Itinerary Advice - England/Scotland May 2019

You have a great itinerary. I think York and London are far more interesting than Stonehenge/Bath/Cotswolds. If it were me, I would leave the driving in Scotland to Rabbies-we took their Highlands tour this summer and it was great. You can walk on top of the old city wall in York.

With your limited time, I would skip Bath/countryside this trip and spend all your time in London.

This is a good plan, you've obviously given it a lot of thought. I haven't done a Rabbies tour but their reputation is good and I'll do one whenever I get back to Scotland. I'd recommend the overnight in York and most of the following day, there's a lot to see there and the train on to London is only a couple of hours. We stayed at the Abbey Guest House, right across the river from the station and a short walk from the Yorkshire Museum, Minster, and the medieval center. It has different owners now but looks pretty much the same on the website.

Depending on when your flight is, where your London hotel is, and how you feel about one-night stays, you could spend your last night in Windsor, closer to LHR. Might be easier than getting out there from London.

Your plans look solid to me. Rabbies have a good reputation up here on Skye. Their drivers are courteous to other drivers, and they even come back in the winter and help repair eroded footpaths. I have heard many good reports of their tours, and if you are at all nervous about driving here (and the roads on Skye are challenging with single track stretches where you need to use passing places) then Rabbies is a excellent idea.

Enjoy your trip.

I'd cut any idea of Stonehenge, Bath, or the Cotswolds. You've already got a lot of moving around on the trip, it'll feel good to be planted in one place for a few days.

I love Stonehenge and Bath (and Salisbury, too even though you didn't list it!) but I, too, would skip it this trip. To me the 1 day tours of Stonehenge/Bath/Cotswolds is just too fast to enjoy.

I'd save this for the next trip when you could go out to Salisbury for 2 nights (take the local shuttle bus out to the Stones on the full day), then on to Bath for 3 nights (one of your full days you could do a day trip on Mad Max to the Cotswolds). See, we're already working on getting your next trip planned, lol!!

You may have your day trips listed the way they are just to sort them out in your mind, but I would separate them with a day in London in between. It's just a hassle to get to the train station for a day's excursion. I'd also plan your HP trip for earlier in your London time. I have not been but it will be a full day, I think, so you may want to have your day before departure with less rushed activities so you can get your cases repacked, have a leisurely dinner, etc.

With your forum reading, you may have realized you will want to get your tickets for the Churchill War Rooms ahead of time. You'll need to do HP ahead as well, I think. British Museum is free but also sign up for their emails to see if there is any kind of special exhibition going on when you are there. They usually have timed entry and a paid admission to them. Plus it's really fun to get emails from them. Makes my "InBox" seem so much interesting, lol!!

Also take a look at London Walks. This company has a wide variety of walks given daily. Usually around 10£ (8 for seniors), no reservations needed, just show up. Very interesting way to see some smaller nooks and crannies of London!

www.walks.com

When you are in York allow some time to go to Castle Howard; used many times in Movies and Television as a location. If you like the Churchill War rooms; check out the Imperial War Museum which has several interaction exhibits including London Bombing in WWII. Your second trip could the be the S & SW with Portsmouth with the wreck of the Mary Rose, Bath, Lacock (for Harry Potter Fans), and the Cotswolds and then Wales with Edward's Castles. A day trip to this area would be like opening a box of chocolates and looking but not eating any.

Wow!!! Thank you all for the replies!!! I will get back to everyone once I get home but I really appreciate everyone's insight :)

Edit: I had a chance to read everyone's replies! I'm not sure how to directly reply to anyone but there are some wonderful suggestions.

I'm going to move the HP day to that Sunday plus completely scrapping the 1 day tour (Felt guilty about that originally but not anymore!). I love the idea of doing that area our next trip. We want to do 2 weeks in England one year and 2 weeks in Scotland. This is just the taste!

I appreciate the affirmation about our itinerary. It really means a lot.

I love the idea of staying in Windsor but we are getting a nice discount on the flat for being there for 7 days. Our flight is at 10 am so its not super horrible but we'll be doing that next time for sure. I didn't realize how close it was.

Thanks for the tip about the Churchill War Rooms tickets needing to be in advance! I want to get as much done ahead of time as possible. I've been trying to really understand the 241 deal and decoy tickets so I'm hoping I understand it by the time we go.

Thanks again! This forum is so awesome!!

Consider a few days in York on your way to London

Hello, I found this thread very interesting and informative. My son and I are taking a much dreamed of trip to England and Scotland in less than a month now (he's 16 and has worked really hard and saved $ for this)! A couple questions I have: he is going to the Harry Potter Studios and since I'm not a fan (not opposed, just never got into it) he is very happy to enjoy it on his own so I wonder if anyone could give a suggestion or two for me for that area. I know we take the train up to Watford Junction so maybe there is a grand house or castle or even a nice tea shop that I could visit while he is enjoying HP.

I'd also like help on figuring what we should purchase for travel in London. We are there for 6 days and staying in an AirBnB outside of London (on a budget) which our closest tube station is Honor Oak Park. I'm confused about the oyster card versus travel card, etc.

Thank you for any help!