Here's my two penn'oth.

Use your arrival day in London to get train to York. Stay 2 nights.

then get train to Edinburgh. Stay 2 nights.

next day, tour Stirling [I'm a Wallace too so I can see the attraction though I've not been there since I was about 11] and either return to Edinburgh and fly back to London, or carry onto Inverness and fly back from there.

End trip in London. Get no 11 bus instead of the HOHO.

stay married.

and do the return train straight from glasgow or edinburgh to london?>

to save daytime touring time you can take the Caledonian Sleeper train from Glasgow or Edinburgh or Inverness or other Scottish stations to London:

https://www.sleeper.scot/

Then have a whole last day in London - save on the cost of a hotel to boot. I've taken them a few times and if get a private room- bring any food and drink you want aboard - get comp breakfast on some fares - very comfy as night trains go.

It seems that sometimes people want to tick boxes because you can't really see or experience anything with a schedule like that, but if it suits their fancy, I hope it works for them.

Wow, thanks all for taking the time to provide some feedback.

@PalenQ and @annhig, thanks so much for the constructive comments.

Obviously, we're in the very early stages of planning/ brainstorming, and are looking for advice. Sounds like we were a bit ambitious trying to follow a few too many recommendations, and will definitely be working to streamline and simplify the trip.

We aren't really the itinerary or "checklist" types, just trying to get a feel for different regions. Would rather spend a day in a quaint/ authentic town than elbow my way to perhaps catch a glimpse of the changing of the guard. Open to suggestions/ priority recommendations..

we had been told Sundays were quite spotty for train service, but you all have indicated that that may not really be the case?

at this point, i think we will be trimming out Liverpool and a few other stops along the way. Just happened upon this trip over the past few days, so of course our research is quite limited and incomplete at this time, which is where we hoped you lovelies come in to help with a (healthy?) dose of perspective.

once again . . . >>Fly in to London - train to Edinburgh - fly home from Edinburgh.<<

That is all you really have time for. And only if you fly open jaw. If you book R-T in/out of London you have even less time since you'd have to return to London to fly home.

nine days:

Day 1: fly overnight
Day 2: arrive and have a few hours free after settling in
Days 3 - 8: 6 days, less the half day spent traveling from London to Edinburgh. So say 3 days in London and 2.5 days in Edinburgh. One of which would be your day trip to Stirling and the Wallace monument.
Day 9: fly home

That is a very rushed plan and gives you next to no time in London -- but is all the time you have.

"Obviously, we're in the very early stages of planning/ brainstorming, and are looking for advice. Sounds like we were a bit ambitious trying to follow a few too many recommendations, and will definitely be working to streamline and simplify the trip"

London mainly then York and surrounds, finish. Leave Scotland for another time or if you must add Edinburgh.

We took our honeymoon in London (30 years ago) and had about the same amount of time that you do. We opted to stay in London the whole time, but took 3 day trips (Canterbury, Bath, and Warwick Castle/Coventry). For us, that was a great way to explore London, and get a flavor of a couple of other places.

Are you taking your honeymoon immediately after the wedding? If so, you might want to think about having some down time in your itinerary. When I was first planning out our London sight-seeing schedule for that trip, I put way too many sights on each day's list. We never did as much as we wanted to each day -- we didn't realize how tired we would be from all the celebrating.

Congrats on the wedding, and enjoy your trip -- London is my favorite place in the whole world!

Yes day trips are great and IMO just as nice spending time in London - given that you have at least 3 days or more in London- so often when folks say they are going to London say for a week and want to do day trips many here say you need all that time in London

but London, even with its surfeit of compelling attractions in many ways is not typical England as you will find in day trips annettext took - try to do both - 3-4 days at least in London and also do at least one if not more day trips -like to Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Canterbury, Salisbury/Stonehenge, Stratford, Warwick and a zillion others.

Hey All,

Just wanted to reply to give a summary of what we ended up doing:

We kept our roundtrip flights in/out of london.

Day 1, arrive LHR, tube to kings cross, nice pub dinner and stayed night in this region.

Day2, Train kings cross- edinburgh.

Day 3-5: explored edinburgh: edinburgh castle, mary kings close, arthurs seat, down to the waterline, organ recital at st giles...

Day 5: Drove to trossachs (stayed in luss on loch lomond). On the way, stops included Roslyn Chapel (a favorite), and Wallace Monument (I'm a wallace, it was a must). Nice dinner and evening in Luss.

Day 6: breakfast in Luss, then travelled up through trossachs to Blair Atholl (another favorite). Could have EASILY added time here in this region, but we made the best of it and took note for future.

Day 6, cont: drive from Blair Athol to Glasgow, returned rental car, sleeper train back to london. (In hindsight, day 6 should have been multiple days)

Day 7-9. Stayed in Greenwich region of London. Explored maritime museum and gardens in this area. Other London sights included: Parliament, Boat cruise on Thames, Picadilly Square, Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's theater.

Day 9- Fly home from London.

Yes it was rushed at times, but we had a great trip, and we now have a great idea of where we'll want to focus for our next trip.

Thanks all for input ;)

Thanks for letting us know about your trip, Wally.

Glad you enjoyed it and that you're going to come back.