Overseas Adventure Travel
Idyllic Great Britain: England’s Lake District, the Scottish Highlands & Orkney Archipelago
6/6/2025 to 6/27/2025

Click on the above link buttons that will take you directly to a particular page or area of the review; or you can just click through to the next page at the bottom of each page.
Page 1 – Days 1-2 in Chester
Page 2 – Days 3-5 Wales & Lake District
Page 3 – Days 6-8 Lake District & Edinburgh
Page 4 – Days 9-11 Edinburgh & Orkney Islands
Page 5 – Days 11-13 Orkney Islands & Inverness
Page 6 – Days 14-16 Inverness

We didn't do the pre-trip

Preface

Early last year we were looking at cruises that would go around the British Isles. We weren’t finding anything that appealed to us, since most of the ports were to bigger cities. We then looked at what Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) offered. We toured with OAT five previous times and thoroughly enjoyed how they delve into the culture of the places they visit. They had an itinerary that covered a lot of Scotland, which is a country I only spent one short rainy port day in 2004. Cathy went to Scotland many years ago on a golf outing, so she didn’t see many tourist attractions. The stops in England, Wales, Orkney Islands and Isle of Skye were also very appealing. Another major attraction of doing this tour was that we could visit our dear friends Paul and Gail who live in Yorkshire, a most beautiful part of England.

We were flying on British Airways from Miami to London with an hour and 55-minute layover before our flight to Manchester. With it being a 5:00 PM flight, I always worry more about delays. Morning flights seem to have less delays. As usual, we arrived a bit more than three hours early for the international flight. With BA being an American Airlines travel partner, we were able to go to their Flagship lounge. AA only has five of these lounges in the country. It was very nice; it even had a ceviche bar.

We saw that the arriving flight was delayed, so I worried. I read about lots of areas for delays when arriving and connecting at Heathrow. Fortunately, our flight wasn’t delayed much. We were flying on the two-level Airbus A380-800. I saw several reviews about how bad the business class seats were on this BA plane. The main complaint was the seat arrangement. We were fortunate to be on the upper deck, so there were less seats. It was a 2-3-2 configuration rather than the 2-4-2 on the lower deck. Whichever deck you were on, you still had to crawl over someone to get to the aisle if you were on the window or middle seats.

We were assigned seats that were one row apart, which would allow me to climb over Cathy instead of a stranger. BA charges business class customers if they want to select their seats before the flight and it wasn’t cheap.

But that also meant that I would be staring directly at a stranger for the whole flight. The check in desk tried to get our seats together, but couldn’t, so she told us to just ask the person next to us to change. Fortunately, he agreed to and I was able to look across to Cathy for the flight.

The seat did have a wide area for feet, but the platform had to be pulled down when needed. There was also almost no storage area around the seats unless, like me, you have a window seat on the upper deck with bins by the windows.

We had very strong tail winds and arrived early. Our connecting flight was in terminal 5, the same one we landed in, which made it an easier connection. My concern about delays at security and immigration were not an issue. It was super-fast. The new system they recently implemented for non-Brits seemed to work great. We had time to go to the BA lounge at Heathrow before our one-hour flight to Manchester. When we landed, Paul and Gail were waiting for us as we exited the baggage claim area. Our vacation had officially started. Our Yorkshire visit is on a separate page: LINK

Day 1 - Transfer to Chester to start tour

We said our goodbyes to Paul and Gail and were picked up by our usual transfer service www.welcomepickups.com. We have used this company many times and enjoy their drivers, vehicles and dependability. The 98-mile drive from Leeds to Chester took just under two hours to the Hotel Indigo (https://chester.hotelindigo.com), our home for the next three nights.

Since we arrived at the hotel just before noon, we knew that we would have to leave our luggage there until the 3:00 PM check in time. This was fine since we wanted to walk around and see this popular tourist town.

As we were heading out, we met our OAT Trip Experience Leader for the tour, Tom.

We talked with Tom on the phone a couple weeks before we left home and were looking forward to being with him. We were thrilled that he was at the hotel when we arrived. He offered to give us a quick orientation walk of Chester. It was a short walk to the city center. As we got closer, we could see many half-timbered buildings. We also had our first glimpse of the East Gate Clock. This is the second most photographed clock in the UK after Big Ben. The clock was erected in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s 60th year of her reign.

