Family trip to the UK- need help

With only about two weeks, I'd discourage you from going beyond England. There's plenty to see there, or in Ireland or Scotland or Normandy, but if you spread yourselves too thin your memories may be dominated by transportation. Here are our host's ideas about England from this website. A good guidebook will also help you plan this trip around your specific interests, which you haven't shared in your post. You might also look at some of the Rick Steves tour itineraries, not necessarily to follow them but for ideas about what could be done with a given amount of time (keeping in mind that you may move more slowly than a tour where all the transportation is prearranged and the schedule is based on the tour rather than vice versa). This forum works best for specific questions rather than general trip planning. Here are some more ideas from our host about planning a trip.

I have to respectfully disagree with Dick about limiting your trip to England. Although you definitely do not have time for Ireland or Normandy, you can easily fit in Scotland.

You will surely want to see York, and from there is it only 2.5 hours by train to Edinburgh. You could do a nice 4-5 day loop, Edinburgh—-Stirling—-Glasgow, and back south through the Lake District and then the Cotswolds to London.

The Scots are the friendliest people we have met in all Europe—-nowhere else have so many locals initiated conversation with us, after hearing our accents. One time at a restaurant in Oban, we were having such a good time we pushed our tables together, ordered dessert and after-dinner drinks, and kept on for another hour.

Two of our favorite museums anywhere are the National Museum in Edinburgh and the Riverside Museum (transport and technology) in Glasgow. We never realized how much we owe to Scots for many of the science, technology, and industrial innovations of our modern world until we visited Scotland.

I love Winston Churchill’s quote:

Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.

https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/science-and-technology/made-in-scotland-changing-the-world/#:~:text=Our%20modern%20planes%2C%20trains%20and,to%20clean%20and%20cook%20with.

For anyone interested in architecture and design, the Charles Rennie Mackintosh trail in Glasgow is a must.

Even a short visit to Scotland is well worth the effort. It will just whet your appetite for more. And I say this as someone who calls London their favorite city, a place to which we return over and over. But Scotland is wonderful. At least it was to us.

I think it's Important you make a list of sites you want to see and then figure out transportation time between them to figure out how much time you realistically have to see them, and then scratch things off your list. In 2022 we spent 2 weeks in September in SE England travelling between Salisbury and Canterbury and on May we had 2 weeks in Scotland and only did a loop between Edinburgh, Inverness, Mull, and Glasgow. In 2018 we spent a week in London, 2 nights in Bath and 4 in the Cotswolds.

As far as must-sees from your list; in London, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and Hampton Court were the favourites. We spent 6 hours each at the Tower and Hampton. Bath, I loved and thought the Baths and the Fashion Museum well worth the time. I found the Cotswolds nice but just OK. Edinburgh and Glasgow were outstanding and deserve 3 or 4 nights each. My favourite though in Scotland was a daytrip to Stirling Castle.

I agree that with only 2 weeks you do not have enough time to add other countries such as Ireland or France---you would be experiencing airports with a tiny taste of tourist sites and without opportunity to savor a location.

Lola has a good idea for a sample of Scotland---just a few hours beyond York, which you really should visit. You will be shortchanged of the varied experiences available in England but you can plan to catch more on another trip.

Is this your first visit to UK? Do you plan to rent a car or use pubic transit?

Note that Taylor Swift will be in Edinburgh on June 7-9, Liverpool 13-15, and London 21-23.

It’s really hard to give a list of “must do’s” because everyone’s interests are different. You should get together as a group and put together what you each want to see and do. If you really are overwhelmed then look at the Rick Steve itineraries for ideas and how their tours flow. For lodging information try booking.com. But call the hotel directly for bookings. This again is a personal choice area where what one person may love another may not so it’s hard to give recommendations. It’s a lot of work and why many people do tours where it’s all done for you.

Thank you all so much for your awesome feedback. We are binging Rick Steve’s Europe to definitely get ideas. We are debating renting a car vs. public transport. Any recommendations?This is our first trip to the UK.

Some really good suggestions here in what to do, and I do agree England + Scotland is a possibility. I'll just comment on the car v train question. When I travel in the UK, I normally stick to train for traveling between big cities, and only hire a car once I'm at a base where I want to explore the countryside and public transport is less viable. For example, a car would be beneficial in the Cotswolds, or the Yorkshire Dales. but a terrible idea in a city like York or Edinburgh, for example. So I would chart a route from London around 2-3 major cities by train, and look at hiring a car just for the countryside. For those routes train will be faster, easier and cheaper.

CanAmCherie and Simon have both made some excellent points, which actually complement each other.

A car would only be useful for the Cotswolds; but for cities (London, York, Edinburgh if you go to Scotland) they are a huge pain (traffic, parking, and limited traffic zones). The trains are comfortable, convenient, and often faster between cities. You could use 2 Two Together Railcards to get 1/3 off the price of train tickets, including off the already-low Advance fares.

As for Taylor Swift—-she does draw huge crowds, and hotel prices ramp up a day or two in advance. The one place this might have an impact on you is the end of your trip, as she will be in London at that time (June 21-23). She will be in Edinburgh June 7 - 9, but you will get there well after that.

