13 days in England and Scotland

dolphinne,

We have been to the UK several times and done it with cruises that visited British and Irish ports as well as renting a car and doing it ourselves.

Frankly, if you have 13 days, consider just doing England and come back later for Scotland. Also, Wales is a great visit.

We did a four week drive tour in 2017 that visited England (nothing in London) and South Wales. It was great. Initially, we wanted to include Scotland (we had been to Scotland twice on cruises). The more that I planned, the more I realized that with what we wanted to see in Wales and England, we had not enough time to include Scotland.

Still, if you want to do both, that is your choice and I wish your the best. I seem to remember that only Moreton on Marsh has a rail connection.

First, to visit the Cotswolds, you need a car. Rail doesn't connect there well. We spent two full days exploring the Cotswolds, you could do a quick visit and see a lot in one day. If you do so, suggest renting a car at Oxford. Oxford is a great visit for a day. You can walk and see the city. Rent a car when you leave Oxford, parking is a huge problem there.

Second, Bath is wonderful, you need a full day there. Recommend the Brooks Guesthouse for a great B&B.

Stonehenge takes about 2 to 1 1/2 hours to park and see. I don't recommend trying to include Bath as well, however, you could do Salisbury and see the Cathedral on the same day.

As for driving from london to Edinburgh. Forget it, take the night train and save time and effort. There is a lot to see between the two cities, but you probably don't have time. If you still want to stop, York is the place to see. Plan on two days to do the city well. the National Railway Museum is great and the York Minster (Cathedral) is wonderful.

Many thanks for your advice. I am rather captivated by the beauty of the Scottish Highlands, hence, do hope to include in this trip. I have considered skipping Edinburgh and just going directly to Inverness. But the train journey duration from London to Inverness seem to be the same as train from London to Edinburgh and subsequently driving from Edin to Inverness.

Given the relatively tight duration of your stay in the Highlands, have you either thought of flying to Inverness direct from London Luton or London Heathrow on BA- BA I think have 2 flights to LHR per day.

Or of taking the Caledonian Sleeper overnight from Euston to Inverness, then renting the car in Inverness. Or the sleeper connects directly into the morning train to Kyle of Lochalsh (a very scenic run) and taking the rental car at Kyle for the Isle of Skye segment of your trip.

It certainly doesn't make sense to me to drive all the way to Edinburgh.

Given your starting point on the south coast there are also flights to Edinburgh from both Southampton and Bristol airports.

So you could fly SOU/BRI to EDI, rental car for Scotland one way EDI-INV (out to Skye via Glencoe and Armadale, back to INV via the Skye Bridge), fly INV-LHR or Cal Sleeper INV to Euston (for a last day in London)

No one has commented on the timing of this trip--December. Is that a good time for Scotland aside from the cities? It wouldn't be for me, but I hate short, dark days.

That’s a very good point about the time of year you’re planning to travel in. Days in Scotland are very short in December. Sunrise around 9am and sunset at 3.30pm. This is going to really limit what you can do as you can’t explore the countryside in the dark!

Paultons Park is also closed for most of December.

We've been in the Highlands over winter (a week over new year) and absolutely loved it, although for us the cold weather was an attraction ;) the short days can be an issue, but we enjoyed early dinners by the fireplace in the beautiful pub we were staying in.

Thanks everyone! We have already booked the tickets for Paultons, Tank Museum and Stonehenge, so we did check that the attractions are open on the dates that we are going. We will rent a car from LHR to travel to the above places and will return the car at either LHR or Kings Cross before taking a train to either Edinburgh, Inverness or Fort William. Perhaps we could cover either Bath, Oxford or Bibury/ Castle Combe for 2 days before returning the car in London.

On the Caledonia Sleeper, journey to Edinburgh is 3 hours longer than the normal train. While to Inverness is close to 12hrs. Not sure if we will feel very cooped up in the event that we have insomnia haha.

On taking a flight, the prices seem to be higher than the train tickets. Also, if we need to check-in two hours before flight departure, it might take up about the same time as a 4.5hr train ride to Edinburgh?

If you are going to Stonehenge & Bath just prior to Edinburgh why not fly from Bristol? No need to trek back towards London. Take the evening flight.

Bristol to Edinburgh flights in December start at £23 base fare, £57 baggage included, and if you are already in that area you save the journey back to Heathrow, in that case it is way less time than the train.

Many days there is a flight as late as 8 or 9 pm, so you are maximising your time on the ground.

The Scottish highlands are very scenic, but the Norwegian fjords beat them out.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am reconsidering taking things slow and just do England. Perhaps visit Lake District in place of Isle of Skye….. for that dose of nature and scenaries.

I don't recommend visiting the Lake District in December. Not a great time of the year for that area.

Places that I recommend highly:
York, Durham, Hadrian's Wall, Stratford Upon Avon, Bath, Winchester, Salisbury, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge.

Thanks! how many nights minimum should we stay at each of the places you have recommended? and what would be the most logical flow so that we can drive in 1 loop from London and back to London? :)

I think it is very odd to say not recommend the Lake District in December, but to recommend Hadrian's Wall at the same time of year. It can be very wild and hostile weather up on the wall in the winter time.

The most popular sections are very exposed terrain. And frankly fewer indoor attractions and fewer cozy countryside inns to dive into when the weather turns filthy.
It is only an hours drive from one to the other and the wall is actually further north than the Lake District.

I have plenty of winter experience in both areas having lived here for 50 years.

Most of last December, I can tell you as a resident was a total treat. Absolutely glorious sunny days, rarely above 0C, but still air. At the start of the month there was significant snowfall, which didn't clear until days before Christmas. It was the most magical time to be here, and for those with full winter equipment, must have been so wonderful on the high fells.
Yes this year could be storm after storm with floods which Noah would recognise, but that applies to anywhere at all in the UK, even London and the South East. Nowhere in the UK is immune to such weather.

We did the Lake District for three days in late October and the weather was cold and somewhat wet. We didn't spend as much time outdoors as we would have liked.

Our visit to Hadrian's Wall was near Haltwhistle and was for about half a day.

Places I recommended:
York, Durham, Hadrian's Wall, York, Durham, Hadrian's Wall, Stratford Upon Avon, Bath, Winchester, Salisbury, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge..

You can't do them all and visit London in two weeks. Stratford Upon Avon, Bath, Winchester, Salisbury, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge are all fairly close to London.

You could do Stonehenge, Salisbury, Winchester and Windsor Castle in 2-3 days, We did Salisbury and Stonehenge in one day. Windsor Castle is a half day. For Bath and Stratford Upon Avon, you need more time, suggest one full day in Bath and one full day in Stratford.

May I also check whether the Peak District and the Lake District are comparable? I did a google and it seems that Lake District is prettier but Peak District is a good compromise since it is not as far north.