Help with London and Edinburgh family itinerary

Day 4: Definitely train Edinburgh to London. City centre to city centre, 4½ hours, one departure every 30 minutes, more comfortable and less stress than air. Times and tickets from the train company website: https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/ Tickets are a lot cheaper if bought in advance.

Days 5-8: That is hardly enough time to see the top places in London, no time for Bath or Stonehenge. Windsor is a short run, so that is a good trip. Also consider Hampton Court Palace, which is also an easy commuter train run.

This is a tight trip, but if you can squeeze on extra night, stop one night in York, which is on the rail line half way between Edinburgh and London. Walled city (walk around the walls), cathedral, old streets etc. Tourist website: https://www.visityork.org/

Will plan on train from Edinburgh to London. Thanks!

We think we'd really like to see Bath. If we decide this day trip is worth it, would seeing Stonehenge the same day work out? Or tell me if neither is worth it. Our transatlantic cruise stops in the port of Portland with excursions to Stonehenge also- but looks like still 2 hours away and I think we'd rather do something closer to the port or even just enjoy the less crowded ship that day.

York sounds great, but checking into and out of another hotel does not. We considered driving from Edinburgh to London with several stopovers but decided against it for the same reason.

I realize we can't do all the main attractions in London in our time frame. Which are the best for a family and how would you group them together by days?

Don't drive from Edinburgh to London. Train does 125 mph and you can all sit and chat round tables. Car takes twice as long for half the comfort, plus time to pick up and return, plus 8 people = 2 cars.

And do stay in London, somewhere within the circle line. Plenty of cheap (for London) hotels with walking distance of Kings Cross (which is where the trains from Edinburgh arrive), and St Pancras (fast trains to Dover).

Who does the family consist of, ages, interests?

Sights in Edinburgh with a short timeframe include Edinburgh Castle, the National Museum of Scotland (free entry), the Royal Mile and Old Town, The Scottish National Gallery (I really enjoyed the Galleries of Modern Art although I accept that they're not to everyone's taste). I would like to give Edinburgh at least two days but the Highlands are fantastic. Loch Ness, whilst beautiful, is still just a loch and I would suggest that spending an additional day in Edinburgh at the expense of Loch Ness would be more desirable, it's a tough choice!

Don't fly to London, take the train. It's a shame that you'e not considering York as it's a fantastic city and far more interesting than Bath and an ideal stop on the line from Edinburgh to London.

What is it about Bath that attracts you so much? Yes it is an attractive city and the Roman Baths are amazing but I don't consider it worthy of a deviation from London with so little time. Likewise Stonehenge, do you all have an interest in Neolithic history/sights or is it more of a "I've been there" trip? I've witnessed so many people spend as little as 10 minutes wandering aimlessly around the circle and then leaving with a look that suggests "why did I come here?". If there is no genuine interest in the history and circumstances surrounding the stones then it seems to me to be a waste of valuable time that could be better spent enjoying more of London.

Ultimately however, recommendations are best provided when we know the ages and interests of those involved.

For Scotland, you should stay close to Princes Street and you can literally walk to museums, shops and the main thoroughfare. As for Loch Ness and the highlands, it is an unforgettable experience and I used Gray Lines for it (Loch Ness and the Highlands tour

If you are short on time, British Airways has quick and relatively inexpensive flights from Edinburgh to London. Once in London, you can explore the sites. I love Stonehenge, Bath and other points of interest. I have used and thoroughly enjoyed PREMIUM Tours (E-Mail for Premium tours of Stonehenge. Indeed, I will be using them (again) when I visit this fall.

We have five children who will be ages 6-14. They're great travelers and will put up with and get something out of whatever we do. Generally we want to experience the culture, history, food, and scenery of different areas. My husband wants to see the Roman baths but mostly we just don't know what we don't know. I'm sure he could be persuaded to visit York instead since it seems to be more highly recommended. Obviously there's much more we desire to see than we have time to see. I really appreciate this discussion to learn more and narrow down a preferred itinerary.

