Am starting to plan our first trip to England and Scotland in May of 2017--thinking about 2 weeks in each country.We are early 60's and enjoy walking around towns/cities, like to stay in hostels and aren't gourmet foodies. We like to rent cars so we have the ability to stop/go at our leisure.Have pieced together my England section and was hoping for some feedback on how it looks--have included mileage and driving times given on AA route planner.. We live in the US and are use to driving many miles each day to get somewhere....I know that the roads and speed limits in the UK are much slower..can I drive farther on some of the days and still see all of the sights without pushing it or is this a manageable itinerary?? Also need to keep in mind that we stop for the day in a place that has lodging for the night.

Day 1 Arrive London on Train from Edinburgh(am)--get rental car at train station--Drive from London to Canterbury to Dover 79 mi/2 hr
Day 2 Drive from Dover to Brighton to Portsmouth 138 mi. 3 hr 45 min
Day 3 Drive from Portsmouth to Winchester to Salisbury to Stonehenge to Bath 107 mi 2 hr. 38 min
Day 4 Bath to Avebury to Hermitage to Windsor to London 128 mi 3 hrs. 14 min.
Day 5-10 London (includes a day trip to Greenwich and Cambridge)

Will be adding Hadrian's wall and Durham to my Scotland section --am I missing anything in England that are must sees and close to where I am already planning on going??? Thanks in advance for all your help.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...of-england.cfm

Suggestion, Day 1: Continue by train and rent your car in Canterbury.

Day 1 - You can take a train from St Pancras to Canterbury in 50 mins - you probably won't have completed the paperwork for your car hire in that time

Oops, another for Day 4: Drop the car in Windsor or at Heathrow before continuing into London.

day 2 - easy to drop by either Rye, a neat old Cinque Ports town or Hever Castle or Bodiam Castle, two of the best castles in England IME.

I hope you get several different opinions on this. I really like driving in the UK. I think the traffic engineering is a wonder - - what they have done with winding, undulating roadways in tight spaces, making them safe and efficient, is remarkable. It's not like in the States, where you have square grid cities, nearly all straight lines, and big wide superhighways straight as an arrow.

That said, driving in the UK takes much more concentration than in the States. Except for the motorways, that are more like US interstates, highways in the UK tend to be a patchwork of fast spots, slow spots, constantly varying traffic, constantly changing town densities, and varying types and character of roads. In some ways that keeps it interesting, and can make driving fun, but it is more intense. You have to constantly be on your toes. Even on a 4-lane divided highway you are always choosing between staying behind a slower vehicle, or passing, and when you pass the passing lane has it's own standard of fast and slow - - you can't just sit back and cruise - - you are always responding to conditions (and there can be some nasty, unpredicatble jam ups around cities and small towns).

So, although in the States you can lay back and drive 4 hours on an interstate between two cities and you are only fighting back the boredome, in the UK it is a bit more constant white-knuckle. But if you love to drive, and take the curves, and swing round the roundabouts, and negotiate different challenges, it's really kind of fun too.

One of many reasons you don't want to rent a car in London is this if you are not arriving in London off hours:

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/reser...STION&EOAG=LHR
https://www.sixt.co.uk/rental-servic...estion-charge/

>> and driving times given on AA route planner..<< AA is one of the best . . . but you <i>still</i> need to add from 25%-75% to the drive times.

Bad BAD idea. The train arrives at Kings Cross in central London. Then you have to drive through all of eastern London and Kent to get to Canterbury and then on to Dover. It could take you 2.5 hours (HIGHLY unlikely) or - especially on a weekday - it more likely will take you 4 or 5 hours.

>>Day 2 Drive from Dover to Brighton to Portsmouth 138 mi. 3 hr 45 min<<

In your (and AA's) dreams. Easily 4.5-5 hours.

>>Day 3 Drive from Portsmouth to Winchester to Salisbury to Stonehenge to Bath 107 mi 2 hr. 38 min <<

3,.5+ hours

and so forth . . .

But your main problem is that day one . . . Instead you can take the train to Kings Cross then walk next door to St Pancras (same station complex really) and take the train to Maidstone (or maybe Ebbsfleet) and collect a rental car there . . . and plan a lot less distance every day . . .

