Itinerary in England and Scotland by car
 

Hi!

My boyfriend and me are planning a three week trip to the UK this summer in july. We want to cover quite a lot of ground, so we are set on renting a car for the most of our trip.
I have followed a lot of the useful comments on this forum and thought up a itinerary that seems to be logical. Still, before booking everything, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask for some last pieces of advice! Here is what I planned; we will land in Heathrow on July 1st and leave from Heathrow on july 21.

Arrive in London, take the train to Edinburgh
3 nights in Edinburgh, pick up car
Go to Scottish Fair, visit distillerie in Blair Atholl, sleep there
Take a long drive to Isle of sky, stay two nights
Glencoe, one night
Stirling, one night
Lake district (Keswick?) two nights
North Wales, two nights
Cotswolds (Chipping Campden), one night
Bath, one night
Salisbury, one night
Return the car at Heathrow, then four nights in London

We realise we do A LOT of driving, but we don't really mind that considering the relatively short time we have. Also, there is one night left that isn't planned yet: I would greatly appreciate some ideas on where to add it. Is there a place that is worth spending more time? I'm thinking about stopping one night in Liverpool before our stay in North Wales, thus "cutting" one long drive in two... But then maybe there are better options. We travelling from Canada, we are in our late 20s and we love hiking and historical places in general.

I thank you all in advance for your precious help!

I wouldn't move from Bath to Salisbury - they are very close together and it doesn't make sense that it should be 2 separate hotels.

But - on the single night stops (too many for me) you do realize you will have only a couple of hours to sightsee? We spent 4 nights in Oxford to do Oxford, Blenheim and the Cotswolds and still only saw a couple of the many towns.

And four nights in London is really only 3 days - not much. Have you laid out what you want to see?

The first half of your drive is VERY fast but (barely) doable. The second half of your drive is borderline impossible.

It isn't just a matter of a LOT of driving. It is a matter of not having any time once you get to the places after you finally get there. You honestly will spend more time in the car than 'being' anywhere. When do you expect to do the walking/hiking?

I'd personally add a few days to Scotland, one day to the Lakes. drop everything after the Lake District, drop the car in Manchester and take the train to London.

As it is you will see very little in north wales, the Cotswolds, and Bath anyway, so spend the time up north.

Yipes! This is . . . unrealistic.

You're in your late 20s, not your late 80s, so that means you're both young enough to have every expectation that you'll return.

Two words: hub, spoke. Pick a couple of hubs, do daytrips therefrom. E.g., London (yeah, you have that), Edinburgh (Stirling would be a day trip), Skye.

Due to the roads and lack of big US/Canadian type highways, the travel in Scotland and Wales isn't quite at the 110 kph you'd be accustomed to.

Ok! I guess I am a little too enthousiastic about this trip!
I thank you for your advice, I'l come up with something more... possible? I had been looking at tours to get the idea of travel times; I thought somehow by car it would be possible to do something similar (Rabies three day Isle of Skye tour covers a lot of ground...) I'll share my new itinerary when it's done!

A couple of notes:

On tours you are not hiking or walking anywhere - you are sitting on a bus, seeing a major sight and making a couple of stops for meals, snacks and shopping each day. If you want to do any walking in the countryside you have to cover 1/3 the territory of a bus tour.

Bus tours also have drivers who have been over the territory many dozens of times. They can do it much faster than you do,e shortcuts and faster routes, and ALL THEY DO is drive - not try to also sightsee and/or hike the countryside.

If you want to base your trip on a tour itinerary look at a tour that has walks every day - and see how much territory they cover.

>>I had been looking at tours to get the idea of travel times; I thought somehow by car it would be possible to do something similar (Rabies three day Isle of Skye tour covers a lot of ground…)<<

Never plan based on what a group tour squeezes in. On a typical tour, your bags must be in the hallway by 7AM, on the bus by 8AM, off the bus for a buffet lunch and shopping, maybe one site in the morning and one in the afternoon, check into a hotel and a group dinner.

