England and Scotland - 2 weeks end of April 2020

There’s no way you’ll see everything in 2 weeks. Are those 14 full days on the ground or is it including arrival and departure days? April weather can be iffy, I’d stick with trains and not deal with the headache of a car.

I’d probably start off in London (no day trips) for the 4 days, take a train to a northern England city such as Liverpool, Manchester, York, or Newcastle for 3-4 days, and then take a train to Scotland and fly out from there. I’d only double back to London if you’re going to cut Scotland out and bookend your trip in London.

Liverpool is my favourite U.K. city and it has the most museums outside of London. You’ll get your architecture fix there and can enjoy the Walker art gallery and Tate Liverpool, both free. There’s music of all kinds, obviously the Beatles but the Liverpool philharmonic is world class and there are often recitals at Philharmonic Hall even if the symphony isn’t playing.

If you want to see English countryside, then travel by car. If you want to see, say London, York, Edinburgh and then some rural parts, travel by train and hire a car in Scotland. Gardens and walking is easier with a car.

Flying open jaw will save a day back tracking to London.

Each person has their own preference as to “must see” - mine wouldn’t include the Cotswolds, Stonehenge or the Lake District, but others would disagree. I would include 2 full days in York plus a day in the Yorkshire Dales and another in Whitby and the North York Moors. Northumberland would be a must for me for at least 3 days including Holy Island and seeing some of the castles. Plenty of good walking here. Beamish Museum is a great full day trip.

Edinburgh needs 2 full days then I would spend some time around Glencoe including a day driving around the stunning Ardnamurchan peninsula. It looks as though I am already over your holiday duration!

Other good options would be Chester and north Wales, but realistically, Scotland would have to be left for another trip.

You can easily spend the entire time in England or Scotland and to cover both, you will have to be selective. April is a little early for colour in the gardens, save for tulips.

Personally, I think 2 weeks--even if you are actually spending 14 nights in the UK--is too short for London, the best of England (however defined) and Scotland, unless Scotland just means Edinburgh.

If you're going all the way up to Scotland (4-1/2 hours from London to Edinburgh by train), i imagine you want to see more than just the capital city. It takes time to travel to the islands or around the Highlands. You could spend all your tine in Scotland and still have to make painful choices.

Then again, April weather...

Edited to add: I'm a big fan of London Walks. The cost is 10 pounds per person, and you just show up. You can decide based on how tou're freling and what the weather looks like. They post the full schedule on the website, but I think what's up there now may be the winter schedule.

We did a four week drive tour of South Wales and England (that didn't include London or SE England).
We saw a lot, but are coming back next year to spend another week and a half in England, doing to Cornwall and London.

Don't try to do too much, pick a country and enjoy your trip/

In case you haven't seen it on this RS website, there's a section called Explore Europe. It includes many countries with lists of must-sees. England and Scotland are two of them. Click on the links for guidance.

The problem with having so little time is that you must do some serious prioritization. I was last in GB in 2016. I did a self-planned 6-week trip all by bus, train, ferry and one short flight. I arrived at London Heathrow (LHR), made a big circle starting in Bath and ending in London for a week before flying home from LHR.

It sounds like you have an idea of what ypu want to see in London. If this is your first trip to Great Britain, you could spend all your time there with or without some daytrips to other places. There is no shortage of daytrip options.

I had been to both England and Scotland twice before. This is a list of my must-sees and dos for the 2016 trip outside of London. They are not in any particular order and I saw much more than this, but they were my reason for going to the towns, cities or areas they're in. The many churches are primarily for the styles of architecture.

•Bath Roman ruins
•Bletchley Park
•Cotswolds
•Hadrian's Wall
•Durham Cathedral
•York and Yorkminster
•Hairy coos
•Stirling Castle
•Edinburgh Castle
•Royal Yacht Britannia
•Skara Brae and other neolithic and Viking sites on Orkney
•St. Magnus Cathedral on Orkney
•Costco near Aberdeen (not kidding)
•St. Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen
•Canterbury Cathedral
•Hastings, the town and the battlefield
•Winchester Cathedral
•Evensong services in as many churches as possible

Please be aware that it's likely to be chilly and wet at the time you are going.

And if this is your first trip to Europe or the first one on a long time, thoroughly read and digest all the info covered in Travel Tips on this RS website.

Thanks to everyone who answered. I will certainly take your comments into consideration as I plan. I don't want to be rushing from spot to spot -- won't be as enjoyable as having a more leisurely pace. Many thanks!

The list just posted it a great guide.

Note, that no one has mentioned Wales as part of a British trip. Lots to see there.

Costco, Aberdeen???

just west of the city. Shame they don't have petrol pumps though.

Jennifer: You are getting good advice in this forum. Here's my 2-cents for London: pick just a handful of places that sound appealing in London - each place to visit will take about half of the day. Museums and other tourist spots often don't open until 9:30 or 10 AM and the last entry may be 4:30 or 5:00 PM before closing. If you have four full days in London (assuming that you arrive the day prior and leave after the fourth full day), a reasonable itinerary is 8 places to visit. Were you to go out to Windsor or Hampton Court, or sail down the Thames to Greenwich on a commuter boat (great way to see London; recommend the Thames Clipper at Westminster starting point as you can use your Oyster card and hop on/off at Bankside or Blackfriars and use the Millennium Bridge to walk to St. Paul's Cathedral or to Shakespeare's Globe for tours) - any of these will consume most of the day.

Next summer will be our sixth trip to England ... we're still not repeating much except for a few favorites in London

Here's my 2-cents for Scotland: Just like London, you can't get everything done in a week ... or a month. Our first trip was four days in Edinburgh and 5 days of a self-driving tour in 2012. We've been back three more times for nearly a month on each trip and will return again in 2021. Outside of Edinburgh, renting a car is the best way to explore Scotland. Just avoid driving in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Especially for the Highlands and Borders, there is a poor public transportation net. You can get a fast train from London to Edinburgh. After Edinburgh, take a local train to Oban, Fort William, Inverness or Aberdeen to pick up your rental car (or head south into the borders for the same thing), then plan your driving route as a loop with a train back to one of Scotland's international airports. Or, start driving from Edinburgh's airport (just an easy tram ride from central Edinburgh) and loop back to get your flight home.

For our first visit, two sources were very helpful: Rick Steve's Scotland and Frommer's 25 Great Drives in Scotland. Also, get a really detailed road map ... either the Collin's or Phillip's road atlas. You can photocopy the relevant pages to take with you to avoid the weight of the entire atlas. Your cell phone Google Maps won't work in the rural areas, although you can pre-load maps on your phone. Take advantage of the great B&B lodging tradition in Scotland ... small inns and homes are a wonderful way to meet Scottish people, as are the pubs.

--John

Thanks, John, for your help and insights. Very helpful!