Driving through England and Scotland
 

We are driving through England and Scotland next May. We will fly into London and out of Edinburg. We would appreciate any itinerary suggestions, B&Bs, routes etc. Thanks for your help.

that is a LOT of info you want w/o any details at all.

How long is the trip? Any places/things have you already decided to visit? What is "we"- a couple, family w/ kids?? Budget? Do you want to visit London as well? There are a hundred different itineraries you could take (more actually) so you need to help us a bit.

Do you have any guide books - have you researched? the various regions?

kayhull: We also will be driving in the area next May. I welcome reading responses to your questions. If I can get a break from studying my languages.;-)

janis: I am going to pile on here...Do you think we (couple, no kids) will be able to see a good cross-section of Scotland if we rent a car in Edinburgh, after seeing the city, for 6-7 nights? I am interested in history- ancient and medieval especially. Also learning something about usquebaugh along the way. I am concerned that there may not be time to see any islands, but would rather not rush and see what we can see in the time we have.

eastender, I hate playing the role of annoying "hall monitor", but it is considered rude to hijack someone elses's thread. It's also not very respectful to the many other helpful people on Fodor's to only want a reply from one person.

eastenderusvi: A week (not counting Edinburgh) would give you enough time to visit Skye or Mull/Iona plus a bit of the highlands and/or Trossachs. It would be a very nice overview w/o being rushed, but not long enough to "do" Scotland or run all over the country. As for the Whisky bit --there are distilleries in most areas so that won't be a problem. Plus there is a Whisky Center on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

You might want to start a new thread of your own w/ details and specific questions since kayhull's plans may end up entirely different than yours.

I apologize. I have never run into that rule on other boards. I thought that if it was germane to the topic, it was okay. But I will abide. Thank you.

Janis, We is my daughter (22) and I. We've both been to London several times. Also Bath and Stratford upon Avon but have no objection going back there. We plan on 6 days in the car. We will stay another couple of days in London before renting the car.

We is my 22 year old daughter and I. We have both been to London, Bath and Stratford upon Avon. We don't mind going back to Bath and SUA. We plan on having the car for 5-7 days. She's a history major so she like castles and anything to do with Kings/Queens etc.

Janisj and others are much better at route planning and itineraries than I am, but to get you started a couple of suggestions.

I'll assume you already have a good map. You might consider taking the train from London to York and renting a car there. Certainly plenty of places between London and York for sightseeing, but some of my favorites are those between York and Edinburgh.

York makes a great stop as there is plenty to see/do for a couple of days. From there maybe head toward Newcastle. Bernard Castle (Darlington) is a another good place( pleasant town) for an overnight. Nearby you'll find Raby Castle, Barnard Castle, Durham Cathedral, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey...just to name a few.:) Then you could follow the A1, or the coastal road, to Alnwick Castle (home of the Dukes of Northumberland), Warkworth Castle, Bamburgh Castle, possibly Lindisfarne, Tantallon Castle and Dirleton Castle before arriving in Edinburgh.

<B><red>Kayhull:</red></B> "<i>We plan on having the car for 5-7 days.</i>"

That is why I asked how long. 5-7 days limits your options a bit. You need to decide what you REALLY want to see/do. London to Bath to Stratford to York to maybe the Lake District to Edinburgh is a LOT of territory to cover in 5 days, and even in 7 days you wouldn't have a lot of free time. Bath requires a full day, the Cotswolds maybe 2 for a rush peek, Stratford/Warwick, 1 day, York 1 day, Lake District 2 day. As you can see when you add travel time there is nothing left.

So you could skip everything south of York. Take the train London to York, stay the night, pickup a rental car and spend 2 days in Yorkshire, 2 days in the Lakes, 2 days exploring Hadrian's Wall and the Borders and hop up to Edinburgh.

If you had 2 or 3 weeks you could do a lot. But London to Edinburgh w/ lots of sites stops in between in 5-7 days -- I wouldn't.

<B><red>eastenderusvi:</B></red> "<i>I apologize. I have never run into that rule on other boards. I thought that if it was germane to the topic, it was okay. But I will abide. Thank you.</i>"

It isn't a 'rule' as such (and ron did sound a bit grumpy :) ) But the problems is your post may get lost in the shuffle, and you seem to be asking just about Scotland, whereas the OP is trying to workout an England/Scotland plan.

Kayhull, I was assuming that your 5-7 days included some time in Edinburgh. You'll probably want to visit Edinburgh Castle and possibly a trip to Linlithgow Palace ( Mary Queen of Scots). The city (Edinburgh) itself is well worth a couple of days.

"<i>Kayhull, I was assuming that your 5-7 days included some time in Edinburgh. </i>"

Oh, I was thinking 5 to 7 days PLUS Edinburgh. If your 5 to 7 days includes your time in Edinburgh -- then all bets are off. You won't have time to see much in 3-4 days between London and Edinburgh. If that is the case -- I'd just fly or take the train to Edinburgh and then rent a car to tour a small bit of Scotland, return the car and stay a couple of days in the city.

But give us more details so we know your actual time/plans.

Yes, let us know exactly how many days you have to travel to Edinburgh. Certainly 3-4 days is not enough time for any reasonable sightseeing between London and Edinburgh, but a couple of days between York and Edinburgh is doable.

I was thinking train to York, two nights there, rent car and then 1-2 nights enroute to Edinburgh, leaving 3-4 nights in Edinburgh. But I'm also the last one to recommend limiting time in Scotland.:)

Thanks so much for all the help.

Kay