SueOnTheMove

In May of 2015 my two kids (will be 7 and 9), my parents (72 and 78), and I are planning on going to Great Britain. My mother is English so we'll need to see family in London and the Lake District. Beyond that, we though it would be fun to show my kids a bit of Ireland (where we need to see some in-laws in Dublin) and Scotland. The trip will be ~14 days. Obviously, I'm in the beginning stages of planning. I looked at some bus tour sites, but I am a bit concerned about all the sitting time. I worry my kids will be bore, glued to their electronics and miss everything out the window (which, arguably with high way driving, won't be much).
We want to avoid driving ourselves (we did that this year around Spain and it was exhausting for everyone) but have no issues with trains and public transport.

Any suggestions?

janisj

IMO there are no comprehensive group tours that are suitable for the age range of your family. The majority of passengers will be your parents' ages and there will usually be no children.

An exception would be small group tours like Rabbies - mostly in Scotland - they do 1 day and short stay tours around the country and there will be sometimes be entire families on board.

http://www.rabbies.com

They also offer a few tours in Ireland

But you only have two weeks which is a VERY short time for London +The Lakes + Dublin + anywhere else in Ireland + anyplace in Scotland.

Your relatives in the Lakes and Dublin likely won't have vehicles large enough to drive/guide you around. London and Dublin are easy by public transport - so no problems there.

IMO you really don't have time for a lot more than London/the Lakes/and a few days in Dublin plus maybe a couple of day trips into the Irish countryside.

Scotland is my favorite destination on Earth -- but except for maybe a weekend in Edinburgh - you probably should drop Scotland from this trip.

SueOnTheMove

Thanks, janisj.

I'll definitely check out Rabbies.

Just as a bit of background, since my parents and I have been to London and the Lakes before we're not worrying about touring, just spending time visiting. We'll set aside 4-5days for family time. Since it's less than 4 hours from where the Lake relatives live to Scotland (they've told us they often drive up for the weekend) do you still think it's unmanageable? Our goal is to see family and introduce my kids to portion of their heritage. I guess, this is more touring than vacationing, meaning, we're not against being speedy and ticking things off a list (as awful as that sounds).

janisj

>>Scotland (they've told us they often drive up for the weekend) do you still think it's unmanageable?<<

Yes, Easy peasy . . . IF one drives like your rels do. Seeing rural bits of Scotland is much easier by car.

But you could easily take the train and spend maybe 3 days in Edinburgh to include one of Rabbies 1-day tours. Then fly to Dublin. Say Windermere to Edinburgh -- it is about 2.5 hours by train w/ one change.

janisj

Meant to add -- the kids will love Edinburgh and taking one of the day tours will give everyone a glimpse of either Loch Lomond and the Trossachs or even a bit of the Highlands - depending on which day tour you choose..

SueOnTheMove

My son's favourite part of our Spain trip was Toledo because of all the military stuff (cannons, blades, suits of arms etc) so, bearing that in mind, I thought that the Scotland Pride Passion People tour would be good followed by one of their 5 day Ireland tours. If we flew in to London, took a train to the Lakes and another to Scotland I think it'd work out well. It may be 16 days instead of 14, but it won't matter because my kids are on summer break anyway.
Thanks!

janisj

Is that a Rabbies tour? I <i>think</i> Mercat runs one w/ that name, but I hadn't heard of one by Rabbies (doesn't mean there isn't one)

Re your son's interests . . . I'll make another suggestion -- Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle, well he'd just eat them up.

You can easily do Stirling Castle as a day trip on your own from Edinburgh by train. I'd recommend that instead of doing it on a tour because even the good tours won't give you enough time there.

So about 1.5+ days for Edinburgh including lots of time in the Castle, a day trip to Stirling by train, and then pick one of the mainly scenery Rabbies day trips.

maybe this one

http://www.rabbies.com/tours_scotlan...our.asp?lng=en

or

http://www.rabbies.com/tours_scotlan...our.asp?lng=en

zhoffritz

I've just been on a trip with my mom and MIL, who are 73 and 80. Managing the different energy levels (and interests) of kids and septuagenarians is going to be tricky, can you possibly have a conversation with your parents about specific days where they rest, or they visit with some relatives you're less close with while you take the kids out and run them ragged with some sights just for them plus some exercise?

(I'm in my 40s and walking everywhere at my mom's speed caused me to start swishing the jacket around my waist like I was a princess wearing a panniered dress as we minced along in a royal procession taking the air at Versailles. If my friend's boys had been with us they would have gone insane. Actually, gone insane sooner than I did)

Also, would the Lake District relatives be interested in driving up to Scotland to visit with you? That would give you more time there.
(although you'd likely like to want to see a bit of the Lake District too)

MmePerdu

"Managing the different energy levels (and interests) of kids and septuagenarians is going to be tricky..."

It may be tricky, but it may not be tricky at all. The older we get the bigger the differences between people of the same age. I just spent a whole day with my 8 yo granddaughters out & about with no difficulties at all. Generalizations like this one are not useful.

SueOnTheMove

Luckily, my parents are pretty spry so I think we'll be ok.

Now that things are getting a bit closer we've had a bit of a wrench thrown in the plans....we have to change our trip to July (instead of the late May like we were hoping to do) because my mother's cousin is celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary with a big party with lots of friends and family flying in.

