We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Royal Mile in Edinburgh. It is a block off the Royal Mile, had a good breakfast, and suited us very well.

This may be a bit late, since you seem to have an idea of your itinerary, but I just wanted to second Morgana's suggestion of driving between York and Edinburgh. In fact, I would skip the Cotswolds altogether and opt for more time between Edinburgh and York. The scenery is spectacular and there are numerous impressive castles and abbeys. Having lived in Warwickshire for 4 years (near the Cotswolds) I was never clear why they are so popular. The villages look charming, but there is not that much to do (in my opinion). I was much more impressed touring around Newcastle, warkworth, alnwick, bamburgh, dunstanburgh, jedburgh, and edinburgh. Also the Roman wall is nice. That will be plenty of countryside for you to discover.

Another note re: food - you won't have any problem finding good vegetarian dishes. Tea rooms often offer light meals.

I'm going to throw a spanner in the works. Seeing that "She is the history fanatic, especially interested in all things medieval, castles, architectural history, the Celtic culture, medieval churches and castles, etc." I am wondering if the Cotswolds is the best place to do this. Sure it's lovely countryside and there are some lovely old churches but you're not going to get the medieval castles, architectural history or Celtic cutlture - mind you that is difficult unless you head for Wales.

My suggestion is to skip the Cotswolds and spend a few days in the North York Moors after York. There is superb scenery and the villages are the equal of many in the Cotswolds but without the pressure of visitors. Think Hutton le Hole with the stream down the centre of the village.

There are ruined castles at Helmsley, Pickering and Scarborough as well as splendid stately homes like Castle Howard. Smaller but still worth seeing are Hovingham Hall amd Scampston with its walled garden. Ruined abbeys include Rievaulx, Byland, Mount Grace, Whitby and Kirkham Priory. There are some lovely old churches, including Lastingham, founded by the Celtic saint St Cedd, which has a Norman crypt. The church in Barton le Street has some of the best Norman carving and there is the delightful Kirdale Minster with its thousand year old sundial above the door...

If you are wanting a hotel, think about the Black Swan in the centre of Helmesley.
http://www.blackswan-helmsley.co.uk/
Failing that, we can recommend High Farm B&B in Cropton.
http://www.highfarmcropton.co.uk/
The tea with homemade cakes on arrival is defnitley recommended!

Hello everyone, Being that our trip is over a year away, it is far from set, so thank you so much for giving us more to consider. I guess we had the Cotswolds as a definite extended destination because of the chance to see the quaintness of the thatched roofs, etc. not knowing about the other possibilities.

I am looking at the May 2016 calendar and am thinking about flying out Tuesday May 17 (I've read airfare is better on Tues. or Wed. We'd most likely be leaving from DC airports). Then return on Wed. June 1, so that would give us 14 days on the ground.

Last night I began to wonder, should we start in London and then move north? Since there is so much to see there and we will be filled with excitement, should we begin there and then move to see the countryside, churches, castles later into the trip?

I am sending her your reply ESW so she can look into these places and see what she thinks. (and hope her online "drooling" doesn't interfere with her studies! :)) If anyone would like to propose other options, keeping in mind we do love cottages and thatched roofs as much as mediveal castles and churches, that would be awesome! Thanks again everyone!

Let me know if she wants any more detail about any of these places.

After going through some searches and reading more thoroughly about what you all have suggested in the past, especially given my daughter's interests in all things medieval, what do you think about this newest alteration?

Fly into London- 6 full days- including maybe a day trip to a place like Hampton court or Windsor Castle and one to the Cotswolds?

Train to York- 2 days there in the city and then hire a car and drive for a couple of days toward Edinburgh through Northumberland to see Lindesfarne, Hadrian's wall, etc.

Edinburgh- Drop off car and spend 4 days with one day tour of the Highlands.

Thoughts?

I'm also going to be heading to B&N's travel section soon to get more of a feel for all of the lovely places you are describing! You have such a rich and wonderful country; we both said there is just so much to see! Especially for a young person who is so enthralled with British history!

