Itinerary Help for First Timers

I have done this exact trip a few years ago. I would definitely spend 2 days in York, the train ride is fast and is a straight shot from Edinburg. The York Minister is awesome and worth the trip, the town itself is easy to walk around and there are great restaurants to be had.

If your not interested in London than I would take the train from York to Oxford and tour Blenheim Palace and grounds, take another day and tour the Cotswold's and/or Warwick Castle. Eventually work your way to Bath for 2 days and then fly home from Heathrow.

We are flying to Edinburgh and home from from Heathrow in September! After our 4 nights in Edinburgh, we're taking the train to London, where we will use a car service get to Portsmouth for another 4 nights (we are very interested in the British Navy and military history). From there, we will spend our last day and night in Windsor, to see the castle, and because it's a short ride from there to Heathrow.

Edinburg is in Texas. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh.

And when you find out how it is pronounced it will blow your mind.

York will be a much easier stop since it's on the same line between Edinburgh and London. You mention 8 days but you're planning indicates 10 nights? 4/2/4? The 4/2/4 will work well. There will be more to see in London than you might expect even if you are not a big city person.

There's no law that says you have to go to London.

MadMax runs small-group, one-day tours of the Cotswolds from Bath. GoCotswolds runs similar tours departing from the train station in Moreton-in-Marsh, which is a short train ride from Oxford.

The train trip straight from York to London is very fast. You'll add a lot of travel time by heading over to Bath, so I'd discourage doing 2 nights in Bath (not enough time to really see Bath and also take a tour of the Cotswolds) and 2 nights in London (would you travel to NYC for just 1-1/2days?). I'd pick one or the other. You'll still need to travel back to Heathrow the night before you fly home if you choose Bath over London, so that will mean just 3 nights in Bath if I understand your schedule.

We are planning a similar trip - flying to Edinburgh, spending some time in the Lake District, F1 race at Silverstone, maybe Dartmoor, ending up in London. Is it possible to rent a car in Edinburgh and drop it off in London? or should we take a train from Edinburgh to some Lakes District destination?

With the time you have available, don't try and cram too much in. Getting from York to Bath will be a nightmare unless you go via London. It is also going to take most of the day...

Rather than try and do this, spend four nights in York., spend a couple of days doing the sites in York (loads of choice - Minster, Clifford's Tower, walk the walls, Jorvik, Castle Museum, Railway Museum, Treasurer's House, Fairfax House, Barley Hall, Merchant Venturer's House, Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate....) York is very compaxct and everywhere is walkable.

Catch the train to Malton and then get a taxi to Eden Camp, a fascinating museum in an old Prisoner of War camp which is now a museum covering the Second World War and life in Britain as well as other conflicts.

You can catch a train to Scarborough or bus to Whitby with its ruined Abbey and Draculka connections.

Alternatively BOBH run regular day tours from York including day trips to the Yorkshire Dales, or to Whitby by steam train! They get consistently good reviews on Trip Advisor.

Then catch the train back to London.

@nhunder- Yes it is possible to train from Edinburgh to the Lake District- either to Penrith for the northern Lake District or to Oxenholme (change to Windermere) for the southern Lake District.
It is hourly- alternating between Avanti and Transpennine (the latter are trains to Manchester Airport).
From those railheads there are then buses in.
There used to be trains to Keswick but they are long gone.
There is quite a recent and long thread about the ease of getting around the Lake District without a car.

There is then basically an hourly service on the indirect service to London Euston from the same stations which will get you to Milton Keynes (see your separate thread about Silverstone).

In the Lake District there is a real push to try to get visitors to use public transit. You are intending to be here in early July just as the peak season is starting. In the Central Lakes things get very traffic clogged in peak periods and parking can get really difficult and pricy. There are parts of the Lakes where I, as a local, simply don't go to in high summer due to visitor pressures. That is simply a statement of fact not an invitation to start a debate on the merits and demerits of that pressure. But in many ways your life in July and August in the Lakes is easier without the burden of a car.
Part of the push is also to de-centralise visitor numbers. To teach visitors that they don't have to stay in the 3 or 4 main towns, that there are alternatives on the edge of the Lake District which are very easily accessible to the core areas.

You may find it beneficial afterwards to pick up a car from the Lake District onwards if you are going to Silverstone and on to Dartmoor, before ending in London.