tsrapp

My mom and I are heading to Britain in May, and I'm working on our itenerary. Our greatest interests are the cute cottages like you find in the Cotswolds, Stonehenge, castles, and Lochs (especially Ness-- gotta try for the obligatory "is this Nessie or a log?" photo. LOL!)

Does this look reasonable?

We're planning to fly into London and out of Glasgow or Edinburgh (which one is better?), use public transportation in and around London then pick up a car for the rest of the visit.

Thanks!

Fri: Depart Houston

Sat Apr 29:
Arrive London
Check into hotel
Portobello Road
(if time)
Ride the hop on / hop off bus to get a feel for London
Take the London By Night bus tour
Night: Hotel in London, Sat & Sun night

Sun Apr 30 & Mon May 1:
Hop on / Hop off bus tour
Changing of the Guard (~2 hours incl wait time?)
British Museum (~2 hours)
Library's room with ancient maps, etc (~1-2 hours)
Tower Bridge (~30 minutes max)
Tower of London (~2-3 hours)
Tower of London Keys ceremony
Westminster Abbey (~1 hour)
Big Ben and Parlaiment (~30 minutes max)
Trafalgar Square (~30 minutes)
Globe Theater (~1 hour)
St Pauls Cathedral (~1 hour)
(if time)
Queen's Garden in Regent's Park
National Gallery
Brief stop in Kensington Gardens & view of Kensington Palace
Mon Night: Transfer to Hampton Court Palace B&B, Mon & Tues night

Tu May 2:
Hampton Court Palace & Gardens

Wed May 3:
Train to Southampton (1.5 hours)
Pick up rental car in Southampton (1 hour)
Drive to Salisbury (1 hour)
Salisbury Cathedral (1 hour)
Stonehenge (1 hour to reach, 1 hour to view)
Night near Stonehenge

Th May 4:
Avebury
Bath
Up to Cotswolds
Night in Cotswolds

--Fri May 5:
Down-day in Cotswolds

Sat May 6:
Warwick Castle
Stratford-upon-Avon
More Cotswolds
(if available, dinner at Warwick Castle)
Night in Cotswolds

Sun May 7:
Great Tews & Oxford
Night in Cotwolds

Mon May 8:
Cotswolds

Tu May 9:
Drive from Cotswolds to Cardiff
Castle(s) in Cardiff
Night in Cardiff

Wed May 10:
Drive from Cardiff to lower Snowdonia via Brecon Beacons & waterfalls
Night in Snowdonia somewhere

--Th May 11:
Down-day in Snowdonia area

Fri May 12:
Snowdonia to Chester via Conwy
Night in Chester

Sat May 13:
Chester to Lakes District
Night in Lakes District

Sun May 14:
Lakes District to outside Edinburgh
Rosslyn Chapel
Night outside Edinburgh

--Mon May 15:
Edinburgh & down-day
Night outside Edinburgh

Tu May 16:
Edinburgh -> somewhere near Blair Castle
Night central Scotland

Wed May 17:
Up to Loch Ness
Night Loch Ness

Th May 18:
Loch Ness to near Glasgow (the flowers town)
Glen Coe region
Night near Glasgow

Fri May 19:
Glasgow region & Glasgow
Night near airport

Sat May 20: Fly home

don76

to: tsrapp
I think your schedule is too ambitious.
I would cut out 1/2 of the stops you have planned for London.
Go for quality not quantity.
London Must sees;
* Westminster Abbey
* St Pauls
* Tower of london
* British Museum
* Changing of the guard

You will see most of the other items on your list traveling between the sites listed above.
You are planning on doing all this one day after you arrive but you may soon be exhausted.
re: Your Cotswolds trip, I suggest you find a central location and return each night .
You have planned too many one night stays.
I would stay in Bath one night so you can see this beautiful city and reduce the time you have planned for Wales. I would see Cardiff castle enroute
Betws-y-Coed Would be a nice stopover location for Snowdonia. You can use this as a base and drive over to Mt Snowden and take the steam train to the summit. You can also see the near by Caernarfon castle and return to Betws-y-Coed for a second night. Be sure to see Bodnant Fardens which is a few miles south of Conwy castle.
I would eliminate your stop in Chester and drive directly to the lake district. It is not that far and the lake district has far more to see.
You and your Mum would like to visit Beatrice Potters home.
Enjoy your three weeks.

