janisj

I was posting the same time as Gardyloo so didn't see any of his info / advice. And that is a wonderful itinerary . . .

Like I asked - confused much ???

The answer to how long your son will be in the UK may help you decide. Do you need to do a 'gobsmacking' trip now or will you have other opportunities later on . . . .

Rubicund

As far as river cruises go, there are no cruises in the UK that are like the French, German etc. river cruises. Our geography just isn't like Europe in that our rivers, other than the Thames (and not for too far) aren't navigable for any reasonable distance and they don't interconnect. You'll get day trips or half day trips but that's about it. The only possibility is canal cruising and you can get day trips and 3, 5, and upwards trips. It's slow going though and not really suitable for such a short stay.

Lots of people visit the east side of the Pennines, but miss out North Wales, Lancashire and the Lake District (a good place for short boat trips), so why not look at Conway(castles), Chester(Roman stuff), Manchester(great city-too much to list), Windermere(Lakes) and Carlisle (for Hadrian's Wall) to fill the time. There's plenty to see and do in those places to fill your 11 days.

guy

guy

Thanks much for your help. Current thinking is this: 1. Rent a car in London and drive to Stonehenge, then to Bath. Two nights there. 2. Drive to Devon. Two nights, one round of golf. 3. Drive back to London. One night then train to Inverness. One night there. 4. Rent car and drive to Isle of Skye. Two nights there. 5. Edinburgh. Muck about there until we fly home from E'burgh. Sound goodish?

janisj

>>Sound goodish?<<

Nope -- sorry

Extremely scattershot and no real time anywhere and a LOT of time in the car(s)

Don't have time for more till later today but others will chime in.

BDKR

The train from London to Inverness takes at least 8 hours.

I hate to say that, but you'd better fly to Inverness or take the train, but break the long trip with a stopover in York or Edinburgh, but that means than skipping Bath or Devon.

It seems to me you're not very experienced travellers since you're making the typical rookie mistake of trying to see everything on a short trip ending up wasting a lot of time and missing a lot. You're all over the place, spending very short time at a lot's of places and some very long drives and train rides.

If I were you I'd skip either Scotland or the Southwest and keep focusing on one or the other.

Rubicund

In your original post you say that you have 25 days before you have to fly home after leaving your son at college. It may sound a long time, but if you waste much of it behind a wheel or sat in a train seat, you'll lose a lot of "on the ground" time. A couple of questions: why Inverness? IME there's not that much to see there and you'll be nearly 120 very slow miles from Skye. Unless you've got a good reason to go here, I'd skip it. Secondly where in Devon and why? It's a lovely part of the UK but like Scotland it takes a while to get there and unless there's a particular part you want to see, I'd skip that too.

Consider:

Stonehenge (on the way to Bath) if you want to see the stone circle-it gets very busy so arrive early.
Bath 2 nights
Cotswolds 3 nights
North Wales 3 nights
Lake District 3 nights
Carlisle 2 nights (see Hadrian's Wall)
Glasgow 4 nights--day trip to Edinburgh
Isle of Mull 3 nights

That's 20 nights so far and depending on where you have to fly home from you have 5 nights to see more of London or swing across to Edinburgh and spend the time there and fly home from EDI or GLA. There are lots of other possibilities, this has been one of them.

SusanP

They don't have 25 days, only 11. He says they're staying in Shoreditch until the 24th.

Rubicund

Then rethink, there just isn't time.

Stonehenge on way to Bath

Bath 2 nights

Taunton 3 nights

Poole 3 nights

Brighton 2 nights

Back to London

guy

Thanks yet again. Will try to get the family to rethink. But just to be clear, is the train from London to Inverness bad? Uncomfortable? It's 8.5 hours. Kinda pictured it as 8.5 sweet hours riding through the countryside.

janisj

>>But just to be clear, is the train from London to Inverness bad? Uncomfortable? It's 8.5 hours. Kinda pictured it as 8.5 sweet hours riding through the countryside.<<

It ill eat up an ENTIRE day and only bits and pieces are scenic -- mostly in the northern half.