>>drive for a couple of days toward Edinburgh through Northumberland to see Lindesfarne, Hadrian's wall, etc.

have a read of this NYT article about north east England

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/tr...northeast.html

End of May would be a perfect time to visit the Farne Islands to get up close to nesting puffins and terns. (Wear hats, the terns draw blood, I speak from painful personal experience).

sofarsogood Thanks for the link to the NY times article on Durham, Newcastle, etc. A quick question....perhaps I should start a new post, but here goes:
What is the best airport to use to get to the Durham area? I will be leaving from California. I expect there are NO direct flights to this area, but would like to avoid Heathrow, which I consider one of Dante's Hells, if possible and practical. If too costly or bothersome going to another airport, I will bite the bullet and go to Heathrow, but hate it. Thoughts on Edinburgh airport. Manchester, other???

I suggest that you investigate the options of an open jaw flight KandKsmom - in to a Scottish airport, back out of a London airport. You'll save some travelling time that way, which would give you some more exploring time.

ayemimi2007: If you can fly to Edinburgh, get the train down to Durham - it's a beautiful journey and only takes a couple of hours. Glasgow and Manchester are better served by international flights than Edinburgh - use www.thetrainline.com to check on rough timings/frequency of trains to Durham.

Before commiting yourself to a trip to Lindisfarne, Holy Island CHECK OUT the tide times. The island is reached by a tidal causeway and crossing times are limited. See here for full details of crossing times for May 2016.
http://orawww.northumberland.gov.uk/...nd.asp?dt=0516

Ignore safe crossing times at your peril as the tide comes in quickly here and every year cars get stranded by the incoming tide. A refuge is provided on the causeway for their passengers.

On the way north, don't miss Durham with its magnificent Norman Castle and Cathedral towering over the banks of the River Wear.

As well as Hadrian's Wall, think about on Alnwick Castle, one of the great medieval castles still lived in. It also has an amazing garden. For a ruined castle, there is Warkworth close by which is one of the best ruined castles in the north east.

If you are wanting B&B, we can recommend Hall Meadows in Haltwhistle which is in the heart of Hadrian Wall country.
http://www.accommodationinhaltwhistle.co.uk/index.html

Thanks Grindeldoo..Thinking about flying into Glasgow, bus to Glasgow train station, train to Edinburgh..on to Durham. May be slightly more $$$ than Heathrow, but then getting to whatever station in central London (Kings cross?) has the train up to Durham, would involve so much bother it might be worth what ever extra it costs.. Thanks for www.thetrainline.com link. Will study more.

>>What is the best airport to use to get to the Durham area?

Durham Tees Valley (very small) and Newcastle are the two closest airports. Manchester is the largest airport in the north of England, though non offer direct flights from California. You would need to fly to a hub airport such as Amsterdam, Paris or Heathrow and take an easy connecting flight.

Alternatively, there are direct flights from New York to Manchester and Newcastle.

Play around with around with kayak.com for options of flying into one city and out of another.

Good ideas, sofarsogood, about NY to Manchester or Newcastle. Wouldn't mind changing planes in NY. Will check out kayak.com...haven't looked at that site in a long time. I have missed connecting flights from Heathrow in the past, due to crowds, inefficient or busy customs, security checks, so won't try a connecting flight from there, but still open to using Heathrow, if needs must, and spending a day or two in London. choices, choices, choices. Thanks for the suggestions and ideas.

So, after looking at our budget and realizing that we need to narrow our original plan, we are going to, for this trip, stick with London and York and save driving to and staying in Edinburgh for another time. (I am keeping a folder with all of the great advice you gave me about the drive from York to Edinburgh, though!)

We want to have time to do a day trip to the Cotswolds, see Hampton Court, and Windsor Castle. Also, on our hope to do lists are: Globe Theater tour, London Eye, Tower of London, the British Library, British Museum, St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hampstead Heath, a market, visit the parks, Imperial War Museum,Victoria and Albert Museum......

Then there's York. My daughter wants to spend at least a full day and maybe two, so we will want to spend the night. My question is, would it be better to fly into LHR from WAS airports and then immediately go to York by train, do our 1.5- 2 days there, then train back to London for the 6-7 days or start in London first, train to York and come back to fly out of LHR? Is there any advantage of doing before the other?

