York and Hadrian's Wall! Or Wales and Lake Country!
We spent 13 days last August on driving loop, after 4 days in London, from London to Oxford to Wales through Lake Country (fast) to Hadrian's Wall to York to Dover back to London (with other stuff in between). So if you want to see what we did here's the trip report; we were hopping from B&B to B&B each night, though. But you can see what we covered in a few of the areas you might check out. York would be my number one suggestion for you , though, plus ??
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trip-report-of-13-days-in-england-and-wales.cfm#dest-header

York or the Lakes both leapt into my mind; although a good, and off piste alternative would be Dumfries and Galloway. Not much visited and absolutely delightful

I'm not sure why you dismiss Manchester, as it's the perfect half way point between Bath and Scotland, on a main rail route and has easy communications by road, rail and air. It's a great city with lots to see and do.

You could though forego this basket of riches and head for the Lake District. Stay at Windermere or Ambleside, and with 3/4 days you can make forays into Yorkshire.

Thanks for the info so far. Regarding dismissing Manchester, we're already spending a majority of out time in large cities, so I was thinking of something a bit more rural. But it's location of the main rail route is something to think about. I was thinking of renting a car once we get to Salisbury and keeping it until we headed to Edinburgh. Are there penalties in UK for dropping off the car in a different location? What about a whole other country!??!

There is not a huge difference in 1st and 2nd cl on the AV/ES trains in Italy. It's certainly not like the big difference in economy and 1st class on long distance flights.>

If going mainly to citis like Bath and Salisbury and Edinburgh then a car is useless once there and trains will take you right into the city centres. And you seem not interested in places like the Cotswold Hills where trains are pretty useless to get around and even buses are problematic it seems. And you can take a train right to the heart of the lake District at Windermere and once there there are very very frequent buses that circulate incessantly around key sites in that fabled rural wonderland.

But if you want to drive thru the countryside and stay at perhaps small village B&Bs or farmhouse B&Bs then the car is obviously better.

anyway for lots on British trains and railpasses (whose key calling card on such an itinerary IMO is that you can hop on at will any train anytime and there are always zillions of trains - the cheapest way if you want to lock yourself into often trains with restrictions on changing or refunding would be to advance book on sites such as www.nationalrail.co.uk. But if you wish flexibility to just show up at the station and hop on the next train then these fully flexible fares can be really expensive and make a railpass a good deal IF flexibility is required. Some great sites for planning a British rail trip - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com. I admit to, after using railpasses in Britain annually for decades partial to the complete flexibility they offer but if you can live with pre-booking then strongly peruse nationalrail.co.uk and see what discounted fares you can come up with.

As you are going to Edinburgh, why not add the Highlands to your trip?

you could see quite a few castles in 3-4 days, bot to mention lochs and mountains.

or the lakes [the Lake DISTRICT, not country, BTW]. here's the link for the train timetable [it wouldn't do May, so I put in tomorrow's date] for trains from Bath to Kendal. you could pick up the car there, return it in Edinburgh.

May-June is an excellent time for visiting the Lakes. far fewer tourists, long days, hopefully decent weather.

IMHO, Wales is a bit off your route on this trip.

http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/combinedmatrix.aspx?Command=TimeTable

the train timetable [it wouldn't do May, so I put in tomorrow's date] for trains from Bath to Kendal.>

Having been to both a few times I would prefer basing in Windemere for the Lake District and if going by rail you can go the whole way by train - Windermere is the railhead for the Lake District proper - the touristy part of the vast lake district with near it Wordsworth's Rydall Mount, Beatrice Potter's Hilltop (?) cottage a nice short enough hike after taking the chain ferry across Lake Windermere, etc.

Kendall is reached by a bus link from probably from Penrith, further north so a bit more travel time. But Kendall is nice too - check out the Pencil Museum there though many erase it from their itineraries. Graphite exhibitions. If you do go for a railpass it will take you in full to Windermere but only I believe to Penrith then you'd have to pay for the bus to Kendall a few quid.

There is absolutely no need for a car in the Lake District - at least for what the average tourist wants to see as the double-decker hop on and off tour buses circulate frequently between all main sights - everything you'd want to see.

An easy day trip from the Lake District by train also goes to Hadrian's Wall though here you would need to use the Hadrian's Wall bus to actually easily get to the main portions of wall and fort, etc.

even heading all the way up to Inverness and backtrack to Edinburgh.>

Inverness sounds neat but as a town it is IMO so-so especially for a very limited amount of time - you would basically get there, spend a day doing a Loch Ness tour - the loch is well out of town I believe and to me is just another lake - the Inverness area however is IMO wonderful but only if you have some days to spend exploring it - like taking one of Europe's most scenic railway lines from it to the Kyle of Lochlash - thru the Highlands scenery etched in your minds' eyes. But just to bop into Edinburgh and then go back down to Edinburg I think would be a waste of time that could be better spent in places like the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales or Border Abbeys just south of Edinburgh (easily reached by bus from several train stations, including from Edniburgh.

