a 10 minute shuttle bus ride.

There are a few different tour options at Oxford University, and reservations should be made as soon as possible with this link.

Things to Do and See in Oxford:

• Radcliffe Camera
• Christ Church (Harry Potter film location or inspiration)
• Blackwell Bookstore
• Lots of gift shops dedicated to Harry Potter
• Climb University Church of St. Mary - 127 narrow twisting stairs of the 13th century bell tower for views
• Lunch at Vaults and Garden (affordable and unique location)

We did not stay for dinner or overnight, but other options are: dinner at Cuttlefish (seafood restaurant) or eat at one of the 20 different restaurants at the Covered Market in Oxford. We drove 2 hours north to stay overnight at the Courtyard Keele Staffordshire (great beds and night's sleep, and an awesome Scottish buffet breakfast in the morning).

View from University Church

Radcliffe Camera

Hadrian's Wall

On Day 2 we drove north and stopped to see Hadrian's wall. This Roman wall stretching 73 miles dates back to AD 122. There are numerous places to see and hike the wall as well as museums with artifacts and history. There a various Hadrian's wall visitor spots including Housesteads, Vindolanda and the Roman Army Museum. 

We went to Housesteads Roman Fort (in Hexham) to see the museum and remains of the fort (£9). There is a visitor center and gift shop and snack bar. If you hike a little ways from the fort there is a section of the wall you can walk on top of.

It was a 3 hour drive from Homesteads to Edinburgh and our hotel, The Raeburn, which is located in Stockbridge.  We walked after dinner to the Scott Monument on Princes Street (23 minute walk). The city was busy with people for a Saturday night.

The Raeburn

Highly recommend staying at The Raeburn. This is a small hotel, but lots of charm and friendly staff. The restaurant was excellent and the location close to bus stop was very convenient. We enjoyed taking the bus into the city center, as well as the close CO-OP Food store next door.

Edinburgh

Great breakfast at The Raeburn hotel. Walked to St. Cuthberts and saw the Princes Street gardens and fountain. The Edinburgh Castle looms high above the gardens. The castle was closed due to the Queen's death. Walked to the Scottish National Museum which is a free and very interesting museum. Walked to the Grassmarket and ate at The Black Bull. We had dinner at David Bann vegetarian restaurant.

Princes Street Garden

Scottish National Museum

Victoria Street

The Royal Mile

On our 2nd day in Edinburgh we hiked Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. When you go up, if you go counter-clockwise, there are some steep stairs to go up - we went clockwise and down the stairs. We ate dinner at Scran and Scallie which was very near the Raeburn. After a delicious dinner, took bus to the base of Calton Hill and walked around the interesting monuments. Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill would be excellent places to see the sunset.

Salisbury Crags

Calton Hill

On our last day, we took the bus into the city center for our scheduled tour of the Real Mary King's Close. This tour was very interesting, with much of it underground, and included lots of storytelling, for example about the bubonic plague. Photos are not allowed.

We left Edinburgh and stopped at Stirling Castle on our way north. We spent about 2 hours, including a 1-hour guided tour which was excellent. We could have stayed many hours here. 

Stirling Castle

On the way to Aviemore, where we would be staying for the night, we stopped at Duone Castle. We did not tour because it was about to close. Duone Castle was Castle Leoch in the show Outlander, and was also in the movie Monty Python and The Holy Grail. 

In Aviemore, we stayed at High Range Hotel, which was clean and great bed and offered laundry facilities. We ate dinner at the Old Bridge Inn which had small menu but good food and very cozy atmosphere.

Cairngorm National Park

We started at the Glenmore Visitor Center and hiked 5.4 mile loop trail called Meall a' Bhuachaille. It was recommended to go clockwise, but not sure if either way is easier. There were some steep ups and downs and approximately 2000' elevation change. The view at the top was great but very windy. 

Since we went clockwise, at end of the hike at the small lake there is an option to take an easier and flatter trail back to the car park to the left. The actual trail would have you stay to the right.

After hiking, we went to see the Culloden Battlefield which was interesting though the Visitor Center was closed when we arrived. We ate dinner in Inverness at Number 27 (small menu but had an excellent Cullen Skink (essentially seafood chowder)). 

John O'Groats and Orkney Islands

We then drove 3 hours on dark narrow roads to town of John O'Groats where we stayed at John O'Groats Inn (part of Together Travel). We had some difficulty getting the key to our room (it is in a lock box) because instructions were unclear on the lock-off feature of our apartment. The place had a great view of the water and was walking distance from the ferry.

