Itinerary Help for UK Trip

Are you hiring a car as this will make a huge difference to your trip?

There are Bank Holidays the first and last weekend of May, which will make places busier and more expensive, so avoid Bath and the Lake District these weeks.

Week 5 could be around Glencoe/Fort William/Oban. Great scenery. If you have a car, consider for week 6 the North York Moors or the Yorkshire Dales as a less busy alternative. Cover York from here, as it is north of the Peak District.

Thanks for the replies!

I will be using public transportation the entire trip. I'm traveling solo, so would rather not be driving alone (I get lost VERY easily driving in places I don't know).

I already booked my flight to/from London. So I will definitely consider heading to York on the way back to London. I hadn't considered Wales, so I'll look into that. I was thinking a week in each place mainly because I don't love the idea of going to one hotel after another every few days. So thought it might be easier this way.

Are there many day trips that can be take from Salisbury using a bus or train? I've been to Bath before and loved that I was able to visit Wells & Bradford easily by train.

I will check out Oban and that area of Scotland for my second week there :-)

Thanks again for the suggestions!

Here is a link to the Salisbury Reds bus. I did the tour route they run from Salisbury out to Stonehenge and back thru Old Sarum and it worked really well. I see they have a few other choices for tours as well. If you do the Salisbury tour, do get the higher priced ticket that includes the Stonehenge entry. The bus driver hops off the bus and buys everyone's ticket from a separate booth so you don't have to stand in line.

http://www.salisburyreds.co.uk/things-do/tours/

I also very much enjoyed the Salisbury walking tour from the Tourist Information Center as well as the Salisbury Museum and of course the cathedral. I stayed for 2 nights at the Cathedral View B&B across from the Cathedral Close and could see the Cathedral spire from my window. The owner are very nice, but want cash payment. They tell you well ahead so it was not a problem to get money ahead out of the ATM.

For your 2 weeks in Scotland I think it is best to plan a circuit route - three nights in each ...
Edinburgh >> St Andrews >> Pitlochry >> Inverness >> Skye >> Fort William >> Trossachs/Glasgow

For your 4 weeks in England I would look at 7 locations of 4 nights each, rather than 4 locations of 7 nights each. I say this cause you will be restricted by public transport options, and without the flexibility of a car. Depending on your interests you will need to carefully consider accessibility when making those choices.
A National Rail Map will help. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/maps.aspx
My thoughts would be ...
#1 Salisbury
#2 Bath
#3 Cheltenham
#4 Chester
#5 Lake District
#6 York
#7 Lincoln & Cambridge (2 nts each)

You are going to have a wonderful trip! A couple of my favorites that haven't been mentioned yet -- Winchester (day trip from Salisbury), Ely (near Cambridge) and Durham (north of York on main train line). I also love Hadrian's Wall -- you could stay in Haltwhistle and get a taxi to the wall, or you could walk uphill if you are energetic! Hadrian's Wall is a little more difficult without a car but we found it so interesting!

As far as order, I think you should sit down with a train map and try put different scenarios. Be careful with you Sundays when transportation can be more difficult and hours for sites may be limited.

You are not hearing much about the Scotland section of your trip as most of us who help with Scotland are over in the other four. Rick broke out Wales, England and Scotland.

Two weeks is good amount of time. I need to think about St. Andrews as a base. There are things that you can explore from there. You can explore the Fife Coast, you can spend a day in Edinburgh, you can go to Falkland and check out the palace; you can head north and stop at Arbroath on the way to Stonehaven to visit Dunnottar Castle; visit Glamis Castle and you could drive up into the Cairngorms. Other than the Fife Coast and Falkland Palace these are all lengthy drives up and back.

I just feel like there are better bases. If it were me, I would shoot for three bases instead of two.

• Edinburgh--You would not need the car at first. You can take a day trip to Stirling, St. Andrew's and Glasgow by train. I would recommend saving the Borders for when you head to the Lake District.
  
