Hi All! I have a whole host of questions but will start with the basics...my mother and I are planning a trip to the UK in April 2013. Need to know how to get there, what cities to visit and should we consider a cruise vs. land tour? We are going on our own, no group or set excursions, etc. We are flying from Louisville, KY to where? Have 10-12 days to travel. If not a cruise, how to get from city to city? Hotels in each city? Basically, I know nothing and am asking for help.....been looking at cruise deals and those look pretty promising re: in/out of each place to visit and might be the easiest route....April is flexible if you suggest other times of travel to these places....My mother really at least wants Scotland and Ireland...any other suggestions....we have travelled to Paris France, London England, and Venice, Florence (Pisa) and Rome Italy. Big walkers and love happy accidents....just walk and come upon a memory...no schedules persay needed.....Our last trip to Italy I planned on my own via internet and wonderful suggestions from Fodor's and it was a HUGE success in booking/finding hotels, airline, sightseeing tips, everything...so, please, please...help me again!

If you do go to Scotland, 2 obvious cities are Glasgow and Edinburgh:
http://www.thelifeofluxury.com/glasg...-architecture/

http://www.thelifeofluxury.com/on-th...stle-scotland/

You can either get a Eurail Pass to travel by train or rent a car. They also have guided bus tours that remove all the stress of driving in a foreign country.

Trying to see Scotland and Ireland in 10 or 12 days is hardly enough without anywhere else.

Despite the answer above, if you want to get into walking areas then you might be needing a car, or 2, one for each country.

Just a word of caution. The Eurail pass is only good in the Republic of Ireland. the expense of a Eurail pass is not worth it for just Ireland and the limited places trains run in Ireland. Britrail covers the island of Great Britain. Can't tell you about its value as I haven't used one in ages.

If you only have 10-12 days, IMO, that is not enough to cover all three countries you have mentioned. Since it is your mother's wish to see Ireland and Scotland, I would suggest you limit yourself to those two.



Maybe Fly into Edinburgh or Glasgow and spend five days in Scotland. I would base in Edinburgh and spend a couple of days getting a taste of that city. Maybe take the train to Stirling for its castle. Rabies (sp?) does day tours from Edinburgh to various places. I understand they do a great job. The train trip to Glasgow is under and hour and you might enjoy taking a day trip from Edin. to there for a look about.

Fly to Dublin for the rest of your trip.

IIf you have five days for Ireland, suggest to base yourself in Dublin, a very walkable city. Lots to see and do. Lots of companies do day tours to interesting sites such as burial tomb at Newgrange, Pwerscourt, Glendalough. You could do an overnight to Kilkenny (or day trip by rail). Wander its medieval streets, visit the castle and its gardens, St. Canice's cathedral and round tower.

Or fly into Cork and base yourself there. Interesting city. Cobh is a twenty minute train ride. Lovely cathedral. Immigration story as this the city is from whence many immigrants sailed, was the last stop of the Titanic, was closest to where the Lusitania sank. Bus to Blarney.

Or fly into Shannon and explore that region with a couple of days in Galway. (Take a bus from Limetrick). From Galway fly or ferry to the Aran Islands or take one of the tours of Connemara as a day trip. There are several tour groups based in Galway.

Irishrail offers tours from Dublin--both day trips and tours of one to three days including one to Belfast and out to the Giant's Causeway.

Fly home from Ireland--probably from Dublin or possibly from Shannon.

You mentioned that your travel dates are flexible. You might consider going in May. Weather could be a bit warmer and more day tours will be offered.

Trying to see both Scotland and Ireland in 10-12 days will result in your not seeing much of either country. We did an 8-day walking/sightseeing tour just of County Kerry and County Clare last May and could easily have spent another week just in that area.

I would recommend that you choose either Scotland OR Ireland so that you have those schedule-free days and happy accidents.

BTW, I've been in Ireland both in April and in May. While both were good trips, the weather in May was a bit nicer.

PS. If fodorites gave you such great ideas for your last trip, how come we never got a trip report? Or is it perhaps buried in one of the question threads?

Thank you, thank you to all! Great input....Looks like this will become a three week or longer trip but I'm not complaining....more time making memories with my mother! (72 and 47)

10 to 12 days is really a ver limited amount of time to see major sights in Ireland and SCotland. To expand to other areas really doesn;t make any sense.

To tour Ireland (where many sights are in the country and spread out you really need to rent a car - or sign up for a tour). Trains are not very practical - and buses not that frequent.

My experience in Scotland is only in the south - but not sure you wold get beyond that in the limited time yuo have - and again car is the best means of travel.

True re: trip report...my bad. All input was fabulous and very helpful. Sorry for not posting an update!

What about cruise ships? Or is the "cheaters" way to travel, esp to these places?

Noticed you're from Louisville. So am I...how about that.

