Hello Everyone,

I'm planning my dream trip to England & Scotland with my significant other and I'm hoping you'll help me review my itinerary. The trip will be 18 days arriving in London and departing from Edinburgh. We are just 40 years old and don't mind a fast-paced trip, but I wonder if I am scheduling too many 1-day visits. I do have a 1-2 'pad' days where I can extend a destination to two nights. We will also have one day with a long drive from The Cotswolds to Oban (about 8 hours) in order to set-up our visit to Isle of Skye.

Day 1: Arrive in London, mid-day
Day 2: London
Day 3: London
Day 4: London
Day 5: London
Day 6: Train to Windsor, stay in Windsor
Day 7: Train to Oxford, Stay in Oxford
Day 8: Train to Bath, stay in Bath
Day 9: Drive through The Cotswolds, stay in Chipping Campden
Day 10: Drive to Oban (8 hours), stay in Oban
Day 11: Oban
Day 12: Drive to Isle of Skye (4 hours), stay in Portree
Day 13 : Drive to Aviemore (3 hours), stay in Aviemore
Day 14: Train to Edinburgh (3 hours), stay in Edinburgh
Day 15: Edinburgh, day-trip to Stirling
Day 16: Edinburgh, day-trip to Dundee
Day 17: Edinburgh
Day 18: Depart Edinburgh

There are others who will give you more detailed help, but just a glance makes me think it's too many back-to-back long driving days and too many one-night stays (at least to my liking). Your estimated drive times are somewhat shy of reality and without consideration of likely stops along the way. The Chipping Campden to Oban day... just ugh. And less than a day on Skye? Why bother...

Check the surcharge for a one-way car rental.

IMO, you're short-changing Edinburgh.

When is this trip?

I'd want at least 2 full days to see Edinburgh and with your day trip plans, you've allotted only one full day for it. But YMMV.

Cut out two visits
Oban drive day. Let's hope it is summer and you start early.

Thank you both for the quick reply.

The trip is coming up fast! August 29 - September 15. I already secured our hotel on Isle of Skye for one night (I think I may have gotten one of the last good hotel rooms left on the island!)

Shall I skip Isle of Skye altogether and focus on Edinburgh and sights near Edinburgh? Instead of driving, we can catch a flight from Bristol to Edinburgh since we will be in Bath at that point. It does seem like Isle of Skye is hindering me logistically.

Google Maps will give you a time of 8 hours if you leave now. But that's at 8pm in the UK. Setting off at 8am tomorrow it is likely to be an hour or two longer and remember this is not all on quiet freeways where you can set the cruise control. The first half will be in very heavy traffic pretty much all the time. Then when you get past my house in Preston it will quieten up for a bit until you go through Glasgow, which will be busty again. Then the motorway stops and you are on two lane roads (and quite narrow ones for long periods) for the rest of the drive. You will need at least two rest stops too.

I think what I would do firstly on day 8 is have two nights in Bath and take a Cotswold drive (if you must) on day 9 and then on day 10 drive a short way to Bristol airport and take an EasyJet flight to either Edinburgh or Inverness. From the latter you could get to Skye if you can get 2/3 nights there. Or from either Edinburgh or Inverness drive down to Oban for 2/3 nights and visit Mull and Iona instead. I would forget Aviemore and spend whatever time you have left in Edinburgh (or for me some time in Glasgow, which is just as good, if very different).

Welcome to Fodors -- No, just no

Just re the Scotland bits . . . Chipping Campden to Oban will take a lot longer than 8 hours and makes no sense.

Days 11, 12, 13 and 14 also make next to no sense. The drive from Oban to say Portree will take a minimum of 5 hours in August and likely longer due to very slow traffic and then the next day you want to leave the Isle and drive to Aviemore (why Aviemore?? ). That drive will be another 4.5-ish hours so essentially no time ON Skye. And why Dundee (serious question) ???

Now for England . . . Windsor is a very easy day trip from London by train -- about half a day all in. Oxford is also a very easy day trip from London either by train or Express coach. Days 8,9,10 don't give you much time any place. You'll end up with half a day in Bath, about half a day for the Cotswolds.

I'd do this completely differently -- and seriously consider dropping Skye altogether (I Know, I Know -- everybody says we must 'do' Skye! ). I would not consider Skye in summer unless I could stay 3 nights. It is crowded and the travel is very slow. Lots of single track roads (a two way road on one lane of pavement)

And Dundee is not a very nice city -- nice-ish V&A museum but otherwise a bit of a dump.

Actually, I thought the city museum in Dundee was better than the V&A outpost. There's also a former jute factory and RRS Discovery,, but I agree, not on this itinerary.

I would treat this as two separate itineraries joined by plane or train. No need for a car. At least two nights in a place or day trip.

Agree that Windsor is half-day but you want to make sure that the date you plan to go there is not a Sunday as St George's Chapel is not open for visitors on Sunday, only for worship. I would also want more time in Edinburgh. Stirling can be done as a day trip by train from Edinburgh or as part of a tour. We did a tour that took us to Dumferline Abbey, Stirling Castle and Rosslyn Chapel, plus a stop at the historic battlefield and monument. Good amount of time at each place and the tour really provided the transportation by van, departing from right outside St Giles Cathedral.