kg531

Does anyone know of any good backpackers tours of Scotland that leave from Central London? I figured it might be easier than trying ot get up to Edinburgh on my own. I know of one company I found on the internet ( www.backpackertours.co.uk ) but I haven't seen any comments on them.
I plan on going second half of June. Would ideally like to do a short tour of Stonehenge\Cornwall, and then a 3-5 day tour to Scotland.
Am on a budget, so hostels & backpackers are what I'm looking into.
thanks much

janis

You only want a 3 to 5 day tour of Scotland and yet you want to spend 2 days of that just traveling from and back to London. This isn't very practical. If you go on your own, or even if you find a london-based tour, 3-5 days including R-T transport form London won't give you much time in Scotland. Your best bet by far would be to fly or take the train from London to Edinburgh on your own and hook up w/ a group tour there. If you DID find a tour that included transport up to Edinburgh you would pay a premium - tour companies don't sell transport w/o a certain mark-up.

Your other idea -- Cornwall and Stonehenge is also a bit problematic. Stonehenge is an easy day trip on your own from London via Salisbury. But Cornwall is very far to the southwest. It takes nearly as long to get to Penzance as it does to Edinburgh - sometimes longer. I doubt you'd find a short organized tour that included Stonehenge/Cornwall - just isn't an easy grouping of locations . . . . .

henneth

Try using Road Trip (www.roadtrip.co.uk) for your Stonehenge and Cornwall requirements. They do a tour that combines both places leaving London every Friday and returning Sunday evening.They are geared up to the backpacker market so expect young Kiwis, Aussies and Americans on board. Music, quizes, surfing and a few nights down the pub are often on the itinerary.
There are plenty of backpacker tours of Scotland but either fly up or take the fast train to Edinburgh and pick up the tour there. There's a much better choice of tours departing from Edinburgh, relatively few from London, and none that I know of that head up to Scotland non-stop. Most of them meander through England for a few days first.

kswl

Fly. Ryan air practically pays customers to fly from Stansed to Glasgow. We wanted to see a bit of countryside, so we took the train (from Kings' Cross I think, but this was two trips ago in 02), which was delayed, tiring, boring, and LONG. Flew back and wished we'd done the same on the first leg and not wasted an entire day.

caroline_edinburgh

Try www.flybmi.com - I generally find them cheaper than the supposedly low-cost airlines if you book well in advance, and they leave from Heathrow.