"Windermere is the railhead for the Lake District proper"

Windermere is the only train station in the Lake District proper but it's on a spur line. If heading for the northern Lakes it's probably better to take the train to Penrith which is a mainline station then a bus from there. You can also use a VERY slow branch line along the west coast of the Lakes if your interests are in the lesser explored areas of the Lakes.

Personally I'd be considering places like the Yorkshire & Durham Dales as well as Northumberland on the other side of the Pennines. The Durham Dales are really off-piste for non UK tourists.

"even heading all the way up to Inverness and backtrack to Edinburgh."

Given OP is in Bath they could fly to Inverness from Bristol. Alternatively start their trip in Bath (couple hours from LHR by coach & good place to recover from the flight), work their way back to London, fly or take the sleeper train to Inverness then work their way back to Edinburgh that way.

If you do go to York, don't miss Castle Howard, about 10 miles north of it. Great place to visit. Also, not much farther north are some of the most beautiful of the ruined abbeys -- we drove from Castle Howard on to Rievaulx Abbey. And a bit further north is Durham, with the amazing cathedral, one of the most important in the world.

Windermere is the railhead for the Lake District proper"

Windermere is the only train station in the Lake District proper but it's on a spur line. If heading for the northern Lakes it's probably better to take the train to Penrith which is a mainline station then a bus from there>

Well Oxenholme, where you change for Windermere has at least hourly trains on the West Coast mainline that stop there as well and the connecting shuttle train to Windermere is waiting on the next platform - and you will be in what I at least consider a nicer Lake District base than you would be in Kendall after changing from train to bus at Penrith - maybe not I have not checked but seems so.

The fabled Borders Abbeys like Melrose and Jedburgh are some of the most romantic things I've seen in my decades of European travels and are easy to include in any trip up to Edinburgh, either by car or excellent bus service from places like Carlisle or Edinburgh itself.

between Bath Spa and Edinburgh it is also easy to include a visit to fabled Hadrian's Wall - the wall built by the Romans to fence off the barbaric Scots from England (not sure the real reason!) - anyway an evocative structure that runs for many miles and it is easy to do by car or train and bus as well. I took a train to Hexham, a town that is a great base from which to hop to portions of the wall and some ancient ruined forts, etc built along it. From Hexham and other points such as Carlise, on the main West Coast rail and road routes to Scotland you can hop Hadrian's Wall bus - which is a tourist bus but not that expensive that simply provides transportation to the main wall sites that are indeed hard to reach by ordinary public transports. And Hexham is the quintessential small English town with a raft of typical B&Bs, etc. The type of place many tourists dream to stay in but never do, instead sticking to big cities like Bath, York, Edinburgh, etc

http://www.hadrians-wall.org/page.aspx//News-and-PR/January-2011-enewsletter/AD122-Bus-Service-2011This link is safe.Hadrian's Wall Country | AD122 Bus Service 2011Jump aboard the Hadrian's Wall Country Bus AD122 from Friday 22nd April to Sunday 30th October for the 2011 season. However, with a degree of uncertainty ...
www.hadrians-wall.org/page...2011.../AD122-Bus-Service-2011 -

http://www.hadrians-wall.org/page.aspx//Interactive-Map/Hadrian's-Wall-Country-BusThis link is safe.Hadrian's Wall Country | Hadrian's Wall Country BusHadrian's Wall Country Bus. The service for the 2011 season operates from ...
www.hadrians-wall.org/page.aspx//.../Hadrian's-Wall-Country-Bus

