thatgirl74

You will ALL be happy to know that after talking with my husband last night, we have decided to ONLY visit England! We will save Ireland and Scotland for next year. I didn't mean to cause such a stir amongst everyone. As for my kids/family we have done plenty of travelling from driving across country, to car trips/train trips/flights/etc through Europe and US. Anyways, we are going to focus on England. London was our initial priority. Then my husband started talking about Ireland and it turned into a whirlwind tour of all 3. But we will now spend half the trip in London and the other half visiting Stonehenge/Bath/Salisbury and I'm going to look for some stuff to do North of London. We would still like to stay in a castle and some B&Bs, and we will still be using public transportation. So if you have any recommendations for England, I'd be glad to hear them. I have done PLENTY of research on London. It's the rest of England I have to check out now! Thank you again everyone.

noe847

Hi thatgirl, I sure hope you don't feel badgered. Your family will have a great time in England this year, and in future trips to Ireland and to Scotland in future ones.

Here's a gentle suggestion: Start a new thread for your England question - with a new title specific to your new focus, and I'll bet you get some great replies.

I know that you have done your London research, but I thought I'd include this link that contains an exhaustive post by Ben Haines about children/families in London:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...2&tid=34774808

Have fun!

david_west

I hope that you don't feel too brow-beaten, but you have made a sensible choice.

You want to stay in a castle? Here's a list.....

http://www.historic-uk.com/StayUK/Ca...20in%20England

Have you given any more thought to what you want to do in England?

thatgirl74

Try as I might, I keep leaning towards some sites in Scotland. I can't help wanting to wander through Edinburgh with all the festivals. I have worked and reworked on our itinerary. Here's what I have now... does this look doable?


Day 1- Fly into London in the morning(we're flying from Frankfurt, so it's not a HUGE trip or anything). Then take a train to Warwick Castle for the day. Take an overnight train to Edinburgh.

Day 2 & 3 - Spend the day in Edinburgh, see the castle, maybe some shows for the kids at the Fringe Fest. Retreat to a B&B or Castle hotel outside of Edinburgh.

Day 4 - Check out of Edinburgh in the morn, take train to Inverness (hoping it'll be a pretty ride through Scotland). Once in Inverness, hop aboard a cruise on the Loch Ness (we just cant resist the "Loch Ness Monster"). Spend the rest of day in Inverness. Take an overnight train to Bath/Salisbury/Stonehenge.

Day 5 - Spend the day in Salisbury/Bath/Stonehenge. We would like to get inner circle access through that world heritage site. Has anyone done that? Have any tips? Then we stay overnight at a B&B somewhere in this area.

Day 6 - Train to London. Spend the rest of our vacation 3-5 days here.

Day ?? - Fly home!

I'd like to see more of England, but I really don't know where to go or how to fit it in. My husband mentioned Canterbury. Is there anything worth seeing there? What about Notting Hill? I'm not sure how long we'll spend at Warwick Castle, but if we have extra time, I'd like to go somewhere else in the nearby area (stratford upon avon, liverpool, manchester, notting hill, etc). Any suggestions?I've been searching the message boards all day!

david_west

Without wanting to sound like I¡¦m jumping on your case, you are still making the same mistakes. You are starting out in SE England, going all the way to Northern Scotland and then back down to Southern England.

You could do most of what you want but you should think about organising it so you do the English stuff then Scotland.

I fairly certain there is no sleeper from Scotland to Wiltshire ļ

annettetx

It's so tempting to want to see EVERYTHING, isn't it? I have the same issue of getting a bit manic on vacations and trying to see as much as humanly possible!

In 2003, we spent 13 days (including travel to and from) in England and Scotland divided this way:
Day 1 -- Travel to London
Day 2-5 -- London
Day 6 -- London during the day, travel on overnight train to Inverness
Day 7 -- Arrive Inverness; hire a car and drive to Edinburgh, stopping at Culloden, Duffus Castle, Lossiemouth, and Glenfiddich on the way
Day 8 -- Edinburgh; we spent the entire day at Edinburgh Castle and walking the Royal Mile
Day 9 -- Drive to York via Melrose Abbey and Hadrian's Wall
Day 10 -- Spent the entire day in York
Day 11 -- Drove to London via Triangular Lodge and Oxford
Day 12 -- London
Day 13 -- fly home

My advice would be to avoid bactracking, which is why we took the train as far north as we wanted to go, and then worked our way south.
Canterbury has the Cathedral, but it's not really on your beaten path. If you want to see something else outside of London, I'd pick a place somewhere between London, Inverness, and Bath instead of adding a totally new direction to your itinerary.

