Ireland, Scotland, and London in 7 days!?
 

I have read most of the posted messages. My best friend and I are talking about planning a trip to Ireland, Scotland, and London at the end of May 2004. It is crazy to think we can do all three destinations in 7 days. She has been to London. I have never been to any of these destinations. She will be coming from Atlanta, GA and I, from Miami, Florida. What would be the recommendations of traveling from each, which would be the best to arrive first, then second and so on... What mode of transportation does anyone recommend? Please give me any ideas, opinions, or comments for direction!? Brutal Honesty is welcomed. Thank you very much in advance.

Brutal Honesty - OK - have you looked at a map? You want to see three countries in 7 days and you are comming in from different cities so the first day will be a jumble of trying to find each other at the airport or the hotel. If your 7 days includes the 2 days it takes to get to/from the British Isles then you are down to little more than 5 days . . . .

Even if the 7 days is your "on the ground" time, I would pick ONE of those places. Either London for a week with 1 or 2 days trips out into the Country

Or

Scotland including 2 or 3 days in Edinburgh and 4 or 5 days touring around

Or

Ireland including 2 days in Dublin and the rest along the west / southwest coast.

If you want a cities-only trip then you could do eithet all 7 days in London or possibly 4 days in Edinburgh and 3 in Dublin - but the logisitics of that will be a lot more complicated coordinating your travel from the States..

Yes, you're crazy. You will spend all 7 days traveling from one place to another. You need a week for Ireland alone to really enjoy the country - there's so much to see. Scotland is doable in a few days. But the drive time is what gets you. It's like driving the state of California, it's much larger than it looks on a map.

If someone asked if 7 days was enough just to see Ireland, I'd try to convince them to try to visit just a segment of Ireland. It's a beautiful, spread out, relaxed pace kind of place. Fun, but so much to see and do, it would be a shame to miss so much.

And London, well... I have huge thick books on what there is to do in London! Major stuff. Stuff I wish I'd have had time to accomplish but still haven't. Exciting city too. Huge.

I'd try to talk you into picking one place, learning more about it until you have such a list of things to see and do that you find you'll never be bored. Then plan the next great trip for another time.

Hope you all have a good time! Guess I don't do brutal very well though...

One place, only one place.

Bill

You can't see Ireland, Scotland, and London in a week.

You could have brief visits to a city in each of them, but I believe you would have a better time if you did less.

How about 4 1/2 days in London and 2 in Glasgow and/or Edinburgh? Fly into one city and out of the other.

Keith

It's possible to fly from Dublin to a city in Scotland and from that city to London and tell the people back home you've been to all those places but with 7-days total to work with, you won't have much time away from the airports. And you won't really have been in any one place long enough to capture its flavor and enjoy what it has to offer.

Check out PaddyWagon tours from Dublin. They have some nice 3 or 6-day inclusive tours of Ireland's southwest or west.

Or: meet your best friend in Orlando and go to Epcot Center instead. That way you can visit the Rose & Crown Pub and stop off in several other countries.

Igrene, I'm planning a similar trip in March to the same area and can see how you might "at first" want to cram all 3 areas into 7 days....but with more research, I've realized it's just not possible.

Janis made an excellent point that you really only have 5 days to explore anyway because getting from the US to the UK is an entire day in itself.

In my similar dilemma (with 10 days to travel, minus the 2 alotted getting to and from) I've decided to split my time in London and Scotland. I'll arrive in London and stay for 5 nights. Then I'm off to Edinburgh for 4 nights and will depart from there.

I have a limited amount of time and there's just so much to see and do. But I don't want to make myself stressed out by trying to cram too much in. Afterall, it is vacation! :-)