Kids of that age would love York city walls (I did at that age). Real walls you can walk along the top of, with real city gates that they really did shoot arrows out of.

a photo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/York_Walls.JPG
another: https://content.historicengland.org.uk/remote/shared.historicengland.org.uk/hex/file/he/content/upload/database/4636_700.jpg
and another: https://www.yorkcvs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/York_Micklegate_bar.jpg

Another vote for York over Bath with children that age. We visited York last week with our kids (13 and 11) and there was much more of interest for them than Bath, the walls, the medieval streets, the Viking history, castles, railway museum etc plus it's compact enough to enable easy walking between the sights.

Encompassing York en route to London from Edinburgh is seamless and reduces the need for long journeys. Whilst Bath can be undertaken as a day trip it makes for a long and far too compact a day that it would likely be too much for the children, particularly the youngest. There is a Roman bath in York and whilst not as spectacular as the one in Bath it might satisfy your husband's interest.

Personally I think Edinburgh-York-London is an excellent trip to experience a taste of historic (and modern) Britain and is so easy to do via train.

Having spent time in both cities, I would definitely take the kids to York if choosing between the two. A lot more of interest to both you and the kids, I think, although I do enjoy Bath, too. Take a look at some options listed for the two cities in your favorite guidebook. Let the kids weigh in with their opinions, too, if you think that's appropriate. I think JC has posted a good itinerary for your family!

Besides watching Rick Steves' episodes about York, you could search it on You Tube and come up with additional walking tour videos like this to give your family an idea of what is available. That way you may find if they're interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3WwXUFDlSI

London's must-see sights are whatever you all love the most, but one really easy (and high-value) one is the Treasure Room at the British Library. It's right near King's Cross station, where loads of the city buses go (and Platform 9 3/4 has a new gift shop). Plus the room itself is set up with low cases so you can see where your kids are, has many comfy benches all around the room for anyone who is getting tired, and has a zillion nifty historic things, including a headset with Beatles fan club records of them telling jokes. It's a great go-to place for rainy days later in your trip after you're getting tired out. :) Cafe' is right next door to the room, easy for lunch, cafeteria style.
I was a receptionist at Pax Lodge, the Girl Scout world centre in Hampstead, for 2 months, and the senior citizens were always SO grateful that I suggested that room to start their sightseeing off easily. If you have Girl Scouts in the family, Pax Lodge is on the 268 bus line, at the Rosslyn Hill bus stop, easy, and lots of activities for kids (check their calendar). It's a hostel that's open to everyone, don't have to be GS, but get a discount if you are. They have night programs sometimes & also sell discount tickets for attractions.
They're also located right next to Air Studios, where the music to Harry Potter, Kung Fu Panda, and loads more movies, was recorded. A former staff member from Pax Lodge that I worked with is just starting her new job there at the York train museum Tell Ruth we said Hi. :)

Probably just have the adults & older kids write a list of what they want to see in London, and go to the places that are on everyone's list. :)

Definitely stay in a London place as close to the sights you want to see as possible. Easy is way better with a city of this massive size. Plus with such a large group, you may be able to share a big taxi sometimes and save lots of bus or tube fares. There seem to be some good-rated hotels near Victoria Station, I search on Booking.com and then google the hotel name and go directly to their site, I think Syndey Hotel had really good ratings the last I looked at it. Victoria station is also where the Golden Coach leaves from to go to the Harry Potter studios tour, which can be a real bear to get to from other stations, it's outside of London in Watford Jct. Their bus is the easiest way to go, it seems.

Windsor's great and there's a Green Coach bus that goes from Victoria Station right to Windsor, then it travels on to Lego Land, also in Windsor, where they just added a load of new buildings from all over the world. That could be a good trip for a group with kids.
A friend of mine from high school lives over there, and he just took his 2 kids to Lego Land a couple of months ago, and they had a blast.

The site www.homeaway.co.uk is also popular there in the UK, in addition to airbnb. There's a few options.

Have a great time! When are you going?
-Alison

Are you using a washing machine at the Air Bnb in Edinburgh? If so, do you know if it's a combined washer/dryer unit? If it is, don't count on getting a lot of laundry done in a hurry. I'd probably suggest finding a laundrette or a laundry pick up and delivery service if you'll have a lot of clothes to wash.

Train to London and certainly stay in the city, don't even think about staying outside of the city. You'll waste too much time commuting.

