Fife October 2020

Fife October 2020 Following our lock down in the Spring and with a break in work planned, I could at last plan a trip home to Scotland to see family and have a relaxing few days. Usually when visiting Fife I would fly to Edinburgh from Belfast. However, I was aware that Loganair had started a new route from Belfast City Airport to Dundee and thought I would try this as an alternative – and what a super decision that was. This was my first flight since February and Covid-19, so like most travellers I was quite concerned about the precautions for travelling. Belfast City Airport was a lot quieter since my last visit and social distancing was easy. Security was quick and straightforward and there was lots of seating well-spaced out. Unfortunately, only the shopping outlets and Starbucks were open so I recommend that you bring something to fill your time before your flight departs. Boarding our Loganair ATR 42 was easy and with only around a dozen passengers there was lots of room for everyone. Of course, you must wear a face covering throughout the flight, but as this was only 45 minutes it was not any issue. I liked that Loganair included 15kg of hold luggage in their airfare and on board we were offered a small bottle of water and a choice of shortbread or a Tunnock’s Caramel wafer. Great for a short flight and a far better service than most airlines offer nowadays. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to get any great views on our journey but arriving into Dundee was a joy, it’s a tiny airport with only three scheduled departures a day. Our luggage arrived very quickly and with around 20 steps we were outside the terminal and picked-up for our journey over the Tay into Fife. It was great to see my family albeit a bit strange with all the current restrictions. When not seeing family Gail and I took the opportunity to visit some of the local sites and one of them was the small village of Falkland. This small Royal Burgh is famous for its Royal Palace and as one of the locations used for the Outlander TV series. We had a great couple of hours here, and although the Palace is not currently open to the public, the village is great to explore with crafts shops and quaint streets. During our stay we also visited (as we do regularly) the fishing villages of the East Neuk of Fife, and whilst all these village were great as usual, the popularity of at least one made it difficult for social distancing and so we did not stop here and avoided the crowds. All too quickly it was time to return home and again I was impressed by Dundee Airport, there was loads of space in the small terminal building and the café was kept scrupulously clean with tables and chairs all be disinfected immediately after use. But the best thing about this small airport was that every member of staff was just so friendly and helpful and made the experience so pleasant. Security was straightforward and easy and soon 11 of us boarded our flight to Belfast City. Again I could not fault the flight with the same service as the outbound, although with less cloud we had a far better view of Scotland on the journey home. I was delighted to have this visit to Scotland and was really impressed with Loganair and Dundee Airport. Last year I travelled a lot of times via Edinburgh Airport which is an efficient big airport but offering a less personal service and with higher parking and drop-off/pick-up charges. For my future trips I will certainly consider travelling via Dundee.