As the others have said, 10-12 days isn't a whole lot of time for doing both Scotland and Ireland,and if you have to subtract 2 days for traveling to and from the States, you're really short on time. Is your mom's heart set on both Scotland AND Ireland? Maybe you should try to talk her into seeing one or the other. I've not been to Scotland but did spend close to 2 weeks in Ireland and it wasn't nearly enough. As a matter of fact, we're going back this year for 10 days and would stay more but our travel-mates don't have more time to give.

I wouldn't call a cruise ship cheating, but be aware that if you go off on your own when the ship is in port, you need to be sure that you will be back in time for the sailing. If you go ashore with a ship arranged tour, they have to get you back, but if you go on your own and are not on time, you'll be waving bye-bye from the pier and making your own way to the next port of call.

I have not been on any cruises, but one thing hat sort of puts me off (and this is just my opinion) is that sometimes, you have only a few hours in port and don't get to see a city in the early morning or evening when the daytrippers are gone.
A lot of your time is spent on board getting from place to place.

However, from my friends who have taken cruises: They like having to only unpack and pack up once. They like everything organized and all the meals paid for.

It has been a long time since I have seen a cruise for just the Brish Isles. But I do recall reading of one which went around. I will have to see if I can find it, but you mentioned already having read of some.

Cruses that cover the British Isles which includes the Republic of Ireland (Which is not part of Britain since 1921and has never been part of the United Kingdom) do not use the sort of huge great Ocean liners usually associated with cruises. If the weather is bad then some of the destination ports might not be accessible.

The Step father did one of the round Britain and Normandy cruse's a couple of years ago and out of the 7 port's landed only 4 times. One of those being in Holland rather than Scotland. We met them when they docked in Cobh supposedly for 10 hours and they had to sail early leaving at 3 rather than 5pm didn't have chance to get far or see anything.

Cruises would not be my choice for the UK (that's maybe not a good answer because they wouldn't be my choice anywhere). Too much to see that's land based, even tho' the coasts can be spectacular. I don't think you'd get a lot of walking off a boat.

And 10-12 days is barely enough to do credit to Scotland/Ireland, so I would stick with just those two, or somewhere else. I don't think you should add.

If your trip is going to be city based, I'd go for trains to get you round. If you want to see the countryside, hire a car.

Three weeks gives a decent amount of time. Scotland > Ireland; Edinburgh > Dublin (that's not even a close call).

You need to figure out why you want to go to these places and what you like. A city-based Ireland/Scotland trip means you miss the best part of these places - the countryside, lakes, castles, distilleries, coastlines, etc. Seriously, Aberdeen is a decent town slightly smaller than Louisville, but you go to that area of Scotland to visit the castle trail, the whisky trail and see the rolling hills. For that you definitely should hire (British for "rent") a car. Similarly, you'd not visit Inverness for Inverness, but as a gateway to the north coast of Scotland (sheila could answer this better, but it's close to bird-watching season in April and the puffins flock to Scotland), Loch Ness, Cawdor Castle, Culloden battlefield, Dunrobin Castle, Glenmorangie distillery, a short drive to Skye, etc.

As for flights - what flies from Louisville? How far are you from the Cincinnati airport that is for some reason in Kentucky and is a Delta hub? You're likely going to need to connect. Continental has direct flights from Newark (EWR) to Edinburgh. Aer Lingus has flights from Dublin back to the US and so you need to hit Kayak or Orbitz to set up an open jaw ticket.

Have time for just a couple of quick comments/ideas for you to consider. As already stated, I think you're stretching yourselves a bit thin trying to do both Ireland and Scotland in just 10-12 days.

If you extend your trip a few days you could fly open jaw into Dublin, stay there several days while doing day trips to surrounding areas/sites. Then fly to Edinburgh or Glasgow. A car really is your best bet for traveling in Scotland or Ireland for that matter, but you do have a couple of options. Rabbies and Timberbush do small group tours around Scotland (one day or several days). You can also take the train from Edinburgh/Glasgow up to Oban where CalMac ferries offer several day trips to Mull/Iona, Colonsay etc. The train ( West Highland Railway) will take you as far as Mallaig. There are several possible stops along this route for overnights and some of the best walking anywhere.

Personally, I'd limit it to either Ireland or Scotland.

Wow! All this input is fabulous! Thanks to all and keep it coming. I reading and re-reading......it's GREAT!!!

can you answer some of the questions, dawn? It will help us help you

I would take those days and spend some of them on the Dingle Penn. in Ireland. You could incorporate Galway as well. This area of Ireland is true Ireland. You will think of Leprechauns and lucky charms! We stayed in a VRBO home and hiked and ate wonderful food. Visited Mulchaey Pottery and Dingle Crystal. The food in Dingle was wonderful. The people wonderful and the scenary is umbeatable.

Kplinng you will have to come back again and see some of the other 99.4% of the True Island of Ireland. You might be surprised.