We booked the Orkney Day Tour from John O'Groats Ferries and highly recommend this tour. Book as many days in advance as you can, as it will likely fill up by the day you go. The tour included the 40 minute ferry, coach bus with tour guide, and Skara Brae entrance fee. You visit several of the Orkney Islands on the tour. Highlights included: 

• Town of Kirkwall - only here an hour, and not enough time to see both the amazing Orkney Museum and St. Magnus Cathedral. Get a map at cathedral to see highlights (there are dungeons we heard about later). The guide did not tell us what to do in Kirkwall, just gave us free time.

Magnus Cathedral

• Skara Brae - incredible ancient ruins of a neolithic village which was hidden under the sand dunes until 1850. You also get to see an old manor after the ruins.

Skara Brae

• Ring of Brodgar - large ring of standing stones
• Standing Stones of Stenness - you can touch the stones here
• Town of Stromness - had lunch and ice cream here and walked the streets and window shopped
• Scapa Flow - 2nd largest natural port in the world
• The Churchill Barriers (bridges between the islands build during WWII to keep German submarines out of the naval base at Scapa Flow) 

We drove back to Inverness after the return ferry and stayed at the Kings Mills Hotel which was very nice (and included a welcome taste of local Whisky) 

Inverness

We walked along the River Ness after parking at Fisherman's Car Park. We saw St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and after crossing the river via the Victorian suspension bridge, saw another very old church: The Old High Church.

Inverness Castle as viewed from Ness Walk

The Old High Church

We then walked to the Victorian Market which was an indoor shopping space. We left Inverness and drove to Loch Ness. There are a lot of different parking options on side of road (some more obstructed than others for photo opportunities). Stopped at Urquhart Castle, but you cannot see the castle unless you pay  (no view from parking lot). Our next stop was the Eilean Donan Castle, which we highly recommend. There was a fee for the castle as well as for the Car Park ("Pay and Display" they call it).

Eilean Donan Castle

Isle of Skye

We took the free bridge to Skye which was very convenient after seeing Eilean Donan Castle. We stayed at the Cuillen Hills Hotel which is located above the town of Portree and has great views of town and water from the restaurant and some of the sleeping rooms. The restaurant had excellent food but not the best service.

View from Cuillen Hills Hotel

The next day we hiked Old Man of Storr which was excellent despite the rain. We followed hiking recommendations from WalkHighlands.co.uk here. Then we drove to Mealt Falls (park in the upper parking lot for a shorter walk to the overlook). Driving along same highway we then stopped at Kilt Rock, which we heard you can often see whales. Last stop was our hike at the Quiraing Circuit. This is a loop, but it was raining so we did not hike all of it. 

We ate dinner at Dulse & Brose restaurant which was excellent. We had great service and really enjoyed the raspberry tart dessert.

Old Man of Storr

Kilt Rock

Some of the roads on Skye are single track, and it takes longer to get to some of the sights. On our second day on Skye, we drove to the Neist Lighthouse which had at least 8 miles of single track road. At the end of the road there is small amount of parking, and then a 15 minute paved walk to see the lighthouse - the walk would have been further to get all the way down to the lighthouse which we decided not to do. Note the walk is very steep in parts. Next we drove to see the Fairy Pools. We hiked about 20 minutes, but could have hiked further and saw even more pools. This hike was very busy.

Neist Point Lighthouse

When we left Skye, we took the ferry which was very nice from Armadale to Mallaig (on CalMac Ferries). There is a really nice drive from Mallaig to Fort William where we stayed after leaving Skye. The drive is called Road to the Isles, and you can see the Glenfinnan monument and the Glenfinnan viaduct (made famous in Harry Potter movies where they filmed the train to Hogwarts).

Fort William and Ben Nevis

We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast in Fort William called Treetops B&B. The breakfast was healthy including hard boiled eggs from their own chickens; the couple that own Treetops are friendly and helpful. Our first night we ate dinner at Crannog's in Fort William which is right on the water. It was stressed by our B & B hosts to make reservations for all of our dinners and definitely agree with that advice. We recommend Crannog's it has a great seafood menu. There is very little parking at Crannogs, but there is a car park just up the boulevard on the water and then a 5 minute walk to the restaurant.

View from Treetops Bed and Breakfast

We originally planned to hike to top of Ben Nevis but we had a late start and everyone we asked on their way down said the top was foggy with no visibility. This is an enjoyable hike with a well-maintained trail. We were not able to go into the Ben Nevis Visitor Center because it was closed due to the Queen's funeral.