Catbert

I would take a day from the Cotswolds and add it to Edinburgh. Don't be afraid to stay in Edinburgh. There are some great B&Bs there. Once you get there and park you won't have to drive around the city anymore until you leave.

janisj

My first thought was that two different people planned different parts of this itinerary -- Rush,rush rush through London, and then slowing down for 5 nights in the Cotswolds.

But a few comments:

You likely won't be able to go to Portobello Rd on your arrival Sat. You need to get there EARLY and if arriving after 10 a.m. it is simply too crowded to see anything - or even walk easily.

Forget about assigning arbitrary times to various places - especially in London. Some things take a lot longer than you have listed and some take just minutes. For instance you "schedule" 30 minutes for Trfalgar Square -- but you are going to the National Gallery. They are at the same place so you will be walking right through Tr Sq to get to the gallery. And travel time between sites will really eat into your days. Don't have any idea what you mean by a "brief stop at Kensington Gardens". This is a very large park and isn't something you can see just standing on the sidewalk - you need to walk through it - otherwise skip it. Also if you are going to Kensington Palace you should go inside. That will take at least an hour.

Your first Wed/Thurs don't make too much sense. Any particular reason you are taking the train to Southampton simply to pick up a rental car? You can drive from Hampton Court to Salisbury in less time than taking the train to S'hampton. Or - you could take the train to Salisbury and pick up a car there. It is VERY easy to visit Stonehenge, Avebury, and on to Bath in one day. Then you can stay Wed night in Bath, tour the city Wed afternoon to Thurs afternoon and then drive up to the Cotswolds - or over to Cardiff.

I'd drop Chester, even though it is a great place, and add that day to the Lakes. The Lake district is not a place you can just drive up, get out of the car and say "ooh that's pretty". You need to get out and walk, take boat trips, etc. Unless you can spend a couple of day/nights there I'd skip it. (Or you could pick up an extra day for the Lakes by dropping Cardiff)

If you are going to Edinburgh - you should stay IN Edinburgh. You can stop at Roslin for Rosslyn Chapel, and then into Edinburgh for 2 nights.

from day 12 onwards, it feels like the "London Planner" has taken over again - you are besically on a car trip w/ too much to see in too little time.

tsrapp

Thanks for the tip on Portobello Road. That's on the arrival Sat in part because it's the thing we're most willing to drop off our list, and we aren't sure we'll have any energy after flying in. But knowing we probably won't get to see anything may impact our decision and have us go to Kensington garden that day instead.

Someone said don't have so many one nighters in the cotswold -- err... we're planning on 5 nights there.

There's actually 2 days in London for that London itenerary, then a 3rd day for Hampton Court Palace.

The reason we want to pick up a rental car elsewhere is that we don't want to drive in London, and Hertz (where we get a AAA discount) doesn't have a car rental place in Salisbury. Otherwise, I'd much prefer to go straight to Salisbury.

Question on the Chester option -- would we have time to go from Snowdonia, see 2-3 of the castles along the northern coast (like Conwy), drive to Chester, spend about 3 hours touring Chester, and still get to the lake district? If so, that would be preferable but I didn't think that would be a reasonable day...?

As for staying in Edinburgh -- we really aren't big city people and the only reason we're staying in London at all is because that's where we're flying in and we want to be able to walk back to our hotel (not picked yet) and take a nap mid-afternoon if we need to. Otherwise, we'd prefer country cottages to city stays.

Yeah, it's rather ambitious, but this may be my mom's only visit to the UK and she has specific requests like lots of time in the Cotswold and seeing Loch Ness.

janisj

OK - w/ what you just added consider this instead. If you aren't really looking forward to London - don't go there. There is no law you have to stay in London if it doesn't appeal. Spend the first day/night in Windsor instead. it is a lovely small town less than 10 miles from LHR. I'm pretty sure there is a Hertz branch there. And if not - you can pick up the car at LHR and drive less than 20 minutes to your Windsor hotel. In Windsor there is the Castle of course, but also good restaurants, the river, Eton and just a nice introduction to the UK and a good place to recover from jet lag. Then it is an easy drive from Windsor to Salisbury/Stonehenge/Avebury. There would be no central london driving at all.