We continued our walk through the beautiful town.

We then came to the area called the Rows that have been in Chester since the 13th century. The shops, restaurants and bars are on two levels with covered elevated walkways. The rows are on four streets that meet at the Cross where there is a stone monument.

We went to the upper level to check out the view. The walkways were much nicer and wider than I expected. I liked the view above the streets.

With it being almost 1:00 PM, we were getting hungry. Tom took us to the Chester Market to show us some dining options there. It looked pretty good.

He also mentioned eating at the Chester Cathedral refectory which was the monk’s old dining hall. He said it was a pretty place. We couldn’t pass that up. On the way there, we saw the town hall.

We arrived at a side entrance to the cathedral and entered to find the refectory café. Quite an impressive room for a small café. The food was just OK.

We left the café and walked through the hallways to enter the cathedral. The first thing we saw was an old tapestry under a stained-glass window.

The cathedral was constructed between the 10th and early 16th centuries. It is quite an attractive church.

In one section there was some modern artwork called Peace Doves. It features thousands of paper doves each carrying messages of peace, harmony and unity that were written by visitors, school children and community groups.

The choir and altar area were quite beautiful.

The mosaic patterns on the floor were quite stunning.

There was just a lot of beauty to take in.

On our way out of the cathedral, we came to a wall that had several sections of beautiful mosaic artwork next to each other.

When we left the building, we were able to see a different entrance that had some major renovation in progress.

We returned to the hotel at about 2:45 PM. Our room was ready. The OAT literature warned that UK hotel rooms are smaller than what we were used to, so we set our expectations low. As we walked into the room, we were quite pleased with the size. It had a king-size bed and air conditioning which were big plusses for us.

What it didn’t have were any drawers, other than one small desk drawer. The closet was small with no shelfs and was behind the sliding door next to the bar.

The bathroom was adequate with enough counter space. Our main frustration with many hotels these days is open area of the shower that allows water to spray onto the floor.

We made reservations for an Italian restaurant named Artezzan. When we arrived at the restaurant, we were pleased to see a very nice interior with a pizza oven.

We ordered some appetizers and a pizza to share. We had picked a good restaurant.

On our way back to the hotel, we decided to stop at the Church of St. John the Baptist to see the ruins of the older church building. With the first church being founded in 689 AD, there was a lot of history there. With the sun not setting until around 10:00 PM, there was plenty of sunlight to make the ruins look lovely.

When we got back to our room, we looked out our window and saw the beautiful buildings across the street.

With the sun setting late and rising at around 4:00 AM, we were glad the room had blackout curtains.

Tour Day 2 - Explore Chester

We met several of the other people on our tour the previous day in the hotel. This morning, we would meet everyone else. OAT normally has a maximum group size of 16 people. We were at maximum, which was fine, since it was still a small group. There were six couples and four single women. Three of the women were traveling together. We lucked out with a great cohesive group. Everyone was friendly and seemed to get along with the others. It makes a land tour so much better. We walked through town passing by the East Gate Clock. It looked better with the sunlight shining on it.

Our destination was a church building where we would have our welcome briefing and introductions. We were also meeting our guide for the city tour, Tom Jones. He was quite a character and most entertaining.

Every guide we had during the tour was just outstanding. OAT did good! On our way to our first stop we passed by the Newgate, one of the 5 gates to the city. It actually is a new gate having been built in 1938.

Our destination was to the ruins of the Roman amphitheater. The first version was built in the 1st century. The one we were looking at was from the 3rd century. There isn’t much remaining, but at one time it could seat 8,000 people.

On one side was the Altar of Nemesis. The altar is dedicated to the Greek goddess Nemesis, who embodies retribution and vengeance against those who commit hubris or wrongdoing.

While in the amphitheater, a group of school children were making a field trip. They had swords and shields along with a gladiator leader.

At one end was a graphic on the wall representing what the amphitheater would have looked like. The large stone with the ring is where victims would be chained to while animals were released to entertain the crowd.

