Rough itinerary for 16 days in the UK - first time there

You picked some great places to visit, but you don't allot enough time in York, Stratford Upon Avon, the Cotswolds and Wales.

You have descent time allowed in Edinburgh and London.

We spend three nights in York and had 2.5 days to visit that wonderful city. We used every minute exploring the city. You will have essentially one full day. It takes almost half a day to see the Minster. A couple of Museums will take the rest of the day. The National Railway Museum is wonderful and you should walk the ancient walls.

You plan to drive from York to Stratford Upon Avon. This will take you 2.5 hours or more. Driving in Britain is not like the USA, traffic is heavier and unless you are on an M highway you will be going through many towns with 30MPH speed limit.
Stratford Upon Avon will take up a full day. Suggest using the HoHo Bus. There is a parking garage at the SE corner of the city where the HoHo stop is near. However, you arrive by car and plan to travel all the way to Bath through the Cotswolds. We did Rick Steves route for the Cotswolds and it took a full day. We didn't see it all and had to go back another day for about half a day. You plan to see the Cotswolds on your way to Bath. You won't have much time to stop and visit the many towns and the not to miss city of Cirencester.

As for the one day trip to Wales. You could take the train to Cardiff, visit the city and the Cardiff Castle and perhaps more, but that will be a very full day and you appear to plan travel to London, not sure where you will overnight.

Here is the detailed review of our 28 day drive tour of England and Wales last October.
28 days in Britain and Celebrity Eclipse home
https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=599139

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. As usual, I am trying to cram too much into my vacation. Based on your comments, I've made revisions to the itinerary that include adding a day to York and eliminating the day trip to Wales. Also, my wife and I will be traveling with 4 young adults in their 20s... just to give some context. Am I getting closer to reality?

Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Travel, get to Edinburgh in the evening
Day 3: Edinburgh
Day 4: Edinburgh
Day 5: York -travel by train in the afternoon
Day 6: York
Day 7: York
Day 8: Stratford-Upon-Avon - travel by car in the morning
Day 9: Bath-travel by car through the Cotswolds to Bath
Day 10: Bath
Day 11: London-travel by car and see Stonehenge and Windsor Castle along the way
Day 12: London-tourist stuff
Day 13: London-tourist stuff, see Hamilton at night
Day 14: London-day trip by train (location TBD)
Day 15: London-more London tourist stuff
Day 16: Travel home and start planning for our next trip!

I realize this is still somewhat compressed. I'd appreciate any further suggested refinements based on actual experience in these areas.

Many thanks in advance for your thoughtful feedback.

Your revised itinerary looks great to me.

I assume you will pick up the car in York and drop it off before entering London? Maybe at Windsor?

You can get great prices on the train tickets from Edinburgh to York by buying 11-12 weeks ahead to get the discounted Advance tickets. Go to the National Rail website near the end of April and enter your travel,date. The website will show times and prices, and up clicking on one, you will be transferred to the appropriate train company to purchase the tickets.

I see you are going to Hamilton. If you would like another theatre night, take a look at the offerings at Shakespeare's Globe. We really enjoyed seeing a modern rendition of Midsummer Night's Dream in May 2016. During your stay they will be doing Othello, Hamlet, and As You Like It. I would choose the latter, as we enjoy Shakespeare comedies, but your tastes may be different.

With six adults traveling, have you considered an apartment in London? I will mention the apartment we had for three weeks our most recent visit, as we loved everything about it. It very modern and spacious, with a well-equipped kitchen ( we prepared most of our meals and dined out only infrequently, generally at lunch). Two bedrooms, each with a large modern bathroom. The master bedroom has a king bed, and the second bedroom will sleep four adults with n two twin beds plus a king-size Aerobed which our guests found very comfortable. The living-dining area is bright and spacious, with plenty of room for all. A balcony full the dining area overlooks the water ( tidal, so waterfront twice a day) with side views to the Thames.

