Hello,
I am planning my first trip to Scotland and England and would like to get your thoughts please. We are a couple in our 40s and have visited other parts of Europe extensively. My husband is a good/ experienced driver for long distance and drove often in France. We will rent a car from Edinburgh.
I know our plan is quite packed due to time limitation but we hope to enjoy the scenery.
Day 1 Arrive in Edinburgh (4pm)
Day 2 Explore Edinburgh
Day 3 Drive to Isle of Skye via Stirling (visit Castle&Wallace Moment/ Stirling Castle)
Stay in Portree
Day 4 Day trips in Skye
Stay in Portree
Day 5 Leave Portree to Lakes District (via fort William, Glencoe, Loch Lomond) lunch@ Fort William
Stay at Keswick
Day 6 Explore Lake District
Heading to Oxford
Day 7 Explore Oxford
Day 8 Visit Stonehenge, lunch at Salisbury
Stay in London
Day 9-10 London
Day 11 fly out

I am not quite sure about my Day5 if it's too much and if we will have a few hours to enjoy Loch Lomond. I can alter my itinerary to other suggested stopovers as long as it fits in the timeframe.
Thanks for your thoughts.

Sorry -- you need to get back to the drawing board.

Day three is crazy making. Just the drive will take about 7 hours plus stops. 2 or 3 hours at Stirling Castle, a few minutes at the Wallace monument, and at least an hour at Glencoe . . . and you are talking an 11+hour day

Then day five is about 8 hours butt-in-seat drive without a single stop.

Keswick to Oxford will take at least 5.5 hours and only if you are very lucky w/ traffic.

You are REALLY trying to bite off too much in too little time. This is a 2.5 to 3 week itinerary squeezed in to 10 days.

Think about it - you will have one day on Skye sandwiched by more that 20 hours on the road.

Your husband may well be an experienced driver in France, but Scotland is not France. You really do have too much on your plate even for those who like fast paced travel.

Thanks all. I was thinking of removing Skye but find it very hard to do as I really wish to visit there. If I have to drop it, any suggested place instead?

The idea is to eliminate not add to your itinerary.

Thanks historytraveler, I kept embracing the more the merrier idea - so wrong here! �� I like scenic drive and not sure by cutting Skye, how other places will be like. Skye looks wonderful from my research.

Skye is wonderful but so are many other places. I've traveled through put most of Scotland except for the far northwest, and I'd be hard put to name my favorite spot.

You have 10 nights/9 days free (plus a few jet lagged hours in Edinburgh day 1) -- 9 days is simply not enough time for half of what you want.

So -- 9.5 days: Fly into Edinburgh, 2 nights. Drive to Skye stopping one night in maybe Glencoe - visiting Stirling en route. minimum of 2 nights on Skye, 3 would be better. That is 6 nights.

Drive to either Inverness or Glasgow, fly down to London. Stay in London 4 nights - fly home. If you must, you can do a day trip to Salisbury/Stonehenge by train from London.

OR -- Arrive in Edinburgh -- 2 nights. Train to the Lake District -- 2 nights. Train to Oxford, stay 2 nights. On leaving Oxford collect a rental car and see a bit of the southern Cotswolds and on to Stonehenge/Salisbury. 1 night. drive to LHR, drop car and into London for 3 nights.

OR -- Edinburgh 3 nights w/ a day trip w/ Rabbies into the highlands. Train to London. Stay a week w/ two day trips, one to Oxford and one to Salisbury/Stonehenge. No car for this version.

I'd certainly do the bit after Keswick by train. Relatively easy and it will save you visiting the best bits of the UK's motorway system and the wonderful rest areas.

Cull Skye. There was a link to best UK drives in one of the threads yesterday, google it and see if you can fit into this tour instead.

It's not clear to me exactly <i>when</i> this trip is taking place, but I'm assuming it's in the May-September timeframe. And from your other posts it sounds like you're Aussies, so long drives and driving on the left shouldn't be challenging.

My impression of your original itinerary is that you're packing in too many road hours vs. the sights and activities that you'll experience during the stops, and second - if I'm right about the time frame - you're hitting these places at the height of the tourist season, with associated problems like accommodation, congestion on narrow country roads (yes, even in rural Scotland) and other things that can detract from your enjoyment.

Let me suggest a possible re-working of your itinerary that substitutes a couple of places for others and <i>might</i> also reduce the length of time on the road and lessen battles with crowds.

Here's a map - https://goo.gl/maps/gkBaxoPQ8912 - that shows the following:

- Drop Skye and Wester Ross, and substitute Argyll.
- Stop in Dumfries and read poetry to each other.
- Drop Salisbury and Stonehenge and substitute the Welsh Borders and the Cotswolds.

Reasoning: Skye is beautiful but it's a long schlep from Edinburgh, and travel <i>on</i> Skye is anything but speedy. If you had several days to include exploring Skye and - IMO more valuable - the nearby "mainland" areas like Morar or Loch Carron or Applecross - well, then, worth the effort. But you don't.

So instead I'd recommend an alternative route that also provides a "twofer" - prehistoric monuments and standing stones that are infinitely more accessible, and in far more romantic setting, than the parked coaches and queues of people at Stonehenge, and a trip through the lovely Welsh Marches en route to the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire.

From Edinburgh drive to Glen Coe via Stirling (to me basically a drive-by unless you have time to march through Stirling Castle, which you don't.) But then instead of Skye, turn left at the bottom of the glen and head south along the coast toward Oban.

