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Originally Posted by WideReceiver
We’ll be in London and Dublin for about 3-4 days each in spring and one day in Edinburgh. I have Lonely Planet books and will seek suggestions at TripAdvisor and other sources. Further advice for attractions, accommodations (Edinburgh is taken care of) and food. For our trip to Japan and Tokyo I found the Facebook groups to be very helpful.
We like history, culture, beer lol, and scenery.
Food in London and Dublin is horribly expensive. We might seek hotels/B&Bs with breakfasts and eat out for one meal each day. Any other advice on eating out?
We haven’t searched accommodations yet. My wife has been to Dublin but I haven’t. She is somewhat familiar with the city. We’ve never been to London.
Thanks for any advice.
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I love visiting London. It's been a handful of years since I last visited so some of my recommendations may be out of date. Aside from what basically amounted to a couple day trips where I'd meet up with a couple of my cousins before moving onto my main destination the last time I really visited was back in 2018 I had a great value AirBnB a block away from Pimlico Station that was great. Tail enf of the AirBnB golden age for that I don't think you'll be able to find again, sadly.
You can knock off a lot of the main tourist attractions and getting your walk on by going from Tower Bridge along the north side of the river the way round to Buckingham Palace then onto Parliament and Westminster Abbey (can do this in reverse as well, obviously). That will eat up your day and is really just sightseeing, so if you wanted to go in depth on anything like tours or going into the museums or galleries you'd want to factor that in as well. If you don't like walking, the Bus Tours are an efficient way to knock off the sightseeing before tackling the things you want ot focus closer on, but IMHO London is best experienced on foot.
The pubs and history aspect can be real easy to combine. The Historic pubcrawls guy can point you in a lot of good directions there. I do love that about London is that there's a lot of 'benign history' that can be experienced just by walking around, which isn't what everybody looks for but if it floats your boat you'll never tire of London, really.
https://historicpubcrawls.city/
One of my cousin's lives near Shoreditch which certainly has a vibe and isn't a bad area to people watch if you like that, but there were a lot of pubs we like in that area and around Spittalfield's market.
As for London accommodation, unfortunately I can't help that much. I did have the afformentioned AirBnB that was great but I've mostly gotten to stay with family who have pretty good locations when I have visited and for the 2015 Rugby World Cup I was there with my dad and he paid for the place we stayed at near Covent Garden. It isn't lost on me that one of the big reasons for my love of visiting London is because I've effectively been able to avoid the largest cost of it, so do take that into consideration.
Dublin doesn't have as much to do. I'd even dare suggest a trip up to Belfast to try and get some of that in. I've been to Dublin loads, but similarly it's visiting the cousins who live there before heading onto the west coast where most of the family lives. Or I'm seeing a rugby match. I don't want to knock Dublin but it's definitely not the most interesting part of Ireland.
There's the tourist circuit that's perfectly enjoyable: Guinness Brewery, Kilmainham Gaol, Trinity, 1917 tour, etc. but after that there isn't the same volume of 'stuff' as London has. Croke Park for a tour if the idea of the largest non-soccer stadium in Europe is interesting to you (has the history side of it as well). There are the pubs that specialize int he ceilidh experiences but the journey all the way over to Galway for an evening of drinking and traditional music and walking the Quays only to return the next day would be an experience as well. I mean, if the concept of a train journey is exciting to you then that is a legit option (albeit the journey isn't particularly scenic, the middle of Ireland is just green fields and bogland, if it's scenery you'd want then you'd need to plan a trip based around the Wild Atlantic Way). You could even sneak the Cliffs of Moher into the journey. Belfast is also a good option as an overnight journey. The walking tours and Black Cab tours about the Troubles are really good, the Titanic Experience is really great as far as tourist driven experiences go, and it's got some good restaurants and pubs to hang out in as well that don't get as out of control in price as Dublin.
Like London, I cannot help you with accommodation. I've never had to pay to stay in Dublin.