petal

My husband and I (energetic 40's-50's) are trying to plan a trip to Great Britain. Flight is from SFO to London round trip. We're sort of committed into booking an apartment for the first 12 days and originally planned to do some day trips from there as well. Perhaps York, Stonehenge, Stratford upon Avon. After London we planned to take a driving tour loosely following an itinerary of Rick Steves. How reasonable is it to do a drive through in the remaining 8 days and end up back in London. Would we do better taking trains from destination to destination? I had anticipated driving far to the north and seeing the Lochs and eery coastlines, some castles, and Edinburgh is a must. I might be able to whittle some time off our London stay and allow 11 days. Would that be a lot more reasonable? I understand Great Britain is about the size of California which is where I live, but I have no sense of how good the roads are, if the highways are flat open roads or slower than what we are used to.
Can anyone recommend a reasonable itinerary? We want to see the countryside, a few GREAT castles, sleepy hamlets and two really great hiking trails. Hubby wants to do the Liverpool Beatles tour in Liverpool... (could live without that myself..altho "I'm a Believer...".....
I know it's a lofty plan... someone needs to ground me please. We are leaving July 20 and returning Aug 10th.
Thanks so much in advance for any recommendations

janis

OK - maybe I can give you some perspective -- I'm a Californian who lived in the UK for 5 years and travel back there a couple of times a year.

Yes, The UK is about the size of CA -- BUT there is no I-5 running down the middle. Well, there are two main N/S motorways but they are not the routes to take for sightseeing.

If you only have 9 (or 11) days I would NOT do a loop. Off the motorways in many scenic areas you will be lucky to average 35-40 mph. I would fly or take the train up to Edinburgh. After a couple days in that city, pick up a rental car and make your way back down to London.

Look at a map of the UK. Edinburgh, northern Scotland -- well Central Scotland since you won't have time to go to NORTHERN Scotland -- down through Northumberland to York, over to the midlands to Stratford, down to Bath, to Stonehenge and back to London will take EVERY bit of your 9+ days.

It mostly depends on if you want to SEE things or do you want a whirlwind trip where you spend hours in the car and pass through some great country.

If it were me I would try to cut London back to 8 days max. Then your would have 2 weeks to squeeze in the rest of your touring. If the 11 or 12 days in London is a given then you should cut back a little on your expectations.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE London and I am usually recommending more not less time there -- but you won't have enough time to see all the other areas you want without more time

rkkwan

Sounds like you have about 20 days total. You can do most of SE England by basing in London for 7-8 days, and just take daytrips out. Then, get a car and head to Wales, and then around Scotland. It's definitely possible to do that in 11-12 days. It'll involve quite a bit of travel time each day, but it's definitely possible.

annettetx

Based on the trip we took last spring, here's what I would suggest:
After your stay in London, take the overnight train from London to Scotland. We enjoyed the experience of having a berth on the train and spending the night as we travelled! We took the train to Inverness, rented a car there, and drove back down to London according to the following schedule:
Day 1: drive from Inverness to Edinburgh (stop at Culloden, Duffus Castle, Lossiemouth, and Glen Fiddich Distillery on the way)
Day 2: sightsee in Edinburgh
Day 3: drive from Edinburgh to York (stop at Melrose Abbey, Hadrian's Wall on the way)
Day 4: sightsee York
Day 5: drive from York to London (stop at Triangular Lodge and Oxford on the way)
It sounds like your itinerary leaves you more time, so you spend more days in Edinburgh than we did.
I love London, but if you want to get out of the city more, I'd try to shave a day or two off your London time. I'd also leave York off your day trip list, and stop there on your drive down.
Have a great trip!
Annette

petal

Thanks for the suggestions. I just emailed the apartment owners and asked to cut back to only 8 days in London.. per your suggestion, Janis and will do a few day trips out while we are there, as suggested by rkkwan. Which leaves us 13 days to go to the upper areas of Great Britain.
Is it feasible to rent a car in Edinburgh and return it in London? (we want to avoid as much city driving as possible.. would even prefer to return it in Bath or perhaps York where we would like to stop as well. (which we are hoping are easier places to drive than London or near the airport). I really appreciate the input.

petal

Just saw your response, Annette. I like that idea. I'm going to look into that overnight train to Iverness. We would then have 12 days to get back to London. Any more itinerary suggestions out of Iverness to London? I would like to stay 2 nights in Edinburgh for sure and would love to spend one night in a castle. (have considered Ruthin castle for their medieval banquet and drafty rooms.) I'm still unsure about renting a car in one city and returning it to another. I'll have to look into it but would like further advice on this. I might post another general question so this one doesn't get lost in the database.

janis

There are usually no drop off charges for rental cars. So picking one up in one place and dropping it somewher else makes perfect sense for you.

Bath is an easy day trip from London using the train (and driving/parking in Bath can be difficult)

One itinerary that works for you would look something like this:

Sleeper train to Inverness; Pick up rental car and stay in the area two nights. Not IN Inverness but somewhere nearby. Use this base to see Culloden, Loch Ness/Urquhart Castle, Cawdor and/or Brodie castles, a whisky distillery, etc.

Then down the A82 through ft William and Glen Coe to near Stirling for the next night. See the Castle, the Trossachs, etc.

In to Edinburgh for 2 or 3 days. You won't need the car in Edinburgh so booking a B&B a little ways from the center that provides free parking would be your best bet.

