Need help planning trip to England, Ireland, Scotland

It's so hard to give advice without knowing what you want to see in each country (which cities or areas). I would fly into either Shannon or Dublin (depending on which areas of Ireland you want to see) and plan to fly home from either London or Edinburgh - or you could do it in the other order also. After a few days in Ireland you could fly from Shannon or Dublin to somewhere in England or Scotland, but it's hard to give you a directional itinerary without more info.

I see you've posted the same question in each forum of the 3 countries you mention. Our last 2-week trip to Scotland was just Scotland (Edinburgh, Shetland, Orkney, Inverness, Skye, Fort William/Glencoe/Doune), and we left with a lot unseen/undone. Hiking opportunities on Skye and in the Highlands, or summiting Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh are marvelous. Our last Ireland trip was 3 weeks, just in Ireland - Flying in and out of Shannon. Trips to England have been either just in England, or combined England and Scotland. With just 2 weeks carved out, are you wanting to visit a couple of cities for a couple of nights in each country? Is cutting back to just one or two countries even an option for this trip? Are you considering renting a car or van, and driving on the left, from the right side of the vehicle? Or using trains/buses?

Fly in to Dublin (3 nts)
Fly to Edinburgh (3 nts)
Train to York (2 nts)
Train to London (5 nts)

Unfortunately this is your limit, skimming the surface with just 2 weeks.
With 4 full days in London, you could perhaps take 2 days out - Oxford+Stratford and Bath+Stonehenge.

If you really want to get off the beaten path, then spend your time either in England or Ireland or Scotland. Otherwise, you will only have time to skim the surface of each and won't be able to get away from touristy places.

Trains are best for moving between big cities and covering distances, but if you want hiking etc and with 4 of you, hiring a car would be best.

I suggest that you start in London and then hire a car and drive to Whitstable, Canterbury, Sandwich, Dungeness, Rye, Lewes and Brighon. Dive inland and see either Dover, Leeds, Hever or Bodiam Castles plus the former home of Winston Churchill, Chartwell. Lots of great gardens such as Sissinghurst. Plenty of coastal paths to walk. I am not a golfer so I don't know if you can play at Sandwich, where the Ryder Cup has been held. You will be pushed to cover all that in 10 days plus 4 in London. With this kind of itinerary, at least you won't spend half your holiday in transit.

Thanks for the great feedback. We are now thinking we will limit to one or two countries. Ireland and Scotland and plan a separate trip for England. We are looking for direct flights to/from Atlanta, GA, USA. Please keep the comments coming. Again, many thanks!

To find out what destinations you can reach from an airport, a great resource is the airport's Wikipedia page. Looking at the one for ATL, it seems that nonstop flights go from there to London Heathrow (year-round) and Dublin (seasonally). But I wouldn't limit myself to nonstop flights. As someone said in one of your other threads, there are lots of other airports in these places, and with one change, you can fly anywhere that's convenient to start or end your itinerary. In addition to changing in London or Dublin, you can fly KLM and change in Amsterdam (lots of service from there to all kinds of UK and Ireland airports).

You will most likely want to fly "open jaws," into one city and out of another. This minimizes backtracking, and usually isn't more expensive than a simple round trip - as long as it's all booked on one ticket. To find these flights, use the "multi city" or "multiple destinations option on Kayak, Delta, Google Flights, etc.