Help please with itinerary - London/Edinburgh/Stratford-upon-Avon - thank you!

Why backtrack from Edinburgh to Stratford upon Avon? Arrange to depart from Edinburgh, allowing you to include a night in York.
Stratford upon Avon may be better as a day trip from London if RSC performances don't fit. You could catch a performance at The Globe instead.

Apr 24 London
May 1 Stratford upon Avon
May 2 York
May 3 Edinburgh
May 6 Depart Edinburgh

Oost 1 suggests a more logical order of destinations.

You are correct about Easter holidays. May 1 is also a Bank Holiday, so places will be busier and more expensive over this weekend.

Make sure that the London Pass is value for what you want to see, rather than going to see things because you have prepaid for them.

Day 1 - arriving the time you state, you will have time for one, not three visits. The zoo is at least half a day, more like a full day if you want to watch the feeding.

Day 2 - London Bridge is very unremarkable and not worth visiting. Be at the Tower of London when it opens.

Day 3 - far too much planned. The war rooms are half a day.

Day 4 - pick Bath or Stonehenge, as a combined tour shortchanges both.

Day 5 - more logical to go to SuA then. This is the Friday of the Bank Holiday, so trains will be very busy and expensive, with people taking a long weekend away.

April 30 - if you are going into places rather than just looking at the outside of them, you have too much packed in.

Flying home from Edinburgh saves you a day back tracking to London.

"Day 2 - London Bridge is very unremarkable and not worth visiting."
Agreed, not sure why you want to see it......
http://primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/riverthames/images/London/london/under.jpg
Apart from you having a good view of Tower Bridge from it.

MAYBE the 2 for 1 offers would be better for you than the London Pass:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g186338-c195600/London:United-Kingdom:2.4.1.Travelcards.Step.By.Step.html

Thank you David, Jennifer and harleydonski for taking the time to read my itinerary, much appreciated.

The reason we wanted to spend two nights in SuA because we were in Lake Bled last March and my dad regretted not spending a night there so I thought this might be the closest, the Shakespeare stuff appeals to him and there's a lake and a boat. :)

I drop the London Zoo and the Aquarium. Am thinking of dropping the London pass, might just be stressed to run around and get our money's worth. Not sure about Kensington Palace. What do you see in there? I read mixed reviews. We'd love to see the gardens but not too keen on seeing the interior. We went to Versailles and frankly we couldn't appreciate it.

Your comments about the London Bridge made me smile. Haha, my mom was just telling me, we should go see London Bridge! and she started reciting the nursery rhyme, London Bridge is falling down. That's why it appeals to us.

I checked out the 2for1 but I don't think we are qualified. I'm not sure if I got it correct but it says we can only use 2for1 voucher on the day of our rail travel, which is impossible, because we are going to Edinburgh by then. I read somewhere that you can buy a rail ticket. I am actually very confused with the different kinds of cards - Oyster Card, Travel Card, Rail Card, will try to read them up.

Some follow-up questions, has anybody tried taking a train from Edinburgh to SuA? And what is the difference between Virgin Trains and Virgin East Coast and where should I board the train? Euston or King's Cross or does it make a difference?

Again, much thanks!!!

Although similarly named and similarly branded Virgin Trains and Virgin Trains East Coast are run as two separate companies.

VTEC run the east coast mainline from Kings Cross to Edinburgh and beyond. VT run the west coast mainline from Euston to Glasgow. And for that reason it does make a difference where you board the train.

I took the return part of the London-Edinbrugh-London round trip a couple of days ago. For 25 GBP you can upgrade to first class. I thought it was worth it. If there are four of you, book early and grab table seats for 4 (2+2 facing each other.) The seats are bigger and more comfortable than standard and you get a very light meal. They also continually come around with the drinks cart (non-alcoholic) and are included in the price of the ticket.

Others will tell you its not worth it as you get there at the same time. But for a 4 1/2 hour trip, I'm glad I did it.

There are numerous trains every day with some every half hour. I took a later train, by one hour, to save about 20 GBP.

If you want to see the original London Bridge, go to Lake Havasu, Arizona. That's where it is.

The one at Lake Havasu is not the "original" London Bridge but a nineteenth-century replacement for the famous medieval one.

Stratford upon Avon is a more of a pig to get to than it might be simply because it is off the main line routes.

From Edinburgh most of the trains require a change between stations in Birmingham, from New Street to Moor Street. This isn't far and you do have the choice of walking under cover through shopping centres if you can work out the changes in level. Some is still in the open air though,

The alternative is a train to Wolverhampton, changing there for a train to Smethwick Galton Bridge and another to Stratford.

The alternative is a train to Wolverhampton, changing there for a train to Smethwick Galton Bridge and another to Stratford.

oooh nasty.

Two reasons - Wolverhampton station isn't renowned for clarity of platform changes, nor are the lifts in a particularly convenient place. Galton Bridge is mostly outdoors and the lifts aren't the nicest in the world, and platforms are relatively narrow.