• Inverness or a small town near by. Or if you want castles stay in Aberdeenshire--maybe Ballater. Do you want to visit distilleries?
  
• Somewhere on the west coast. You could do Skye, or Mull or go down toward Argylle.

On the way to the Lake District think about visiting one of the border Abbey's or Abbotsford, Hermitage Castle or Traquair House.

There are some wonderful websites for research. My favorite is Undiscovered Scotland. If you'll let us know your interests I/we can give better advice and suggestions. For Scotland think about this--Do you like history? Are you fascinated by castles? Do you like Scottish fiddle music? Do you want a Ceilidh? Do you like to walk in the woods? Are you a photographer? Have you read any Scottish books that intrigue you? Have you ever watched Local Hero, Monarch of the Glen, Rob Roy, Braveheart, or Outlander? Do you love the ocean? Do you want the mountains? Do you like seafood? Do you want to see highland cows? Are you interested in stone circles and standing stones? There's more, but that's a start.

Pam

I would consider doing this by rail:>
London > Salisbury (3nights) (day trips to Stonehenge/ Winchester ) > Bath (2n) > Cardiff (3n) (day trips to St.Fagans/ Castell Coch with Caerphilly Castle - by bus & return to Cardiff by local train) > Porthmadog (takes whole day by train from Cardiff - change at Shrewsbury & take an hour or 2 to walk around the town). Porthmadog (3n) Take Welsh Highland Railway to Caernarvon (Castle) - you can return by bus or the WHR. Next day visit Portmeirion - use local bus.
www.festrail.co.uk

Leave Porthmadog with suitcase & take Ffestiniog Steam Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog - change for 'normal' train to Llandudno (2n). Visit Conway /Conwy Castle & town. Bodnant Gardens is also worth a visit (by local bus).

Leave Llandudno (or Conway) by train for Chester - have a couple of hours to look around & then train to Windermere (Lake District) - you will need to change twice.

From Winderemre ( 2 or 3nights) - I would head to Glasgow for 1 night. Then train to Forth William (3n) - day trip to Mallaig by train. From Fort William - I would go by bus to Inverness (1n) - passing Loch Ness. I will leave the Scottish experts to suggest the rest but I would be inclined to head to Edinburgh & would not go to St.Andrews.

From Edinburgh, I would take the train to York (2n) and then to Cambridge (1n) - taking a look at Ely Cathedral on the way.

Note that most trains are air conditioned and do not have opening windows for taking photos. On longer trips - pre booking will get you cheaper fares for specific trains. Some routes stay the same for pay on the day.
www.nationalrail.co.uk
www.traveline.info is also good for finding bus routes.

This recent post will have much more info about Cardiff:>
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/doctor-who-experience

Google the places I have mentioned.
https://www.visitengland.com
http://www.visitwales.com
http://www.visitscotland.com

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I have a lot more to think about!! Some good thoughts here.... :-)

Trip planning is always an iterative process for me. I will be doing a similar 6-week trip to England and Scotland 1 May to 12 June. I started with a general plan similar to yours except I'll be ending it with 7 nights in London.

As I researched more and read more here on the Forum, I changed my original concept to one driven by the things I most wanted to see and do. In some cases that meant spending more time in places people often day trip to, but moving locations more frequently than I typically like to do.

In other cases that meant the exact opposite, staying put in one place and day tripping to a place I at first thought I'd stay in.

I ended up with a "great circle route" itinerary that works for me. (Bath, Moreton-in-Marsh [Cotswolds], Bletchley Park, Haltwhistle [Hadrian's Wall], Edinburgh, Thurso [one night before ferry to Orkney Islands], Kirkwall, Aberdeen, York, Canterbury, Hastings, Winchester, London.). Not everything is fully booked yet and there still may be some tweaking, but all these locations are very specific to things on my priority list.

You may or may not find that some adjustments to your original plan will make your trip better for you. Good planning and good trip.