I know this sounds insane, but trust me on this.
Hey, guys. Welcome back to Girl Gone London Channel.
If you're new here, my name is Kayla.
I'm a dual UK, an American citizen, and today I am telling you the mistakes
not to make when it comes to international national travel from the UK.
Now, one of the most amazing parts
of being an expat in the UK, or just being a general UK resident born
and raised here, is the fact that the UK really is a gateway to Europe,
particularly when you're thinking about coming from the North American side.
A lot of people base themselves in London for a longer trip and then might take
shorter trips out to other destinations in Europe.
Similarly, when people in the UK go on holiday, or what Americans would call
vacation, they can go to so many different cultures
and countries that are literally within an hour's flight, a twohour train ride.
You can be eating escargot in France in 2 hours from London.
You could be in Norway in about an hour flight from London.
In the US, we have such a massive country, which is beneficial in a lot of ways,
but one of the ways that it's not is our ability to travel internationally or
to really find ourselves in different cultures in such a short amount of time.
Obviously, we can go from the south to the Pacific Northwest and we can find
different cuisine or maybe regional dialects, but we're still in the US.
In the UK, you just have access to so many different countries on your doorstep.
It's one of the best parts of life here.
But from my experience, I've got some mistakes not to make.
Now, the first mistake that I've made,
and I would encourage you all not to make, is going to a country and not knowing
really any of the language or being able to hold a conversation.
This brings me to the sponsor for today's video who has saved and is currently
saving my life as travel opens back up and I try to be a more educated traveler.
This video is sponsored by Lingoda, so if you haven't heard of Lingoda,
Lingoda is an online language learning school.
It is actual face to face, virtually via zoom language classes.
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate what they offer because let me tell you,
going to somewhere like France and not knowing the language is just a bad idea.
Not only is it polite and respectful
to try and be able to hold a conversation in the language of the country that you're
visiting, but from a practical perspective, it's necessary,
especially if you're going somewhere where a lot of people don't speak English.
As a second language, it depends on the generation and where you go.
But I've gone into little pockets of France where people don't speak English.
Rightly so and so my ability to communicate is incredibly essential
to actually getting things that I need on the trip or
getting directions or ordering at a restaurant.
And it's just a much more respectful way to travel.
Now, going back to Lingoda and exactly how it works.
So, Lingoda is going to be a small group
virtual language learning sessions with a qualified instructor in real time.
You are actually on Zoom attending these classes.
The maximum amount is five people in a small group class, which is amazing.
So you actually get to ask questions and participate.
And there actually is an option to do one on one classes as well.
And the absolute benefit of Lingoda is they are available.
You can take a class 24/7 seriously, 03:00 a.m. Your time.
There will be a class or you can schedule one and other people can join.
You can follow their recommended list of topics and how to progress in the course.
Or you can say, I already know this, so I'm going to try this class.
And like I said, this is in real time virtual language learning.
It is immersive because you are taking it with this language instructor in real time
who is speaking the language and you are able to practice speaking and listening.
Now, they do offer English classes if you're somebody who is moving to the UK
and wants to better your English or business English.
But for those of us who have English as
our first language and want to travel, they offer German,
Spanish and French at this time, all very easy flights from the UK.
So like I said, for me, I'm learning French.
Moi mercyboku. Did I say that right?
I am really starting off with the basics,
so I'll let you know how I get on as I continue on in my classes.
Now, before I get back into the video, I do want to mention that there's
a possibility that you can have Lingoda classes completely for free.
How is this?
So currently there is the Lingoda language Sprint, and all you have to do is sign up.
You can get €20 or $25 off using my code Caitlin 20.
Make sure to spell my name correctly and you'll automatically get that money off.
Now, if you take 60 classes,
one class per day in two months, you will be refunded the entire cost
of your Lingoda experience, all of it for free.
You learned, you got the classes, you got the information for free.
You can also do 30 classes within two months, and that would be a 50% refund
on everything you paid towards your Lingoda experience.
Make sure to check out the link in the description below.
Like I said, you can get it all back,
all your money back, 100%, if you do your 60 classes within two months.
Okay, so first mistake, not learning the language of the country
that you're going to, or even knowing conversational words to use.
Mistake number two, booking a cheap flight
that then adds either a ton of cost or time to your vacationholiday.
Typically, if you take someone like
Ryanair or Ezjet, you might be tempted by the flight price.
And a lot of times that temptation is worth it.
You pay $10, £10, €10, whatever,
for your flight and all goes well and you get there and it's great.
This doesn't happen all the time because
often these airlines are going to be flying from airports that might not be
close at all to the city that you're trying to go to.