Hiking Ben Nevis

We had reservations our second night at Ben Nevis Inn which is very close to the trailhead for the Ben Nevis hike. This is another great restaurant with a very casual but cozy atmosphere. On our last day in Fort William we went to the Highland Museum which was very nice and deserved more time than we had available. There is a nice pedestrian-only street with lots of shops and a nice visitor center as well.

Glen Etive Scenic Drive

After leaving Fort William, we drove south and picked up the scenic road that was used for filming the James Bond movie "Skyfall" as well as Outlander. This was a single track road but had beautiful scenery.

View from Glen Etive drive

Conic Hill Hike / Loch Lomond

There is a large car park (takes coins only) and information center (50p for restrooms) at Conic Hill hike. This hike has great views of Loch Lomond and had some challenging scramble areas towards the top. It is about 2.5 miles and about 1000' elevation change. When you get to the first "scramble" area, we went to the right, and view was great. 

View from the higher of two Conic Hill summits

Glasgow

We drove to Glasgow for our last night in Scotland and stayed at the Moxy Merchant City. This is a nice hotel in a university area of the city, but parking lot is about 2 blocks away in an indoor ramp. It was inexpensive to park and felt secure. We had dinner at Babbity Bowser which is walking distance from the hotel.

The hotel included breakfast and was pretty good hot breakfast with good coffee. We walked to the Glasgow Cathedral in the morning, but it did not open until 10 so we could not go inside. We walked around the nearby necropolis instead. Next we drove to the Kelvingrove Museum which is free and very large. We did not have much time here as we had a long drive ahead of us. We walked to Glasgow University to see the cloisters (some Outlander filming happened here) but they were closed for a movie filming it appeared. The Glasgow University campus is a great place to visit. It is a very old university with lots of beautiful buildings.

Glasgow Cathedral

Kelvingrove Museum

Tolbooth Steeple downtown Glasgow

Our next stop was Salisbury in England, a seven hour drive south. We checked into the Cricket Field House for the night. The room was okay and needs some updating, but the breakfast was decent the next morning. We had a delicious dinner at the French restaurant chain called Cote.

Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral

We started the day at Stonehenge and bought tickets in advance online for 9:30 am. We recommend arriving at Stonehenge visitor center when they open if you can. You will get to see the stones before it gets busy and it seems to get busy right away! You take a 5-10 minute shuttle bus out to the stones, and if you are on one of the earliest buses, there is no wait or line.  We recommend you do the visitor center after viewing the stones so the line for the bus is shorter and there are less people at the stones.  The visitor center is excellent and we did not allow enough time here and wish we had. Also, there are VIP tickets to get a closer look at the stones, either early in the day or at end of day, but these sell out several months in advance (book very early if this interests you).

We then took a tour scheduled to see the Salisbury Cathedral tower. This was a 2-hour in depth tour that was very interesting. However, the tour is only of the tower and did not include the lower parts of the cathedral which we were unable to see after the tour due to some school activity. Be sure not to miss the Cathedral Floor tour if available.

We parked at the Old George Mall Car Park which was cheaper than the Cathedral Car Park. 

Salisbury Cathedral

London

Before returning home, we spent 2 days in London. Places we saw:

• Kings Cross Station and St. Pancras and Track 9 3/4 (from Harry Potter)
• British Library (free) where we saw a copy of the Magna Carta and many other rare books
• Buckingham Palace
• Thames River boat tour - highly recommend
• Greenwich - Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian line
• National Maritime Museum (free)

The river boat takes you very close to many sights and goes under the Tower Bridge

The view from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich

National Maritime Museum

We recommend eating at the Duck and Waffle located on 40th floor with amazing views of London, though it is very pricey. We also ate at Masala Zone (in Camden) which had delicious Indian food.

General Recommendations

• Make sure you have pounds in coin form for the car parks
• Have some smaller cash for tipping when you arrive at airport (shuttle driver)
• Book as many things as possible in advance (restaurants, tours, etc.)
• An excellent guidebook is the Rick Steves Scotland (and Rick Steves England)
• Many restaurants do not include a line or opportunity for tipping your server; once you indicate you will pay with a credit card, they come to the table with a card reader and charge the amount of the bill with no chance to write in a top amount, or tap a percentage on the machine. If you want to leave a tip, just ask the server to add X pounds and they will happily do so.
• Make sure you have time to see the Scottish hairy cows: