Girl Meets Globe: Scotland

Showing posts with label Scotland. Show all posts

02 February 2014

Our Best Stays, Family Style

Tina @ Girl-Meets-Globe February 02, 2014 0

Emma, and Kelly, my fellow England bloggers invited me to participate in their link up about our most memorable night's sleep. It's difficult to narrow it down to one, so I'll share a few.

Being a family of 5 and finding places to stay while traveling can be a lengthy process. Surprisingly though, I enjoy the challenge of finding that perfect place that's nice, inexpensive and convenient.

Most hotels don't work for us. Then you have the challenge of finding a holiday rental that will allow you to rent for shorter than a week.

It might take some time, but we always manage to find something.

Here are a few of my favorite stays.

Altea, Spain - September 2010

Look at that view!! This was such an amazing last minute score. All you can see was water! Out on the balcony you can see the small street and short beach area and hear the waves lapping on the rocks. Being a rocky beach keeps the numbers down, which we like.

I actually enjoyed waking up early before the rest of the family to capture these sunrises.

Benalmadena, Spain - June 2011

We didn't have an ocean view, but the pool view was pretty!

Benalmadena is located about 25 minutes south of Malaga. We fell in love with the quieter beaches when we'd visited this area before on our crazy quick trip.

Brighton, England - April 2012

We stayed in a lovely little cottage on a twitten.

Homer, Alaska - September 2012

We stayed in the Land's End Hotel located at the end of the Homer Spit. A place I grew up going every summer to camp and deep sea fish for halibut. I always dreamed of staying in this hotel as a kid.

Fort William, Scotland - August 2013
Dalchreggan Guest House

It's easier to find a B&B in the UK that holds a family We had a nice large room. The down side, it's extremely awkward and embarrassing if your kid decides to have a fit! Yeah, that happened!

And one that I think will go down in history for us and that we would return to time and again would be our lovely stay on the border of Lahich in Liscannor, Ireland at Rannagh View.

This gorgeous house was so spacious and beautiful and had great views. We were in awe of how nice it was. The owner was so nice and the wife had fresh baked scones for us.

Aww, the view!

And that's our best stays, family style.

Where has been your best stay on your travels?

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26 August 2013

Waterfalls of West Scotland

Tina @ Girl-Meets-Globe August 26, 2013 0

This is the Dalchreggan Guesthouse, our B&B in Fort William. Nice big family rooms, great breakfast, great views, great price, great host!

Before we piled the kids in the car to head to the Lake District, we strolled down to the beach across from our B&B to let the kids get out some energy.

And take in the views one last time.

The drive from Fort William to Glasgow was one of those incredibly beautiful drives!! I'll say it again, I never expected Scotland to look so much like my home state of Alaska. From fireweed,

to waterfalls! Oh, the waterfalls!!

There were many road side stops to take in the view. I couldn't keep count!

Another romp around before getting back in the car.

Now this is riding in style! They were only going about 40 mph, but that's the way to road trip!

Next, we're back in England in the Lake District!

Scotland on Dwellable

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24 August 2013

Loch Ness

Tina @ Girl-Meets-Globe August 24, 2013 0

Our last full day in Scotland we made our way just north of Fort William to the town of Fort Augustus, the southern tip of Loch Ness. It was POURING rain. We learned quickly that some of our rain gear wasn't quite up to par! We still had a good time. This was the worst of our rainy weather on this trip. One day out of 9 isn't too bad!

Crossing over Neptune's Staircase, a series of locks that takes 90 minutes for boats to pass through.

Filling up the lock to allow the boats to move on.

Nessie!

This tiny village also has a Highland & Rare Breeds Farm. There's not much to it, but it's cheap and what kid doesn't love animals? Our main desire to go was to see a Highland Cow. We'd been scouring the landscape to see a highland cow on this trip with no luck. Finally, on our last day we saw one.

Isn't he cute?!

Three horns!

My kids had been wanting to snap their own photos. In trying to take a photo of a fluffy white chicken through a fence, Karis focused on the fence instead. I actually think it turned out really cool!!

On our way back to our B&B we wanted to see the viaduct one more time. Just gorgeous!!

The monument in the photo below is the Glenfinnan Monument. What a gorgeous view!

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20 August 2013

The Jacobite Steam Train, aka Hogwart's Express

Tina @ Girl-Meets-Globe August 20, 2013 0

The Jacobite steam train starts in the town of Fort William, Scotland. The train only runs from May to October in the morning. In the peak summer months from June to August an afternoon train is added. We drove as quick as we could from St. Andrews to board the steam train by 2:30. By the time we got to Fort William we were cranky and hungry and a fit occurred by one of my children that left us a little embarrassed as we left our B&B. Ugh! We walked and ate sandwiches and found the train station to be double the distance I thought it was. Grr!! Not a good start! We finally got to the station and were met by a long line. I'm not extremely organized and am known to do things very last minute, but even I was going crazy by the lack of order of getting on this train. Once the gate opened it was a mad dash. IPhone in hand, opened to my email that held my receipt, we found our seats and I tried not to worry. About 20 minutes later a very mellow conductor came through and didn't even ask for a ticket/receipt! It seems they follow the honor system.

If you ever have a chance to ride the train, I highly recommend choosing seats numbered with the letter "f" at the end, meaning you will be facing forward, "b" seats mean you'll be facing backwards. And I highly recommend sitting on the left side of the train going and the right side returning as it's got most of the scenery.

We finally relaxed a bit and began enjoying our ride. For some reason my little guy was still moody, but he had is Harry Potter wand ready for the ride! What a face!

We did a lot of this!

However, it is very difficult to get good pictures when you're in a moving train and have to snap fast before the shot is gone or a tree gets in the way!

Glenfinnan was our first stop and where the famous viaduct is located. It was used in the Harry Potter movies. Gorgeous!!

The train ended in the town of Millaig, a quaint little fishing village. Reminded me of my fishing days every summer in Homer, Alaska!

If there is ever a next time I'd like to drive up to Millaig and either spend the night or take a ferry over to the Isle of Skye! We then got on the train and went back the way we came and saw all the beauty once more.