York is a great city too, on the way from London to Edinburgh, lots of history all the way back to the vikings, museum, cathedral, fun historical walking tours along the old wall, good shopping for English woolens. Enjoy planning your trip!

Christmas in London; new Year in edinburgh.

Who could ask for more?

(and I'd travel by train, myself)

obvious.

Stellarosa, what has happened to you during your absence? You now sound like the twin of MK-2.

I was wondering if it actually was stellarosa, or an evil twin ;)

For events in Edinburgh running up to Christmas and New Year respectively, see these 2 websites :-

http://www.edinburghshogmanay.org/

http://www.capitalchristmas.co.uk/

They still basically have last year's listings on them but will give you an idea.

Be warned that contrary to another poster's opinion, it may be very cold in Edinburgh (temperatures around 0 degrees Centigrade or even a bit lower); so, especially if you want to attend outdoor events, you need to wrap up warmly ! (jumper, coat, gloves, scarf, hat) Even if it is comparatively mild it won't be above 10 degrees, so presumably still quite chilly to you.

Hope you have a lovely time, whatever you do.

A poster above mentioned briefly about the short winter days, but I think this should really be emphasized, especially if you go to Scotland. In November and December in the UK days are indeed quite short, you will have days when the sun won’t rise until 8:30 and will be setting by 3:30 pm. Days will be shortest in Scotland in mid-December. The lack of daylight hours may really cut into your sightseeing time unless your children love indoor things like museums. You have to plan your days carefully and do outdoor activities in the middle of the day.

It does of course give you more hours to enjoy things like the Christmas light displays at Harrods, etc, but many people are surprised at how very short the days are as they don’t really how far north the UK is compared to places like the US.

I think that the sleeper train sounds ideal, after boarding the train in London having a sleep and waking up in Edinburgh sounds fine to me, better then checking in luggage at airports etc. At least once on the train thats it done, and if you managed to sleep on the train have a whole day ahead of you to see the sights and do what ever it is that you want to do.

The disadvantages of the sleeper IMO are 1) it gets in c.6am, although you are allowed to stay on board until c.8am - but still far too early to check into your hotel or whatever; and 2) there are no showers. So there you are at 8am in a new city, with all your luggage, unshowered - what do you do ? If you travel first class there are lounges at Edinburgh & Euston which I believe have showers, but otherwise...

As a footnote to this somewhat ghastly thread, when I visited Scotland in May 2006, I took the plane from London to Edinburgh along with my daughter and wife. My in-laws, however, knowing better, decided to take the train.

Guess who arrived hours earlier and not-so-tired?

Silly.