There are some airports.
For instance london, Luton Airport.
Guys is not in London.
It's not even near London.
It's like closer to London than it is
to Scotland, but it's not necessarily close to London.
It's not a Gatwick, it's not a Heathrow.
You're not going to start your holiday super quick.
It's going to take you a while to get into the city.
And the same goes for European airports across the continent.
Make sure that you look at the airport that you're flying into,
because it could take a lot of time and a lot of cost to get from these
cheaper airports into the actual city center that you're trying to go to.
The mistake number three from the UK is
automatically assuming that the train is going to be cheaper than flying.
So the Eurostar does go from London.
You can be in Paris in about 2 hours. It's fantastic.
It's a great invention.
However, don't always assume that it's
going to be the cheaper option it can be, but if you're buying tickets pretty close
to your departure time, it might be that the flights are much
cheaper because the train prices can really rock it up.
This is the same if you're thinking of going from London to Amsterdam or
really using the Eurostar and then continuing on into Europe.
There is something very romantic about
train travel and a lot of people think, well, it's going to be easier and cheaper.
It's not always going to be cheaper.
Always, always compare with flight prices
because you might find that actually it's going to be cheaper to fly and not take
too much extra time, because you do have to do security
and passport control for the Eurostar as well.
Now, the fourth mistake people make from the UK when it comes to international
travel, and this is particularly the case for UK expats or people who've just moved
here, is sticking to the more well known, tried and true destinations.
Everybody knows Barcelona is amazing.
If you didn't know that Barcelona is
amazing, people go to Paris, they will consider things like Amsterdam.
But really, there is so much to be found on your doorstep in the UK.
Like I said, just very short flights away.
Try Bergen in Norway.
We went to Bergen in the winter.
Incredible.
Norway expensive but beautiful.
And so many people we have talked to would
never even consider going to somewhere like Bergen.
It's not that tried and true destination
another place we went to is Malaga in Spain, which is very popular for a lot
of British people going to basically party resorts nearby.
So if somebody says, we're going to Malaga on like a bachelorette party or what they
would call a hen party, they are flying into the airport and then
going to some resort to have their vacation in that resort.
We went to Malaga, the actual Malaga,
the city of Malaga, which is not as popular to go to in its own right.
And it was incredible.
The beach was amazing, the food was amazing and inexpensive.
And so many people bypass
that for the more popular, like, resorts nearby or they just go somewhere
else altogether, really take some time to think about destinations
that a lot of people don't talk about or haven't been to, because those are where
you'll find the real gems and travel experience stories.
Like I was talking about Norway.
We were there kind of over the holiday season and we were on the side
of Mount Floyd with the Norwegian Christmas carol service
and it's one of my most magical travel experiences yet.
And the fifth mistake people make when it
comes to international travel from the UK, I would say, is not doing it enough.
Prices of domestic travel in the UK have
gone up significantly and even before that, it can be relatively expensive.
The UK is a relatively small country
for how many people live here, and it can cost a lot of money to rent out
an apartment by the sea in Cornwall or a house near the city center in Edinburgh.
Wherever you go in the UK, don't just assume that it's going to be
cheaper to stay in the UK than it is to travel abroad.
I know this sounds insane, but trust me on this.
So if you have a budget for travel and you are based in the UK.
Or you're considering moving here
and you're trying to plan your future adventures.
Really try and take advantage of how easy
it is to get to so many different places from the UK.
Instead of just assuming that maybe you
don't have the budget or it's just easier to stay in the UK.
By all means.
Explore the UK.
The UK is also wonderful, but take advantage more of being able
to do a weekend trip to somewhere like Italy.
Especially for us Americans, this concept is crazy.
If I were to take a weekend trip in America from Florida,
maybe the furthest I would go would be like a couple of hour flight to Texas or
maybe like North Carolina, maybe New York City.
But I'm still in the same country and I'm still in the same relative culture,
whereas taking a two hour flight from the UK to Italy,
completely separate languages, completely different cultures and different ways
of life, and you can do all of that in one weekend.
Now, that brings me to the end of this video.
I hope you guys enjoyed.
I'd love for you to comment below and tell me your best travel experience,
preferably somewhere that you can reach relatively easily from the UK.
But if you're not from the UK,
then tell us where you went to from your own home country.
Why did you love it?
Where should we all go?
Let's add to everybody's travel bucket list.
And don't forget to make sure to check out the Lingoda Language Sprint.
You can learn a new language in two months
and have it all for free so that the next next time you travel,
you can do it confidently and respectfully and not be like me trying to order
a breakfast in France, which was definitely a cringey experience.
Okay, thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you next time.
Bye.