My husband and I are trying to decide between a trip in August '06 in Great Britain (northern England and Scotland) or Ireland. We would have about 7 nights/8 days. Would it be crazy to do both? We're pretty fast travelers. Places we're initially interested in GB are York, Lake District, Edinburgh, Isle of Skye. In Ireland: Dublin and the Southwest (Killarney and Dingle?).

whoa. A week isn't long enough to see even all the places you've listed in either country, let alone both.

Things to consider - in both and especially in SW Ireland you will be <b>lucky</b> to average 35 mph. The Lake district, Skye, SW Ireland are not places you can rush through. It is pretty late to be starting to plan an August trip to Edinburgh.

As fabulous as edinburgh is - if the festivals/Tattoo are not important to you, it will be an easier visit if you skip the city. Many places will already be full and most that aren't will have a 3 night minimum. Plus all Tattoo tickest are already sold out. But there is much more than enough to fill your time w/i stepping foot in Edinburgh.

Pick one country and leave it at that.

that should be &quot;. . enough to fill your time w/o stepping foot in Edinburgh&quot;

Definetly not enough time for all those places unless you just want to see everything from the window speeding by. I would recommened spending the entire time doing either (Edinburgh and highlands) or (Dublin and Dingle / Killarney). This would still be a bit rushed.

All of my trips have been to the UK and Ireland. If you like, my trip reports are here... it might help you make your decisions!

http://www.greendragonartist.com/BItripreports.htm

I agree that that's MUCH too ambitions for a week. York and Lake district alone will take that (shoot, I could spend a week in the Southwest of Ireland, too... oh wait, that's next trip!)

Thanks to all for your replies (in both my posts, sorry! I couldn't find them before I figured out the name-click). I think we're going to go to Scotland (skip England,Ireland). I'm shocked that it's considered late to plan for Edinburgh. I know it's festival time, but it still seems early. We'll see what we can pull off. I'm going to do a bit of research on Scotland and will have a later post on itinerary. Thanks again for your feedback!