Planning my Trip to the UK

So I put a call out to all my England and Ireland friends out there in the twitter and facebook world asking if anyone had a couch that I could crash on for a few days while on my 3 week vacation to the UK. My plan is to spend the first two weeks in England and then fly over to Ireland for my remaining week.

I got a few friends offering up couches and spare rooms and I pretty much have mid to southern England covered. Still looking for a place to stay in Scotland. Of course I'm not opposed to a hotel. But since I'm currently jobless and living off of unemployment and savings I'm trying to keep costs down. That brings me to another question that I put out there to all my Twitter and Facebook followers... should I be taking this trip since I'm jobless.  I got about 27 "Got for it!!" and 2 "Stupid idea". Many of them said.. "you only live once". I've never traveled outside the US, I've always been busy with work or other circumstances kept me from traveling. I'm now 41, single and not working. This is the perfect time to travel. I'm tired of being responsible all the time. I've been responsible for as long as I can remember. I want to fulfill a dream of mine and travel to England/Ireland and then eventually to Europe (2013 I hope). I'm not an idiot, I have savings and won't let my mortgage fall. But if I can set aside a few thousand for this trip, I'm going to do it. I may struggle a bit when I get back financially but I'm resourceful and will find a job and earn some money. I'm still hopeful to find a job in January and work until May.. that would be ideal.


I plan on renting a car and driving myself around the country.. figured it would be cheaper then taking trains/buses and such. Also it allows me to travel at my leisure. I'm a bit worried about driving on the wrong side of the road but if I can handle Los Angeles traffic I can handle anything. I checked prices and they aren't too bad. To rent a car in England for two weeks it will cost me 212.16 pounds which is currently $340 dollars. Which isn't bad in my opinion. I would of course have to rent another car in Ireland and figure it would cost about half that for one week. so total car rental is about $500, current plane tickets are about $800 so that's $1300, leaving me $700 for food, gas, hotel (if needed) and spending money. It will be tight but if I plan things out well I can make it stretch.

I hope to book my plane ticket in early December then I can start actually planning the trip. Who I'm staying with, for how long, what I want do while there.. you know all the fun stuff.

I'm extremely excited to actually be doing this. It's awesome to actually fulfill one of your life's dream

Blue markers are where friends live and offer my places to stay.