Completely agree with janisj and annhig! That would make a lovely trip!

Thanks again for advice. After careful consideration we have decided to miss Amsterdam this trip and give ourselves an extra 3 or 4 days in UK. So this has changed our entry point to UK via Eurostar from Paris to London. We pick up a car and head straight out of London as we will return for 6 nights at the end of the trip.

So I now ask for help with accommodation in the following areas:
Northumberland
Edinburgh
Yorkshire

We want something with character, good plumbing, very comfortable bed and great breakfast. Can I find this for around 100 GBP a night?

Also where are the best train and plane museums in the country?

OUr itinerary needs to include a good place to spend Easter as I believe that many venues close over this time. We don't have much time so we can't spend too much in downtime.

Looking forward to your ideas

"<i> a good place to spend Easter as I believe that many venues close over this time. </i>"

Not if they are in the hospitality industry they don't. That is a major travel time for folks in the UK so most every B&B/hotel will be open.

Just a quick comment right now -- I'd re-think the plan of taking the train to London and then driving to Scotland. You can fly from Paris to Edinburgh. Then when leaving Edinburgh, collect a rental car and drive south all the way to London through the Borders/Northumberland/Yorkshire/etc. No reason to start out in London and hassling w/ a car there, when you'll be spending much of your time up north

Thanks janisj

Will look at cost of flight to Edinburgh.

I didn't mean that hotels would be closed rather museums, shops etc. So over the Easter period where would most things be open?

Have just discovered a ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle so that may change the plans a little. It sounds like a great way to travel overnight and arrive in a different country. This is quite a unique idea for an Aussie ( unless on a plane).

So... plan to pick up hire car in Newcastle and then ??? Need to spend 2 days in Northumberland and then have a further 8 days until London. Do I keep heading north to Edinburgh?

We have decided that we will move on each night and have a fairly frantic 10 days. No time to lose! We have six nights in one hotel in London so that will give us time to resettle before the flight back to Sydney.

All comments welcome!

P.S. Can we manage a three country tour in 10 days? If so...name the route. Thanks

>>>Also where are the best train and plane museums in the country?
Trains: York and Didcot
Planes: Duxford and the RAF museum at Hendon (N London)
Lots of other smaller places as well - just google it.

>>>OUr itinerary needs to include a good place to spend Easter as I believe that many venues close over this time. We don't have much time so we can't spend too much in downtime.

Not sure where you got this idea from. Museums, tourist attractions etc will be open as usual all weekend, as will hotels and restaurants. As Janice has noted, it's a big weekend off for us locals to go away for the weekend or visit museums etc. The only real impact you might notice will be that larger shops and supermarkets will be closed on Easter Sunday in England and Wales (but not in Scotland).

"<i>We have decided that we will move on each night and have a fairly frantic 10 days. No time to lose! </i>"

IMO that is not a great way to travel. All the packing, checking out, locating the next B&B, checking in, unpacking really eat into one's free time. You generally cannot get away from a B&B before maybe 9:30, and 10AM is more likely. The owners can't drop everything to settle up since they are serving breakfast to the other guests. And some B&Bs have limited hours when you can check in.

Stopping for 2 or 3 nights actually lets you see more. You have a base and can see anything w/i quite a distance then can return 'home' at any time in the evening.

P.S. Can we manage a three country tour in 10 days? If so...name the route. Thanks>>

yes of course you can, but why would you want to? england/Britain is NOT Australia. the sights are much more dense and the driving far more difficult. you could have a truly great time just stying in the north of england, perhaps going up to Edinburgh or Glasgow from northumberland and then flying to London - that would give you two countries.

<<We have decided that we will move on each night and have a fairly frantic 10 days. No time to lose! We have six nights in one hotel in London so that will give us time to resettle before the flight back to Sydney.

All comments welcome!>>

truly, don't do it. you will have a miserable time. pick 3 places [4 at a pinch] and enjoy exploring each area at your leisure. if you are going to sail into Newcastle, the obvious route is from Northumberland to yorkshire, spend a few days in York, then head to the cotswolds, Oxford and then London.

an alternative would be to go to the Lake District, then North wales, head down through the borders [loads of castles], then end up in Bristol [a great a vibrant city] return your car and get the train to London.

but moving every night for 10 nights - sheer torture.

"Have just discovered a ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle so that may change the plans a little. It sounds like a great way to travel overnight and arrive in a different country. This is quite a unique idea for an Aussie "

And if a Sunday it will be full of drunken Geordies returning from a booze cruise.

My advice - fly to Edinburgh stay a few nights, hire a car then head south towards York through the Borders, Northumberland, Durham & Yorkshire. Drop car off at York, stay a night or so then take the train to London.

"<i>fly to Edinburgh stay a few nights, hire a car then head south towards York through the Borders, Northumberland, Durham & Yorkshire. Drop car off at York, stay a night or so then take the train to London</i>"

IMO alanRow's itinerary is the easiest, best, and most sensible way to work in your basic musts. I wouldn't complicate things w/ the ferry, backtracking to Edinburgh (or worse, missing it completely) and a bunch of one night stands all over the country.

janisj - I couldn't have put it better myself.

Here is THE plan...
fly into Edinburgh, pick up car and drive to Northumberland for 3 nights
drive back to Edinburgh for 4 nights with a couple of day trips destination depending on the weather
fly to London, pick up a car and drive to Bath for 2 nights
drive back to London, drop off car and stay in London for 6 nights

will let you know how this part of the trip goes

thanks to all for advice

;)

You may want to consider flying from Edinburgh to Bristol and picking up the car instead of London. Dont underestimate how long it can take to drive in the UK. It took us a good 4 hours to get from Heathrow to Bath last year due to traffic jams etc on the motorways.

good idea jamikins. Bristol airport is very easy to negotiate and the access to Bath is pretty good too.

PS - you could also do Edinburgh first, then pickup the car, tour Northumberland, then fly to Bristol from Newcastle airport. this would avoid backtracking.