We are arriving in London by Cruise Ship and wish to visit Scotland, France , Italy and ?
We have nine days befor catching a cruise back to the US. We don't fly so need to do this by train. Is it possible to find hotels in each city and then go on to the next by train and how to do this?

Thanks.

you have <u><B>nine days</B></u> -- it would be nearly impossible to visit those 4 countries in 9 days flying - and absolutely impossible by train. I suggest you first look at a map of Europe. London to Scotland to France to Italy to somewhere and back to London to catch your cruise back across the Atlantic. Well, you <i>could</i> but all you'd see are the insides of trains and train stations and you'd have to sleep on the trains as well.

Totally out of the question. Sorry -

Even Scotland and France would be REALLY crazy by train in 9 days.

I think you should go back to the drawing board and re-think what you hope to see/do. Your best bet would be to <u>either</u> do some of France/Paris - or - a bit of England and Scotland.

absolutely. you would be hard pressed for time and if anything ends up cancelled or delayed your entire trip is put in jeopardy.

if you have 9 days you could take the eurostar to Paris and spend a week in and around the area. come back to London to relax for a day before hopping on your ship again.

i would reckon you would see more of Scotland in a week than of France, so that could be a slightly better option but thats just me...

Where does your first cruise end, and where does the trip home embark? The feasibility of any tour you might contemplate depends on where those ports are.

The four-country itinerary you propose is impossible, regardless of where the ship(s) land - but one or two countries might work.

Find hotels in each city? Of course, there are hotels in most cities.
Travel to next city by train? Most likely. You can get to most cities by train.

Now for the how question, go to this site and compute trip times. Even though it is a German train site, it can tell you most European train schedule.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/que...ewrequest=yes&

Are there too much or too little time? Only you can answer this. If you are a train nut, it is possible that this kind of trip meets your need. If you are stay-in-one-place-and-relax type, this type of travel is not for you.

Take a look at the map of Europe. The countries you mentioned are quite far apart.

I know a couple whose itinerary will be considered insane by most posters here. He drives from morning to evening staying in different city each night for one night. He is happy as a clam. That is his style of travel. I don't travel with them.

I won't do it, but it's not impossible.

Day 1 - Day train London to Edinburgh.
Day 2 - Tour area around Edinburgh. Night train back to London.
Day 3 - Eurostar to Paris.
Day 4 - Paris. Night train to Rome.
Day 5 - Rome.
Day 6 - Rome (or elsewhere in Italy). Night train back to Paris.
Day 7 - Paris.
Day 8 - Eurostar back to London.
Day 9 - Depart London.

Give or take. If those are the place the OP want to go, it's definitely possible.

It's possible but whether you'd find it enjoyable is up to you to decide.

I do think some people over-do the 'you mustn't move around too much'. Even if you decide not to go for all four, it is absolutely feasible to have a nice trip visiting, say, Scotland and France. It is not compulsory for everyone to spend a week in each place just because other posters prefer to travel that way. With 9 days, you can very comfortably fit in 2 destinations. With a bit of an effort 3. And with real determination, 4.

I think your idea's nuts.

But being nuts is a fundamental human right - though I'm not sure asking "is it possible to find hotels in each city?" is. You clearly don't mean something as silly as that: so why not ask whatever it is you really want to know?

Two important tools:
1. Find out where your ships are arriving and departing from. There are virtually no cruise ships into or out of London. and if you really want to do all this in 9 days, your planning has to start with working out how much of those 9 days will be taken up getting to and from London
2. The German railways site assumes some basic understanding of geography it sounds as if you lack, and is so misleading about train prices in Britain it can easily frighten you off a simple London-Edinburgh trip. http://www.seat61.com/ explains how international trains work (with sample timings and costings), assuming you're starting off from London. www.nationalrail.co.uk gives much more accurate pricing information about trains inside the UK (feed in a departure date 2-3 months from today, then play with times to and from Edinburgh to see how prices vary)

It CAN be done by air but what really MATTERS is where you want to go in each of these countries and how long you plan to stay.

Getting from a cruise ship (Tilbury???) to London doesn't take ALL day

Dukey: "<i>It CAN be done by air </i>" The OP made it really clear up front - they do not fly. so it has to be by train/road.

