First trip to the UK this August- itinerary help

Personally I would forget the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. A lot of time standing around to see not very much. I would also forget Loch Ness.

London Bridge? Not much to see. I think you mean Tower Bridge.

Are you prepared for what to expect in Festival season in Edinburgh?

Rain all day?

Looks pretty good to me! I have done both of those MadMax tours and they are good. IF they are given on the right days, I might put a day in between the 2 tours just so you are not in a van 2 days in a row. If that is not how the schedule works out then this will be fine. The driver guides I've had have always been very knowledgeable and interesting.

If you take the Great Western train from Paddington Station to Windsor (change at Slough) you can tap in/out with your credit card and not have to buy separate ticket.

Will add to Camborne's comment that if you're going to pick a changing of the guard, I would go with Windsor. An event that's smaller in scale where you should have a better view. Granted, we were there during October several years ago not August, so in general, it was probably less crowded, but still, everything in Windsor is on a more intimate scale.

As many here will tell you, check the London Walks schedule to see if anything you'd like to see is covered as part of one of their walks. https://www.walks.com/
Have fun planning!

Definitely meant tower bridge.

I understand lots of people in Edinburgh, I have hotel within reasonable budget. Are the streets so crowded we can't walk to what we would like to see? Restaurants so crowded we can't get a meal? We may not come back and would really like to see the city so we decided to try.

Yes, rain all day, I am from Oregon and just returned from New Zealand which included a bomb cyclone and a named cyclone, took out walking tracks and made things outside miserable (we have full waterproof head to toe), felt like Iceland last year.

Looking forward to seeing the advice here, as we arrive in Edinburgh on August 19 and our Scotland itinerary is very similar to yours. We are staying 3 nights in Edinburgh and have tickets for the Military Tattoo and plan on doing other Festival and Fringe things. Then, we do a similar circle, staying in Inverness instead of Dingwall and for 4 nights to do some day trips. But, a very similar loop to yours. As Camborne noted, we’re prepared for lots of rain. (Before reaching Scotland, we’re actually spending a week in Iceland, so also need to be prepared with warm and rain gear).

From there, our plans then are a bit different from yours, as we’ll take longer to get London, spending a few nights in Durham, York, Lincoln, and Cambridge first. We’re also staying near Victoria Station once in London (9/5 – 9/10), then going to Canterbury to meet up with our RS Best of South England 13 day tour, ending in Bath. After that, we’ll spend a few days in the Cotswolds on our own before heading to Southampton to take the Queen Mary 2 back to the US.

Of course you might not see a drop of rain. We don’t have webbed feet. It actually rains more in Paris than London.

London gets around 23” of rain a year, less than half that of New York City. Lakewood gets a bit less at 17”, but not very different.

My thoughts, go ahead and book a table for dinner, even if it's only a day or 3 in advance. Why end up eating at the worst place in town, when there are so many good restaurants and pubs to choose from all over UK.

We stayed at lovely Barcaldine Castle in 2023, 10 minutes north of Connel.

I'm not quite understanding your August 21-23 days.
Your Connell to Dingwall day is going to be a long day of driving . Do not rely on Google drive times. If your planning to stop at Glenfinnan Viaduct to see the train pass by, get there EARLY. Unless something has changed in the last 2 years, parking in the lots is very limited and there is no parking on the main road. Police will wave you along.

Eilean Donan looks good from the outside, not much on the inside.

Are you a Nessie? There are a lot of beautiful lochs and vistas and castles and ruins in Scotland. What are you hoping to experience on this trip besides a lot of driving?

I have no input on your Stonehenge, Cotswold, Bath, Windsor plans as I haven't been to those areas in years and I wouldn't want to give you outdated advice.

Your post is unclear if you are wanting to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace or the Changing of the King's Lifeguard at Horse Guards Parade. The latter is more enjoyable. Walk from the Palace through St James Park arriving at Horse Guards Parade about 10:50. Not nearly the crowds of the former.

You've posted in the England forum. You may want to post your Scotland plans in the Scotland forum for more feedback.

Thanks for all the input.

I do understand the long day of driving from Connel to Dingwall, we did many drives in New Zealand that we were told would be torture, not a problem for us, while driving on the opposite side of tiny, windy roads in rain and wind. I figured we will be arrive as soon as possible at Glenfinnan or my husband will give up seeing it with the train. He is also the nessie fan and reason to go to loch ness. My husband loves driving the countryside so our schedule will defiantly be different than what others choose.

We have to do the two mad maxx tours back to back because of when they are offered.

