Help me plan my tour

U need to purchase the RS guidebook and read it. Will help you decide if your itinerary is doable, cost and time wise. If you truly want an RS staff member to help plan your trip you need to contact his Seattle office directly. The Helpline is primarily fellow travelers. Personally, I think your itinerary doesn't give you enough time to truly experience a locale.

01

just from the looks of what you have planned, you are just stopping for the day in several places. not a lot of time to see/do anything in my opinion.

good luck and happy trails.

Have you booked anything yet? If not, I'd suggest starting in London, working your way north, and then flying from Edinburgh to Dublin.

Windsor can be easily seen as a daytrip from London although you don't have much time alotted for London.

Regardless, consider flying to Dublin to save time and money.

If you truly want to see the country then I would suggest trimming down your itinerary, you will be spending more time traveling from place to place then sightseeing. If you want to see Edinburgh then you should fly into Edinburgh, it would save you time. The train trip from Edinburgh to Windermere Lake District is between 2 1/2-3 hrs, so that will only give you a half day in Windermere, train from Windermere to Stratford-Upon-Avon is 4 1/2 hours and involves 3 changes, so again you will only have a few hours in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Stratford to Oxford to about 2 hrs long and involve 1-2 changes depending which train you take. I hope this shows that you are trying to do to much.

Matthew,
Just got back from a 2 week UK trip. I would add to the others in advising to consider less miles and more quality. The traveling takes a bit out of one and we found that its takes a short time to sort out how to get around. A good time frame may be one full day and night at each destination. Only you know what you want though. If you want to see things as you drive by plan more. If you want to sit in a pub or coffee house and visit with locals plan less. My advice is to plan a must see for each spot and a maybe see if we are up to it. Spend as little time in transportation as you can. Another little tip. Plan your stay close to mass transit if you can. In london we stayed close to Euston station. We could walk to 3 different tube stops or two different train stations. Surprising how much time that saved. Again plan the transportation with the goal of not wasting time.