Hi All,

we are planning a 14 days trip to UK in October. Here's how it looks

Day 1 - Arrive in London - visit Tower Bridge, St. Katherine's docks, evening river cruise from Tower Bridge to London Eye. London Eye, Take Westminster Bridge to the other side, dinner somewhere at Covent Garden and call it a night.
Day 2 - Take a Walking Tour and then figure out some spots for night, long exposure photography - such as Wellington Arch.
Day 3 - St James Park, Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret's church. Have kept the evening free, maybe we will go for a theatre performance (Havent decided yet, the prices are too high )
Day 4 - Take a morning train to Moreton in Marsh and take a local guided tour of Cotswolds.return back to London in the evening
Day 5 - London to Brighton (by train) stay in Brighton, explore the beach, colorful huts, the markets, and i360.
Day 6 - Take local bus to Seaford head, enjoy the views of white cliffs, have lunch at Cuckmere Inn and back to Brighton.
Day 7 - Brighton to Cardiff (transport not decided yet, as there are no direct trains), stay in Cardiff, explore the city.
Day 8 - Cardiff Castle, Llandaff Cathedral, the arcades, etc
Day 9 - Cardiff to Edinburgh (Take a flight in most likelihood)
Day 10 Edinburgh (Haven't decided on the things to do yet)
Day 11 Edinburgh to York (by train)
Day 12 York to London - Greenwich or Kensington Palace.
Day 13 London - Borough Market, Shakespeare Globe, St. Pauls Cathedral, Tower of London, Sky Garden.
Day 14 Travel back to Mumbai

1. Do let us know your thoughts, is it doable?
2. we prefer public transport to commute between cities as you don't have to worry about parking, do you still think on Day 4 we should hire a car an to explore Cotswolds on our own, if yes, please suggest some companies for car hire. Also, would a day trip be enough for Cotswolds or should we stay there for a night? we can reduce a day in London.
3. Similarly on Day 7 if we must take public transport we will have to return to London in most likelihood for a connection to Cardiff, do you think we will be better off hiring a car at Brighton and leaving it at Cardiff airport? If yes please do suggest Car Hire companies.
4. Any other suggestion, please do let me know.

thank you so much

Day 1: What time do you arrive? Where are you staying? Because if in central London - the marina and Tower Bridge is a long way east. However IF you are staying in the Marina -- that makes a huge difference. But the Eye and Covent Garden is a LONG way from the Marina. I can't imagine a scenario where all those locations could make sense on arrival day. So. . . . where you are staying?

Days 2 and 3 are very light so you could certainly squeeze in some other sites those days.

After London it sort of falls apart a bit. Perhaps tell us why you chose those specific places. Brighton and Cardiff specifically. Nothing wrong with either city but not an easy itinerary -- and especially followed by Edinburgh. For instance if Brighton or Cardiff are musts because of family connections or something - fine. But there are other places with sea coast scenery and castles and cathedral than those two cities that would make more sense with Edinburgh and York for instance.

There are nice day tours to the Cotswolds - but if you can it would always be better to spend a couple of days at least.

You end up with 1 free day in Edinburgh and one day in York sandwiched by a lot of train (or air) travel.

You should also try to group all you London nights together at either the beginning or end of the trip so it eliminates an extra hotels stay and simplifies your travel.

Once you leave London you are travelling too far too fast. But it is doable.

The Cardiff link is, as you know, the tricky one. (well even the Cardiff to Edinburgh is a bit tough) I might look again at my target visits. I'd start with the train map of the UK.

Book train tickets at National Rail Enquiries - Official source for UK train times and timetables for discounted fares at least on your longer trains - www.seat61.com is a great resource on British trains -general info also BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Yes as bilbo says try to come up with a more logical itinerary - yes why Brighton and Cardiff? You're present plans are literally all over the map. I'd forego Edinburgh for this trip and do Cardiff by train from London.

Well, the most obvious problem with this is Cardiff. Why do you want to go there? If it's the caste, visit the Tower and/or Windsor while you are in London. If it's the cathedral, you're going to York.