IMHO you need to re-think everything. A full day to get to I'ness, a night there, then another half a day to get to Portree and a minimum of 3 nights on Skye to net you a bit over 2 days on the island (your plan of 2 nights on Skye will give you one free day for a VERY large island) - this leg the full length of the country eat up mored than a third of your free time.

People really are trying to help you -- road travel in rural parts of teh UK are nothing like road trips in the States. On Skye you will be lucky to average 30MPH.

historytraveler

BDKR

" the train requires at least one change ."

In fact there is a direct train leaving London Kings Cross station at 12:00 and arriving to Inverness after 8pm.

How long is too much on a train is personal and can depend on lots of variables. I had a great time taking a 12 hour train ride shortly(2 hours) after arriving on a night train and I had a horrible experience on short train rides of 30-60 minutes, but for most people 8 hours is too much.

How long was the longest train trip you did? How was it?

This site gives you an idea of what is it like on the train from London to Edinburgh(the first stage of the London-Inverness journey):

Try to go 1st class if you manage to find a good deal or you can afford it. Spending extra on 1st class may seem a waste of money on a short trip of 1-2 hours, but it'll make a difference on a long trip like that.

https://www.seat61.com/london-to-edinburgh-by-train.htm

thursdaysd

If that's a question to everyone, and not just historytraveler, my longest time on a single train (as opposed to a whole trip on multiple trains) was 53 hours between Ekaterinburg and Irkutsk in Russia. Three days, two nights, and I was not at all bored (and I was in kupe - second class - on a regular Russian train, not one of the expensive tourist trains). I was ready for a good shower, however.

I would like to recommend taking the night train from London to Scotland, the Caledonian Sleeper, but I finally took it last year as far as Edinburgh and it was the third worst night train I've taken, and I've taken quite a few.

BDKR

Actually, that was only a question the OP should ask himself.

OFF

I'm also a fan of train travel, including night trains and long distance journeys. I'm wondering what was the worst and the 2nd worst night train you've taken?

thursdaysd

guy

Some in our crew think the eight-plus hours on the train from London to I'ness is too long. So the current thinking is train to E-borough, rent a car and drive to Skye. That's five-plus hours in a car but some feel it would be better.

annhig

<< Current thinking is this: 1. Rent a car in London and drive to Stonehenge, then to Bath. Two nights there. 2. Drive to Devon. Two nights, one round of golf. 3. Drive back to London. One night then train to Inverness. One night there. 4. Rent car and drive to Isle of Skye. Two nights there. 5. Edinburgh. Muck about there until we fly home from E'burgh. Sound goodish?>>

If this is your ideal, you could save time and simplify it by flying from Exeter to Aberdeen on Flybe.. Pick up a car there, drive to Skye [though it's further from Inverness, it'll be much quicker than driving back to London and getting the train from there]

<<Some in our crew think the eight-plus hours on the train from London to I'ness is too long. So the current thinking is train to E-borough, rent a car and drive to Skye. That's five-plus hours in a car but some feel it would be better.>>

good thinking! And Aberdeen is closer, though if you wanted to drive up the west coast Glasgow would be better than Edinburgh, also available from Exeter.

https://www.flybe.com

janisj

>>So the current thinking is train to E-borough, rent a car and drive to Skye. That's five-plus hours in a car but some feel it would be better. <<

You have Skye on the brain -- So I honestly don't think anyone can help you. The train ride up to Edinburgh is just over 4 hours -- but say 5 hours from your accommodation to Kings Cross to Waverly Station to picking up the rental car. Then the drive from central Edinburgh to Portree will take aMINMUM of 6 hours. And that is 6 hours without a single stop.

You do the math.

You really are trying to fit a size 12 foot in to a size 6 shoe.

janisj

Didn't see annhig's post -- Ann, you are just being an enabler