Thank you all for being so patient as we sort through our plans! And for the wonderful advice you constantly are providing everyone here on the forum!

The 'best' would be to fly in to MAN and home from LHR (or vice versa)

Fly into MAN , train to York, train to London, fly home from LHR. But if you must R-T in/out of London you'll want to do York first so you don't have to dash back to catch a flight.

The problem is there are no trains from LHR to anywhere but Paddington. It is a slog after an overnight flight to travel across London to Kings Cross to catch a train to York. Traveling up to York will add another 4-5 hours to your travel day.

Thanks janis,

I thought about the option of flying into Manchester. Would an open jaw (is that what it would be called?) ticket like that cost a great deal more do you think? I don't want to have jet lag and travel exhaustion put a damper on our trip. I'll look into that suggestion.

Yes, open jaw or often 'multi-city'on the airline/booking sites.

Shouldn't cost much/any more but sometimes it does. Check your specific dats because fares do vary quite a bit.

Having given some thought to your itinerary, here are a few ideas, which come to mind. If you fly into Edinburgh, after visiting the city and is sights, how about taking the A1 (the Great North Road) to London. The longest road in the UK at 400 miles and parts dating to Roman times. From Edinburgh it runs along the coast passing at Torness an atomic power station. and then views of Lindisfarne, as has already been mentioned. By-pass Newcastle upon Tyne, and there on the hill above Gateshead is the 'Angel of the North', by Anthony Gormley. The next city of interest is the medieval city of Durham, with its fantastic Cathedral, dating from 1093, rising up above the city.
(An alternate route from Edinburgh is to take one of the roads through the Scottish Borders (A7, or A68), visiting Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott, and Hadrian's Wall at Corby or Hexham, and then travelling east to the A1).
The next city of interest is York with many interesting historical remains and dominated by York Minster, one of the world's greatest churches, one of the largest in northern Europe. A wooden building, now long gone was said too have been built in 637.
The road south from York is not very interesting, until one comes to Peterborough with its 12th century cathedral, though the earliest records date from the 7th century. The cathedral claims to be one of the top 10 UK landmarks. (I cannot discover which are the other nine!).
The A1 divides soon after Peterborough, the A1 going directly to London, the A14, then M11 going to Cambridge, and then onto London.
Cambridge must not be missed, the home of one of the world's top universities, (ranked 3rd, after CalTech and Harvard), where the structure of DNA was discovered, and Isaaac Newton worked.. Of many fine buildings, the Chapel of King's College ranks as one of the world's top medieval churches. Interestingly it is owned by the Provost and Fellows (academic teachers) of the college. Glorious stained glass windows, and yet with a human touch, the President's choir stall carved with the initials of King Henry VIII and those of his Queen, Anne Boleyn.
From Cambridge, to London, I won’t suggest what you see in London, far too many things. If you don't want to drive the 400 miles from Edinburgh to London, the train stops at Durham, York and Peterborough. From Peterborough you can go by train to Cambridge, and then on to London. You won’t need a car in London. If you want to visit the Cotswolds, I suggest you take the train to Oxford (just a hour), and visit the University there, dating from the 9th century, and number 5 in the world university rankings, number 4, between Oxford and Cambridge, is Stanford in California. In Oxford there are buildings from the 10th to the 20th C. My favourite colleges are Christchurch and St Catherine's. If you visit either Oxford or Cambridge, don't ask where the university is. The various colleges, departments and libraries, which make up the universities, are spread all over the two cities. If you were to hire a car in Oxford, it is only a short drive to the Cotswolds. On the way stop at Blenheim Palace, home of the Dukes of Marlborough, and birthplace of Winston Churchill. You will have to decide for yourselves which of the many villages in the Cotswolds to visit, and on the western edges are the magnificent cathedrals of Worcester and Gloucester and Tewkesbury Abbey, also Malvern the home of the composer Sir Edward Elgar.
Obviously, there are lots of other places you could visit, but I give what is my selection (Based on being a graduate of Oxford, now on the faculty of Cambridge, and in the past Edinburgh and London Universities and once even of Stanford University in California), I have put in italics those places you can find on Wikipedia, and get more information, to help you choose.