Holiday Thread

[greece]

Want to go to Cartagena-Colombia, fingers cross I can plan this and make it happen by the end of the year

[eumenides]

Want to go to Cartagena-Colombia, fingers cross I can plan this and make it happen by the end of the year

How "Romancing The Stone" !!! Watch out for those hand-chewing crocodiles

[greece]

Want to go to Cartagena-Colombia, fingers cross I can plan this and make it happen by the end of the year

How "Romancing The Stone" !!! Watch out for those hand-chewing crocodiles

Crocodiles? No way! Coral reefs is what I'm planning on seeing (^^,)

[Yinster]

Was the Hermitage amazing?? So looking forward to seeing it in July!!!

The Hermitage is huge. We had a 2 hour tour and it felt like a whistle stop one at that. If you like that kinda of thing you would need a whole day in there. As we were in a tour group we were allocated a time and went in another entrance from the individuals who come themselves. So if you do that then you need to go early to avoid the queues.

One thing we noticed (and I do apologises to any Russians) is the attitude over there. The majority of time service is not the same over here and often people don't smile when serving. Though it depends on who it is. And getting out of the country was just as bad as getting into the country. I never felt more ordered and bossed about.

[moggers]

I think that is just the Russian manner, they are very reserved. I'll be on a tour for 9 hours of the hermitage and the summer palace. Oooh all excited now!!!

[Diane65]

I think that is just the Russian manner, they are very reserved. I'll be on a tour for 9 hours of the hermitage and the summer palace. Oooh all excited now!!!

That sounds amazing and Russia is on my wish list.

Now much closer to home. Has anyone been here http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel ... don-hotel/? Just reading up on the place and the architecture looks amazing, is it worth calling in for a coffee? Just getting my planning head on and I know that its expensive but thought that it would be perfect after a trip on the Eurostar. Also does anyone know how long roughly it takes from getting off the eurostar (and whatever you have to do there, never been on it so don't know re passport, customs etc) to walking back to Euston? Thanks for any info.

[prettyxcool]

I think that is just the Russian manner, they are very reserved. I'll be on a tour for 9 hours of the hermitage and the summer palace. Oooh all excited now!!!

That sounds amazing and Russia is on my wish list.

Now much closer to home. Has anyone been here http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel ... don-hotel/? Just reading up on the place and the architecture looks amazing, is it worth calling in for a coffee? Just getting my planning head on and I know that its expensive but thought that it would be perfect after a trip on the Eurostar. Also does anyone know how long roughly it takes from getting off the eurostar (and whatever you have to do there, never been on it so don't know re passport, customs etc) to walking back to Euston? Thanks for any info.

All the passport checks are done at the Paris end. When you arrive at St Pancras International, you just walk out, that's it! Similarly, going to Paris, all the passport checks are done this end, when you arrive in Paris, you just walk out!

And it is probably about 8-10 minutes walk to Euston.

[Diane65]

I think that is just the Russian manner, they are very reserved. I'll be on a tour for 9 hours of the hermitage and the summer palace. Oooh all excited now!!!

That sounds amazing and Russia is on my wish list.

Now much closer to home. Has anyone been here http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel ... don-hotel/? Just reading up on the place and the architecture looks amazing, is it worth calling in for a coffee? Just getting my planning head on and I know that its expensive but thought that it would be perfect after a trip on the Eurostar. Also does anyone know how long roughly it takes from getting off the eurostar (and whatever you have to do there, never been on it so don't know re passport, customs etc) to walking back to Euston? Thanks for any info.

All the passport checks are done at the Paris end. When you arrive at St Pancras International, you just walk out, that's it! Similarly, going to Paris, all the passport checks are done this end, when you arrive in Paris, you just walk out!

And it is probably about 8-10 minutes walk to Euston.

Thanks so much for that. My eurostar arrives in at 19:03 from Lille but would love to see the hotel as I'm already there (I don't do wasted opportunities) but need to allow time to get the train (when the cheap ones are released) back to Manchester as I'm at work the next day.

