Adding Authenticity With Wandering Feet

It's been over ten years since I last set foot in the UK.

Granted, a lot of that was due to COVID-19 making overseas travel... untenable while I was working on the front lines of Aged Care, but this year, I'm going back.

Ironically, this visit will be for a similar purpose as my first independant visit, back in 2013.

I've visited the UK four times so far: A family trip to the UK, USA, and France when I was a teenager in the early 2000s, a trip to Ireland with my sister in 2007, then my first Solo overseas trip in 2013, and a Chasing Our Roots tour of Scotland with my Mum in 2014, with a day or two in London tacked onto the end of it.

In 2013, I'd finished the draft and first round of edits for my debut novella... but it was set somewhere I'd never been, and really needed some background details, not just hazy memories.

Since I'd started working at an aide for a student with High Disability Needs and conveniently had school holidays off, I decided to try another new thing, and organised myself a tour of England, Wales and Ireland.

I went to the local travel agency, got a tour brochure, spent an evening comparing tours and departure dates, paid for flights, booked the tour with a payment plan, and started thinking of what to pack.

My first Solo adventure, and I'd planned it all by myself.

Look, I'd left High School after Year 10 and my School Certificate (Sophmore Year for Americans), got an apprenticeship, and just finished that when my twin died. I didn't have a gap year and for a long time I didn't have much in the way of Fun Money. Life doesn't happen on a set schedule.

Plus, Autistic. Sometimes, actually doing Basic Adult Stuff without help is a legitimate achievement.

The tour was immensely fun, and set off a 6 year trend of international vacations to all the places I'd always wanted to see. Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany... Spain was booked and paid for mid-2020, but we all know what happened then.

In 2021, I published my first Jane Austen fanfiction, after years of reading Austen Variations.

Changeling Child did startlingly well, and was quickly followed by others. A collection of character-centered short stories, my first Persuasion Variation, my Austen's Magical Girls series, and now A Surfeit of Sisterly Affection.

But again, I'm writing about places that I have only distant memories off, and again, I'm financially stable enough to go on vacation without breaking the bank.

That doesn't mean it was easy. I haven't actually fit into economy seats since I was a teenager, but I'm reaching the age where I can no longer contort myself into 'good enough' comfort on a 20+ hour aeroplane trip in Cattle Class. Not without being in massive amounts of pain by the end of it.

Premium Economy may have extra leg room and a bit more space between you and your neighbour, but it also doubles the cost of your flights, at least.

Tours are also rather more expensive than they used to be, thanks to the Tourism Industry taking a massive hit during COVID. An 11-day tour, in a shared twin room, cost just over $8,000. The flights will probably be nearly as much, and then there's the cost of staying in Bath for the Jane Austen Festival after the tour.

I started planning this Research + Holiday trip - and saving for it - last year, which helped a lot. Earlybird discounts, the fact that hotels weren't booked out like they were for last year's Festival yet, and the simple fact that saving $100 per week results in $5200 per year. Last year's tax return was also quite generous, and that went largely to paying off the tour, and a bit into savings.

As of the time of me writing this article, I have $1000 left to pay off the tour, after paying $150 per week, and a bit extra when I could afford it, since last May. I've also saved the cost of Premium Economy flights (just over $8,000 AUD Return), and depending on how I do at my Festival and Ironfest stalls this year, might even be able to manage a Business Class upgrade as a work expense.

Hey, there's got to be some advantage to a Sole Trader business where the only person I exploit is myself!

The tour is all-inclusive, as well. Very knowledgeable tour guides, 3- and 4-star hotel stays, cost of tours included, Breakfast and either lunch or dinner per day (some days have Optional Excursions including dinner, sometimes lunch is during Free Time and you organise it yourself), gratuities... it's all included, which is why I'm not complaining too much about the price.

I've toured with Insight Vacations before, including the last two times I was in the UK, and they haven't steered me wrong yet. This time, I'm doing Elegance of Great Britain, which has a specific focus on the great writers of the Regency and Romance periods, and all the places that a well-travelled Austen Heroine might go, like the Lakes District, Bath, the Cotswolds and Blenheim Palace, Gretna Green...

Once the tour concludes, I'll have a few days in London before heading to Bath for the Jane Austen Festival, and I plan to spend that visiting Hampton Court, the Tower of London, and so on.

In short, I'm going to be spending three weeks having the time of my Nerdy life under the guise of book research, and loving every second of it!

I've got my post-Insight-tour hotels booked, and locked in at non-peak prices, another travel hack. My costumes for the 250th Anniversary Jane Austen Festival are being planned (of course I'll be going in costume!) and I've reached out to several bookstores in Bath to see if any of them are interested in Author Events during the same period.

I won't book flights until the tour is paid off and confirmed (I made that mistake once in 2015, only for the tour to be cancelled for lack of people, and having to pay extra to change my flights to a different city).

Once I get confirmation, I'll pay everything else, and start packing.

Travelling solo can be daunting, even in a group, but if I let fear dominate my life, I might as well not live at all.

So, I'll face my fear, make sympathetic noises to my Beloved, who has Work Stuff that prevents her from joining me for this trip and is Not Happy about it, and enjoy my research tour to the fullest.