Oh my just googled our rain, average portland rain 36 inches, our suburb is over 38 inches and near us is 60 inches of rain, yikes.

Jill, we have no plans to do anything fringe/festival related in Edinburgh, your trip sounds great! We did Iceland last year and needed all the cold weather gear, really was hoping to not have to take the goretex coat, pants and shoes, but we used in them in New Zealand and I walk with them at home.

I want to see changing of the guard at Windsor for the hope of seeing it closer and I want to see the horse guard parade near buckingham palace, compromise is what we are working on. We each are doing our must sees that the other doesn't have any interest in.

Pam, I have added the note to my spreadsheet about the great western train at paddington and not needing to buy a separate ticket, can just tap on tap off, that would be very helpful. Can we tap on/off for the train Slough to Windsor?

All the information is so helpful.

Unless you really feel the need to see Glenfinnan viaduct another place to see the steam train close (now that Fort William is off limits) and far more on your line of route is at Banavie where it crosses the swing bridge over the Caledonian Canal. Swing bridges in themselves are not that common. You can also see the Neptune's staircase lock flight. Banavie, for the train geek, is also the RETB signalling centre for the whole of the West Highland line- the next fringe box is Glasgow.

PS- Given your Military background maybe also add a stop at the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge, and maybe the Coastal Command memorial at Ganavan Sands, Oban.

To get to Dunoon I would go down the M8 to Gourock, then the Western Ferries route over to Dunoon.

I understand lots of people in Edinburgh, I have hotel within reasonable budget. Are the streets so crowded we can't walk to what we would like to see? Restaurants so crowded we can't get a meal? We may not come back and would really like to see the city so we decided to try.

As long as you’re aware, have patience and give yourself plenty of time, you’ll be fine. Yes, a lot of streets will be crowded. Part of the Royal Mile is given over to the Fringe and is full of street entertainers.

The biggest pain/annoyance/interesting novelty will be the flyerers - people handing out leaflets and flyers about upcoming shows. I have been one of those flyerers (and an effective one - polite but persistent) and they can be annoying, but I suggest just smile and maybe politely take their flyer and see how many you can collect! Or just walk past them. Probably now fewer than there used to be as people are switching to socials/QR codes etc. The most troublesome areas for flyerers are the Royal Mile, around Waverley Station, along Cowgate and around Bristo Square. But honestly you will never experience anything else like it, so why not enjoy the experience? Maybe even go to a random Fringe show if a nice polite but persistent person gives you a flyer?

That said, I don’t find that the usual tourist attractions are any busier than you’d expect in a normal city in the school holidays. People there for the Fringe won’t necessarily go to museums etc. Do book the castle in advance if you want to go, but I’ve often escaped from Fringe madness into the glorious free National Museum of Scotland, or my particular favourite, the wonderful free National Portrait Gallery (stunning building).

Restaurants - some won’t take bookings during the Fringe. But there are so many places to eat and if you’re happy to eat at random times you’ll be fine. Also the Fringe brings a lot of street food vendors to the city - the area around George Square is great (although you’ll be flyered approximately a million times while eating).

• August 19th. The Royal Mile is highly touristy with restaurants and souvenir shops. We took a walking tour with Mercat Tours that brought the history of the street to life. Highly recommend. When we were there, Mercat has an option to add a short tour of the castle to the end of the tour and they'd leave you inside to wander.
• August 24th. There isn't much to see in Alloa and its tower but I get why you're doing it. I can trace ancestry to the region back to the 1500's. We made a detour from Edinburgh to Inverness to drive through the region and didn't regret it.
• August 25th. We spent 5.5 hours at Stirling Castle. Get an early start if you have a flight to catch.
• August 28th. The City of Bath has a free town tour twice a day that we thought was worthwhile. Loved the Roman Baths. The audio tour is worthwhile and describes the history as you make your way toward the actual baths. On the day we went, most people rushed passed the exhibits to get to the baths and missed so much.

Thank you again for the input-
Directions on best route to Dunoon and swing bridges, added
I will probably avoid the flyers unless we go with the flow.
Mercat tours with the castle, I hadn't found that yet so it is now on the list, we love walking tours.
Alloa, the home my grandmother was born is still there and where my great grand parents were married, plan to visit both.
I had the the bath walking tour noted, glad to know it is good.
I still haven't found a fit for us with a walking tour in london, the rick steves audio tours will be used if nothing else.
Thank you

London walks - walks.com is the got to place for walks in London. There must be something that they do that you will like given the range.