Newbury.... apart from a nice little theatre you are going there because?

I'd give York 2 nights, that is one afternoon visiting the city, one day visiting the countryside and a bit extra if you have missed anything in the city. I would look at the steam train in the evening at Pickering for a lovely night. http://www.nymr.co.uk/

But maybe you don't have the time

Hever Castle bilbo :)

If you have 15 days I would add the time to London...4 full days would be better than 3!

I think you have a lovely plan!
We stayed at the Lamb Inn in Burford and lived it.

Oh and don't oh back to heathrow to pick up the car...just pick it up at a rental place in Windsor!

We always use Autoeurope for car rentals.

Day 1 (ground): Windsor (stay the night)
Day 2: Pick up car in Windsor, drive to Cotswolds (possibly Burford?)
Day 3: Cotswolds
Day 4: Stonehenge and then return car at Heathrow; tube to London
Day 5: London
Day 6: London
Day 7: London
Day 8: London (day trip to Newbury)
Day 9: London
Day 10: train to York in the morning; stay the night
Day 11: York (stay the night)
Day 12: York in the morning; train to Ediburgh in the afternoon
Day 13: Edinburgh
Day 14 (maybe 15): Edinburgh


Ok.. I updated it a little. I took out Bath completely and added an extra day in York. On Day 9 (In London), could be an up in the air daym possibly? Id by Day 8 we feel like we've seen everything in London we have wanted, we could leave or take a day trip somewhere else that day.

Newbury: our hopes are to get passes to see Highchlere Castle.

Sorry for my grammar. I am on a conference call with work and typing (not proofreading like I should)

Sounds like a fabulous trip to me!

Thank you. And over there, is there a difference between hotels and Bed and breakfasts?

My husband said he would prefer a B&B to stay for most of our stays. However, London may be a different story.

B&B can be good, hotels will tend to the bland. If it were me I'd use a hotel in London and maybe B&B in York and Edinburgh. Not sure really why it is just that you may need concierge a bit more in London while in the other two the cities area small enough for a B&B owner to be on the ball.

Just a point on cars, you don't want one in London and if you decide to have one in York then you should try to get a parking space lined up with your hotel/B&B (plus be either in or just outside of the walls), parking in York is a nightmare as the city is pre-the-car.

Hever Castle has been reconfigured and refurb'd a LOT since Ann Boleyn was there.

(Side note, evidently the Boleyns don't know how to spell their surname - the chapel near the castle is the burial place of Thomas Bullen, father of Anne Boleyn).

Hever Castle was purchased in the late 1800s by William Waldorf Astor, a rich American lawyer, who refurbished it and reconfigured the grounds. He was the father-in-law of Nancy Astor, the Nazi sympathizer, appeaser, and raging anti-Semite who tangled verbally with Churchill to her detriment (e.g., "Winston, if I were your wife I would poison your coffee"; "Madam, were I your husband, I would drink it").

I ' think' the Hever Castle reference was meant to be Highclere. . . Otherwise mentioning Reading makes NO sense at all.

BigRuss: Where is Hever Castle and how should I fit that into my plan?

I need to research on what we should do for transportation in York. I want to do whatever is the best way to see around there.

So sorry !!!! Yes I meant Highclere!!!

Very few people here in Ireland use the term "Éire" any more. It does still appear on Irish stamps, & it was on coins before the euro came along in 2002. Most here refer to the country as "Ireland", but sometimes "the republic" or "the south" if you are comparing or distinguishing it from "the north" or "Northern Ireland" . Of course we understand Éire, but I haven't heard it called that for a long time.

Jen - you don't have time for Hever unless you drop other parts of England and head south of London instead. Hever was brought into the discussion because of a 'mis-type'

>>(just Edinburgh, unless you all think we should incorporate another must-see in Scotland).<<

If i was you I'd slow waaaaaay down and stop looking for specific suggestions just yet. You are talking two years from now. You may change ideas/plans 19 times between now and then. I'm saying this partly because of the above extract from one if your posts. 'Another must-see' in Scotland??? There are so many 'musts' in Scotland you can't imagine!

But the same goes for London, and Yorkshire, and the West Country, and south of England, and every other part of the UK. Right now we will just confuse you more. Go look at a few guide books and get a better idea of what/where things are.

I'm trying to be helpful - but I see it happening all through this thread . . . Someone mentions another site/city and it gets thrown in the mix. There are quite literally hundreds of options. So sloooooow down, study up a bit, and focus a bit. You have plenty of time to get things right.

Thank you, Janisj. Yeah, I was confused as to where Hever came from or was thinking that was being suggested as opposed to seeing Highchlere.

I know I need to slow down a little; however there is a chance we may end up doing this trip in the fall of 2015 in stead of Spring 2016. I am one to plan ahead, especially with the jobs we work for, etc (it is kind of a must to know our vacation timetable about a year or so out). Not to mention, once I have an idea of what our itinerary may look like, I can make sure we set aside the correct budget ($) for it. I know rates may change +/- with some hotels/B&B and car rentals, admissions, etc; butonce I know what we are looking to do, I can then do that research.

I appreciate your all's help more than you know. :)

Agreed, now you have a bunch of ideas, get a good book out and read around the subject. Come back here to bounce ideas around. Honestly the best holidays are not about rushing from site to site but finding and walking and looking and chatting.

The Uk and the Irish Republic are so full of things to do it will not be a problem

Even IF you move the trip up to next year . . . Not to worry. You have literally months to study up and plan.

(I'm taking three ladies to London/Northumberland / Yorkshire / the Cotswolds in early May . . . And we just decided to do the trip three weeks ago. Not saying you want to wait til the last minute- that would make some people crazy :) . . . But I REALLY think you'll have an easier time of this if you and your husband do some basic research first)

Jamikins is so fixated on her wine bars and tapas in Barcelona that she's driving this bloody thread off-topic. ;-)

Hever's a bit of a pain to reach. We only went because her highness is a complete Tudor history freak (seriously: list all the Americans you know who would recognize Holbein's Anne of Cleves portrait in less than one second's glimpse - my list has one person on it and I married the silly woman) and we were able to ditch the then-lone hobbit with a couple of pensioners who look like me. Wouldn't recommend it over other sites . . .

Haha so true BigRuss! Sitting here in the pub in London as we speak dreaming of our next vacation! I promise to stay on course here on in!