So—-one solution to both would be to put the Cotswolds at the end of your trip. Rent a car for your time there, and return it at Heathrow before your flight home. That way you will not have to overnight in London with the Swifties and high hotel prices. (Of course there are other solutions, such as spending a night in Windsor, which is very nice, and would work with the car as well).

We have traveled extensively in the British Isles several times and visited all the countries there. We love them all.

We have found that it is best not to plan traveling over long distance by car. The farther you have to travel from point to point the more time you waste traveling (not touring). Also, you spend more $$$ on travel. This would be especially true for a visit to Normandy.

Our last trip to Britain was only in England and South Wales. We spend FOUR WEEKS having a rental car and it was amazing. We didn't do London again.

You only have two weeks and you plan to do London. I suspect you will want to do at least 4-5 days there, leaving 9 to 10 days for the rest of your trip.

The best thing to do is start reseraching where you want to go and plan your trip in detail. Find out WHAT you want to see (TripAdvisor is great, just check "Things to do in-------".)

I can tell you that driving a rental car in and around London is a painful experience. Southern England has heavy traffic as well. Just driving 75 miles in a day on scenic roads may take you over two hours. Then parking can be difficult in some place, especially large cities. Look for lodgings where parking is provided.

Next, remember if you just set out to do for example, England and Scotland, then that would clearly include London and Edinburgh. That takes up HALF of your trip. Nothing wrong with that, but the countryside is amazing in both countries.

The Cotswolds are great, we stayed at Chipping Campden that don't have a rail connection to anywhere. We had a rental car. We used Chipping Camden as a base to do the Cotswolds (2 full days), Oxford, Blenheim Palace and Stratford Upon Avon. We were there six nights and had five full days for touring.

One of our favorite places to visit in Great Britain was York. It is very historic with an amazing Minster (Cathedral), ancient walls that date back to the Romans and much more. We did three nights there and were busy the entire time.

There are many, many great places to visit, just figure out what you want to see, plan it out and don't try to overdo it.

Another issue, you want to keep it budgeted at $6,000 for four of you. That will be extremely difficult. Places like Premier Inns in cities like London are reasonable, but with four persons you many need two rooms. We love B&Bs and find them cheaper than hotels, and you usually get a free breakfast. Also, if you rent a car, you will need a car large enough to hold luggage for all four persons.

We usually rent cars but have you driven on the other side of the road as they do in Britain?
Something to consider as it isn’t as easy as driving in the rest of Europe is,
I would focus on England and Scotland. Give London four nights at a minimum.

My wife and I went to England and Scotland for 16 days last year. We packed in a lot and you can find my post-trip reports elsewhere in the forums. Just to briefly let you know where we went, we arrived in Heathrow and picked up our car, spent two nights in Bath, 2 nights in the Cotswolds, flew from Birmingham to Inverness and spent 2 nights there, drove to Edinburgh where we ditched the car and spent 3 nights, trained it to York where we spent 2 nights, and rounded things off with 4 nights in London, traveling there by train.

We didn't allow enough time in London (you could spend a full week and not finish seeing the main sites). York has some must-see sites, but sometimes felt too "touristy" (walking the walls is a blast, however). Three nights in Edinburgh was about right - four if you really want to see everything - if you go there, consider a side tour to Stirling. Despite detractors here on this site, we LOVED Inverness, but it's awkward to fit into an itinerary unless you're doing a tour of Scotland. We had two nights in the Cotswolds, but we "did it" all wrong. Going to the Cotswolds is about slowing down and relaxing - not being a tourist. Someone else suggested doing this at the end of your trip and that's not a bad idea. Bath was beautiful, but you can see most of the city's attractions in one-two days.

There is SO MUCH we didn't see that we'll have to return some day. It really depends on what you like.

I’d include Scotland. We spent 2 weeks in the UK, including a week in a cottage in Scotland, You need a car.
In the Cotswolds we just drove around and got ‘lost’. Discovered Bibury and Northleach, great fun.

What are your interests ? Beng a fan of horse racing and Dick Francis mysteries, I made special trips to Newmarket and Cheltenham. I’ve know people who visited Yorkshire (?) because they were fans of author James Harriot.

Thanks everyone for taking time out of your busy day to help us out with ideas. We’re reading all the responses and taking copious notes. We have never driven outside the US and are a little nervous about driving. As far as our interests go, we love history, so will do some of the touristy things in London, but as someone mentioned we don’t want to rush through this trip either. Given that swifties might be swarming London towards the last leg of our trip, we might do the Cotswolds in the end.

Ok so having reviewed the responses so far, how does this itinerary sound:
7-12: London
12-17: Edinburgh
17-22: Cotswolds

Last response sounds so much better. I would take the train to Edinburgh it is clean and easy versus flying. Driving outside the cities is much easier than in the towns but that is true with every big city. Yes you will be driving. On the other side of the road but it doesn't take too long to adjust just have your passenger remind you to keep on your side of road and if going around a circle and miss your exit just circle around again. My passenger would tell me to get off like on a clock saying get off at nine o'clock or three o'clock etc. Worked very well. Also be sure to get an automatic it is much easier than standard shift.