Our Month in the UK: A Trip Recap

I hate looking at someone else’s vacation photo albums, so I’ll try to make this a newsletter full of useful information. We spent a full month this summer exploring the United Kingdom - London, the Cotswolds, and Scotland - and it gave us just enough time to slow down and really settle into each place instead of rushing through a highlight reel. Here's how it went.

London: Home Bases Worth Writing Home About

We split our London stay across a few different properties, and each one gave us a completely different feel for the city.

The Stafford London - Tucked into a quiet corner of St James's, this hotel doesn't shout for attention, but it's earned it anyway: it was just named London's #1 hotel in the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards for 2026. We stayed in one of the Mews Suites in the old Carriage House, which gave us a private cobblestone courtyard and enough room to breathe after a day of sightseeing. Green Park tube station is a five-minute walk (via a sneaky back alley the map apps don't know about), putting Buckingham Palace, St James's Park, and Piccadilly all within easy reach.

Pan Pacific London - Just around the corner from Liverpool Street Station, this one surprised us in a good way. Afternoon tea at the Ginger Lily Bar and Lounge was a genuine highlight (the Burford Brown truffled egg bite, in particular), and the infinity pool on the wellness floor has serious city views. Rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, a ton of space, and epic views.

Westin London City - This one sits directly across the Thames from Shakespeare's Globe, and the view from the Hithe+Seek lounge bar is hard to beat over an evening cocktail. The location puts the Tate Modern, St Paul's, Borough Market, and the Sky Garden all within an easy stroll.

St. Ermin's Hotel - A genuine hidden gem in Westminster with a wild backstory: this was once a WWII home for Churchill's Special Operations Executive, and the lobby has a small display of actual spy gadgets. Dinner at the Caxton Grill (seared Scottish scallops, a knockout heritage beef onglet steak) was one of our best meals of the trip, and St James's Park Tube station a few minutes away made it an easy jumping-off point for the whole city.

Tours We Loved in London

A few guided experiences turned "seeing" London into actually understanding it:

Kensington Palace VIP guided tour and afternoon tea - Loved this tour which included a walk through Kensington Gardens and Palace followed by tea at the Orangery.
Context Travel's Hidden London Tour - Three hours with our historian guide Alan took us away from the crowds. We found the remains of a Roman fort inside a parking garage and stepped into St. Bartholomew the Great, a 12th-century church that somehow survived both the Great Fire and the Blitz.
British Museum Semi-Private Tour with LivTours - Capped at six people, this 2.5-hour tour hit the Rosetta Stone, an Easter Island head, and Greek, Roman, and Egyptian galleries, ending with the mummies (which never fail to be a showstopper).

Two Day Trips Out of London

I also carved out two full days for trips outside the city:

Bath - A couple of hours west of London, Bath is worth the trip for the Roman Baths alone. I toured the Royal Crescent and the Circus, stopped for delicious pastries at Landrace, and left with a much better sense of why Jane Austen set so much of her work here.

Highclere Castle - For anyone who has watched Downton Abbey, seeing Highclere in person is a bit surreal. It's the actual filming location, still home to the Carnarvon family, and open to visitors only on limited dates each year, so it's worth checking availability, and you MUST book ahead. The castle's basement Egyptian exhibition - tied to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon's role in discovering Tutankhamun's tomb - was an unexpected highlight.

The Cotswolds: Slower Days, Storybook Villages

We used Stow-on-the-Wold as our base for a week and spent our days walking out to nearby villages rather than trying to see everything by car. Moreton-in-Marsh, Upper and Lower Slaughter, and Bourton-on-the-Water were all on the list, though a fair warning on that last one: Bourton-on-the-Water is beautiful in photos, but in person it's overrun and far more crowded than the quieter villages around it.

Scotland: Edinburgh and the Highlands

Edinburgh gave us the city fix - wandering the Royal Mile and Dean’s Village, popping into Greyfriars Kirkyard, and taking in the view from Calton Hill. We loved eating our way through the city and loved Makars Mash Bar and Paz Taqueria. We stayed at this amazing apartment in New Town that was walking distance to just about everything.

The Isle of Skye and Scottish Highlands were the trip's big scenic payoff. Our multi-day tour out of Edinburgh wound through Glencoe, along Loch Lomond, past Eilean Donan Castle, and out to Portree was everything we wanted and more. We spent two nights based in Portree and had a great experience.

Penrith: A Quieter Stop on the Way North

After Scotland, we spent a few days based in Penrith, right on the edge of the Lake District. It was a welcome change of pace after the cities - a smaller market town that made a great base for a couple of meaningful day trips.

Lowther Castle and Gardens - Just a few miles from Penrith, we stumbled upon this amazing castle and gardens. The biggest surprise was the Lost Castle adventure playground, which is quite honestly the most impressive playground I’ve ever seen. If you’re in this area, don’t miss it.

Caerlaverock Castle - We crossed the border into Dumfries and Galloway for this one, as it’s the home to Caerlaverock (aka Maxwell Castle). This is a unique moated, triangular medieval stronghold on the Solway coast, and it was actually our 3rd visit. This time we left one of Finn's cremation stones, tucked into the castle grounds - a quiet, meaningful moment on a trip that meant a lot to us.