Weekend UK Road Trip To Wales, Manchester and Sheffield

[raj_5004]

The last time we had a road trip, we just covered some major cities like Bristol and Blackpool. The trip before that was again cities like Brighton and London.

But this time, we explored the country side... the mountains, the lakes and the valleys. For the automobile enthusiasts, the partner in crime was a Vauxhall Insignia 1.8 and the tamer of the beast (I thought it would be!) was your's truly raj_5004.

I will start with some teaser pics first -

 

[dharmesh]

What man, pics are nice. But where is the details about the trip?

Man you seem to be more obssessed with your self when in UK. .

You could use 1-2 pics for your matrimonial purpose as well.

 

[raj_5004]

What man, pics are nice. But where is the details about the trip?

Man you seem to be more obssessed with your self when in UK. .

You could use 1-2 pics for your matrimonial purpose as well.

Those are the only pictures I have of myself in the whole trip... Anyways, thank you!

Here is the itinerary map of our trip :

 

[manjoo]

I liked the second and the last pic however every pic is been great raj.

You started from coventry there is no A position in that map, What is the source i can only assume you started from coventry by seeing your avatar pic.

Is that an Irish sea which you are posing in the second pic??

 

[raj_5004]

Day 1:

Day 1 was just spent in reaching Wales and exploring the area. We had decided that we will stay in Snowdonia National park and spend the next day in various activities.

Nothing much to write about the drive except that the roads were fabulous. As soon as we took the detour from the motorway, the roads became a motoring bliss. Driving on the hills is a lot of fun, especially when you have a lots of twisties. More so, when the scenery is as beautiful as we got to see. Mountains and valleys covered partially in snow and lakes and rivers flowing besides the roads is what adorned the roads on both sides. I will try to post a small video of that later. A short stop over for coffee at a Welsh Cafe and we proceeded towards Dolgellau where we had reserved a hut for our night stay. The accommodation was basically a camping site on the hills but they provided bunk beds for people like us who did not carry tents or had no caravans. Since we reached our destination early and had nothing much to do, we left for Barmouth which was like a 20 minutes drive from our camp. Barmouth is a small city next to the coast and we spent some time on the shore deciding what we will do tomorrow and how! By the way, there was not a single soul on the beach at 8 pm... the quietness is both relaxing as well as bewildering! Found an Indian restaurant in the city and had our dinner. Returned to our camp which was now dark and eerie and crashed on our bunk beds.

You started from coventry there is no A position in that map, What is the source i can only assume you started from coventry by seeing your avatar pic.

Yes, we started from Coventry. The destination is overlapping the starting point and hence you cant see point A!

Is that an Irish sea which you are posing in the second pic??

Yes.

 

[raj_5004]

UK weather is generally very gloomy and you are very lucky if you get a nice sunshine without rains. And we were indeed lucky. The weather in Wales was simply superb. The sun was shining in fully glory, temperature was a pleasant 8-10 degrees with mild wind and no rain at all. Perfect!

Coming to the car - the Vauxhall Insignia 1.8

Vauxhall offers 3 body types in the Insignia - a normal 4 door sedan, a 5 door hatchback (which basically we refer to as the notchback) which is like the Skoda Octavia and the Laura and then the estate version. I love the way the estate looks. We got the Insignia SRI 5 door hatchback (notchback) which is the top of the line model in the normal range (not the sports range). It had ESP, front airbags, side airbags and curtain airbags for safety. It featured an electronic handbrake, cruise control, automatic headlights, fog lights (which were never needed) and single zone electronic climate control and 17" alloys. The SRI came with lowered and uprated sports suspension (which proved itself in the mountains) and sports pedals. Not surprisingly, the car did not have rear power windows! I am not surprised because most UK cars (except luxury sedans) do not have rear power windows. Unlike India, here cars are self driven and rear power windows may be the least desired feature. The fog lights in our car were never needed because even unlit UK roads are properly marked with reflective lights and lane markings. The car has DRLs which is basically a yellow pilot bulb and not LEDs.

The sad part is that the car came with the boring and dull 1.8 litre VVT petrol and not the amazing 2.0 litre CDTi diesel. The petrol engine had 140 bhp power at a very high 6300 rpm and torque of 175 Nm torque at 3800 rpm. Comparatively, the diesel had a bit lesser power but a nice 300 Nm torque at 1750 rpm. Anyways, the petrol engine was lacklustre. It was unrefined and lacked enthusiasm. While going uphill, it needs to be really worked upon. The car had a 6 speed gearbox and even the gearshifts were notchy. The ride quality was firm, which is okay for the excellent British roads. The stiffer suspension aided handling and the car was taut and precise around the corners. Even the steering feel was good. But I must admit, I had more fun in the 1.6 diesel powered Ford Focus I drove before. Even the car rental guys admitted that the Vauxhall petrol engines are not great! The good part is, unlike the Focus, this car had cruise control and cruising on the motorways was very relaxing. Stick to the left lane and set cruise control at 70 miles per hour and then it is smooth sailing!

The interiors of the car was typically British. By that I mean all black interiors! The rear seat was reasonably spacious and rear passengers had their own AC vents in the centre console. The dashboard is well dsigned and being a notchback, the boot was amazingly spacious.

 

[Rajvel]

Nice writeup man !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any interior stills of that ride ?

