Help with itinerary please...
Replies: 9 - Last Post: Aug 21, 2012 4:25 AM Last Post By: louann
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Help with itinerary please...
hello all,I'm planning a 14 visit September 2013. As we are coming from Australia, does anyone know of an airline who flies directly to Scotland from Singapore, K.L. Dubai etc as I'd like to avoid Heathrow if possible.
Our schedule is flexible but one objective of the trip is to visit the ancestral towns of Girvan and Greenoch, then where do you recommend? We won't spend much time at all in the cities as my husband is a country lad. I think we'd like to head for the hills. We will be hiring a car and enjoy small towns over larger ones, antique shops/flea markets, museums, standing stones and sites of historical importance. We are quite used to driving long distances on narrow winding roads and would rather drive further during the day and stay 2 nights in place than hop from town to town. Does that make sense? Any suggestions please? I have looked at the forum etc but am becoming rather confused. Thanks in anticipation!
2
There are no such direct flights. However there are various '1 stop' flights. Suggest you look at:www.skyscanner.net
Can't help with your confusion unless you tell me what it is.
What does make sense is that since you have a year to plan. why not get a travel guide and then come back with specific questions.
3
There may be flights between Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and UK airports smaller than Heathrow eg Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Glasgow Prestwick - you'll have to search eg with skycanner at Pedro suggests. Or look at hub airports in mainland Europe eg Amsterdam for KLM or Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf and Zurich for Lufthansa etc, as suggested by danbushell.One thing to consider is not to plan on driving on day of arrival in Scotland, when you'll be jet lagged. Better to use public transport / walking and spend at least 24 hours in a city near airport. Even more important if you're unused to driving on left (I know Malaysia & Singapore drive on left, but it's not clear if you live in either place, or if they are simply your nearest big airports), roundabours, single track roads with passing places and / or driving manual cars (if you need an automatic, make sure you book in advance, as they're not routinely available).
Anyway, plenty of time to think about details of trip, once you have flights booked. September is a good month, as weather is usually decent, midges have often died off (at least a bit), and school holidays are over in both Scotland and rest of UK.
5
A trick I learned from TT is to go to the wiki page for the airport (GLA) and look at all the airlines.Emirates fly to Dubai. This seems to be the only direct flight.
But KLM connecting through Amsterdam goes to many more places. For example,
Cathay Pacific fly to Hong Kong. Not sure if you are venturing this East.
China Airlines - Bangkok
China Southern Airlines - Beijing
KLM - Bangkok, Dehli, Doha, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Airlines - KL
etc etc
Also keep in mind it may be cheaper to fly to a transport hub and take cheap internal flights.
As for Scotland Glasgow's West End and Merchant City are the best areas for finding interesting niche shops.
If ou hire a car head for Loch Lomond, maybe climb a Ben if it's nice. See the Antonine Wall, or at least where it was and what is left of it. Really I don't know why I'm saying all this, there's a website devoted to it! http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/heritage
Hope some of that helps you.
9
Thank you so much for your information. Last time I headed UK way I found it far more bearable to have a stopover at Dubai or Singapore from Melbourne(14 hour flight) then it's only another 8 hours or so. Others may prefer all in one go, but it was worth a little bit extra to fly direct to Dublin and thanks to your info I see it's possible to avoid London again. Saves time and stress.Thanks again.