That being said -- Rabbies are a very good small-group/small van tour company. But their tours are VERY different than the large group tours that cover a whole country in two weeks. They usually only have 8-12 people on a tour and that makes things easier/better than the 45+ passenger coaches of most tours. Plus their drivers know the roads and can make MUCH better time than any first time visitor.

Yes - Rabbies 3-dayer is a decent 'taste' tour - But I'd only recommend it for folks who have very little time and want to squeeze in a peek at the highlands/islands . . . and/or can't drive themselves.

Train to Edinburgh on first day looks good, have you compared it with a flight?

As the guys above say, "too much, too young" The Specials

Can only advise properly on the Scotland part of your trip but I actually don't think it's too bad. It's busy but do-able I would say. Ideally you'd get another night on Skye in there. There is Talisker distillery to visit there too of course if you wanted to drop the Perthshire one to allow more time up north (if not though do Edradour over Blair Atholl I would suggest). Your journey back south is well broken up and will give you a lot of Scotland's highlights. Have a great time!

I did look at some flights, and the cost is now approximately 100 pounds (for the earliest flight we could book). Then again I only checked british Airways; there probably are other carriers I dont know about. Based on what I've read in the forums so far I was thinking the train could be a bit cheaper... I was planning on using eastcoast.co.uk, the rates seem pretty low when we book well in advance. Was I well informed?

Many people taking the train from London to Edinburgh stop off for a few days in York - a beautiful city with much to see. Have you investigated York at all?
http://www.visityork.org/

I'd substitute 2 nights in York for North Wales (latter is lovely but too much off the line of your itinerary); 2 nights in Chipping Campden (day trip to Blenheim if you like); Bath 2 nights and maybe drop the car, bus into London for 4 nights.

This way you can add a night to Skye.

I wouldn't let only 4 nights in London be a problem, you'll get back to London some day.

For flights check Easyjet from London to both Glasgow and Edinburgh, much cheaper than BA if budget is an issue.

Just note that London has 5 airports, assuming you fly into LHR you want to fly out from there, not schlep over to Luton :-)

>>Arrive in London, take the train to Edinburgh<<

This is a HUGE schlepp . . . <u>unless</u> you want to stop over in York for a couple of days.

You land at LHR, have to cross all of London to get to Kings Cross and then 4+ hours on the train. Whereas if you fly, you simply go to another gate (or terminal depending on the airline(s) involved) . If one is already staying IN central London, then the train by far makes the most sense. But when arriving at LHR, flying north is much easier.

Again, thank you for your great tips, you are really helpful! I have modified my itinerary:

Arrive in London, take the train to York (thank you Morgana!)
York two nights
Train to Edinburgh
Edinburgh three nights
Pick up car, long drive to Portree (Maybe stop in Eilean Donan Castle ?)
Portree three nights (visit Kalister distillery: thank you TravellingScotland!)
Drive to Glencoe, stay 1 night
Continue to Keswick (another long drive, but I have to make my way south sooner or later...)
Keswick three nights
Drive Keswick to Chipping Campden
Chipping Campden two nights
Bath two nights
London last four nights

This isn't fixed at all, we are still brainstorming. I know it's still pretty busy, but we really have trouble cutting off the whole southern part of the trip. I would really much like to see Bath and the Cotswolds.

Another must do for us is Stonehenge. We were planning on stopping there with the car before dropping it at Heathrow. Is that a good plan? I know a lot of tours are available, but I figured it would be better to have our own vehicle. The other option would be to drop the car in Bath like Sue_xx_yy suggested, but I'm thinking keeping it for one more day may just be more logical.

>>visit Kalister distillery: thank you TravellingScotland!<<

That would be Talisker . . .

Just checked, LHR to Edinburgh airlines needs to be either BA or Virgin both of which charge far too much

Oops, Talisker :-)