Absolutely quiet, with no street noise.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g186338-d8363557-Gorgeous_Waterside_Apartment_near_Tower_Bridge-London_England.html

The apartment is on the South Bank near Tower Bridge. Not in the "tourist center" but we loved the location. Each day started out with a walk along the Thames Path with Tower Bridge and other iconic London sites in full view. We had various ways of getting to our day's sightseeing area.

For Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, etc.we would walk across Tower Bridge and catchnthe # 15 bus to Aldwich/Strand.

For Trafalgar Square to Westminster /Parliament area, including Horseguards and St. James Park, we would walk the whole way, staying on the south side to Hungerford Bridge and crossing there on the left side pedestrian bridge. On the way we would pass the Tate Modern, Globe Theatre, National Theatre, British Film Institute ( BFI) and lots more.

For St. Paul's we would walk to the Tate Modern and cross the Millennium Bridge.

For the South Kensington area museums ( Science Museum, which we visited three times, Victoria and Albert, also 3x, Natural History Museum, and others), we would cross Tower Bridge and take the tube from Tower Hill. Sometimes we would return by walking to Harrod's ( pop in for a little ok) and then taking the bus (#9 if I remember correctly) to Aldwich, changing there to the 15 to Tower Hill.

Often we would return at the end of the day by river bus, which is fun and provides more great views.

There are three good groceries within easy walking distance.

I am sure others will have good suggestions as well, but I just wanted to mention this one as it was so perfect for us, and available during your dates.

Having been to Stratford-upon-Avon twice, I'll say that one night is not really enough. Unless you get a very early start from York, and/or stick around in the morning, you'll just scratch the surface of the Shakespeare heritage. The main sights to see are outside of town (Mary Arden's farm, Anne Hathaway's cottage) and the HoHo bus only runs so many times a day, plus it tends to get stuck in traffic so can't always keep on schedule.

If you are not all that serious about seeing a lot of Stratford, then one night would be fine -- or just skip it altogether? It is not a charming village nowadays, as it was decades ago when I first visited. It's a built-up town with congested streets lined with big box stores, car dealerships, and all the other stuff you'll find in an urban sprawl environment. If you decide not to stay a night there, you can pull into the parking garage near the HoHo bus and TI, and there you will find a nice gift shop where you can stock up on Shakespeare souvenirs.

Is Bath a necessity? I know Rick's in love with it, but cutting that out would get a little more breathing room. Actually, cutting Stratford would also eliminate the need for a car and allow you a bit more time in the other locations as well as saving money and the stress and hassles from a rental car/parking/insurance/navigation.

Obviously, you know your family the best, but I can see even the closest of people starting to snap and bicker with such an aggressive itinerary. More days in fewer cities allows some time away from each other and that breathing room can be a godsend. Six people in a car in unfamiliar territory and driving on the left (for the first time?) sounds like a pressure cooker ready to blow after a wrong turn and someone's tired and someone's hungry.

Edinburgh, York, and London sound perfect for the two weeks you have on the ground and there's always the possibility of a day trip by train from London or York if you're adding additional time to those cities and saving the car expense.

I agree with Dale, you're going a long way west just for Bath and Stratford, and Stratford doesn't even get a whole day. But this looks like a doable, though busy, itinerary, if those are the places you want to see.

Some people suggest Bath as a long day trip from London by train.

The more research we did for our four weeks in Britain, the more things we wanted to see. We decided to skip Scotland, since we had been to Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow and St. Andrews before. We decided to skip London and the SE since we had been to London more than once and also Cambridge in the past.

If you haven't been to Britain, I can see the desire to go to Scotland, but you can do that on another trip.

We did S. Wales and England and loved the countryside and scenic areas that we visited.

Bath was great as well as the Cotswolds, but you won't see much of the Cotswolds passing through on your way to Bath.

Stratford Upon Avon takes a full day and we didn't want to use our car to go to the out of town sites like Anne Hathaway's House so we used the HoHo bus, which was cheap and rather not held up in traffic.