Then One night in Northumberland - see some of the Borders enroute and then Hadrian's Wall.

Then through Durham to York and stay for 1 or 2 nights. One night if you just want to see the city, 2 nights if you also want to see Castle Howard and other countryside.

Now you have used up 8 or 9 days of your time and have to decide which way to go -- Ruthin Castle is probably a good choice for your price range. But I would not go there unless I was going to stay 2 or 3 nights - there is just so much to see in North Wales.

After N Wales make your way back towards LHR and turn in your car before flying home. I'd stay somewhere within 15 miles of Heathrow (Windsor or a little farther up river) on the last night.

This is just one possible itinerary but it is a pretty efficient route to the places you want to see.

petal

Thanks for the itinerary help. I've printed it up and I'm consulting an atlas and my list of "possible" and "must do's".

My hubby loves the idea of the night train and we're looking into that. I'm surprised that it's easy to return a car to a different destination. BUT WE LOVE THAT IDEA!! You have pretty much hit on the highlights of what we want to do. I was also thinking 2-3 nights in N Wales .. the pictures look so beautiful. I'm thinking one night in the castle with the touristy meal (banquet) and 2 nights in a lovely bed and breakfast I found near Betws-y-Coed
..called Aberconwy House.
Thanks again for your help.

walesgirl

Hi, Picking up on North Wales. Ruthin Castle might be ok for one night. Are you going from Liverpool to N.Wales? I would also suggest you visit Chester, a lovely city between L'pool & N.Wales. Take time to walk around the Roman walls, visit the Cathedral & the olde shop buildings, also great shops. Then on to Ruthin. Next day travel along the A55 heading for Conwy. At the St Asaph junction go left & head for Rhuddlan, view the castle. Then back onto A55 to Conwy. It's a pretty little town with beautiful castle, habour & home to the smallest house. You can then head for Betws-Y-Coed again a lovely little place. Try a Cadwaladers (might have spelt it wrong) ice cream. Nice walks in Betws & Swallow Falls. Day 3 drive ..you will need a car..into Snowdonia, excellent countryside & views. You might want to climb Snowdon or take the train to the top. Depending what your plans are Caenarfon & Angelsey might be worth a visit. Beddgelert also very nice. Enjoy your stay in Wales. You will know when you are in Wales look out for all the welsh road signs. Croeso i Cymru. Welcome to Wales.

Glyn_Williams

Just taking a look at the comments on the matter in question, and l feel somewhat confused.

I would recommend spending around 8-9 days in London. This will give you the opportunity to look around the main attractions in London, and the surrounding area. This will also give you the opportunity to visit possibly one of the nicest castles l have visited that is Windsor Castle. If you are visiting London any time between May and August, then Buckingham Palace is usually opened up to the public, however there has been talks of them not opening it up this year due to the terrorism threat.

After London, you could take one of two routes. You could either travel west via Bath and visit South Wales or go up North. I would say you needed no more than 3-4 days in South Wales, and no more than a day in Bath, since it is very touristy and can get pathetically crowded at weekends. In South Wales, there are plenty of attractions to visit - again castles such as Cardiff Castle, which l believe was once home to the Worlds richest man. There are also two other castles within 30 minutes of Cardiff - these are Castell Coch and Caerphilly Castle. Both are castles in excellent condition. IMO after visiting both Cardiff and Edinburgh, l would advise you to spend more time in Cardiff than Edinburgh. During my time in Edinburgh, l felt there was not that much to do. Cardiff has plenty of attractions, and you will not feel 'bored' there. However, this is only my opinion, and you may enjoy it.

You could then catch a plane from Cardiff to Liverpool and take a look around Liverpool. From here, you can then reach Scotland and Northern England fairly easily, and still have lots of time to visit the main attractions such as York, Edinburgh etc.

Hope this provides the information which you require, however if you do need anymore, please do not hesitate to ask.

forbwj2

We drove a loop from Edinburgh to Inverness (through the Castle Trail in Aberdeenshire over the Crampian mountains to Inverness) then from Inverness drove along Loch Ness through the 5 Sisters mountain range to Kyle of Lochash where there is now a large bridge to the Isle of Skye (you used to have to take a ferry). The Isle of Skye is incredible. Dramatic cliffs on one side and unreal rock formations on the other (the rocks teeter on top of one another the way they do in Southern Utah and Arizona, where you can't figure out how they eroded that way (although on Skye the formations are glacial deposits mainly) But anyway there are some neat little sea towns on Skye and a 20 or so mile one lane loop road that is definitely worth taking. From Skye we drove to Fort William then through Glencoe back to Edinburgh. I would recommend going to the Isle of Skye if you can work it in. We had not initially planned on it, but my brother had been doing the hostel backpack thing around Britain and Scotland and though he didn't make it to Skye everyone he ran into told him it was there favorite place in Scotland and I'm glad they did because it was certainly ours.

leonberger

You've gotten great advice on how to organize the trip, so I won't be redundant.

I will, however, highly recommend a B&B outside of Inverness (just to the east, I can look up the particulars if you're interested).

It's called "Woodside B&B" and is listed in several of the "Best B&B" guides. It's a modern home, with just a couple of rooms. But the greatest thing about it is that the host is an expert sheep dog person - and if he's available, he'll give you a personal demonstration of his dogs' skills. Absolutely fascinating - both the people and the dogs!

Gayle