four weeks in england-scotland-ireland itinerary

Day 6 - London (stonehenge day trip? oxford? cambridge)

Cambridge

Day 8 - Cotswolds day trip (is this worth it?)

Spend the day in Bath unless you add another night.

Day` 17 just checking, are you planning on flying from Edinburgh to the Shannon airport on Ireland (as opposed to Dublin airport), then getting to Galway from Shannon?

I am guessing you do not want to rent a car. If this is the case, I would say your itinerary is pretty good. I have been to all the places you plan to go except for Northern Ireland, which I know enough about to know it’s a worthwhile destination. I don’t know if the specific tours you are considering in Scotland and Ireland are good ones, but I do think the regions they cover are places that are worth going to for a first trip to the British Isles. I have read many good things about Rabbies tours to the highlands of Scotland. I know nothing about any tours in Ireland. I do know both Scotland and Ireland are difficult without a car since the train system is limited, so tours may be the way to go. I have never looked into the bus system for these two areas, although I have used and been pleased with the buses in England.

I don’t think there is anything you should remove from your itinerary, but I might quibble with the number of days you allocate to some places, as follows:

You have a lot of time in London, which is great. There is just so much to do there. I think you have enough time for a day trip if there’s someplace you really want to see. There are numerous day trips from London by train. You are going to have to figure out all the places you want to see in London and compare that to potential day trips, then rank them. Only you can decide what is most important to you. If it was my trip, I would do a day trip to Stonehenge, but other people would have zero interest in that.

I adore Bath and I don’t think you’ll have enough time to enjoy all it has to offer if you
do a day trip to the Cotswolds. However, I love the Cotswolds so I understand the temptation to shortchange Bath to see it. Ultimately I would advise against it.

York is another destination that deserves more time than you are giving it. But with a day and a half, you could see some of the highlights. The only place I see to steal a day from is Dublin, which gets me to my last point.

Dublin is my least favorite place in Ireland. Trinity Library and the Gaol are blockbuster sights, but otherwise, it’s an unattractive city IMHO. The beauty of Ireland is in the countryside. I would not spend more than a day in Dublin, and I would have no problem with skipping it altogether. The more days you can give to the south and southwest, especially the Dingle peninsula, the better. Have you considered flying out from Shannon instead of Dublin?

Those are my thoughts. I wish you a wonderful trip whatever you decide.

re day 7
The earliest train to Bath Spa in the week is 5.23!

You could do a Mad Max Day Tour from Bath that includes both Stonehenge and the Cotswolds.
Look at the one day tours available from Edinburgh with Rabbies.

thanks so much for all the replies!

Cyn, I didn't delve into the details regarding edinburgh to galway. Was just going to go on skyscanner and look for flights, i know there would have to be a transfer. Do you suggest I organize it in a different way?

Carroll, the scotland tour would be a 3 day highlands probably from rabbies since they get good reviews. It would be 259 euros. Is that a good price or should i keep looking?

Cala, thanks for the suggestion on combing stonehenge and cotswolds. I have never been to either so don't know how much time is needed for each.

It seems like I should add a day to Bath and possibly take one away from dublin. In general, i don't mind taking super early trains (whatever is available around 5 AM). I know that would be pre-sunset but I expect it to be safe to get around that early.

Be sure you're clear on whether your Rabbies tour includes lodging. I think they sell tours both with and without lodging. Lodging costs run high in many places in Scotland.

it does not include lodging. It's going to be expensive if i do it

I’m sorry I’m not up on tour prices in Scotland. All I can tell you is I paid $130 for a full day (12 hours) tour of Provence in France last year and thought it was a good value. If I were you, I would check other companies to get an idea of prices so you have some basis to compare. I’d be willing to pay a little more for a company that has good reviews and a good reputation. When I am deciding on a tour I consider what it would cost to do it on my own via train or car rental and factor in the benefit of having someone else handle the logistics as well as how much more you will learn from a knowledgeable guide.

I notice you quoted a price in euros. Did you mean pounds? If it’s in pounds it will be even more when you translate it into your home currency, so be sure to factor that in.

The focus of your itinerary is large cities. There is a lot more to the British Isles than large cities..