If cut out Edinburgh then you could do London to Paris via the Eurostar - spend three days there or so and hop the Artesia overnight train to Florence and spend a few days there and then go onto Rome for three days and then hop the overnight train back to Paris and Eurostar train back to London on day nine.

www.voyages-sncf.com has some great advance fares for the Artesia overnight trains and for the eurostar train to Paris book NOW for the cheapest fares as they have an airline type fare structure - just show up and pay loads more. The site flanner.uk mentioned - www.seat61.com gives you a good rundown on lots of things about European trains, from seating charts to train make-ups - two other sites i always recommend are www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com. If not wishing to negotiate the often fickle www.voyages-sncf.com site you may opt for the France-Italy railpass - sold only outside of Europe and then pay extra for the sleeping accommodations of your choice - the pass pays the train fare. With the pass there is also a good deal passholder fare on the Eurostar.

But doing Edinburgh as well, even for me, is too much to ponder.

Or do Edinburgh and go over to Paris and back and skip Italy this time. Like flanner.uk says www.nationalrail.co.uk has some great discount fares for London-Edinburgh - yet others have said they were rarely available when the wanted to travel so again book early. But if just going up to Edinburgh and back then consider the 4-day consecutive BritRail Pass which allows you to travel on any train any time - no advance planning needed and could be cheaper than if you just buy tickets at the station - and with this you could stop off at York en route from Scotland - not sure you can break your journey on the online discount tickets. BritRail Passes not sold at stations in Britain as Brits can't use them (with the exception of the free companion pass whereby a Brit gets a free pass to match the pass that visitors to Britain buy)

I like to travel at a pretty quick pace, but that plan would drive me crazy. However, if you're dead set on it, rkkwan has provided you a doable itinerary.

My preference: You can easily get to both Edinburgh and Paris from London via train (although as flanner pointed out, it's unlikely that your cruise ship is traveling up the Thames, so knowing where exactly your cruise ends is extremely important). IF you have nine full days to travel before going home, you could do:

- Day 1: train to Edinburgh
- Days 2-3: Edinburgh/surrounding area
- Day 4: train to London
- Day 5: train to Paris
- Days 6-7: Paris
- Day 8: train to London
- Day 9: London

Or, if you have already been to London or don't care to see more than train stations, stay an extra day in Paris.

If your nine days includes the final day of your cruise and your day to travel home, you could do this:
- Day 1 (last day of cruise): get to London (or not, depending on how complex it is to get to Edinburgh from wherever you are)
- Day 2: train to Edinburgh
- Day 3: Edinburgh
- Day 4: train to London
- Day 5: train to Paris
- Day 6-7: Paris
- Day 8: train to London
- Day 9: go home

For what it's worth, I had no problems booking train tickets from Edinburgh to London, and if you book in advance I personally see no need for a BritRail pass. But if Palenque has sold you on this idea of York, it appears the "Anytime" fare will allow you to break your journey. (I haven't used that particular fare.) So you could look into the price difference between that and a BritRail pass.

One of our Scottish FodorFriends says she can never get one of those cheap Scotland-London fares when she wants to travel so they are not always available i guess.

And on another thread folks have said they could not get the cheaper fares for the trains they wanted.

but make it clear nationalrail.co.uk has all the prices and conditions so it all easy to compare.

the beauty of the pass is you just go to the station and hop on any train any time - no restrictions - no advance purchase (some discount fares can be bought at the station however)

I need to investigate the anytime fare - if it is completely unrestricted as you say then it's as good as a pass for flexibility - like if stopping off in York and you do not know how long you want to stop there.

a 3-day consecutive BritRail Pass is $199 so it seems that the anytime fare could be the best if it is fully flexible - i'll have to take a better look.

But for groups of 3 or more the Party Pass lets the 3rd thru 9th people on the same pass pay just 50% of what the first two do - or $100 - so more than two people will find the pass a better deal than less than 3

as will families as each kid under 16 gets a free pass to match what the adult gets. (One kid per adult however)

Q - what is the difference between the anytime fare and a fully flexible ticket - seems none but price - but seems there must be some difference?

Hi K,

You have 9 days and you don't fly.

I suggest Scotland and Wales.

Have you considered spending a little time in London?

Pal - it seems as though the UK fare types have changed names recently (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_...ple_fares.html). So maybe "Anytime" is the new "Fully Flexible"? I'm not sure. Hopefully someone will chime in with more information; it's been a bit since I used the site to actually get tickets, and even then I always got the advance fares.