Do you already have the plane tickets? Because if not, fly into London and out of Edinburgh, visiting York by train in between. If you have them, you might fly from Edinburgh to Heathrow the night before your return flight and stay in an airport hotel, putting all your London time at the beginning - and there is WAY more to see in London than you have chosen.

Although you can do Brighton as a day trip, it makes more sense as a stop than Cardiff does.

Yes hire a car to drive between Brighton and Cardiff.

Hi,

Sorry I have been unable to reply, for some reason I can only post twice in 24 hours…

First, thank you all so much for the responses.

@Janisj - We would be staying somewhere around the King's Cross station. We would be reaching London around 7 am which means we would reach the hotel by 10:30 or so (will arrange for an early check in)... we should be able to step out easily by 1:30 PM. Can shift a few of day 1 activities to day 2 and 3.

Yes, we do have friends in Brighton and Cardiff but we are still open to ideas. Can easily do Brighton as a Day trip and exclude Cardiff completely. We really wanted to visit the chalk cliffs, especially the view from the Seaford head. In fact, we can keep the original plan of staying in Brighton for two nights and return to London and then head towards York and make Edinburgh as the last stop and fly out from there itself as suggested by @thursdaysd but then what else can we include? We are also interested in the lake district, can that be included?

@PalenQ thanks for the reply, please do suggest some reliable Car rental services.

Thanks.

>>for some reason I can only post twice in 24 hours…<<

That is because you are brand new member (welcome aboard ). There is a limit at the very beginning (helps cut down on the spam which used to hit the site really hard). After a time -I think it is five posts but not 100% sure - there aren't any limits.

Pal can't really help you much re cars -- if it ain't trains he doesn't want to know about it For a rental car start with autoeurope.com They are a broker that works with all the majors. You plug in your requirements and they give you many options w and w/o full coverage. Also check Kemwell - same set up. After quotes from them (cheapest probably 75% of the time) then you can see if you can get a better deal through Avis or Hertz or whoever -- sometimes you can get a deal through you airline.

Maybe your friends in Cardiff can come in to London for the day to see you? Just an option.

>>We are also interested in the lake district, can that be included?<<. Just about anything can be included -- if you cut something else. But with say 7 days after London (and omitting Cardiff) something like this: Early AM train to York and spend all day there. No luggage storage in the station but a car rental agency a block away will store bags for a small fee. Then an early evening train to Edinburgh and stay 4 nights. This would give you 2 full days for the city and one day for a tour to the highlands, or Loch Lomond or St Andrews or Stirling someplace. https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-...from-edinburgh Then collect a car and drive to the Lakes - stay 2 nights. Drive to Manchester, stay the last night at the airport and fly out of MAN.

You can definitely do Brighton as a day trip from London.

Hey, thanks for the welcome looking forward to learning and share a lot of Travel info.

About the itinerary, let me go back to the drawing board with all suggestions, will try and come up with one which eats less of time, traveling.

Thank you so much,

we can keep the original plan of staying in Brighton for two nights and return to London and then head towards York and make Edinburgh as the last stop and fly out from there itself as suggested by @thursdaysd but then what else can we include?>

For about 9 days?(you have 3-4 days in London which is great

Brighton- 2 days

leaves 7 days

York - 2 days

Edinburgh - 5 days

Lake Disrict would be an outlier and really need some days there to appreciate - not a drop-by type of place. janis has good ideas for your Scotland time. What else can you include - again janis has given great options. You could easily do day trip Edinburgh to St. Andrews too for a nice old seaside town and home of golf (not much golf in India I believe!).

Hi Guys,

Thank you so much for your suggestions, I have reworked my itinerary. Please do have a look.

@PalenQ - There is a bit of Golfing scene in India, but not great, Players are decent but not much of an audience and that is what essentially drives sports in India...Cricket has overshadowed everything else . I was a sports producer for a year or so for a broadcast company, and majorly covered Golf so have a fair knowledge of the game...as far as playing is concerned apart from a few putting and driving sessions I mostly have played on my PS and do remember St. Andrews from there. Would be lovely to see it in real life...Thanks for the recommendation.

