Ash01

Need suggestions for a 12 day itenary.
Roughly this is our plan.
On arrival on 18th or 19May, we(family of 4), intend to rent car and drive down to Wembly area to meet a friend and and may stay over for a night. (not confirmed)
Next day we drive towards east and stay over at (bath?).
We want to be in Manchester on 21st and stay for 2 nights leaving on 23rd.
We want to visit Liverpool, Edinbrough, coventry, cambridge, some nice country side area (cotsweld, lake district?)and back to London where we return car on 27 or 28th. Then 3 days in London.
I am thinking along this line:
LON->Bath->Manchester-Liverpool-> Edinbrough->Lake district, or cotswold area->coventry->Oxf,cam->LON

Any suggestions and detailed route please?

Thanks

Jas

nytraveler

I'm sorry but you are trying to cover way too much territory for only 12 days. We have done many many rod trips all over europe including several in the UK - and this just doens;t give you time to see much. What you have described is mostly drive-bys - not real visits.

For example we have taken 11 days to see Oxford, York and Edinburgh (after a week in London) - and that was skimping Edinburgh. Another time we took a week to see Cotswolds and Bath. And then we took a week to see the SE - Canterbury, Dover, Leeds CAStle, Battle etc.

I really think you need to pare back you list so you will actually have time to see something (for instance, you need 2 days/3 nights in Edinburgh and the same to see much of the Cotswolds. Bath needs at least a full day (2 nights).

One idea is to make a list of the sights you want to see in each place and figure out how long - realistically - it will take you to so do. Then make some decisions accordingly.

Ash01

Wow that was a fast response. Thanks.
I agree its too much of a rush, but just say 1/2 a day at most places would suffice. True its a like drive past, but then we will take it as somewhere along the way to main destinations,manchester,liverpool,edinbrugh,cambri dge/oxford/coventry and ofcourse London.

tuscanlifeedit

Wembley or Wembly, unless I'm mistaken, is pretty much due east of Bath, requiring you to drive to the west.

Your current plan has you all over the place, in a lot of places. Do you have a map? Perhaps measure the distance between each place, and even draw lines between them.

I am not the UK expert here, but have been several times. We try to group our touring sites in one part of the country. For instance, you could do Manchester, Liverpool, the Lakes, York and even Edinburgh in this trip.

Or Bath, the Cotswolds, London, Cambridge or Oxford.

On our May trip, we are doing 2 nights York, 5 nights Yorkshire Moors and a dip into the Dales, 4 nights the Lake District, and two nights Liverpool. We are flying in and out of Manchester.

tuscanlifeedit

OK, you were typing as I was. Your main destinations are way more than enough. Six or seven different places to sleep is already too much. Think of the time you will spend getting in and out of each place.

texasbookworm

I agree that you need to re-look at a map. What do you mean drive "down" to Wembley? From LHR? Northeast to me--"up"?

texasbookworm

Ooops hit submit instead of preview--
Anyway, just meant to say that I think your destinations are a bit too all over the place (Oxford is WNW of London, Cambridge rather north, so not exactly close to each other). I'd suggest you map out some "dummy" itineraries, plug them into some mapping site like google maps and see what times/mileage they give you--and then add at least 50% in terms of time.

We took a pretty ambitious road trip making a loop from London to Oxford, Shrewsbury, Conwy, Carlisle, Durham, York, near London, Dover, and back to London, spending one night each place. (If you want to read my trip report, click on my name, go to my profile page, and see the report at the bottom of the page Keep Calm...) So I do "get" the idea of driving every day and spending maybe half a day several places. But your time seems even more limited than that and you are talking about further flung destinations.

A driving trip, with one night in several spots, CAN be done and be fun--but I think you need to look a bit more realistically at destinations. Travel in the UK by car is NOT fast.

soogies

"A driving trip, with one night in several spots, CAN be done and be fun--but I think you need to look a bit more realistically at destinations. Travel in the UK by car is NOT fast."

Yes, take notice of the above statement.

Personally I like to stay at least 2 nights in one place, preferably 3. One night per place to me is a nightmare. I have done it and it was so hectic I hated it.

Look at www.mappy.com to get an idea of drive times and then add maybe 20% more time on to the trip (depending on area) as it will most likely take longer than suggested.

janisj

"<i>But just say 1/2 a day at most places would suffice.</i>"

Sorry but it just doesn't work that way.