Now Oban itself is pretty congested in the summer, but it has the advantage of LOTS of accommodations, and it's in an area where there are other villages or farms, etc., offering farmstay or B&B lodging.

Then here's the twofer. Less than an hour down the road from Oban is the tiny village of Kilmartin, set on a hillside overlooking Kilmartin Glen. The valley floor in front of the Kilmartin church (which has a collection of amazing carved grave slabs) is <i>littered</i> with numerous prehistoric sites - standing stones, stone circles, burial cairns... it's really remarkable and - to me at least - speaks far more about the antiquity of these places than other or more popular sites such as Stonehenge. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...tin/kilmartin/

Anyway, you'd then continue down to Loch Fyne and up to Inveraray, a picturesque little village and home to impressive (a bit grandiose) Inveraray Castle, home of the Campbells.

In my opinion this loop around Argyll is every bit as evocative as farther north - mountains, lochs, castles, ancient history... But it's more accessible and a bit off the beaten path by comparison.

From Inveraray, you go past Loch Lomond and through the Glasgow area to your next stopping point, Dumfries.

Dumfries is under the radar of most overseas visitors to Scotland except lovers of Robert Burns, and even they don't go there much. That's a shame, because it's a nice wee town with a lot of history, and if you're driving south to England it's a very short detour off the M74. It's affordable and easy to get around, have a pint at the Globe Tavern (Burns' hangout, a little touristy but fun) and the next morning it will be a very quick ride to the Lakes.

Expect crowds in the Lake District - it's inevitable - but then head south to and through the Welsh Borders region - Shropshire and Herefordshire. This is some of the most attractive country in England, with marvelous Hereford Cathedral and lovely little towns like Leominster. It's great "driving around" country and again, not too far off the main routes.

I'd then travel to Oxford via the Cotswolds - numerous gorgeous little villages - and end at Heathrow airport.

I haven't put together a detailed day-by-day plan for you, but the times on the Google map won't be off by a huge amount (traffic and road works can slow things down). I'm certain this is doable in the time you have.

Just a suggestion.

great advice above but,,,, don't trust google maps for time, use via michelin or the aa websites

>>use via michelin or the aa websites<< . . . they are definitely better but even on those sites you need to add 25% - 50%+ to the drive times.

Gardyloo's itinerary is definitely doable as a 9 day trip - IF you don't spend any time in either Edinburgh or London. It would only work if the two cities don't figure in your plans (other than your arrival night in Edinburgh) . But it would be mostly one night stops and could be awfully tiring IMO. And the calculated '17 hr 15 mins' drive time (!) - nope . . . .

I agree my route is more than 17 hours; I've found Google to be on and off in the UK, but my imaginary route wouldn't entail any super-long road days. Plus which, I'm imagining that driving around the Highlands or Lake District is more about the roadside views than spending too much time visiting the towns along the way.

Here's a run at overnight stops - top of the head stuff to be sure, but if it IS in May-September, daylight will be long and there would be ample time in the days/evenings to walk around, get meals, etc.

Night
1 Edinburgh
2 Oban (drive time ~4-5 hours)
3 Inveraray (drive time 2 - 3 hours)
4 Dumfries (drive time 3 hours)
5 Kendal (via Keswick, drive time ~ 4-5 hours)
6 Shrewsbury (or other Shropshire place, drive time ~4 hours)
7 Stroud (could be anywhere in the area, ~ 3-4 hours)
8 London (Heathrow for car drop via Oxford, drive time ~ 3 hours)
9 London
10 London

This adds a "buffer" night compared to the OP's plan, and I don't think any one day is over the top for Aussies.

DA*N site won't let me post so I'll have to do this in bits . . . grr>>8 London (Heathrow for car drop via Oxford, drive time ~ 3 hours)<<

Driving into Oxford - heck even the locals don't do that unless they absolutely must. They drive to the park and ride lots, and then take a bus into the city. This day would be easily 5 hours just transit.

It is MUCH slower and there is too much to see/do to whiz through places like that. the routes you pinpointed are VERY 'scenery-dense'. This doesn't leave much time to explore/wander/walk.

You and I could do it for sure -- but we've both been many (MANY) times and have visited most areas, so skipping through just to get to the next stop might not be that big a deal.

If one wants primarily a road trip this works. I do road trips all the time. But in Scotland, Wales and England there is just too much to see and do in a small area to pack and move every day.

The way Aussies and Yanks travel in their own back yards doesn't really translate IMO and IME to touring in the UK.

<i>... so skipping through just to get to the next stop might not be that big a deal.</i>

But what if the "skipping" is the main point? I'm not trying to be provocative. My "drive times" are wheels turning in a car, and don't include things like navigating Oxford or stopping for lunch in Ambleside, or taking a selfie at Inveraray Castle like you're Lord Grantham visiting Shrimpy. I'd fully expect that driving from the Cotswolds to Heathrow via Oxford is an all-day affair once everything is added up.

And yeah, including Edinburgh, the Highlands and Dumfries, the Lakes, Welsh Marches, Cotswolds and Oxford in little more than a week is definitely high-speed touring. If that's okay with the OP, it's okay with me. Remember this from the OP - <i>We are a couple in our 40s and have visited other parts of Europe extensively. My husband is a good/ experienced driver for long distance and drove often in France.</i> Doesn't sound like they're newbies, and I don't think driving in the UK is fundamentally different than it is in France.