Enjoy!
Annette

thatgirl74

The reason I chose that path was 1) Flying into London is MUCH cheaper than flying into/out of Scotland. 2) We will have rail passes, so we can save 2 nights of hotels costs by taking the overnight train. I'm not really sure how else to rearrange the trip. I thought I was doing good. I suppose it's at least a little better than my 3 country tour!

Would this option be better?

1) Fly to London. London for 4-5 days. Train to Stonehenge/Bath/Salisbury.

2) Overnight in Bath/Salisbury

3) Train to Edinburgh. Stay 2 nights.

4) Train to Inverness, cruise the Loch Ness.

5) Fly home from Glasgow?
Could we add the Eilean Donan Castle into that itinerary or would that just be crazy?

historytraveler

Once again logistics are a problem. There is no over night train that I know of from Warwick to Edinburgh. As David has also pointed out there is no sleeper from Edinburgh to Wiltshire.

Notting Hill is an area in London. A good place to stay except when the Carnival is on which is sometime at the end of August.

If you must go to Edinburgh, I'd advise going via York. It's doubtful you'll find any accommendation even outside of Edinburgh at this late date. There are a couple of castles (Dalhousie & Borthwick) nearby, but they are probably fully booked. If you spent the night in York you could get an early train to Edinburgh, spend a bit of time there and then a sleeper to Inverness.

For Bath/Stonehenge/Salisbury your best bet would be to do a day trip from London ,if nothing more to cut down on all your traveling time.

historytraveler

Just read your last post. Comments:

1) I'd still recommend a day trip to Bath/Stonehenge/Salisbury.

2) You'll have to go back to London to catch the train to Einburgh.

3)I'd see if there is anything available near(?) Edinburgh before I made any further plans.

4)You can get a train from Inverness to Glasgow, but you'll need to know flight times as it'll take about 3 1/2 hours to get to Glasgow and then you'll need to take bus/train to airport. You'll need a late flight.

janisj

Here I though we had you convinced - and off you go again

You plans simply don't work - AT ALL. We are not trying to be mean - honest. But if what you want to do can't be done you need to know it.

- We were NOT kidding that it is too late to begin planning a visit to Edinbutgh for this August. Now, if you were talking about a 2007 trip - you'd be fine.

- You want to cover from London to So England to No Scotland - by overnight sleepers where none exist - in 10 days.

- We are telling you - and it is 100% true - there is nothing at Eilean Donan other than a 10 minute photo op.

- You are traveling w/ t very young children and are trying to cover 3 weeks worth of territory in 4 days (I'm not counting your time in London)

-If Scotland is calling to you, and if you can fly home from GLA - why can't you fly in to GLA as well? Skip London and just do Scotland. But you probably won't find rooms in Edinburgh.

Early on you said you know what you want to do in London - I'm afraid to ask . . . .

noe847

My advice is still to skip Scotland for this trip and focus on things closer to London. Way back at the beginning of this thread, Mucky asked (in jest) if you forgot about Wales. You might actually consider Wales as a good combination with London for this trip. You could go to Scotland next year or so when the children would get even more enjoyment from it - and you could arrange for Tattoo tickets when they are available. Anyway, I haven't been to Wales, but I understand that it has millions of castles and it is a lot closer to London.

If you are insistent about Scotland, I'd suggest something like this:

1. Fly to London

2. However many days visiting London, including Salisbury/Stonehenge as a day trip (adding Bath might make for a very long day).

3. Overnight trip to your farthest point north, Inverness.

4. Work your way either all the way back down to London on short hops, or to Glasgow, for your return flight.

Obviously, if you fly back from Glasgow you will have more time to tool around Scotland, if you fly back from London, you can make stops on the way back that include England sights - York would be very logical. Either way, visit Edinburgh as a day trip once or twice from Stirling, Glasgow, or somewhere else in striking distance since lodging in Edinburgh is very tight at this point. Just stay a few hours (makes sense with the ages of your children) and get a flavor of the city's buzz.

In my opinion, Eilean Donan only makes any sense if you are going to Skye, which is a whole 'nother can o' worms (you have no time). I don't know exactly why this castle's pull is so strong for you, but it really isn't that great. Seriously, buy a picture of it and spend your time visiting things that are not so otherwise off your path. There are literally hundreds of other castles in Scotland: http://www.castles.org/Chatelaine/list.htm
Probably the two best castles in the land are in Edinburgh and Stirling.

noe847

Sorry, janisj must have posted while I was busy writing my last reply (I got interrupted a few times while I was typing).

thatgirl74

We are NOT going to Eilean Donan castle. I had eliminated that from the trip itinerary previously. Thank you again for all the advice. We'll see what happens.

noe847

Sorry, thatgirl, but my latest comments about Eilean Donan were responding to the sentence you put after #5 in your most recent post where, after you set forth your proposed intinerary, you said:

"Could we add the Eilean Donan Castle into that itinerary or would that just be crazy?"