Are we crazy or will this work

Please consider the following:

Total amount of time in transit + total amount of time sleeping = X
Total amount of time spent "experiencing the journey" = Y
Y/X = what you will most likely remember the most

Thanks, that's a good way of thinking about it.

I think it is a very aggressive plan in England portion.
Can u really enjoy the visit when u will be spending alot of time in transit ???
Only u can answer this question.

Day 1. Slough has the reputation for being one of the ugliest towns in England. What about your bags, are you going to be carrying them while you visit Windsor? Try and find a hotel in Windsor.

One option is after landing go direct to Bath or Oxford. 17:25 land, 18:30-19:00 out of airport. You would be very late in Bath/Oxford, but doable. Then do Windsor as a day trip from London.

Your only time in Bath is day 3 morning, afternoon you are travelling to Oxford - not enough
Your only time in Oxford is day 4 morning, afternoon you are travelling - not enough

Where in the Cotswolds are you staying? What is your transport (the Cotswolds is a rural area with minimal public transport)

"then 3 nights in York." - which 3 nights?
"Day 9 & 10.. York then 6:30am train to Edinburgh on day 11.* - again ½ day in York - not enough

Medium crazy. You need to avoid one-night stays, or you will spend all your time travelling. That may mean you need to cut one or two places.

We were planning to take trains around 19:00 so we would wake up & have a full day in each town. We are spending the night that we fly in at Slough & the next morning leave our bags at the hotel while we are in Windsor. In every town we will have a full day. On day 8 at 19:18 we will take the train to York so that we will have 2 full days in York ( day 9 & 10 ). On the morning of day 11, we take the 6:30 train to Edinburgh, arriving at 9:21 which will give us 3 full days in Edinburgh.

Why stay in Slough? Take bus to Windsor, stay in Windsor, take the train from Windsor.

Why stay in Slough?

sounds like Marriott points rather than there for the scenery

Slough has the scenery and ambience of Metropark, NJ.

woltrav, if you chose Slough simply because you found an inexpensive place for the night or were able to redeem points for a free night (better), I get it. Otherwise, I would choose Windsor so you can start your day IN town ready to go. The hotel/inn will hold your bags for you.

Staying in Windsor the first night makes more sense. Thanks for the insight.

Flying out of Edinburgh or London? Getting from Edinburgh by train to London and then to your airport is a several hours affair. (Check the cost of flying from Edinburgh to your London departure airport. It might surprise you.)

If you'll be seeing the Cotswolds by car, you might look at consolidating that portion with Oxford and/or Bath. Bath is at the southern edge of the region, and Oxford is just off to the east.

Also, Oxford is an hour by train from London, and Bath is close to two hours. Daytrips to both from London are easy.

We will not have a car. Rather than traveling out to Bath & Oxford from London, I thought if we will be taking a train at the end of the day, it might be easier to just go to the next town & wake up there the next morning. We will be flying out of Edinburgh to Ireland for 1 week before we head back to the USA.

Ambitious. I agree with marbleskies. Minimize the time spent traveling and maximize your time spent seeing things. Bletchley Park is very nice and will take a couple hours + to visit at a leisurely pace. I have no idea how you're going to get to Bletchley park without a car. You may spend more time trying to get there and return than the time it takes to see it, so you may want to take that into consideration when doing your planning since it isn't near any of the other places on your list.

We are spending 2 nights in London. One day we will go to Kew gardens, and the next day we will take the train from Euston Station to Bletchley. We plan to get there as soon as it opens so we have the whole day until it closes if needed.

I figured if we took all our trains after 19:00 then we would have all day each day to see the sights.

My husband went to Bletchley park for the day from London by train easily. He did spend the whole day there however.

I think this is an extremely ambitious itinerary! One night stands can get very old quickly. Personally, I would take a night from York and add it to Bath and skip Oxford, but that's me. I've been to York twice - both times for 2 nights and felt it was plenty each time.

Woltrav, without a car I think your schedule is do-able as long as you can keep the length of those evening train journeys within reason, have booked a place to stay at the destination, and can avoid changing trains. (Worst case would be something like needing to go to London from Bath to get to Oxford.)

Train tickets bought on the day of travel are often surprisingly costly. A range of pricing schemes exist but the earlier you buy a ticket, the cheaper it usually is. Cheapest will be for a specific train on a specific day. That's probably too inflexible for your trip unless you are very confident of hitting all those exact times. I think you need a ticket good for any train to your destination on that day. You'll need to contend with Peak travel time and Off-Peak travel time tickets and fares. You can buy online before departing for the UK.

Travel light because you will be hauling your luggage on and off the trains. If it was me, I'd take cabs from the station to my hotel/b&b, especially after sunset.

Thank you all for your help. All of our trains will be direct except for Bath to Oxford which stops at Didcot. I've decided to book our trains ahead of time & it looks like we will use anytime, off peak & advanced tickets. We travel very light, 1 small suitcase each & I'm looking to keep our hotels close to the train stations so it will be easier at the end of the day to just stop at the hotel, pick up the luggage & be about a 5 minute walk to the train. Even though we will have 3 nights in York, we will really only have 2 full days there. We will arrive at 21:17 on a Monday & catch the train to Edinburgh on Thursday at 6:39.

I think you are definitely crazy. If I were you, I would cut out all the travel time and just enjoy London. It is better to just take a train to Bath for the day. You won't see hardly anything in the Cotswold's, in just two days, We spent 8 nights there last August and 21 days in London. You can also take a train out to Oxford for the day, but it is no big deal. Right after you get off the train, you can board a Hop-on Hop-off bus to tour the town. You can't visit the individual colleges, when they are in session.

I doubt I could sleep on a train unless I had a bed.

Have you looked at the train schedule? All evening trains from Windsor to Bath have two changes. I would do things differently.

1) Arrive Heathrow. Bus to Bath.
2) Bath
3) Bath/Cotswolds
4)Cotswolds then evening train to London.
5-8) London with day trips to Windsor, Oxford, Kew Gardens and Bletchley. (This will be less tiring than constantly changing hotels and taking night trains.) Evening train to York
9 & 10) York
11-13) Edinburgh
14) Fly home

Oxford is an hour by train from London. I would not spend a night there but add a day to London and do it as a day trip. The same goes for Windsor.

And if you don't have a car, how do you expect to get around the Cotswolds?

I can see how just adjusting things a bit makes for a better itinerary. I was planning by what looked logical instead of what was practical. Many thanks to everyone for your help.

You will want to schedule a lot more time for London.

Even though we've been to London before, we plan to return at a later date because there is still a lot we have not seen.