Senior travel itinerary England, Scotland and Wales

My husband & I had a wonderful time in England & Wales last year! Here’s what we did by rental car & trains.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/june-2023-england-wales-trip-report

Thank you for your itinerary suggestions. Sounds like a great time.

How long are you planning for this trip? Don't be too enthusiastic and try and cram too much into the itinerary. Britain may not look very big compared with USA but is a lot more built up and busy. It will take a lot longer to cover distances than you might expect. It is hard work packing up amnd moving accommodation each day. Also 2 nights in a place only effectively gives one and a bit days sightseeing as you have to allow for travelling between places.

When are you planning for this (what time of year will you be coming?) Popular areas in AScotland book up very quickly and if you are talking about 2024 your itinerary may be determined by where you can find accommodation.) areas of Scotland book

Will you be hiring a car (not needed in places like London, Edinburgh and some other larger cities) but useful if wanting to see something of the countryside .

If wanting to do both England and Scotland, it would make sense to fly into say Heathrow and doing Bristol first (use the train to get there) and than Derbyshire on the way to Scotland. than fly back home from either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Asking for suggestions of places to stop in Scotland is going to open the floodgates and you are likely to be innundated with enough ideas to last you several months. Don't blindly follow someone else's itinerary as it may not be what you want. (My must see ideas could be the ones from hell for you!). Get a good guide book with lots of pictures - DK Eyewitness Scotland is a good one- and start to identify a few places you would like to visit. Don't be afraid to go to the less popular places, they can be just as nice but without the crowds.

A quick note on mobility issues - which you do not say you have! :-)

That said, I’m in my mid-50s and have congenitally malformed knees, so I can’t walk far either. (I’m awaiting knee replacement surgery.) I can walk fine for short distances on the flat, but stairs are a major problem - and stairs are EVERYWHERE in the UK. That makes sense, of course, given how long ago much of the infrastructure was built - but it can be an unpleasant surprise.

I’d suggest being proactive in checking terms like “step-free access” if this sounds like it might be an issue for you.

Cheers - and happy travels!

Thank you. Yes I am aware of the steps, especially in cities.
We went on a med cruise in June and took a walker with a seat as back up, so I could use on tours. It was very useful. However if we have car or train we should be able to stop at our leisure, without having to go on a 2 hr guided tour.
Safe travels.

Wesley’s,
Great idea going to Bristol directly first to pace ourselves and using the train.
Thank you

We are getting further into our planning for a 4 week trip to England, Wales and now Scotland Itinerary. We have two weeks.
Thinking of driving to Glasgow ( time for genealogy around Paisley, Greenock,) from the Lake District. To Oban area, towards the Isle of Skye..may take tour trip, then over to Inverness and Stirling, back to Edinburgh to fly home.
Should we go to Aberdeen or journey back through Pitlochry?
Any suggestions where to make our home bases so we are not packing up every night. How long to stay also so we can soak up the surroundings too.
Thx

If you're going to Greenock and Paisley then rather than staying in Glasgow, you might like to think about the Clyde Coast. Gourock might be nice (the next town along from Greenock).

There is a Premier Inn in Greenock (nicely located waterside) but the Spinnaker Hotel in Gourock is much nicer for probably the same money with a wonderful location on the seafront looking over to the Isles. I was there for months once, while working down the M8 in Renfrew, and the view every morning and evening was so wonderful.

Straight up the motorway- M6/M74/M8 from the Lake District. Paisley is less than 45 minutes straight back down the M8.

You could then take the vehicle ferry (Western Ferries) over to Dunoon on Cowal, visit the Benmore Botanical Gardens then up to the Highlands on the Strachur road up to Inveraray and Oban- a less familiar route than normally proposed on this forum but equally as scenic.

For my money I would come round the Moray and Aberdeenshire coast in preference to down the A9 through Pitlochry.

Thank you for the info on Greenock accommodations and travel