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Tags: Food Travel / London Field Trip / Edinburgh Travel / Edinburgh Field Trip / → All Tags
This is How British Fish and Chips Ought to Look
For Americans traveling to London, or really anywhere in the United Kingdom, there is one stereotypical English meal that must be sought out: fish and chips. It's a comfort food, so it doesn't matter if you find yourself in the UK all the time or if you've been saving up for years for a London vacation, because fish & chips is just one of those things.
We found this perfect juicy specimen of fish & chips (the chips are behind the fish, effectively propping it up) at the inexpensive and cozy pub restaurant called The World's End in Edinburgh, Scotland recently. Sure it's right on the Royal Mile and surrounded by shops that try to sell tartan to tourists, but you can't deny that it's a damned good place to settle down for a hearty meal, and perhaps sample haggis with one of their appetizers (so you're not stuck with a whole dinner of it). Forgive us for not devouring some fish & chips wrapped up in newspaper, but that gets greasy messy.
Tags: Most Shocking McDonalds / Most-Shocking-McDonalds-Locations / McDonalds / Fast Food Travel / London Travel / London Field Trip / → All Tags
Enjoy a McDonald's McBacon Steps Away From a Historical Gallows in London
When in London recently, we came across yet another McDonald's in an odd spot, to add to our ever-growing map of the Most Shocking McDonald's Locations. In search of an English Breakfast sandwich we had once had at a British McD's, we walked to a golden arches nearby the Marble Arch tube stop in London. While eating our bacon roll—sadly the English Breakfast sandwich is no more—we Wikipediaed the location and discovered that it was once the site of Tyburn Tree, a gallows where criminals and Catholic martyrs were hung for almost 500 years.
And now we're eating hash browns and egg mcmuffins there.
A better view of that Bacon Roll, and more history after the jump
Tags: Travel Tips / Train Travel / LGW / London Travel / London Field Trip / Airports / Airport Transportation / → All Tags
Let's Go For a Ride! How to Take the Gatwick Express Train
To take a flight somewhere is to take a journey before even stepping onto the plane. You've got to get yourself to the airport transportation and take that first! Some airports have Airtrains connections between the subway and the terminals, and fewer have direct subway train stations, but London's Gatwick Airport has a direct train and we love it.
The train between London's Victoria Station and Gatwick Airport is appropriately called the Gatwick Express, and it provides space and comfort for the harried travelers arriving from or departing to flights from the airport. It's a tad bit pricey, but not more so than a cab, and it might just be one of the best airport transports we've ever been on, so how do you get on it?
The Guide to Riding the Gatwick Express, after the jump
Tags: Food Travel / London Travel / London Field Trip / Open Thread / STN / → All Tags
What Weird Food Keeps You Coming Back To A Country?
One night, we were stuck sleeping underneath the departures board at London-Stansted airport, and we had very few pound coins left and a rumbling tummy, begging for food. So we went scrounging around, and that's when we saw them, our future obsession: potato chips in elaborate flavors. There was "Italian Sausage," "Prawn Cocktail," and even "Angus Steak."
Ever since then, we've always attempted to track down the craziest flavor crisps on subsequent trips to Britain. So it makes us wonder what special food items you look forward to purchasing on trips...are you partial to the interesting cereals of Italy? How about the cheeses of Mexico?
Or maybe you just have a great flavor of potato chips to recommend to us? We've already exhausted the offerings at Tesco and Marks & Spencer, so we're in your hands. So...what food items do you look forward to buying when you're abroad?
Related Stories:
· Food Travel [Jaunted]
[Photo: Jaunted]
Tags: On-track WiFi / Train Travel / London Field Trip / Edinburgh Field Trip / Virgin Trains / East Coast trains / → All Tags
Free WiFi On Trains Already Exists! In Britain.
We're only one month away from the start of free WiFi on Amtrak Acela trains in the US, but like usual, the European train system has it beat.
Last month, we sought to take a train down to London from Edinburgh, and desperately wanted a train that offered a WiFi signal, so naturally we turned to book with Virgin Trains, which touts free WiFi in first class and paid access in coach. However, it turns out that their website will book any available train running the route and not just Virgin ones, so we were dismayed to find ourselves stuck with a ticket on an East Coast train, even though a Brit friend assured us that it would be nicer than if we had gone Virgin.
So was it nicer? Find out after the jump!
Tags: Tourist Traps / Tourism / Tourists / Landmarks / London Field Trip / Europe Travel / → All Tags
Spot a Purple Flag in Europe, and You've Found a Tourist-Friendly Nightlife District
Oftentimes, one of the challenges of visiting a new city is figuring out the nightlife, and this is doubly difficult if you're traveling solo and looking to stay as safe as possible. But now, finding the areas that remain as safe to tourists in the day and at night has become much easier with the introduction of a new purple flag system to highlight neighborhoods that stay tourist-friendly at night.
We picked up on this bit of new when we were hanging out the UK last month, and it seems to be an extremely new initiative; indeed London's popular Leicester Square and Covent Garden were the first locations in the city to receive their purple flags, and they only got them at the end of January.
