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7 nites England end of may

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Hi all, we are visiting from the us and will be touring Ireland and then Scotland end of May ( yes, this month!) before heading to England for 7 nites. We will be renting a car in Scotland, most likely ending up in Edinburgh. The last 3 nites in england we will be in London, departing from Heathrow. The first 4 days, we tentatively plan to tour Bath, the Cotswolds, Oxford, Stratford (by car); haven’t yet finalized which town(s) we will use as a base for lodging but suggestions are appreciated
My question is whether we should
1) take the train from Edinburg to England, and if so, where best to arrive in England and pick up the car based on our planned itinerary
2) keep the car we picked up in Edinburg and drive to England ( assuming this is permitted); would this also allow a stop in york? Would this take a lot longer than the train option?
3) in either case, where best to return the car before heading to London?
I didn’t list flying- I’m assuming train or driving more efficient?

Thanks for any help!!

Posted by
9261 posts

Personally I leave the rental in Oxford and train from there into London.

Posted by
8889 posts

Not quite sure where you are arriving in the UK - I guess flying into Edinburgh. Then you want to get to the area for your touring (Bath, the Cotswolds, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon - "Stratford" is a suburb of London where they held the Olympics.)

"keep the car we picked up in Edinburg and drive to England ( assuming this is permitted)" - of course its permitted, its the same country!

You could drive all the way from Edinburgh to Bath. See https://www.viamichelin.com/ for routes and times. This site gives 07h16 603 km assuming no stops, so add 25%.
Or you could take the train all the way. See http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ Choose one of the routings via Birmingham and Bristol, i.e. NOT via London. This will take 6½ to 7 hours and cost from £70 if you book far enough in advance. In this case drop your first car in Edinburgh and pick up a new one when you leave Bath.

In either case a good overnight stop-off is York. It is on the rail route and worth 2 nights if you have time.

I agree, make Oxford your last stop and drop the car off before heading to London.

You could fly, plane Edinburgh to Bristol (Easyjet). Bristol airport has a bus connection to Bath. But you will see more by road or rail.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks for the responses. We are first touring Ireland before flying from Dublin to Glasgow to explore the highlands and ending up in Edinburgh. Have to look into train schedules but now leaning towards taking the train from Edinburgh to oxford or bath and picking up the car, then touring for 3 days based in oxford before returning the car in Oxford (will be on a Sunday) and taking train to London. Not sure will have enough days to visit york

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