Let me know if you still think I'm nuts - I was looking today and thought maybe the train (Brit Rail family pass) is our best bet:

Fly into Dublin for 2 nights
Take ferry/train to either Crewe or Cardiff or Bath (over night)
From Bath or Bristol (get there via bus?) to London by train (2nights include day trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon and Stonehenge).
London to Cambridge.
Overnight train to Hull or York. One night there.
Train to Windermere (arriving the day before the party and stay two nights)
Train from Windermere to Edinburgh (stay two nights)

Now things get tricky - I'd like to tack on Inverness and Aberdeen here and then get back to Edinburgh to fly home (through Dublin if I must leave from where I started).

This may obviously turn into a sight seeing from the train trip, and I'm not adverse to cherry picking things. Stratford is a must as per my mother's request.

Thoughts?

Thanks for your input!

SueOnTheMove

Oh, and think more along the lines of 16 nights.

janisj

Parts of your plan are very hectic, some is impossible and some doesn't make sense.

Just a couple of random issues:

• Train to London w/ two nights there will give you a bit over 1.5 days in London . . Oh wait, out of the 1.5 days you want to take a day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon AND Stonehenge Which are nowhere near each other. This is a non starter all around.

• Overnight train to York or <strike>Hull</strike>. There is no overnight train -- Cambridge to York only takes 2.5 hours.

What are your actual dates? I'd ditch the whole idea of ferry from Ireland. If you can make the dates work - I'd fly from Dublin to Edinburgh (very cheap if you book well ahead), visit the parts of Scotland you want to see, take the train to the Lake District for the party, then to York, then to London. Stay in London several days. Fly home from there.

Definitely do open jaw (multi-city) tickets. Examples that might work depending on your dates and working around the party: In to Dublin / home from London; In to Edinburgh / home form Dublin; In to London / home from Dublin.

bilboburgler

Having spent a good bit of my life in both Hull and York I could imagine going ONLY to York as a tourist. Unless you have a political need to visit the Wilberforce Pub, a cute (yes I used the word) art gallery and few 1500s and 1960 buildings I would avoid compared to the medievel walled city and fine cathedral of York.

The ferry twixt Ireland and Wales, hmmm. I struggle to think of the question that comes up with that as an answer. Mainly used to ship goods and caravans. I live in the UK and I fly when I go to Ireland. It is not even as if you want to take a car across.

I'd take a look at nationalrail.co.uk and http://www.traveline.info/ and stop looking at BritRail for any info more than buying combo tickets.

BTW since we in Britain don't get to use BritRail I'd take care you are getting the best deal with your train tickets from them.

SueOnTheMove

Thanks, janisj and bilboburgler. I just spoke to my mom (mum, actually, as she's the English one ) and told her we may want to just cut straight from Dublin to London and home base there, then up to the Lakes for the party, then to Edinburgh for a couple of days then home. The non-negotiables are Dublin (for in-law cousins) London (my cousin and, well, London) S-U-A (my mom's requirement), Stonehenge, and the anni party in the lakes. Apart from that, it's all up for auction. My relatives in the lakes say they often drive to Scotland, so there's a chance we could rent a van and do that as a group after the party....that might be fun.
I get ambitious, it's a problem I have two weeks a year to get my kids out of the country (we're a very international family living in a not-so international place) so I'm always trying to maximize the experience.
Do you think it would be worth renting an apartment in or around London for a week and doing day trips from there?

Thanks for your input!

SueOnTheMove

Bilboburgler, I think I ended up at Britrail from seat61...I'm taking your suggestion and looking up traveline.info

SueOnTheMove

Sorry, serial posting, but the ferry/train combo from Dublin to London was hatched because we thought it might be a good scenic way to tour based on this http://www.seat61.com/Ireland.htm#Dublin_to_London
Thoughts?

janisj

To simplifiy things . . . there are day tours to Stonehenge -- most include either Bath or Bath AND Windsor. Or cheaper and less hectic you can take the train from London to Salisbury (80 to 90 minutes each way), a local bus to Stonehenge, then back to Salisbury, see the cathedral and walk around the pretty bits and train back to London by dinner time.

There are also day tours to Stratford -- most also include Oxford. But again it is an easy train ride from London. It does take about 2 hours each way so you'd want an early start. In Stratford most sites are in the middle of town and there is a hop-on-hop-off bus that covers all the in-town sites plus Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Mary Arden's house. So that is what I'd do -- train to Stratford-upon-Avon on your own and an early evening train back to London.

bilboburgler

Sue, Mark at Seat61 is a great guide and enthusiast for train based travel. Without, in anyway disparaging what he does, he does do it on "the train" hence the Ferry makes sense to him.

From a Buddhist point of view "If you carry a hammer, everything can look like a nail"

Is it a pretty route? Well, when you can see land it is.

Appia

I agree with Bilboburgler, Man in seat61 is an invaluable site. What he doesn't know about train travel world-wide is not worth knowing.
Not a criticism but just a thought: his enthusiasm leads him to try to re-evoke the romance of train travel which IMO is gone forever, at least in Europe. Sad fact.

Appia

Talking about the Wales/Ireland ferry, in the days when you could take the steam-drawn Irish Mail non-stop from Euston to Holyhead the journey did have a whiff of romance about it.