2 weeks in Great Britain
 

Hi all,

We're a family of 4 (kids aged 10 & 7) from Singapore, planning to take a 2-week trip to Britain in mid-July.

We're interested in visiting London and Scotland for sure and if possible Wales as well. We're keen to hire a car, especially starting in Edinburgh (travel by rail from London to Edinburgh) and drive on to Scotland and then down to London.

I have the following Qs:

1. Besides the local tourist spots, what would be specifically recommended for the kids?

2. What would be reasonable driving distances/times per day?

3. What are the places that we could break our journey and spend more time at?

Appreciate responses.

Cheers,

Can you give us some information on your interests and budget? You'll get more helpful replies that way.

Lee Ann

Definitely give us more details of what you are interested in seeing.

I'm sure you realize this, but London, Scotland and Wales are on the 3 corners of the UK...it doesnt look far, but travel takes quite awhile.

I would maybe think about flying into Edinburgh, stay a couple days, then pick up the car and drive to maybe York and tour Yorkshire, and then end in London for 5-7 days.

Or head to Wales right away, pick up the car, tour Wales and the Cotswolds for 7 days then head to London for 7 days.

Hope this helps! If you give us more info we can be of more help...

Have you already purchased your flights and how many days "on the ground" do you have? If the 2 weeks include your travel time from/to Singapore, you really only have about 11 days free for sightseeing (after accounting for the international flights/jet lag/getting to from Scotland).

If you fly into Edinburgh (or Glasgow), spend maybe 5 days total in Scotland (which os not very much for such a glorious country), you'd really only have enough time for a quick overview of London and maybe one day trip.

If, on the other hand, your trip is really 16 days and you have 14 days IN the UK - then you could spend 4 or 5 days in Scotland (inadequate but that is all the time you have) 2 or 3 days in Wales (or Yorkshire) and 5-7 days in London.

But you need to give us LOTS more info . . . .

Thank you all for your prompt feedback.

Based on the same, my wife and I have spent the day fixing the itinerary which tentatively is as under:

Plan to land into EDI via LHR. Will try and take a connecting flight.

Day 1 – 17th Jul (Fri): Take a flight from Singapore to Edinburgh via London Heathrow, Rest & Relax. O/N at Edi

Day 2 - 18th Jul (Sat): Explore Edi. O/N Edi

Day 3 - 19th Jul (Sun): Rent Car. Drive to Inverness via Perth & Pitlochry. O/N Inverness

Day 4 - 20th Jul (Mon): Day trip to Ullapool & Inverewe Gardens. O/N Inverness

Day 5 – 21st Jul (Tue): Drive to Culloden, Nairn & Cawdor Castle. O/N Inverness

Day 6 – 22nd Jul (Wed): Drive to Skye. O/N Skye. Alternatively, return back to Inverness and stay O/N at Inverness.

Day 7 – 23rd Jul (Thu): Drive to Glasgow via Fort William & Glencoe. O/N Glasgow

From there we plan to skip Lake district and enter York and return back the car.

Day 8 – 24th Jul (Fri): Drive to York. O/N York

Day 9 – 25th Jul (Sat): York

Day 10 – 26th Jul (Sun): York

Have to finalise the places to visit and things to do in and around York. Suggestions will be most welcome.

OR

We can do Lake District for 3 nights and skip York. Which of the 2 places will the kids enjoy more?

We can then take a train to LON and explore Lon & England from there.

Day 11 – 27th Jul (Mon): Train to LON

Day 12 – 28th Jul (Tue): LON

Day 13 – 29th Jul (Wed): LON

Day 14 – 30th Jul (Thu): LON

Day 15 – 31st Jul (Fri): LON

One option is to do Wales over the weekend with my uncle and aunt who are staying in London. Plan to do Cotswold & Stonehedge. Again, request suggestions and inputs.

Day 16 – 1st Aug (Sat): Train/Drive to Wales.

Day 17 - 2nd Aug (Sun): Wales

Day 18 - 3rd Aug (Mon): Wales to LON

Fly back on 4th Aug.

Cheers,

Just a few of comments right now:

• Your Scotland itinerary is definitely doable -- however please do not stay IN Inverness. It is really just a busy commercial center for northern Scotland. Staying nearby (w/i maybe 10 or 15 miles of Inverness) in just about any direction and you will be well placed for all you want to see up north.

• Both the Lakes and York are wondeful -- but I personally would take kids those ages to York/Yorkshire in a heartbeat. The Railway museum, the North Yorkshire Moors steam railway, the museum in York is one of the best anywhere for children, the Viking Centre, the minster, etc etc.

• If you can re-arrange things a bit - you could visit N Wales for a couple of days while enroute from either Yorkshire or the Lakes to London. That would eliminate backtracking and having to rent another car.

Scotland > York (or the Lakes) > N Wales > London where you turn in the car and then stay in central London. And you wouldn't have to dash back from wales to catch your flight.

We did 2 weeks in London and Scotland in 2007. Might click on my name and check my trip report from that trip (last posted on sometime last year) and see if any of that appeals to you. Got a lot of great suggestions from this board, and I'm sure you will too.

Thanks JanisJ and twk for your inputs and suggestions.

Will need to rework the latter part of the itinerary and have the final draft ready by day's end:)

Janisj,

1. What places would u recommend for staying around Inverness?

Also, if anybody has any recommendations for B&B at Edinburgh, they would be most welcome.

Cheers,