We next walked over to the Roman Gardens close by.

On one side was an old wall. Tom Jones told us to walk behind a glass frame to look at it to see what happened there. It shows where the parliament soldiers broke through the wall to invade the city.

At one side of the gardens was a Roman bathing facility.

We next climbed up the wall to take a walk on it. The wasll goes around the entire city. It was a much easier walk than I expected, since it was mostly flat. At least the section we were on was.

We came up to the East Gate Clock. This was a different side of the clock, and we could get closer.

We did get a great view of the street below.

We continued along the wall and exited near the cathedral. It looked better with the sun on it. So many of the buildings in Chester had heavy soot on them. We were told that many were made with a pinkish tint sandstone. It looked great when clean, but the soft stone absorbed soot easier and needed to be cleaned frequently.

It was time for our lunch. We went to a cute place called Katie’s Tea Room.

OAT provided us what was called a ploughman’s lunch. It was basically a salad and piece of cheese. I’m sorry, but that is not what I consider a lunch. We were looking forward to trying different local specialties while on the tour, but this seemed to be a way for OAT to save money rather than give us a farmer’s lunch experience. It tasted OK, but it was still disappointing.

After lunch we had free time to explore. Tom told us that for the next two days the streets would be crowded with people going to the horse races. The racetrack, which is the oldest racetrack still in operation, was very close to town. The first races were held there in 1512. As I walked to the track there were many people dressed in suits and fancy clothes on their way there also.

Our Tom told us that many people just watch the races from the wall. So, I thought that the wall would be a good place to take photos from also.

Since the races hadn’t started, I headed back to town. Tom pointed out what he said was the oldest pub in Chester, the Boot Inn, while we were walking the Rows. Since I was thirsty from my walk to the racetrack, I thought I would have a beer at the Boot. I followed the sign up to the Rows and found the Boot. It is an old dark pub. The photos make the pub look very well lit. It isn't. I couldn't even see the tables when I walked in. I had to make the place much brighter in my photo ediing software. I ordered a beer and sat down to enjoy it. I had a nice conversation with one of the locals while there.

Tom told us about the shady past of the pub with interesting things going on in the back rooms. I walked back to the back area where the original bar was, as well as some private areas.

Since I was in the area, I thought I would check out the interior of Church of St. John the Baptist. It did have some nice stained-glass windows.

While I was there, a man was playing the organ. That was a treat.

The main reason that I wanted to go back to the church was to see the coffin that Tom said was 20 feet up on the old church ruins. Somehow, I totally missed it when I was there the previous day. After looking around, I did find it in a place I hadn’t previously been too in the ruins. It was kind of hard to miss. The inscription says “Dust to Dust”.

There are many made up stories about why the coffin was put there. The real story seems to be that the coffin was dug up and put there to be out of the way of passersby.

I heard from some of the people in our group that the Grosvener Park was worth visiting. Since it was next door to the church, I entered the grounds. It is considered one of the most complete examples of Victorian parks in the UK. It is a lovely park.

They have a miniature railway in the park. It wasn’t running while I was there.

While looking at the railway, a young girl who was feeding the squirrels offered me a handful of squirrel feed. That was so sweet of her. I asked her to feed them for me so I could take a photo. Which she did.

For dinner we went to a restaurant with the group called Chez Jules. The room we were in at the restaurant was very loud due to a group of girls next to us having a pre-wedding celabratory party.

We did have an excellent dinner. One of the best group dinners of the trip.

Cauliflower & Cheese Soup                                       Isle of Wight Tomato Salad

Breast of Chicken                                              Beef Bourguignon

Assorted vegetables for the table                                                    Crème Brûlee

White Chocolate & Rhubarb Cheesecake

Overseas Adventure Travel Idyllic Great Britain: England’s Lake District, the Scottish Highlands & Orkney Archipelago 6/6/2025 to 6/27/2025

Preface

Day 1 - Transfer to Chester to start tour

Tour Day 2 - Explore Chester

Overseas Adventure Travel
Idyllic Great Britain: England’s Lake District, the Scottish Highlands & Orkney Archipelago
6/6/2025 to 6/27/2025