If you want to see HCPalace, you can take a local bus there and not have to drive. I really don't see any reason to stay 2 nights at Hampton Court. Staying 2 nights in Windsor would give you a day for Windsor and a day for HCP. And doing this would free up 4 days that you could add elsewhere (and give you enough time for Chester AND the Lakes)

Edinburgh is a city - but it is nothing like London, or NYC. The places you will want to visit are in a very compact area in the very center. Driving into Edinburgh and parking can be a real hassle

Mucky

I think you will have a busy time in London !! And maybe you should consider pacing yourself a little more..anyway..

I think you really should visit Cardiff, and stay over night. There are 2 castles and a 'folly' that you may be interested in, these are Cardiff Castle right in the centre of the city-Caerphilly castle (one of the largest castles in Europe) and Castle Coch which is a cute castle between Cardiff.
and Caerphilly, you could see all 3 in a day with time to spare to visit the Old arcades that make up Cardiff's shopping area.

Is there any particular reason why you are getting a train to Southampton to pick up the car?
I would have thought train to Cardiff-Reading or Bristol may have been better and pick one up there, this could save you time.

Whatever, it looks like you will have an action packed trip !!
Good Luck
Muck

semiramis

My personal opinion only but:
trying to do too much in London - either allocate another day or cut out some sights.
Way too much time in the Cotswolds - 2 days would be plenty
Why not take some of the Cotswolds time and 'spend' it in Wales or Scotland. The castles in northern Wales are spectacular (Conwy, Beamaris, Caenarvon, Harlech).
BTW - Bath or Salisbury would be MUCH better places to pick up a rental car than Southhampton (lots of traffic). We did that once - London for a couple of days - then train to Bath and pick up car.

Bill_I

One example of too much in London is that I don't really know if you could "do" the Tower Bridge in only 1/2 hour. If you were only going to walk across it, I guess you could do it, but to go across the walkway at the top, you first have to get to the top. To do that you go through the Tower Bridge experience/display. I suppose you could sneak through each area to the next & bypass all that, but I would allow atleast an hour for all that or maybe not bother with it this time. 1 hour in Westminster Abbey. I spent 1/2 day in there & thought I was rushing, same with the Tower of London. St.Pauls cathedral, itself, is good to see but going to the top & then going to the underground crypt will take much more time(another hour or 2). You could add 1/2 to 2 hours to just about any of those sites, & you still might be rushing through. If you just want to rush I guess you could do it, but would you be giving any site justice or just be able to say you saw it.
I definitely agree about Caerphilly Castle. That is one of my favorites, if not on the top of my list, it is a close 2nd to Edinburgh Castle. I also guess you could "do" Bath in a partial day. I have done it a number of times as a day trip from London, but to enjoy the town more than just the Roman Baths can take a good chunk of the day.

janisj

The comment that 2 days is "plenty" for the Cotswolds is really totally off base IMHO. The Cotswolds is not an area you can "see" just driving through. The Cotswolds is villages, and gardens, and walks along streams, and visiting Wool Churches. Actually - The Cotswolds bit of you itinerary is the ONLY part I would not change.

smudger43

Is your name Chevvy Chase? Your itinerary is so much like the start of National Lampoons European Vacation. Seriously though, I don't know what time your plane lands in London but to clear customs and immigration and then get to your hotel could take at least a couple of hours by which time you will be seriously jetlagged. I live close to London and getting anywhere due to traffic congestion etc takes much longer than you would think. I would recommend you give much more time to London although you say you like cute cottages you can look at these whilst passing through. I personally would fly out of Edinburgh and give Glasgow a miss. Have a great time and dont knock Stonehenge over.

sheila

Being just very narrow, I think your day from the Lake District to Roslin is fine; given your preferences I'd suggest you stay at North Berwick and visit Tantallon Castle.

use the same place as your base to visit Edinburgh from; prefereably somewhere on the railway so you don't have to drive in. Take the train, use the hop on hop off bus, and have a nice relaxed day. Take the train home.

To Blair Atholl is a relaxed trip. Blair Atholl is a nice place to stay.

It's an easy trip from there to Loch Ness. Depending on EXACTLY what you like to do, you might want to think about the south side of the loch instead of teh busy north. OTOH, the busy north is where stuff like the Loch Ness Experience is.

Suggest you stay away from the Loch itself.

It's a long day from Loch Ness back to Glasgow via Glen Coe. Doable, but long.

Hard to find somewhere too near the airport that's any good. What time's your flight? late enough to be able to stay in Balloch or somewhere?