Ideas for Car Free England and Scotland
 

Fodors was my guiding light for past trips to Germany and Spain. My husband and I are adventurous 65 year olds. We travel light (just a backpack) and have done almost all our trips 90% car free. I am particularly concerned about driving in England with the driver's side different than the US.

We would like to spend about two to three weeks in London and Edinburgh and some other places in between. We are lovers of art so museums are important but I would like to see some of the countryside. Originally, we were going to try to include Ireland but I think that would be too much. We have flown Ryan Air in Spain and loved it. We had thought of flying open jaw into London, train to Edinburgh, Ryan Air to Dublin, and then home to NY from Dublin. Now I'm thinking of open jaw London and Edinburgh. What would be interesting sites as we make our way from London to Edinburgh hopefully by train? Any suggestions for an itinerary?

This is not exactly like what you are asking, but you could read my trip report of what DH and I did with 2 weeks in London with 5 day trips by train and bus. I'll put the link below. You could do something like this, tailoring your tours and day trips to your tastes, although maybe for a shorter time in London, and then train toward Edinburgh with stops around York and Hadrian's Wall? (two places on our itinerary this summer when we're being brave and driving!)

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-day-trips.cfm

You could do a terrific trip by train into London and out of either GLA or EDI. Take whichever gets you the best fare/schedule since Galsgow and Edinburgh are so near each other.

A basic tour could include London, maybe Cambridge, York definitely, Durham, then Newcastle for local buses along Hadrian's Wall, back on the trains to Edinburgh.

From Edinburgh, you could do train or bus day trips to places like St Andrews, Stirling, up into the highlands, Glasgow, Linlithgow, the Falkirk Wheel and many other places.

How much you can manage mostly depends on if it ends up 2 weeks or 3 weeks. W/ 3 weeks you could add a few days up north near Inverness to see some of the northern highlands -- or even take a trip up to the Orkneys (you can fly or take the train and a ferry to the islands)

was posting teh same time as texasbookworm . . . .

there's a direct flight Glasgow New York....and so much to see in Glasgow.

Thanks, this will get me started. i was worried because friends said we really needed to rent a car.

Having been to Great Britain many times I have done well with train,bus and a private guide for a day.