Has anyone been to Lille and are there any places that I shouldn't miss?

[eumenides]

Scotland is awesome! The weather forecast was wrong every single day of our stay which meant glorious sunshine all week. Helmsdale clearly has its own micro-climate. Don't believe all you see on BBC weather.

Things we did:
Orkneys
- Ring of Brodgar in Stenness; interesting and a bit more mystical than Stonehenge
- Skara Brae; the walks on the beach and views were stunning. Unless you're super keen on stone age village settlements don't bother with the museum
- Scapa Flow; very interesting natural harbour with lots of historical significance
- Kirkwall and Stromness; a bit boring but worth checking out Orkney ice cream in town. Delicious!
John O'Groats - portal to the Orkneys and now has a Starbucks. An odd place but we didn't hang out here for long.

Loch Shin - saw three huge salmon leap up the Falls of Shin !
River Brora
Dunrobin Castle - absolutely must see if in the area. The falconry displays were so good we stayed for both sittings. The museum there was not so great but the castle itself and the surrounding gardens are lovely.
Forsinard RSPB Bird Sanctuary - the ranger took us on a lovely guided walk (phone ahead to make sure it will be happening)
Smoo Caves in Durness
Moray Firth
Helmsdale
Stacks of Duncansby - breathtakingly beautiful and felt so remote (in the 3 hours we were there we saw 2 other people and they were professional photographers from Italy. The only place we saw Puffins and about 3 million guillemots, I would go back in a heart beat.
Melvich Beach - discovered by accident and stopped there. Amazing beach which had some daredevil surfers hanging around.
Sandwood Bay - a gorgeous place but it's a 4.5 mile walk to get there and I managed to fall into a stream on my way back. Thanks to BBC weather advice I had nine layers on so three of these survived and I was still relatively dry.
Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness

We actually did more than this which is why I need another holiday but I would urge every FMUKer who hasn't already or happens to live there, to visit Scotland.

[chelle1973]

Scotland is awesome! The weather forecast was wrong every single day of our stay which meant glorious sunshine all week. Helmsdale clearly has its own micro-climate. Don't believe all you see on BBC weather.

Things we did:
Orkneys
- Ring of Brodgar in Stenness; interesting and a bit more mystical than Stonehenge
- Skara Brae; the walks on the beach and views were stunning. Unless you're super keen on stone age village settlements don't bother with the museum
- Scapa Flow; very interesting natural harbour with lots of historical significance
- Kirkwall and Stromness; a bit boring but worth checking out Orkney ice cream in town. Delicious!
John O'Groats - portal to the Orkneys and now has a Starbucks. An odd place but we didn't hang out here for long.

Loch Shin - saw three huge salmon leap up the Falls of Shin !
River Brora
Dunrobin Castle - absolutely must see if in the area. The falconry displays were so good we stayed for both sittings. The museum there was not so great but the castle itself and the surrounding gardens are lovely.
Forsinard RSPB Bird Sanctuary - the ranger took us on a lovely guided walk (phone ahead to make sure it will be happening)
Smoo Caves in Durness
Moray Firth
Helmsdale
Stacks of Duncansby - breathtakingly beautiful and felt so remote (in the 3 hours we were there we saw 2 other people and they were professional photographers from Italy. The only place we saw Puffins and about 3 million guillemots, I would go back in a heart beat.
Melvich Beach - discovered by accident and stopped there. Amazing beach which had some daredevil surfers hanging around.
Sandwood Bay - a gorgeous place but it's a 4.5 mile walk to get there and I managed to fall into a stream on my way back. Thanks to BBC weather advice I had nine layers on so three of these survived and I was still relatively dry.
Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness

We actually did more than this which is why I need another holiday but I would urge every FMUKer who hasn't already or happens to live there, to visit Scotland.

Phew!! I need a holiday too after reading that, what a great time you had and wow you packed loads in!! Sounds like my kind of holiday I would love to visit Melvich Beach and Smoo Caves! Ahh maybe one day...