Thanks again for all the ideas. Things are slowly coming together. Current plan with flights and most hotels/B&Bs confirmed:
- Arrive London on Sat. morning. 4 nights (Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue) in London. Spend rest of Saturday and 3 more full days exploring in London. Any ideas for Sunday morning activities prior to most attractions opening?
- Take train to Bath on Wednesday morning. 3 nights (Wed, Thu, Fri) in Bath. Explore Bath on Wednesday. On Thursday, pick up rental car, drive to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Friday is a bit of a question-mark still - I'm sure we could spend more time exploring Bath. Are there any other "must see" sights within an hour drive or so?
- Saturday is a mostly a travel day - Hit the road heading north with a quick daytime stop in Stratford-upon-Avon and then continuing to the York area for Saturday night. This is the Bank Holiday weekend and I'm having a tough time finding a B&B for just 1 night close in to York. Any ideas? Looking for something in the $100-125 range. If we have to stay in regular hotel, that's fine but would prefer a B&B.
- Sunday - Explore York and drive to Durham. Durham for 2 nights (Sun, Mon). Monday - Hadrians Wall and Durham.
- Tuesday - Drive to Newcastle, drop off the rental car and catch the train to Edinburgh. Still working on the timing of this. We can catch an early train to spend more time in Edinburgh or spend more time in Durham and catch a later train. Note that National does not appear to have an office in Durham. Otherwise we would just catch the train there.
- Edinburgh for 4 nights (Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri). Explore Edinburgh with a possible all-day bus tour to the Highlands, Loch Ness. I'm usually not a fan of bus tours but I'd rather not drive it and we would really like to see the area. Any suggestions for a good tour company if we decide on it?
- Saturday - Fly home to Houston with probably a HUGE craving for Mexican food.

Wells is a short drive from Bath, magnificent cathedral, the Vicar's Close is charming and the Bishops Palace surrounded by a moat a must see.

Rabbies is a good Edinburgh tour company w/ lots of day trips.

Your Bath to York day is a bit problematic. Just Bath to York via Stratford is a full 5 hours driving (if you are lucky w/ the traffic - could be longer). That doesn't include the amount of time it takes to actually navigate into central Stratford, park, and get on the road again. So realistically you are talking about 6-7 hours of driving w/o any time seeing anything.

The detour into Stratford will easily add 4-5 hours to your already long day.

oops - hit post too soon. I'd skip any detours and just drive to Yorkshire. It is still a long drive but it would give you a little more time in York. If it was me --I'd stay 2 nights in York and one in/near Durham -- for 2 reasons. • You will have a long drive and probably won't want to get on the road again the next day, and • it will be easier to find a B&B if you are staying 2 nights that weekend.

janisj - Point taken on the long drive. My original thought was to do as you suggest and just drive straight through and we may still do that, depending on how we feel that day. The nice thing about driving is having that flexibility. I'm still getting used to relatively small size of GB. I make a similar drive in distance (Dallas to Galveston) one-to-two times a month without thinking much about it.

We did similar this past May. A couple of days in London then train to Salisbury (megatrain has some downright CHEAP fares to Salisbury if it fits your schedule). Overnight in Salisbury and off the next morning in a rental car - Kemwel - it was $220/week for a Ford Fiesta class standard shift - we were given a Vauxhall, nice car. Salisbury to a few hours in Stonehenge, its a quick and easy drive from Salisbury, then to Avebury and then on to Bath for 3 nights. From Bath to 2 Cotswold nights followed by 2 Statford upon Avon nights and then a 4 hour drive to York where we turned in the car. There was no drop off charge. York to Edinburgh was by train.

" I make a similar drive in distance (Dallas to Galveston) one-to-two times a month without thinking much about it."

Simply no comparison at all. I live in Calif and do similar drives -- Sac to LA is 400 miles and will do down and back for a weekend.

But there is no comparable I-5 or I-45 between Bath and York -- And Bath/Stratford/York are not modern cities w/ street grids. For most of your touring plan on averaging 10-20 mph in city centres, 35-40 MPH on main roads and 45-55 MPH on motorways. You will get up higher than 55 for sure, but just around the next bend you can come to a dead stop.

didn't see basingstoke's post -- to compare -- they took 5 days to cover the distance you plan on Saturday

Never be in a hurry whilst on the roads in the U.K. - every few miles it seems there is a neat market town to explore or a stately house to tour or a castle - and be sure to investigat the Great British Heritage Pass or the local equivalent English Trust, English Heritage though none of those are as comprehensive as the Great British Heritage Pass I think - covers places like Edinburgh Castle and a zillion stately homes - lets you stop by for a quick visit that you may not by paying the normal $20 or so entry fee for many.

In York along I made my pass pay off by visiting several sites in the city that I probably would not have paid to enter.

Pal - I endorse every word of your above post. Our experience was the same and with the GBHP we saw a good number of sites that we may have given a by.

janisj - ...and those 5 days were packed with activities and sites. I only wish we had longer for that part because even with that amount of time we missed so much. We must return. This past trip to the UK was one of the best, and least expensive, trips we have ever taken due in no small part to the wonderful and helpful people we had the pleasure to meet along the way and almost without exception very good, reasonably priced meals, even for mostly vegetarian DW - UK food gets a bad rap. Your own insights were also most helpful and we thank you for that.