I'd change in New Street for the short walk (getting better all the time and well marked) to Moor Street. Be sure to go the correct side of Moor Street because going around isn't much fun.

Actually I'd probably stay on the Cross Country service to Leamington Spa and backtrack the short distance around the corner to Stratford upon Avon. Beware the building works on Stratford upon Avon station.

And I thought I was depreciating the change at Wolverhampton. Included for completeness.

Normal rail searches don't bring up travelling via Leamington so although a reasonable route in my eyes too might need checking that it meets the routeing guide as forcing it indicates that there are no fares. Two tickets may be the order of the day here.

The walk up fare for the journey via Birmingham is an eye-watering £139.70 off peak so look for advances.

Thanks everyone for all the valuable inputs.

Ramblin' on, I am sorry but is VTEC Kings Cross to Edinburgh a shorter route than VT Euston to Glasgow? I am sorry for this question but I am still quite confused. So if I am going to Edinburgh, I should begin my journey at Kings Cross?

Frank, are you talking about the weekend promo, which gets you an upgrade to first class by paying a certain amount? Did you avail of the upgrade on the day itself? Or when you booked? And how do I book 2 table seats, do you do that after paying for the tickets? Sorry but our trip is scheduled next year so I can't buy tickets yet. But we would like that, I would try to time our trip to Edinburgh on Sat or Sun, so at least I can have that option of upgrading, assuming I can't score cheap advanced first-class tickets. Four hours is not a short time so I would like my parents and me, included, comfortable.

Marco and Nigel, just reading your posts about the train travel and transfers is making me very nervous :( Travelling from Edinburgh to SuA might not be a brilliant idea, after all. I'm not sure if we can manage, my mom doesn't walk that fast, we would probably have luggages with us and a wheelchair. djp_syd suggested York, which is a good idea to cut up the trip, but we are not very familiar with York. I reworked the itinerary to look like this. In order to miss the Easter holidays and the bank holidays, we've settled on the week after.

Do you guys think this option is workable?

May 2 (Tue): arrive Heathrow, from Heathrow, take private transfer to Oxford (overnight in Oxford)
May 3 (Wed): Oxford (take tour to Bath and Stonehenge or is it possible to take the bus or train to Bath and Stonehenge on our own? we're thinking of staying another night in Oxford or continuing to Stratford-upon-Avon)
May 4 (Thurs): Stratford-upon-Avon (overnight)
May 5 (Fri): Stratford-upon-Avon to London (overnight)
May 6 (Sat): London
May 7 (Sun): London - Edinburgh
May 8 (Mon): Edinburgh
May 9 (Tue): Edinburgh
May 10 (Wed): Edinburgh - London

May 11 (Thurs): London
May 12 (Fri): London
May 13 (Sat): London
May 14 (Sun): fly back home

I would love to take a trip to Cotswolds and spend a night there but my brother doesn't want to drive and neither do I. :(

Again, much much thanks for all your graciousness in answering my questions.

Happy Travels!

doing the trip as you suggested just above seems better, for the Stratford upon Avon bit anyway.

If you have a wheelchair bound passenger it is worth arranging for assistance from the station operator who is usually the main operator into the station or Network Rail themselves. Each one has a different telephone number, and by telephone is the way to contact them.

They can arrange a step-free route, including a ramp between the train door and the platform and make sure that the luggage gets on and off the train, make sure that the wheelchair is properly placed, the passenger near a disabled toilet if possible and generally make the trip much more comfortable for a disabled passenger. The passenger does not need to be visibly disabled or elderly, they just need to make prior arrangements stating what their needs are.

The route Kings Cross to Edinburgh is much more of a straight line and considerably faster than the Euston to Glasgow route, especially if you then have to get to Edinburgh.

It's always more efficient to fly into one city and out of another to avoid backtracking e.g this would give you more time in places.

May 2 Edinburgh
May 3 Edinburgh
May 4 Edinburgh
May 5 Edinburgh
May 6 Oxford
May 7 Oxford/SUA
May 8 Bath
May 9 Bath
May 10 London
May 11 London
May 12 London
May 13 London
May 14 depart

One reason why first class is cheaper at weekends is that the food on offer is more sandwiches than cooked meals
https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/the-east-coast-experience/first-class/menu/

And yes, London to Edinburgh starts at Kings Cross, London to Glasgow from Euston.

Thanks Nigel for the heads up on the wheelchair assistance. My mom can walk and move about quite fine but gets tired when walking long distances. I am just worried we might not be fast enough to board the train as my friend who recently visited the UK said, you have to be very fast to hop on the train haha. But will check it out to make our trip easier.

Thanks ramblin' on for taking the time to tweak our itinerary. You are very correct, flying in one city and out another is the best way to go, unfortunately, we are coming from the Philippines and our UK visas issued by the British Embassy here requires that we enter and leave only via Britain so flying into or out of any city other than Britain is not an option for us. :(

Edinburgh and London are both in Britain. Unless there is anything special applied the information probably refers to not entering or leaving via Ireland.