Here's the reworked Itinerary

Day 1 arrive at Gatwick at 7:30 AM

Take train to Brighton, drop the luggage at concierge and explore Brighton – The Royal Pavillion, The beach, The pier and then back to hotel for check in. Freshen up and off to Hove to see the colorful beach huts then a i360 ride and spend the evening strolling at the beach and end the day at Marina.



Day 2 checkout from Hotel, Keep the luggage at concierge and off to Seaford head, enjoy the views of the seven sisters, lunch at Cuckmere in and back to Brighton to take an evening train to London.



Day 3 – Day 7 – In London – will be doing a day trip to Cotswolds and will try for a day trip to Cardiff(not sure about this)

Day 8 London to York – keep the luggage at leftluggage outlet and explore York and take an evening train to Edinburgh



Day 9 – 11 Edinburgh with a day trip to Highlands, Loch Ness, Glencoe.



Day 12 – Edinburgh to Manchester by train in Morning – keep the luggage at leftluggage and explore Manchester, leave for the airport in evening and fly out at around 7 pm.

That is definitely better, but:

You don't expect to have jet lag?

I would forget about Manchester and spend a night in York.

This looks more doable, if still full.

Cardiff is great (can't wait to be back there in mid-June for 3 nights!), and doable as a long day trip from London (DD and I did this in 2015, mostly for the now-gone Dr. Who Experience but enjoyed all of it--except the castle was closed for some boy-band concert the next night--doh!). But--with 5 days in London, 2 day trips sounds at least one too many. You are spending a lot of your time in transport; I do love London (can't wait to be back there for 8th time, for 5 nights, a month from tomorrow!), so I'm biased, but I'd say put Cardiff off to another time when you can do Wales more justice and have more time in London

With all those trains you may want to investigate a BritRail Pass - especially if you want to just hop on any of those trains anytime - non pre-booking specific trains weeks early to get discounted fares - vs full fare the pass could be a great deal - especially in first class which in UK is vastly better than Standard class.

Thank you so much Guys,

@thursdaysd - guess we would be ok, will try and sleep through the flight. 5 and half hour time difference is manageable. Its the travel to US /Canada which really spins our cycle completely

@texasbookworm- I totally get what you are saying. Maybe we should keep Cardiff, rest of Wales and Northwest England for next trip (Maybe even Ireland )

@PalenQ - thank you so much for the advice...usually we do try and prebook as much as possible and were considering investing in "two together pass", but ya a pass which can allow a lot more flexibility at a little extra price would be a really good idea. Let me go through the details of the BritRail Pass and get an understanding of how its priced.

Regards,
Karan

Much better!

>>I would forget about Manchester and spend a night in York.<<

I don't think they can forget about Manchester since they are flying out of MAN -- right? It is just the departure day they will be in Manchester.

Re staying a night in York - 6 of 1/half dozen of the other. You could stay the night in York and take an early morning train to Edinburgh - or just spend all day in York and an evening train. Either would leave you with about the same 'sightseeing' time in York. However the left luggage facility at Europcar closes at 8PM so you need to figure than in your decision.

I would NOT get BritRail passes. They are expensive and since you know your exact dates and pretty much times, you can book ahead and get discounted fares But depending on your ages -- either senior rail cards or a 'two traveling together' pass would save you bunches. National Rail Enquiries - Two Together Railcard
National Rail Enquiries - Senior Railcard

we were posting at the same time . . .

@janisj

We have used Railpasses 3 times and, due to circumstances and particular style of travel, they were worth every penny over pre-booked tickets, because of the flexibility. We used them for day trips from and back to London, though, primarily, so having the flexibility for return-to-London legs was what made them work well for us. Pre-booking will as said above be cheaper. And if we'd just been using trains for inter-city travel, where all we'd need generally is a certain departure time, the Passes would not have been so attractive. But if flexibility is important option, or even kinda necessary, do consider one of the passes (I never used a BritRailPass for the whole network; I was able to choose one of the other more specific Passes.)

Yes there are benefits to railpasses - cheapest not always best but for most booking discounted tickets is fine but if you want flexibility to hop any train anytime passes like texasbookworm says may be a good deal.