Exploring from London through Scotland
 

I am taking my 14 yr. old daughter to northern England and Scotland in late July for approx. 12 nights. I would like to go from London up through Scotland, and back to London because that is where our plane lands and departs (we used frequent flyer miles). We are willing to use trains and/or a car for the trip, and would like to spend 2 days walking parts of Hadrian's Wall. Could someone suggest an itinerary that is not too taxing? We like a mix of cities and countryside, museums and ruins, and my daughter will need to shop. We've spent time in London before, and won't spend much time, if any, there. We are not fussy about eating but like a nice place to stay overnight. Thanks!

Can <i>really</i> skip London and have all 12 days on the road? If so, you can do a nice itinerary -- but you won't have time to drive both directions. What I'd do is take a train from London to either Newcastle or Carlisle and pickup a rental car there. (Or, if you are flying into LHR/LGW - you could fly up to Newcastle and skip London entirely.

Then spend two days/nights' based in Haltwhistle or nearby. 2 days is a nice time for exploring the wall. Then drive up through the Scottish Borders -- 2 nights somewhere near Melrose/Kelso. Walk St Abb's Head, visit the Border Abbeys, see Abbotsford, Tantallon castle etc.

Then 2 nights in Edinburgh. You won't need the car there but it is usually cheaper to rent by the week so I'd keep it. Just be sure to book a B&B that has parking-- often just outside the very city center.

You've now used about 1/2 your time -- and where you go really depends on your interests. Up the east coast. through the castle trail and the the area around Inverness.

Or more to the west coast to one of the islands (Mull or Skye are both easy. You could do two nights in the Trossachs (around Callander), 2 nights on Skye, then one night near Inverness from where you can fly down to London to catch your flight home.

Or what about doing janisj's itinerary in reverse. This might work :) Take the train or fly to Edinburgh spend a few days there, then rent a car and do one the other Scotland bits such as East Neuk/castle trail, the Hebrides (Mull/Skye) or the Trossachs, then drive down to the Borders and visit the abbeys, St. Abbs Head and Tantallon Castle as janisj suggested. From there go on to Haltwhistle and Hadrian's Wall for a couple of nights. Return the car at either Newcastle or Carlisle and take the train back to London. This plan eleminates any parking problems and paying for (car)rental while staying in Edinburgh.

Or, after picking up rental in Carlise or New Castle ( both possible by train) do Hadrian's Wall, the Borders (bypassing Edinburgh) and go to the Trossachs/Hebrides or Deeside/Aberdeen area (castle trail) for 5/6 days and then head back to Edinburgh for your final two days, dropping car off there. Fly back to London.

Rather than try to make a round trip drive from Edinburgh, we chose to take the overnight train from London to Inverness, picked up the car there and drove to Edinburgh via Loch Ness, Skye, Glen Coe, Crianlarich and Sterling. We kept our car in Edinburgh and drove from there to Glasgow airport for our flight back home. Rented from AutoEurope and there were no drop-off charges for the one-way rental.

I'd see if you can have LHR to Edinburgh legs added to your ticket. If you can then good as then you can stay in Edinburgh for a couple of nights, hire a car, tour around and drop it back at Edinburgh for the flights home

If not then book a one way flight to Edinburgh giving about 5 hours between your arrival in LHR and the flight. Then I'd stay a couple of nights in Edinburgh then hire a car, doing a tour into Scotland then down to Hadrian's Wall dropping the car at Newcastle the day before you are due to fly home then take the train to London for your final night.

Yes - historytraveler's plans are really good. Putting Edinburgh at either the front or back end of the itinerary eliminates the 'car problem'. It would have you doing a sort of circular route and a is little less linear,

Oh -- I didn't see alanRow's post (we were posting at the same time)

We are all on sort of the same page -- to maximize your time in Northumberland and Scotland.

Wow, you all are really in the know! Thank you. Yes, I was thinking that taking a train one way and driving the other was best. One other thing I haven't worked out is how to "walk" Hadrian's Wall without backtracking to a car. I will research some kind of service that will help with our bags, so perhaps we won't need a car for this portion. Great tip, too, on the rental car that doesn't charge extra for a different drop off. Thanks again, world travelers.

"<i>One other thing I haven't worked out is how to "walk" Hadrian's Wall without backtracking to a car. I will research some kind of service that will help with our bags, so perhaps we won't need a car for this portion.</i>"

There are regular public buses that run all along the Wall. You can base yourselves in a B&B anywhere along the A69 (Hexham, Haydon Bridge, Haltwhistle, etc. ) and take the bus to various parts of the wall and walk back if that is what you want to do. I'd still want to have a car for that part of your trip though. Otherwise you'd have to backtrack quite some distance (Newcastle or Carlisle are about your only options) to rent a car to travel onwards. Instead -- you just ge up in the AM, jump in the car and you are in Scotland in short order.

There are loads of companies that will do the baggage transport thing for Hadrian's Wall, but for a couple of nights, it isn't worth it. As janisj says, there's a bus that runs regularly between Newcastle and Carlisle along the main road about a mile south of the Wall. If you stay at Haltwhistle, you'd be right in the middle of the most scenic section and could easily get to see the best bits using the bus to get there and from, or use the car to get to a start point, and then use the bus to get back to it.

THANK YOU!