1/2 a day in Oxford would give you about 2 hours there. You need time to find the park & ride lot, park the car, catch the bus into the city, walk around a bit, bus back to the park & ride.

1/2 a day in the Cotswolds - ridiculous

1/2 a day in Edinburgh -- that would not give you time to see anything.

It sounds like you just want to check sites off a list and don't care if you actually see anything.

Get yourself a map of the UK, sit down w/ your list and cut it in about half, and then plot out on the map what's left of your list. Driving in the UK takes a LOT of time.

jamikins

Agree with the above, this is just not feasible. It once took us 3 hours just to get to Luton because there was an accident on the motorway. Driving in the UK is not like driving in the US, Canada, or even France or Protugal. The highways are clogged, slow and an accident can hold you up for hours.

With 12 days (including London??) I would pick 3-4 places max and depending on the places I would take the train - for example you could fly into London and spend 4 days, train to Manchester for the days you have there and then train to Edinburgh for the remaining and fly out. You could then do Bath as a day trip from London on the train (you would see more than doing 1/2 day with a car).

Sort out what you want to see, prioritize it while looking at a map and then see if it makes sense. If using googlemaps to determine driving times add about 30% on top of what they recommend to get a realistic idea of how long things take.

bellini

When I last looked Bath was west of London!! Wembley is in NW London and would take less than an hour from Heathrow (as long as traffic on the M25 wasn't at a standstill.)
Please take note of all the advice - you have way too many destinations. Can I ask if there's a particular reason for visiting Manchester & Liverpool? I wouldn't automatically put them on the tourist map and I am from Lancashire. And Coventry?
In 12 days by car London-Oxford- Bath- Lake District- back to Cambridge- London might just work.

Ash01

Thanks. Must admit my geography of UK is a bit rusty.
Thought Wembley was around London and bath not too far.
Will remove bath from original plan (may still visit old fiend there before we fly off) and also wembly (will stay there instead of in London)
Reason for Manchester- Old trafford and, if can get tickets, ManU game- wife and son both say thats a must do part of ther trip. worth all the money it will cost us!
Liverpool? just say we loved British music 0f 60s in our younger days! So u can guess.
Anyway will work out new schedule in couple of days then hope to get more comments from very helpfu entusiasts here.

BTW we did uk by brit rail pass we back in late 80s. went up along east cost up to inverness and came down along the west cost. Remember passing through a town there which probably has the longest name.

Thanks once again.

Jas

BigRuss

This is a daft itinerary, as others have said. What do you really want to do and see, other than a ManU match (which is on 5-22 and is the season finale, which means you will pay a small fortune to the touts if ManU hasn't clinched the Premiership beforehand)?

You can't do 1/2 day in Edinburgh because it has too much to offer. You could conceivably fly into London, spend some time, train to Manchester and depart back to the US from Edinburgh (and potentially save money if the departure fees are less at EDI than at LHR). Or you can move the triangle around a bit -- fly into Manchester, train to Edinburgh and train to London, etc. Either way, limiting yourself to 2-3 cities and just branching off to visit what you want from there would be best (Liverpool is close to Manchester, for example).

Odin

>>Thought Wembley was around London<<

It is north west London. It is also not far from LHR. It is easy to drive to the Cotswolds from Wembley as it is close to the A40/M40. From the Cotswolds you can drive to Manchester/Liverpool and the Lake District. It's quite far though to drive all the way to Edinburgh but it's possible. When you return south you can take the M1 towards London and you can stop in Cambridge or Coventry (but not sure what you want to see in Coventry itself, but some outlying areas are nice). I'd take out Edinburgh from the itinerary but the rest seems ok to me. I've driven all these routes.

I disagree that Manchester & Liverpool shouldn't be on the itinerary and do not agree that you need so much time in each place.

irishface

Many told me that I didn't want to bother with Coventry, but I had my reasons and am glad that I went. Only spent a few hours there. The old cathedral, bombed to bits in WWII, was very moving. I expected to not like the "new"cathedral built next door, but was overcome by the colors in the glass windows. I also had heard the Lady Godiva legend and wanted to see where it happened. Her statue is there and there is a museum which includes the story as well as the story of the cathedral. So don't let the naysayers discourage you; the cathedral is worth it even if you have time for nothing else.

I have been to lots of places that people told me were not worth it, but all of them have meant something to me even if I never go back or might not recommend to someone with limited time.