Who else has a purple flag, after the jump
Tags: What Not To Do In / Tourists / London Travel / London / Britain Travel / Lists / London Field Trip / → All Tags
What Not To Do In London: The Top Five Tourist Mistakes
It's easy to make stupid tourist mistakes in London, England; the city is huge and there is tons to see. But if your first language is English and you've ever been to a big city before, you have no excuse for making a few easily-avoided oopsies. We've covered the five absolute worst mistakes, but we know there are a score more.
So without further ado, here is the Jaunted guide of What Not To Do In London: The Top 5 Tourist Mistakes.
Check them out, after the jump.
Tags: Airport Lounges / Lounges / LHR / Airports / Virgin Atlantic / London Field Trip / Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse / Videos / Travel Videos / → All Tags
Inside the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at London's Heathrow Airport
You know when you're flying in economy class and you're walking through the terminal clutching your carry-on luggage and a Cinnabon, desperately seeking out a WiFi signal or comfortable seating, when...you pass a pair of sliding doors that briefly open to reveal what looks like a hidden wonderland within the airport? When this happens to us, our heart melts a little in agony that the experience of a first class lounge is so unattainable at that moment—but it wasn't last week, when Virgin Atlantic invited us into the holy grail of airline lounges: their Upper Class Clubhouse at London's Heathrow Airport.
What can we say about the place, except that it made our wildest airport dreams come true? The fact that free WiFi, complimentary Bumble & Bumble salon appointments, a pool table, an outdoor deck and even a HOT TUB exist in one place at an airport means we're going to need several hours to fully absorb it all, and thus we arrived nice and early.
After the jump, tons of pictures and more about that hot tub...
Tags: Travel Tips / Guidebooks / iPhone / Travel Tech / London Field Trip / Belgium Field Trip / Edinburgh Field Trip / Train Travel / → All Tags
Going Through Guidebook Withdrawal: How to Travel Lighter
Over the last year, we've slowly chipped away at the size of our luggage on trips by peeling away guidebooks and maps. And now that we're down to the absolute minimum, we thought we'd share the steps which led us to traveling sans clunky extras.
First, we went to Hong Kong and Macau and hauled a TimeOut guidebook, the small Wallpaper guidebook, the Luxe fold-out guide (to find the hip places), a Moleskine City Notebook to HK, and a fold-out map. On top of that, we were still packing a laptop, phone, camera and Flip video cam with all of their chargers and accessories. We didn't use half of them!
Tags: Money / Open Threads / Currency Exchange / Credit Cards / London Field Trip / Edinburgh Field Trip / Belgium Field Trip / Euros / → All Tags
What Is The Best Way to Exchange Your Money?
Help! This is for all the travelers out there who confront a currency exchange booth at the airport or on the street and shake their heads at the unfavorable rates, only to give in anyways because they just need more cash.
We're wondering what is the best way to exchange your money? We've been through it all—ordering foreign currency from American Express, shuffling up to the Travelex booth in the airport arrivals hall, taking and taking more from foreign ATMs, and even making the walk of shame to a booth in tourist trap. But our indecision really worked against us last week in London, when we discovered that by choosing to exchange cash at a booth rather than just withdraw from an ATM, we had lost something like $30 that wasn't the fault of the high value of Sterling.
Currency exchange is one of those unavoidable, frustrating tasks that must happen during travel, and it can quickly reach eye-gouging annoying levels when you're pressed for time or facing shady dealers.
So please, help out us and everyone who reads this, and share you best tips for currency exchange in the comments. Care to take this remaining 15 pence off our hands for your time? No, we didn't think so either.
Related Stories:
· London Field Trip [Jaunted]
· Money travel [Jaunted]
[Photo: ganessas]
Tags: Jaunted Flight Reviews / Ryanair / Europe Travel / Brussels Travel / CRL / LCCs / Belgium Field Trip / Edinburgh Field Trip / London Field Trip / → All Tags
We Just Got Off a Ryanair Flight, and This is What We Thought Of It
On Friday, we told you that you'd never believe what we did the day before, and to tell you the truth, we still can't believe it ourselves. Who flies from Brussels-Charleroi in Belgium up to Edinburgh, Scotland for less than 20 Euro for two people? It would be impossible if we weren't talking about notoriously low-cost European carrier Ryanair here.
They're the airline we love to hate, what with their hidden fees and an insane CEO, but although it seems like a mess to the outsider, all's quiet on the western front.
See what we mean, after the jump.
Tags: Airport Lounges / Lounges / LGW / Airports / Virgin Atlantic / London Field Trip / Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse / → All Tags
Inside the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at London's Gatwick Airport
Who goes all the way out to the airport just for afternoon tea, without a flight to catch? We do! Especially when we're talking about tea inside of the freshly remodeled Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Clubhouse at London's Gatwick Airport. It just reopened with the updated interior in November, so we were all about experiencing that precious "new airport lounge" smell.
Last week, we took a day from our London Field Trip to head out into the foggy London morning and check out this playful space over a pot of Earl Grey with Virgin Atlantic's Head of Design Joe Ferry and Senior Design Manager, Jeremy Brown. Our big question for them: why are Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, and in particular this updated one, considered just so cool?
The answer involves rock & roll, after the jump.
