Do we need to reserve ahead of time ? Trip October 15 to November 5.....

Your trip will encompass school holidays. These take place typically in mid to late October for a week, but the actual week varies across the UK.

The holiday in BANES is from the 24 October, so you will miss this locally at least at the start. I suspect this will be the most popular week.

The 5th of November is Bonfire Night.

Instead of your proposed route, have you considered starting in the north and moving south as the days get shorter? They get shorter faster in the north.

Generally, that time of year you shouldn't need advance reservations. However, to make life easier and more relaxed upon arrival and before departure, consider making reservations for the first and last places you'll be. Leaving the middle portion of the trip open gives you more freedom in case you want to spend more or less time in a particular place, or, stop someplace you didn't have on your original itinerary.

Book and be done with it. I'm already booked for my Fall visit.

21 days, of which c 10 are in London? So that's 11 days to cover two countries plus many areas of England? Wow, you will need a helicopter, not a car! Sorry, but you can't fit all this into 11 days, if you don't want to spend the entire trip in transit, so you need to decide what your must see areas are - you don't give any indication as to your interests, so we can't point you in the right direction.

11 days realistically means: Bath, Cornwall, Cotswolds and South Wales

or

Scotland - fly into Edinburgh and 3 nights there, then drive to Glencoe for 2 nights then have 3 nights on Skye (due to the weather there and the time to get round the island, this isn't really the place to go for a day trip), 1 night in Glasgow then York for 2 nights and take the train to London.

or

Bath, Wales and the Cotswolds.

Canterbury can be done as a train day trip from London.

Reserve London and Bath hotels before you travel for the best prices and availability. Skye will also need to be reserved now. Others have already commented on school holidays.

No it's 21 days of touring then another 10 days in London. Sorry for the confusion

Edited. We are a couple in our late 40's and my 72 year old mom.

We love seeing historic places, castles, the sea and must stay in modern hotels because of my husband's mobility issues. We are aware that means staying on the outskirts of towns and driving to the center to tour them.

It depends on how picky you are.

Besides everything that was stated Nov 6-8 in London is World Travel Market one of the largest travel industry trade shows in the world. Accommodations might be tight for last minute.

That helps but we will have booked London ahead of time. Sounds like London is always busy. Can't wait.

I would book Edinburgh and London, then I would just find B&B's or Hotel when you are ready to stop for the night. I've always booked our first night and last night, then just found B&B's along the way, even in the summer months and have never, never had trouble finding a place to stay.

Oh good. That is what we were hoping on. I will book our first few days in Bath, our last few days before London in York and Canterbury and Edinburgh a few days before we get there as we won't have an exact date until a few days before because of the driving. Thanks.

These chains would offer rooms at reasonable prices which would be suitable for people with mobility problems. (They do have special rooms in many of their premises). Booking ahead can secure lower prices than turn up and pay. We are now going into the Easter holiday so room prices will be higher and accommodation might sell out. Suggest you play around with different dates.

www.travelodge.co.uk (When you click ‘destinations’ - it does not mean that these are the only places. If you type in an area - such as north Wales, it will come up with all of their premises in that area).
www.premierinn.co.uk

If you want to mix up staying in hotels with some B&Bs, for B&Bs, look at sawdays.co.uk and smoothhound.co.uk, the former being more upmarket and the latter is more general. Premier Inns, Travelodge and the main hotel chains are reliable, but will get a little boring for a trip of this length, as they all look the same!

Lames and Jennifer thank you both. Will look into it. Looks like we will have a mix. Getting excited about this. I think I stress cause I want to make sure that my hubby and my mom love the trip but I'm the planner.