Suggest eliminating a country and visit more of the countryside.
Places in England to visit:
Cambridge, Canterbury, Oxford, Winchester, Warwick, The Lake District, Durham, Hadrian's Wall.

Also, consider North or South Wales at some time in the future.

Going from Edinburgh to Galway to Dublin to Northern Ireland to Dingle/Ring of Kerry is a lot of backtracking.

Instead think of Edinburgh to Northern Ireland to Galway to Dingle/Ring of Kerry and then Dublin. (You can switch the order of Galway and Dingle/Ring of Kerry.)

In between Galway and Dingle/Kerry is the Cliffs of Moher. Don't miss it.

Cyn, I didn't delve into the details regarding edinburgh to galway. Was just going to go on skyscanner and look for flights, i know there would have to be a transfer. Do you suggest I organize it in a different way?

I do t use skyscanner much, spidernight92, but I looked on Rome2Rio, and there’s actually a direct flight on RyanAir, departing Edinburgh at 10am and arriving at the Shannon airport at 11:15. You’d then need to get to be Galway by land (bus? rental car?), but with Shannon being so much closer than Dublin to Galway, it’d be a much shorter, faster, and presumably cheaper route than if you flew into Dublin and got to Galway from there.

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Edinburgh/Shannon-Ireland#r/Fly-to-Shannon/s/2

Then again, searching Rome2Rio with Edinburgh as the departure point and Galway as the destination, there are even more options (including ferries and trains), but it confirms that flying from Edinburgh to Shannon, then bus to Galway, is your fastest option. Cheaper (but longer) is flying to the Cork airport, then reaching Galway. Actually, Cork is closer to Dingle, so you could see Dingle first, then Cliffs of Mohervon the way to Galway, then Dublin, then Northern Ireland.

Or, an even faster (but not necessarily cheaper) flight from Edinburgh, is to fly Edinburgh to Belfast, see what you will in Northern Ireland, then make your way down to Dublin, then Galway, then Dingle. Fly out of Shannon at the end.

i dont think i spelled this out, but i dont plan on renting a car anywhere with Ireland being the place that is giving me the most trouble. I really don't know how to organize it. Without a car, I probably need to rely on multi-day tours and most are based in Dublin like this one, (https://wildrovertours.com/activity/ring-of-kerry-dingle-peninsula-tour-from-dublin/). but maybe a better approach is to use trains to go between the big cities (belfast, dublin, galway, cork) and base myself in each one for 2 or 3 days and do day trips.

Ireland is difficult without a car. My husband doesn't drive in England or Scotland but had no other option in Ireland. We did take a day bus tour to Glendalough and Kilkenny from Dublin.

I've never been to Ireland. You can get to some nice places in Scotland without a car, but it will likely cost you more time when buses are involved; they aren't terribly fast, and they don't run often. There's also the weather issue--a car allows you some flexibility to head away from the rain on the spur of the moment; you likely cannot do that via public transportation, because even bus tickets may sell out in advance.

Are you sure you want to include all three countries on this trip? I found 26 days was not really enough for Scotland alone without a car--though I did spend more time in Edinburgh and Glasgow than the typical tourist would.

I'd like to include all three countries if possible since they are so close. I can always revisit later. What am I shortchanging? The itinerary doesn't seem that rushed to me... but i've never visited these countries so i trust people's opinions here more.

i have a drivers license though no longer own a car and cant drive stick. Should I just rent a car in Ireland? I dont know how difficult it is. If tours don't allow me to visit the places worth visiting then maybe renting is the better option. Despite my lack of experience driving, I can be very careful.

just to summarize based on the post immediately above - so you are not surprised, if you drive in Ireland you will be driving on the left with the driving seat on the right, on narrow roads, slowly. You will find getting a car with an automatic gearbox difficult - they really are in the minority and expensive. If you drive into Northern Ireland the speeds will be posted in miles per hour and distances in miles and yards; you will be used to Ireland in kilometres per hour and kilometres and metres.

I'm glad that you are happy to drive slow and steady... I hope it is a wonderful trip.

When my husband drove in Ireland, we did bite the bullet and paid for the automatic. Worth it, in my opinion.

i'm going to skip this trip for now. The car situation might be too much. There are plenty of countries in Europe i haven't been to that have robust rail systems.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Hopefully I figure out how to do this trip in the future.