 

[raj_5004]

Day 2:

The next morning we got up pretty late and headed onwards to our next destination - Criccieth castle. The roads leading to the castle, like other Welsh roads were simply marvelous. I am a lazy man who is simply too fond of the creature comforts a metro city offers, but if there is someone who is looking for peace and relaxation, I recommend you shift to Wales. The view from the castle was simply amazing. Also the entry fee was a mere 2.5 pounds and the place was free from crowd and congestion. Surprisingly, unlike other UK cities, even parking at Criccieth was free! It may not sound like a big deal but parking is usually very expensive in the UK. For example, a 1 hour parking fee (on the street) in Manchester was 3.5 pounds which is approximately Rs. 315. Parking in a covered parking lot costs more. And London charges you Rs. 150 even to pee!

Nice writeup man !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any interior stills of that ride ?

Sadly, the pics I took were of low quality, so I am attaching some pics from the internet.

The dashboard:





The enormous boot:





Front seats on our car were partially electric and it had a nice extendable thigh support.

 

[raj_5004]

From the Criccieth castle, we drove to Beddgelert where we planned to explore a copper underground mine which is not dysfunctional and open for public viewing. This was one of the best experiences in the whole trip. Unfortunately, I dont have any pics of the underground tunnel as it was quite cramped, dark and dirty inside. Myself being 6'2" tall, I had to crouch all the way inside and it was quite tiring and uncomfortable for me, so I did not bother with the camera. But for those who wish to check this out, here is the website link -

Attraction at Snowdonia Beddgelert Sygun Copper Mine

But at the exit of the copper mine, we decided to proceed up the hill instead of going back down to explore the hills. It was a difficult task for a heavy buffalo like me to climb uphill but the view was simply too good.













Our next stop was supposed to be Caernarfon castle which was supposed to one of the most beautiful castles around, but like idiots, we spend some time fooling around in a lake enroute to the castle which meant we reached the castle after it's closing time. But nevertheless, here is what we saw around the castle -







Finally, we left for Manchester where we had booked a hotel for the night -

 

[raj_5004]

Day 3:

The last day of our trip... we woke up on a sunny morning in Manchester. I had two football fans with me and they were desperate to see the Manchester United football stadium. Sorry folks, since I am least interested in Football, I did not go inside and I don't have pics of the stadium. We proceeded towards Nottingham and we thought and that we would explore the city. But a strange twist of events happened. On route to Nottingham, we were passing through a forest when we saw a lot of cars parked in a place and a lot of people trekking into the forest. It turned out to be a National park known as the Peak district national park. We thought that this forest would be a better place to explore instead of the concrete jungle of Nottingham. A quick U turn and we again found that parking was free... it always good when you can have fun for free! It was a beautiful walk along the lake and then some fun in the water besides a nice and small waterfall. The water was very cold and so we dint try any heroic antics with it.





















With that, we drove to Nottingham and found a nice South Indian restaurant where we tasted dosas, bombay chaat and vada pav! Fully content and happy, we drove back to our city - Coventry. Happy to be home, but still memories of Wales and it's beautiful landscapes is etched in our minds.

Our next planned destination is Scotland and I hope our next ride can be this -

 

[Iron Rock]

Nice ones Raj, since you went through Portmadog, i hope you ventured in to the Black Rock beach - the only beach where you can drive in to in the UK!

 

[raj_5004]

A few pointers for those traveling in the UK :

1) Renting a car is a cheaper way of traveling than buses and trains.

2) With a small briefing on the road rules, manners, road signs and lane marking, you can easily drive on British roads.

3) If you have not been in UK over a year, you are allowed to drive with your Indian driving license as long as it's in English and it has your photo.

4) Beware of speed limits in UK, they have speed cameras all over the place. If not mentioned, the maximum speed limit is 70 miles per hour. Speeding tickets/fines are usually very expensive, starting from about Rs. 6000 going all the way till Rs. 2,50,000!

5) Strangely, speed is measured is miles but fuel is measured in litres, not gallons.

6) In UK, petrol is cheaper than diesel. Also, renting petrol cars is cheaper than renting diesel cars. So dont fret if you get a petrol car in here.

7) That's about driving... now for accommodation, its always wiser to type "cheapest accommodation in so and so place" in google! There are always a lot of good deals and offers in various websites. We found 2 good rooms in a nice 3 star hotel for the price of 1! The minimum you should expect to pay in a good 2-3 star hotel for a twin/double bed room should be around 25 pounds.

8) B&B (bed and breakfast) is common here. However, we avoid it as we cant simply digest British breakfast!

9) Driving and accommodation over. What about weather? British weather is unpredictable. It may rain anytime, summers or winters notwithstanding. In winters, the temperature may go as low as -5 degrees. Do not forget to carry your water proof jacket around. You MAY need it even in the summers.

10) Finally, for any other query, drop me a PM. I will send you my number. I charge only 50 pounds per session of 30 minutes. 10% student discount available.

 

[raj_5004]

Nice ones Raj, since you went through Portmadog, i hope you ventured in to the Black Rock beach - the only beach where you can drive in to in the UK!

I think the Black Rock Road you are talking about is down south buddy, near Bristol.

 

[Iron Rock]

I meant this one near Porthmadog, i stayed here for a few days Traeth Morfa Bychan as the welsh call it

black rock beach porthmadog - Google Maps

 

[Akash]

Nice pictures Rajeev.

Seems like you are enjoying your stay in UK. Reps for those tips. They are surely very useful for the first timers in UK.

I too hope you get that Mini for your next trip. BTW how is the charging done on renting cars? And what about the security deposit? Dont the rentals hesitate in giving their cars to foreigners?