London 2nd time around
 

First I want to thank everyone who responded to my post last year which made our trip a success. We spent 9 days (including flights in and out) last year and stayed outside of London (an hour from Paddington Station) and visited the following: Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Cabinet War Rooms, Bath, Oxford, Stonehenge, Windsor, passed by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, London Eye (line was super long) and watched Wicked. We didn't walk quite as much as we'd like to as it was cold and rainy during our visit. This year, an opportunity came up and we visiting London again. Due to some schedule changes, our planned trip of 3 days (just passing by as opposed to staying longer) became 6 days (including flights in and out) and as a change, we will be staying at a hotel near King's Cross. We will arrive on a Sat (around 5pm) and will leave on a Thursday (around 9pm). I figured arrival day is for taking the train from Heathrow to King's Cross and for resting (jet lag), and we've booked Book of Mormons on Wednesday afternoon. I was thinking of the following itinerary, Sunday to visit my friend, Monday to visit Hampton Court Garden (3/4 of a day), Tuesday to Wednesday morning to visit York, which leaves Thursday as a free day. I wouldn't want to visit the National Gallery or the Portrait Museum as we're visiting Paris on the same trip and have planned on Louvre Museum and Orsay Museum. Please factor in that we will not be leaving our hotel earlier than 10 am (DH will just not wake up and be ready before that time). I'm open to suggestions on whether to visit York or another destination for an overnight trip and how to fill up the days to make it a more compact. TIA!

York is a great place for an overnight! There is a fabulous railway museum that is free right by the train station. The cathedral is amazing and you can walk on the walls. I think you will enjoy it.

There are obviously endless options for other day trips, but since you have chosen York I think you should stick with it!

Enjoy!

For your extra day, check out London Walks (www.walks.com) and see if they have something that interests you. I liked the walk to Little Venice (canal with narrow boats in the middle of London) and the evening pub tour along the Thames. Among others.

Or there's so much to see in York you could spend a extra night there. However, some of those sights are museums, particularly the National Railroad Museum and the Castle Museum (not paintings but scenes and items from everyday life): http://www.yorkshireattractions.org/...le-museum-york.

Or from Heathrow, we can fly directly to Edinburgh and spend 3 days and come back to London by train. I just need to be back by Wednesday for our theatre tickets. What do you suggest? York or Edinburgh?

I've decided to go to Edinburgh instead and already booked advance train tickets. I will have around 1.5 days taking the evening train to Edinburgh on Sunday and leaving on an evening train to London on Tuesday. York will have to wait on my next visit. I have the following itinerary and would appreciate your comments and recommendation. Any recommendation for Lunch and Dinner that we will pass by? We're passing Arthur's Seat as we will do quite a bit of walking and hiking already. We aren't interested in the Whisky tour as we don't drink

Day 1
Midnight arrival via train from London

Day 2
Rabbis Tour - West Highland Lochs & Castles 1 Day or
Loch Lomond National Park & Stirling Castle 1 Day

Day 3
Royal Mile - Lunch
St. Giles Cathedral
The Real Mary King's Close
5pm train to London

Your day 3 is pretty light so you can squeeze in something else (be sure to start at the Castle and work your way down the Royal Mile)

Both of those day trips are good -- but do you really want to leave Edinburgh for a day since it leaves you w/ less than one full for the city? Plus, do you want to leave on a tour at 0800 when you didn't arrive at your hotel til after midnight. I personally wouldn't want to sit on a bus for 10 hours immediately after riding a train for 4.5 hours.

(It is Rabbie's BTW)

Thanks janisj for the spell check. If I don't do the Rabbie's tour, our itinerary would look like this:

Day 2
Edinburgh Castle
Royal Mile - Lunch
St. Giles Cathedral
The Real Mary King's Close

Day 3
Palace of Holyroodhouse
5pm train to London

Too bad Rabbie's doesn't do half day tours

had a great lunch at the cafe at st giles cathedral... the one that is sort of behind the cathedral... walk past the guard station and keep looking... called "St Giles' Cathedral Cafe". had the cake of a lifetime... chocolate-guiness . what i liked most about it was that everything was super fresh... and you could see what you wanted in the case and just ask for that. i was craving salad, and was able to have them put 3 types of salad/veggies together on one plate. worth a stop if you are there at lunch.

Try to get to the National Museum of Scotland--plenty of interesting things to see inside.

Nearby is a café called the Cellar Door which has really good food. We had a 2 or 3 course lunch special which was really reasonably priced and very good.

Thanks kawh and europeannovice for your lunch suggestions. After some discussion with DH, we will still proceed with Rabbie's tour. If I can choose 1 place to squeeze into Day 3 , which is better, Edinburgh Castle or Palace of Holyroodhouse?

Edinburgh Castle - no question.

Holyrood is interesting and the abbey in the grounds is lovely, but Edinburgh Castle is outstanding.

I'm kicking myself for not booking earlier, Rabbie's Tour - West Highland Lochs & Castles 1 Day tour is sold out. I asked and the next recommended tour is Highland Lochs, Glens & Whisky Day Tour, but we don't drink. I have this thought that maybe this is the not so popular tour which is why they're trying to fill it in. Has anyone been on the Whisky Day tour?

Just because you don't drink shouldn't be an issue. That tour doesn't hang around pubs or anything. There is a short visit to a distillery to see how Scotch Whisky is made. Very interesting - but only a small part of the tour. I've visited many distilleries over the years - sometimes w/ teetotalers and not ever thought it was a waste of time/inappropriate.

Visiting Whisky distilleries is very popular - my guess that is nothing to do w/ why that tour is available.

We did the Rabbie's Stirling and Loch Lomond tour last year and it was worth it. Can you get on that one?

I am deciding between the Stirling and Loch Lomond tour and the Highland Lochs, Glens & Whisky. I'm taking into consideration both comments of janisj and dwdvagamundo. Anyone who has taken both day tour and would recommend one over the other? I can only join 1 tour and am given a very short time to see highlights of Scotland so I would want it to be the best.

Check out Timberbush Tours for day tours from Edinburgh. They're also small-group, also well-rated. We took a Timberbush tour to St. Andrews and the East Neuk coast.

Great idea Mimar. Timberbush is as good as Rabbies - I haven't looked but they probably have a similar tour to Rabbies' West Highland Lochs & Castles with seats available. (most of the two company's tours are similar)

good idea. I check Timberbush and they have slots for the West Highland Locks & Castles tour at a lower price (due to more than 16 pax capacity I suppose). Hoping that the odds are in our favor and its a sunny day when we visit the Highlands. Thanks for all your helpful input.