13 days UK Itinerary Help
 

Husband, toddler son and I are planning a 12 day trip to UK this June. We will fly into Edinburgh and fly out of London. We have both been to London several times before so would like to spend 3 days just to re-explore and enjoy the city. We have traveled with our toddler before to Europe and are planning on renting and driving. Our tentative itinerary is below but would appreciate thoughts and suggestions on places that can be missed or must be added, the route and the time we have planned for each spot.

Day 1 Fly into Edinburgh
Day 2 Edinburgh
Day 3 Inverness / Loch Ness
Day 4 Scottish Highlands (two days?)
Day 5 Lake District
Day 6 North Wales
Day 7 North Wales
Day 8 Costwalk and Stratford upon Avon? or spend an extra day in the Lake District?
Day 9 Bath
Day 10 London
Day 11 London
Day 12 London
Day 13 Fly out from London

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and tips!

You do not figure much in travel time - you will basically only sleep in the Lake District - at least one if not two full days in this lovely place - chill a bit - your trip is way to fast after Scotland IMO.Bath too needs more than a fraction of a day - have you looked at driving times?

Really REALLY rushed. You have 11.5 days total and in that want to explore the largest city in Western Europe, three other magnificent cities and 4 additional regions in three countries.

I'd cut your wish list in half.

It's way too ambitious, you will not have any time to enjoy most of the places listed. Focus either on Scotland and the North or London and possibly Bath.

Thanks all for the feedback. If we are flying into Edinburgh and flying out of London, what would you recommend cutting out. Options we are thinking of leaving are: North Wales
North Wales
Costwalk and Stratford upon Avon
and maybe one less day in London (which we have been to several times before).

Or would you recommend leaving out the highlands?

Thanks!

General rule of thumb to look at routes/times:

Using Google maps (or similar), plug in destinations as nearly exactly as you can. Then DOUBLE the time suggested. Really. And that doesn't even count slower driving IN a city/town, finding parking/hotel, un loading, checking in, settling in, checking out, meals, extra stops for toddler emergencies, etc.

I think you have WWWAAAYY too much here. And I "know" because I tried to plan the same sort of trip in about the same time frame--something had to go, so we didn't make it to Scotland. Only you can decide what are top priorities, but I'd reduce by at least a third. Think you have to at least cut the Wales part or the Scotland part.

This is completely BSC - it's bad enough in general, it's far worse with a toddler. Pick no more than three hubs and take day trips in those areas, at most.

The amount of ground you can cover with a toddler is 1/2 of what you can cover without one.

you're flying into Edinburgh so that's one obvious base.

Then you really need to choose - are you going to the Highlands [you could fly back to London from Aberdeen once you've toured the area between there and Edinburgh] or Head for the Lake District, or North Wales? pick one out of the three.

[though the Yorkshire Dales might be a more logical choice - then you could spend a night or two in York, and get the train back to London - just a thought!]

The first time I thought it was just a typo -- but after two it becomes --well I'm not sure what exactly. Can we assume by "Costwalk" you mean the Cotswolds?

In any case -- with two days in Edinburgh (which means 3 nights), say two nights in either the Lake District or York, two nights in Bath (because you'll use more than half a day just getting there) and the rest in London that is about what you can manage -- all by train/public transport.

OR - 2 nights in Edinburgh, pick us a car and spend 5 days seeing some of southern Scotland (not the Highlands) and the Lake District, drop the car and take a train to London for the rest of your time.

OR - 2 nights in Edinburgh, 5 or 6 days touring around the Highlands/west coast of Scotland. Fly or train to London for a few days.