Chloe_D

We (my husband, myself and our 18 year old daughter) are now down to our final plans and packing. We leave in one week!!!

Happy to report that we now have all accommodations and travel arrangements finalized. We DID find a B&B in Edinburgh Center and without having to break the bank, just a small crack!

Our 16 day itinerary for England and Scotland is now set:

day 1 - arrive in London and spend 5 days there.
day 6 - take the train to Stratford - on - Avon. We have tickets for Shakespeare theatre and will stay overnight.
day 7 - take train to Oxford. We will be staying at the University in one of the dorms. My daughter made this arrangement since she has her eye on studying at Oxford in a few years (as junior year abroad from her college).
day 8 - train back to London and return to our hotel for another night. A last chance to do all the sightseeing we wished we had done earlier!
day 9 - take the fast train (5 hours) to Glasgow. Pick up our car and drive to our first Inn just south of Fort William.
day 10 - spend the day hiking in fort william and sight seeing in the area.
day 11 - take the Jacobite train - something our daughter really wanted to do. (Actually, my husband as well.) We will drive to Skye in the evening.
day 12 - spend the day exploring Skye.
day 13 - drive north to Inverness area and have a tour at my husband's family "castle"
day 14 - spend the day driving down to Edinburgh and spend two full days and three nights.
day 17 - to Edinburgh Airport to begin our journey back home.

Our time in Scotland will be a lot of driving, but - hopefully we will also have time for exploring as well.

Any thoughts on not-to-miss-places to see in the areas we'll be? What we like - in London history, theatre, gardens, architecture, day trip to Cambridge, etc. In Scotland - the castles, scenery, gardens, history, etc.

Any thoughts on restaurants - we'd like "reasonably" priced places. Reasonably for us means good quality food for low prices.

Any thoughts on special passes, reservations, etc. needed for site seeing? I've read something about the heritage pass, but can't really determine yet the sites it is good for.

Any thoughts on packing for our 16 day trip to London and Scotland regarding weather, versatile items, and general packing tips????

Thank you in advance for all the information.

ms_go

Hi Chloe,

Glad to know you found places to stay.

Re: the passes, here are some sites with info about the Great British Heritage Pass and the Historic Scotland Pass. The GBHP may be better for you since you will be in England and Scotland. I would probably wait until you get there to buy it; locations to do so are on the websites. These websites do provide lists of places that accept the pass, so you can peruse it in advance and decide which is best for you (if any). Finally, I don't think it is advertised on the site, but we purchased a family pass (Historic Scotland) and I'm almost positive they had a similar family pass for the other (it was more expensive and we weren't visiting England on our trip).

http://www.visitbritain.com/world/heritagepass/

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/explorer

sheila

Chloe

to find your previous threads, click on your own name in the header to this post. Et voila!

Chloe_D

ms_go and Sheila -

Thank you so much to both of you for all your advice and information. My daughter and husband give a chuckle when I say "ms_go suggests such and such" or "Sheila suggests such and such" I let them chuckle. I can't tell how much I've gained from your postings. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Sheila from you're postings I am assuming that you are in Scotland. So - how is the weather and any predictions for upcoming weather? I have heard that in the north there are a lot of mosquetos. Is this true?

We are getting very excited now with all the plans in place. On to packing!!!!

sheila

I am in Scotland. Today is warm and dry- so far

Predictions? Who knows? This is not the best summer we have ever had.

We have no mosquitos. Midges, otoh..........

Chloe_D

Sheila -

Thanks for the information - but, what are Midges?? Do they bite, such that we should bring repellant?

Well, with today warm and dry, I'm hoping the weather will be changing. Any chance of that? Would you say it is around 15/21/26 Celsius?

Thanks Sheila. You wrote that you are leaving on Holiday - When will you be going?

janis

don't bring repellant. You may see nary a midge -- or you may see a lot of them. Weather conditions, time of day, location all make a huge difference on the midge front. besides, replelllants you bring from home might not even be effective against the little buggers. So if you do hit midges just buy repellant there.

Chloe_D

janis -

Thanks for the information. Saves me another errand before leaving!

What temerature do you think we should expect? I imagine it is a range - 15-26 Celcius.

Chloe

sheila

If you need stuff, when you get here, buy Autan. The temperature range you're looking at is about right.

Unfortunately that, combined with the raibfall of the last few months, is making the midge count look awesomely awful.

We leave on the 30th for a week

Chloe_D

Sheila -

Thanks for the tip. I'll take the name of Autan with me. Mosquetos usually love me, I'm hoping the midges think differently!

Have a wonderful vacation.
Chloe