Didn't see the other responses . . . We were all posting at the same time. The reason I suggested taking the train to Maidstone (or Ebbsfleet) instead of all the way to Canterbury is the wider option of rental agencies in those places. But IF you can collect your car in Canterbury - then yes take the train to Canterbury.

OOPS -- extra punctuation -- should be 3.5+ hours for your Portsmouth > Bath day. And that is JUST butts in seats in car time -- all the stops make that easily a 10 to 12 hour day.

I also hope (<B>REALLY</B> hope) your Scotland plans aren't as hectic as this southern England bit.

Basically in 3.5 days you want to cover Canterbury, Dover, Brighton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath, Avebury, Hermitage, and Windsor.

There simply aren't enough hours in the days you have to hit all those.

Even to me these days seem hugely ambitious. Driving across London seems a bad idea. As pretty much everyone is going to tell you these drive times are not realistic - particularly when you are trying to fit in multiple places in a day. You will leave yourselves with very little time do much at all in any of the places you list.

So, for example day 1 - if you got the 8.30am train from Edinburgh you would not get to King's Cross until almost 1pm. By the time you pick up your rental car and drive through London to Canterbury you would not get there until late afternoon. I assume in Canterbury you would want to visit the Cathedral - last entry is 5pm and it closes at 5.30pm - you would probably not make it.

If you stayed on a train you would make it to Canterbury just after 3pm even with checking into your nights accommodation you would have a little more time. Nevertheless both options give very little time to actually appreciate whatever it was in Canterbury you wanted to see.

This applies pretty much to each of your days, particularly day 4 and 5 which would mean you had no time whatsoever to enjoy anything in Bath apart from a night's sleep.

Less indeed can be more - to hit all those sights you'd have to go full speed on motorways and see little of that bucolic SE England countryside - the 'garden of England;- doing less driving can let you take sweet side roads going by country pubs and thru small towns. Like Pilgrim's Way near Canterbury - it's a tiny paved road with 'passing spots' but oh so sweet. Less can be more.

darn -- meant 4.5 days. But that doesn't change things -- still too many places too far apart in too little time.

Then - are you flying out day 10? If so you will only have 4 days in London and yet want to also fit in a day trip to Cambridge. (Greenwich isn't a problem -- it is IN London and isn't a 'day trip' as such. You could do it in a less than half a day)

>>to hit all those sights you'd have to go full speed on motorways<<

That only applies where there <i>are</i> motorways . . . there are only a handful of legs on this itinerary anywhere near an M.

Day 3 is what really got my attention. In 2011 we spent several days in Winchester to visit a friend, and it's a really lovely place - easily worth a day. Then, from a cottage in Wiltshire we did day trips to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. Granted, we took the very slow paced approach - you definitely don't need a full day for Stonehenge - but there is no way you'll be able to fit all of those into a day and actually enjoy it.

I'm afraid the rest of the itinerary seems a bit overambitious as well. Consider aiming for a max of two sights per day within easy drives of one another. Even if you enjoy driving, you'd get to experience a lot more of what England has to offer if you slow down.

Thank you thank you thank you!! I have been known to be overly ambitious and put too much into a day of travel. I knew if I put this out there I would get great responses....so now I need to revamp my plans and I have a few extra days I can add to this leg--loved the idea of training all the way to Canterbury to get the car. Will picking up a car at Canterbury and dropping off at Windsor result in a large fee?? So now Fodorites, can you give me ideas of a travel time line that is doable to see these places:

Canterbury --train from Edinburgh to here/stay the night
Dover (Bodiam Castle looks great but not sure if it is
doable on the way to Brighton)
Brighton
Portsmouth
Winchester
Salisbury
Stonehenge
Bath
Avebury
Hermitage
Windsor --drop off car & train to
London
Keep those responses coming...I need all the help I can get!! Thank you

Also thanks to you who talked about the London congestion charge..had never heard of that and it sure is a great reason to not have a car in London (along with the fact that driving in London is crazy!!)

I fear you are confusing the side roads of england with midwestern interstates with no traffic. We have done several road trips in england and there is no way you can cover the distances you list in the time that you have.

Also, have you ever driven on the opposite side of the road? Are you familiar with roundabouts (traffic circles) of which there are practically none in the US and a LOT in england? If you're not used to them they are confusing enough in the right direction and scary in the wrong direction.

And agree that you are trying to fit in way too many places in the limited time that you have. You really need to slow down if you want the time to see anything.