Feedback requested on draft itinerary - upcoming January/February trip

I think you will need to keep an open mind with this trip and be prepared to change course if the weather becomes a problem. If there’s snow then you can’t really go to the Highlands. The roads will be a big problem. That holds for other rural areas. A few years ago I had a to cancel a January Cotswold cottage weekend due to snow. The cottage was inaccessible and we went to Birmingham instead! I live an hour away and we had no issues, but in rural areas it settles more and doesn’t get cleared as efficiently.

It doesn’t snow that often in Southern England so you could well be fine with that part of the trip. The Highlands are definitely more risky and also you need to be aware that a lot of things shut down for the winter up there.

It is almost certainly not going to as cold as Minnesota, but it is possible that you could get bad weather on this trip and you do have an awful lot of driving in the plan.

Stonehenge is in a very open location susceptible to cold winds - it can be particularly miserable at that time of year. Unless you have a particular interest in pre-history I would miss it out in January.

Your biggest challenge will be the lack of daylight. It will typically be dark by 4pm in Scotland so quite a bit of your driving will end up in the dark,. In particular your train back from Mallaig to Bridge of Orchy will be almost all in the dark.

Driving back from Glencoe to London over two days won't be much fun either. I would drive back to Glasgow and drop the car. Then have a night in Glasgow and the train back to London or do the train on Day 14 and have an extra night in London. Glasgow is well worth at least a day - Celtic Connections will still be on then -https://www.celticconnections.com

If it's not too late to make changes, I'd suggest subtracting a night from Glencoe and adding a night to Edinburgh. There's just so much to see in Edinburgh, and though Glencoe is beautiful, there's not so much to see and do there.

On Day 11, "explore en route," I'd suggest a stop at Stirling to visit the castle (if you can work out the timing so you aren't arriving too late in Glencoe).

It’s probably worth saying that although our winter weather is nothing like as bad as Minnesota winter weather, we are also far less good at dealing with it.

Because snowfalls - particularly in the south of England - are relatively rare, any roads other than major ones aren’t cleared quickly and people are unused to driving in snow and don’t have snow tyres. It may not snow at all in the southern part of your trip but if it does, it will really impact your ability to drive and you will need to adapt with flexibility if so. It sounds like you’re willing to do that - but it’s worth realising that just a small amount of snow can snarl us up over here!

To expand a bit on the suggestion to dump the car in Scotland, you can take the train from Glasgow to London in as little as 4 hr. 18 min. From Edinburgh the fastest trains make the trip in just over 4-1/2 hours.

This trip seems to have a lot of sitting-in-a-car time. How many daylight hours will you have for feet-on-the-ground sightseeing, even if the weather is good?

a couple of observances...

Day 15 - Drive 4-5 hours rest of way to London - maybe lunch in Oxford? Return car to Heathrow by 18:00

I'm a bit concerned that a lot of your travel on this trip is after dark. By the 2nd of February sunset is at around 4:50pm. Further north and earlier in the year the days are even shorter, and if it is very cloudy (very common) or rainy, you will need lights a couple of hours earlier.

Are you aware that most A-roads and Motorways no longer have street lighting except around major junctions and in towns? Trying to find your way on unfamiliar roads in the rain at night can be less than good fun, especially if you are around trucks which kick up huge clouds of spray.

Driving here is not the same as driving in Minnesota. You can't just get on the motorway, set the cruise control and point south.

I'm also concerned about the highlighted day. Oxford isn't on the usual route north and south, that would be M6 from the northwest, past Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. Conceivably you could take the M6 as far as Spaghetti Junction, then the M5, onto the M42 and then onto the M40. You could then get off at Junction 9 for A34 towards Oxford. Expect major delays getting off the M40 onto the A34 (I do it frequently) and then heavy heavy traffic towards Oxford. You then will have the Oxford ZEZ (Zero Emission Zone) unless you are driving a plug in (not hybrid) EV of between £2 to £10 for the day and almost impossible task of parking in Oxford. And of course you won't leave any valuables in the car, wherever you find to park. There is no free parking in Oxford. They do their best to keep cars out of Oxford so there are lots of one way streets, many streets where cars are banned entirely and complicated routings to get across the City. The City has a maximum 20 mph limit on most roads near the centre and in many nearby centres such as Summertown.

I respectfully suggest reconsidering that day.

I so appreciate everyone's input!

Hearing you loud and clear about the weather and daylight, and I appreciate that it's not the time of year to go if you want to see everything. We are going this time of year because it's when we can afford it, and we'll be willing to adapt as needed.

We are planning to be where we're staying by dark each day, which does limit the amount of things we can do/see in a day, but my stamina is limited anyway so that's ok.

I did make a few changes already - though it costs more, we are going to follow the suggestion above and return the car in Glasgow, then take a train back to London and spend our last two nights (one full day) there. Those bookings are now modified and I've updated my draft itinerary above.

We actually do have a particular interest in ancient history, so hoping to visit Stonehenge and/or Avebury, but if it's too miserable we'll be okay letting it go. Thanks for putting that on my radar so I can get used to the idea that I might have to miss it hahaha

I will come up with a Plan B for the Cotswolds and Highlands to use if needed.

Oh, and also still considering the other suggestions as well :)

I would be a bit concerned about Day 5 and the amount you are trying to do. You are talking about 5 hours just to drive between the different places. Are you intending to stop and visit Stonehenge or just wave in passing? Just parking up and seeing the stones will take about an hour, longer if you are wanting to see the exhibition. Avebury - again a lot depends on what you are wanting to do there. If just looking at the stone circle, then about 20 minutes but longer if you are intending to visit the Manor etc.

Wells is a delightful small town with a lot to do and see. The cathedral is stunning and worth spending time in. There is also the moated Bishop’s palace too. You could easily spend half a day here.

You are trying to cram two days into one here, especially in winter...

Don’t underestimate the time needed to get between places. Distances may not look that far on a map but will take a lot longer to cover than you might expect. Also it won’t be much fun driving in the dark.

Roger that! Expectations managed.

Thanks again to everyone for your comments - I've now changed to three nights in Edinburgh and a less ambitious Highlands plan :)

Day 5 - I would drive to Stonehenge and then the short distance S to Salisbury - which has a wonderful cathedral. Then go NW to Bath - find somewhere to stay nearby that has parking. Allow much of 1 day to see Bath. Delete Wells & Glastonbury.

After 2 nights in Bath (or nearby) - head NE to the Cotswolds. Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Lower Slaughter, Chipping Campden are villages that you should see / stay in. Also note that Stratford-upon-Avon is not that far NE of this area.