Start in London to Edinburgh to The Lake District end in Dublin

Scott,

welcome.

Im just going to comment on a couple legs.

i took the train from Edinburgh to London and it was about a 4 hour trip. I guess you could find a sleeper, but i was chatting with the locals and enjoying my first European train ride.

depending on what you want to do/see, the travel can have an affect on that. Do you want to spend 4+ hours on a train or ferry? or do you want to get there and hit the ground to do/see thing?

I dont want to spend more than 4 hours on a train. But you and others may have other feelings about it. For me, if its more than 4 hours on a train, im looking at other forms of (faster) transpiration. To be short, i took a puddle jumper from Dublin to Edinburgh.

Happy trails and have fun.

Lots of questions for you. How much of the Lake District do you wish to see? Keswick, Ambleside, Windermere, Hawkshead, etc.? Secondly, how do you plan on traveling from England to Dublin? Here are a couple of thoughts. First, take the train from London to Edinburgh. Then, you can take a Virgin train from Edinburgh Haymarket to Windermere with a train change in Oxenholme (about 3hrs). http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ From Windemere, there is regular bus service to and from Ambleside and Keswick (buses 554 and 555). I believe that you can take the bus further south to catch the ferry over to the Hawkshead side of the lake where you can visit the Beatrix Potter National Trust site.

From Windermere, you can again take the Virgin train to Liverpool. From Liverpool, there is good ferry service to Dublin. Depending on where you are located, with Aer Lingus, you can fly into London via Ireland and fly home out of Dublin. Or, with British Air, you can fly into London and home from London after a short hop from Dublin.

Hi Scott, http://www.seat61.com/ has a lot of train info. My first time on trains I used a BritRail pass, so I would not have to worry about tickets. I also purchased a first class pass b/c while I will likely never fly first class, I could afford the difference with rail pass. Many say that the train gets everyone to the destination the same time, true, but it was lovely :-) The best trains for first class were Virgin, I found, in terms of food served.

How long is your trip? That could help decide the itinerary. A shorter 8-10 day trip, I'd likely do some days in London, head north for an overnight in York, continue for some days in Edinburgh, then fly to finish the trip in Dublin. Cheers.

FYI .. the BritRail pass has convenience, pinning down the itinerary and doing point-to-point tickets, purchased in advance can save money. The London-York-Edinburgh goes up the east coast and means no Virgin trains, but perhaps the London-Lake District-Edinburgh would mean Virgin trains all the way and you can use advance fares to save money or a rail pass for convenience, though if you know the train that you'd likely use, make a reservation (they're free) to be sure of a seat. I had no trouble with most trips, but one trip had a full car.

One more thought .. the main train station in Edinburgh is Edinburgh Waverley. It could depend on where you lodge for which is more convenient. I just found this neat map that shows stations and rail companies: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/nationalrailnetworkmapZoom.pdf

Hi Scott, How about going up the East Coast main rail line from London to Newcastle upon Tyne (this will be quicker than going from London to the Lakes and give you more choice of fares and departure times) and then across to the Lakes, probably via Carlisle which would be a scenic route. You could then go to Edinburgh either via the western route through Glasgow or retrace your steps to Newcastle and on to Edinburgh which takes about an hour and is also a scenic route along the coast. Night trains mean you miss a lot of the landscape and they can be pretty grim ie not restful!
You could then fly to Dublin from Edinburgh.
Lots of variations possible, but the planning of part of the fun!