I'd cut out the day trips, both in Scotland and London. Trying to organise a party of 7 sounds difficult enough, so reduce your stress level by not adding additional travel. In fact, if you haven't booked flights to Edinburgh already, I'd consider skipping Edinburgh and just staying in London. With some additional time in London, you'd have time for one day trip.

Yes, we will only rent an airbnb with a separate washer and dryer. I've seen several viable options. But thank you for the heads up. It was something I became aware of on our first trip to Europe and it's a primary criterion now for choosing our rental!
Dale, your suggestions are much more rational than we tend to travel. And it's great advice! But we're used to a very busy travel schedule. We may forego the Scottish highlands and we may wait until we're there to decide. We're actually taking it really easy by our standards by taking a cruise to Norway rather than a land tour, so I feel we'll be up for the hectic schedule for a week before a VERY relaxing cruise back to the US.
I like the idea of York now and skipping Bath and Stonehenge. I don't even think we'll go to Stonehenge when we have the opportunity on our cruise. Anyone have recommendations for our port of Portland while we're at it? When we make our list of what we really want to see/do at each destination we could end up dropping York.
I do think we'll try to get out to Windsor for part of a day and still get a good flavor of London.
I'm also wondering if we should make time to see Dover Castle or anything else in Dover before we embark on our transatlantic? We plan to take the trip by rail from London to Dover that morning-although I haven't researched if that's an option or what times are available yet.
Thanks for all the information and good advice everyone. And thanks for putting up with my questions and ever changing thoughts!

Just reread this thread and all of the valuable advice. We booked our flights to Copenhagen for the Northern Europe cruise that starts our trip but have held off booking the Copenhagen to either Edinburgh or London until we do a little more research and make this difficult decision.
Does anyone else want to weigh in on whether they'd fly to Edinburgh and spend three nights (two days) exploring Edinburgh and possibly tour the Highlands then train with one overnight in York before proceeding to London for three full days in London OR would you fly directly to London for the full week and maybe spend the last day and night in Dover before the cruise.
Will decide in the next two days. Seems we'll have a great time whichever we choose!

I'd go straight to London. There is so much to see in Scotland as well as northern England. I'd rather hold off until I had more time there.

Don't go to the Potter studio tour by bus from central London - the bus is severely overpriced and slow. The train from Euston to Watford Junction is easy if you have any public transport experience at all.

I, too, would go directly to London. With your large group you may be able to split up a bit so people see things they want to see. If you did that you could theoretically spend 2 nights in Salisbury to have one full day at Stonehenge (use public transport from the Salisbury City Center) or you could spend 2 nights in Bath. Or, since it looks like you are leaving from Dover, perhaps 2 nights at Canterbury before you head to Dover.

To me, Scotland needs more time than the 2-2.5 days you're able to give it this time.

I'm going to go against the flow and recommend the revised itinerary of Edinburgh-York-London.

Spend a couple of days in Edinburgh, explore the city which will easily occupy those couple of days. You won't see everything of course but some of those things will likely not be of interest to the younger children anyway. Forget the Highlands or anywhere else in Scotland, you won't have time.

Next get the train to York and stay at least one night, preferably two. Everyone will enjoy it, guaranteed.

You can then continue the train journey to London. There is so much to see and do here that you really don't have time for trips anywhere else. Britain is dripping in Roman history, you don't have to visit Bath to experience it and whilst the baths in Bath are spectacular you simply don't have enough time to fit it all in. There are so many incredible sights within the UK but you can't visit them all so you have to prioritise. Personally I wouldn't bother taking a six year old to Stonehenge, they'd be bored and it'll be a waste of the entrance fee.

I haven't been to Dover Castle, it's on my list but it's a bit of a slog to get there just for that as the rest of the town is a dump but as you're embarking on your cruise from Dover it makes sense to visit the castle but don't get your hopes up for much else!

I'm also surprised you haven't tried to fit the Cotswolds in! ; )

I would go straight to London. There is so much to see and do there, and you could include the day trip to either/or both York and Bath. We were in Edinburgh this September, and while I enjoyed it very much I think it pales compared to all there is in London. Take a separate trip and give all of Scotland its due rather than jam things into a couple days.