How many days for Bath and York?

If you want to save time go from London (Paddington) to Bath by train. Having ‘done’ Bath - go to nearby Bristol Airport and fly to Edinburgh. Once done with Edinburgh - train to York. Finally train back to London (Kings Cross). Be sure to be in the London area for your flight home and not make the journey on day of departure. Also check if you can fly direct from your place of origin to or from Scotland.

Should you not wish to fly within the UK:> Train from London to Bath. Train from Bath to Edinburgh - with a change (split ticket for lowest prices) at Birmingham. Train from Edinburgh to York and finally train to London. This avoids you using the York to Edinburgh rail line twice as going up you are using a westerly route that is actually 1 hour quicker because you change at Birmingham.
www.nationalrail.co.uk
Pre-book rail travel around 11 weeks ahead for that is when the cheapest advance tickets for specific trains get loaded to the system.

That looks like good advice from James about rail travel, it might help you scratch out some extra sightseeing time. However you move around, I'd suggest at least two nights in each city, and preferably three. For my own interests I'd prefer three nights in York, which has two or three good museums plus the Minster, walls, and medieval center. If you're a big fan of Georgian architecture you might want an extra day in Bath. This is without regard to possible side trips like Stonehenge or the Cotswolds from Bath, or Whitby from York.

It's always hard to fit our ambitions to the available time, but at least you're giving each city a full day and considering more. You're way ahead of the people who think one night is enough for places like those.

I’d say at least 2 nights for Bath which gives you a full day to see the major sights. I usually stay longer but I’ve got more time than you do.

It looks like you’ll be there on a Thursday and Friday? Bath hotels seem to jack the prices up in the weekend so you’ll probably get 1 night at a good rate and one a bit high.

Thanks for your replies! We're trying to avoid flying once we're there so are preferably opting for trains or driving. At this stage it looks like we'll have 2 nights in Bath (though potentially 3 nights if we take a night off London and take a late afternoon train to Bath on that day instead) with almost 2 full days since the train ride is fairly short. Then train up to York for 3 nights (2.5 days in York). There are a few places we wanted to see on the way to Edinburgh (Castle Howard, Rievaulx abbey, Alnwick Castle, Melrose abbey, Rosslyn Chapel) so considering driving from York to Alnwick (1 night) and then continuing on to Edinburgh the next day with the rest of the stops along the way. Does that seem feasible? We've currently allocated 4 nights to Edinburgh - is that too many? It will be our first time there but I know it's not a large city as such. The arrival day will be a half day and then that gives us 3 full days on top. After Edinburgh we're getting the train to Inverness for 2 nights, then thinking of picking up a car and driving to Skye for 2 more nights then on to Glasgow for 2 nights and then train back to London. If we took a day/night off Edinburgh we could perhaps add to the time spent on Skye. It's difficult to gauge how much time to spend in each place because it's quite subjective and also I'm aware of the travel time eating into time being in each of the places.

Cheers!
Cass

In my opinion, two nights in each town is sufficient. One full day is all that is needed to see the sights.

Would doing Bath as a day trip from London be sufficient? That way we can shave off some travel time for York by going straight from London and add days on to other parts of the trip. Though I do enjoy looking at the architecture and learning the history... It's so hard when there is so many amazing places to visit!

Take a look at the Bath tourism site and decide what you want to do if you’re having trouble deciding on 2 nights or a day trip.

https://visitbath.co.uk/

Here are some things I’ve enjoyed:

• Roman Baths
• Walking tour that goes to the Royal Crescent and Circus
• Museum at #1 Royal Crescent (a nicely restored Georgian townhouse)
• Bath Abbey
• Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms
• Pump Room (you can taste the waters here)
• Parade Gardens
• Holburne Museum (particularly if they are having an interesting exhibition. I saw an exhibition of Canaletto’s work there one time that was excellent.)
• Walk along the Avon River to the Kennet and Avon Canal
• Prior Park if you are interested in the Palladian bridge feature
• American Museum (probably wouldn’t bother on a first visit. Free shuttle from the city centre)
• Just wander thru the streets to enjoy the Georgian architecture and views like the Pulteney Bridge, the Weir, the Guild Hall and for heaven’s sake last June I came across some birders who had a spotting scope set up on a Peregrine Falcon nest at one of the churches

Skip:
- Jane Austen Centre (overpriced, she didn’t live here nor do they have any items that belonged to her)
- Victoria Art Gallery ( just didn’t find their collection interesting)

Haven’t been:

• Herschel Museum of Astronomy (He discovered Uranus here)
• Museum of Bath at Work

I’d also say 4 nights is not too much for Edinburgh. You could do Rosslyn Chapel as a day trip from here.

Have fun deciding what to see!

I'm on the record as having been rather bored by the architecture in Bath, but I did like the Holburne Museum and especially the small Museum of East Asian Art. There is a lot to see in the town even if you're not thrilled by a slew of Georgian town houses.

I have rather lost track of how many nights you have available - is it 4 or 5?

If it were me, I would drop Bath (which is inconvenient for York) or see it as a day-trip from London. Then go by train to York and stay 3 nights. There is enough to see for 2 days, plus some excellent day-trip options such as the Dales or Skipton (or even Harrogate, another Georgian spa town), though rural transport may be an issue without a car. Then travel to Edinburgh, stopping 1 (or 2?) nights along the way. Since you're open to hiring a car, driving from York to Edinburgh via the north east coast (-ish), especially Northumbria, would ideal. If you hired the car on your last full day in York, you could do a day-trip,before the next day starting the mini-road trip north.