Please help me fix our 3 week England/Scotland trip. Gaps in itinerary and when to train or car?

In general, to get from A to B, take the train. If you want to stop along the way or go somewhere very remote, rent a car. You do not want to drive to York, the train is the better option, the same to Edinburgh. And to St Andrews there are frequent buses from Edinburgh and the nearby railway station in Leuchars. But for exploring the highlands a car seems like a good idea.

If you and your kids are into castles and trebuchets (my favourite things as well!) you might want to check out Warwick Castle. They have working trebuchet. It looks a bit too much like a theme park for my taste, but perhaps you kids will love it.
Another great Castle is Alnwick Castle between York and Edinburgh. It was as a location in Harry Potter and many other films.
In Scotland Doune Castle was a highlight of my trip there. It’s a lot smaller than Alnwick or Warwick, but much more authenticly medieval. It has also been used in many movies and tv shows, most notably Monthy Python and the Holy Grail. The audioguide by Python Terry Jones is hilarious.
I also agree on the suggestion of taking trains to get from A to B and then renting a car as needed to get to more rural areas such as the Scottish Highlands.

Alternatively if you decided to stay over in the east after York you could do Whitby, Durham, Beamish (great day out), Newcastle (for city fix) then Northumberland for beaches, castles, poison garden and Harry Potter at Alnwick, Hadrian’s wall. I’m sure someone will chime in with something similar if you went North through the middle. Great Britain has so much to offer besides it’s great cities so please don’t limit yourself to those or the usual suspects. As Emma says the Beatles weren’t the only thing to come out of Liverpool!

Hi -

If your kids want to visit the beach, then a side trip from York to say, Whitby, worthy of a visit in itself, is a good idea. There’s a decent stretch of sand between Whitby and Sandsend. For miles and miles of beaches, if you decide to drive there are huge beaches near Bamburgh castle and Alnmouth etc., on the Northumberland coast. Going in the sea is another thing entirely (hypothermia a real risk!) but the beaches are splendid there.

I would suggest the Lake District as a stopping off point from Glasgow, but if you prefer cities to countryside, then that probably won’t float your boat - as has been mentioned here before if you aren’t into hiking then The Lakes hold very little appeal.

Thus the call to stay in Chester is a good one. Liverpool is within striking distance of Chester too. As are the northern cities of Wales with their castles. I also like the model italianate village of Portmeirion but again not everybody’s cup of tea - a bit of internet research may decide you on that one.

You are right about Wells, it is particularly nice and smaller than and less touristy than Bath, although we have friends who live just outside Bath and so have developed a soft spot for it over the years, so in my humble opinion Bath itself is certainly worth a visit. I note you aren’t interested in the Cotswolds - maybe the view of myself and other Brits of ‘very nice, but I don’t get the mass appeal’ is gaining some traction! I can, however, understand that if you’ve never visited England before the Cotswolds does look like you’d expect England to look!

Hope you get enough information to decide your itinerary one way or the other and that you have a great trip!

Ian

If you happen to come close to Newcastle, I suggest you look at http://www.beamish.org.uk/. I enjoyed it very much when I visited - but admittedly that was long ago (1988).

You haven't planned enough time for York. We spent three nights there. York Minster is amazing, we spent three hours there. The National Railway Museum near the train station is excellent. Also, walking the walls and sections of the old city with its narrow streets. There are a couple of very nice museums there.

Edinburgh is great and you can likely do St. Andrews on a day trip from Edinburgh. We visited St. Andrews and other nearby places, like the church where Robert the Bruce is buried.

Not sure that I would spend much time in Glasgow. However, you could visit Loch Lomond and the western highlands. In the north Loch Ness and Inverness are wonderful.

You haven't afforded much time to the countryside in England. I recommend visiting Bath, Stonehenge, Stratford Upon Avon, the Cotswolds, Blenheim Castle and perhaps Oxford.

Thank you all! This is exactly what I needed. I will look into the suggested options.

The train seems to win. What type of train pass should I look into?

ianandjulie- That's the real problem of visiting a beach! My kids will want to swim. They swam near Gibraltar/Southern Spain when NO ONE else was! That water was bone chilling!

geovagriffith- I will reconsider more time in York and I agree, I was already questioning the time in Glasgow.

Don't forget to post in the Scotland forum too. There are some real experts who only post in that forum. As the majority of your trip seems to be in Scotland, I think you would get really good advice about where to stay and the order in which to do things.

Wells is tiny - I used to live there. It is lovely but only enough to keep you occupied for one day. In my opinion Salisbury might be a better choice. It has a wonderful cathedral and the remains of Old Sarum, the original city, basically an Iron Age hill fort. You are then less than 10 miles from Stonehenge. Personally, I would do Salisbury, Bath or Wells immediately after London, then travel up to York by train, then from York into Scotland. Then do all your Scotland exploring and return to London for your flight home.

If you are Red Sox fans then you'll know about Liverpool FC - visit Anfield they'll likely win the league this year.