Tours vs. Creating our own itinerary

I think you’ll get a bit more advice about the accommodation part if you can share more details. How many in your group? Do you need multiple hotel rooms? Budget? Time you are going? We found that some Airbnbs had minimum night stays, depending on when you were looking, so that can play a part.

The trip planning part brought these initial thoughts 1. I would think it would be incredibly hard to only budget London for a day/ night. 2. For where you want to go and the time you want to dedicate to each place, train travel wouldn’t be a bad choice, especially if you have to pick up in one location and drop off in another at the end. Adds $$ to do that.

I had a blast creating an itinerary for my family for a 10 day trip last summer. First time abroad in 40 years. Read a lot of guidebooks, researched this site and many others suggested to me by people on here. I enjoyed it so much, I am doing it again now! I will hopefully do a tour in the future, there are great companies that offer them. There’s a thread that was just started this week that contains some excellent suggestions.

Mustlovedogs, You’re right, more information would be helpful.
Two people, traveling in September 2024.
My spouse isn’t interested in London at all, but I feel we need to at least spend a day there.
We’ve purchased guide books, the most recent Rick Steves England, and are drawn to York and N Yorkshire. Then hope to finish trip in Scotland.
Budget? Outside of our flights, $3000 pp. Is this reasonable?

It is entirely feasible to do on your own, and $6000 for the two is a very nice budget, my wife and I have traveled there for a little more than half that for a week.

Trains would suffice, the only place to consider renting a car is if you want to get out in the Yorkshire countryside and visit the coast and small towns, then consider renting for a day or two, with maybe a night outside of York.

For lodging, I use Booking.com. It gives you a range of lodgings, from Hostels, to small hotels, to B&Bs, to chain hotels, and apartments/houses. I dislike AirBnB, but that is me. With Booking, you can choose your price range, there is a map function that shows you exactly where the property is at, and you can filter by amenity.

In your case, look at flying into London and out of Edinburgh, or vice versa. Use the "Multi-City" option when searching the airline site, you are not buying two one-way tickets.

Limiting yourself to the three locations is good, however, I would suggest two nights in London, you never know how you will feel on your arrival day, so 2 nights gives you one full day to do something and get on your feet from the flight. York is wirth 3 nights easily, more if you do other things in Yorkshire. Edinburgh as well, 3 nights will let you hit the highlights. That adds up to 8 nights on the ground.

An addition: I get it if your husband has no interest in London; I feel that way about a few places, but what big interests does he have? History, WW2, Food, Beer, Art, Sports? Point being, it is likely that London has something to interest him, maybe someone on here has a suggestion.

Just remember wherever you start, the first day is going to be muted most likely energy wise bc of jet lag. If you have an early morning flight arrival from the US, you won’t even start your vacation day until about noon. So I am thinking if you want to allocate more time to Edinburgh, maybe start there and work south, finishing in London.

I would suggest start reading up on your guidebooks and listing things you want to see in each place. Then you can determine the days needed in each. How much you want to do each day depends on your personal preference. Many folks on here recommend seeing one or two sites in the morning, one maybe two in the afternoon.

Your budget also depends on how expensive you want your accommodations to be, but I think what you have shared will work. I haven’t been to Edinburgh, but we’re looking at nice, moderate York hotels that under $200/ night.

This forum is full of amazing folks. They are the best trip advisors and will help with so many questions, with patience and kindness. Do some research and ask away!

P.S. I’m with Paul. I gravitate toward hotels and Bed and Breakfasts. Had a horrible experience with Airbnb once in NYC and coupled with wanting to help the local economy, I prefer that route, but to each his/her own.

Doesn't have to be completely an either/or thing...

I've been planning independent travel trips to Europe (and elsewhere in the world) for decades. It's fun, and I think gives you a much better trip (you'll learn so much about the places you go by doing the required research in advance). Many here plan their own trips, you will get lots of useful advice.

Don't be daunted by the planning tasks, you can do it! And much of the planning for a trip such as you propose has already been done for you, by highly skilled professionals - and is posted right on this website. Follow me...

In the navigation section (upper left of this website), click Explore Europe > in the list of countries, click England > click Plan > then click England: Recommended Itinerary and boom, there you go, you have found most of what you'll need to get going.

Now, in this case there is not a perfect "7+ day" London + York + Edinburgh itinerary, but don't worry, all you need to do is pull the chunks you want from the larger/longer itinerary that is already designed for you (or designed for those with longer trips), and stitch those bits together into your own plan that fits for you. Just use the recommended itinerary as a starting point, slice and dice, copy and paste, tweak and customize it to your needs. 99% of the work is already done for you, you just need to mold it like clay to your specific tastes and needs. It'll be fun and easy.

Things get a bit harder when you go "beyond the Rick areas" but once you've worked up your own trips a few times using Rick's framework as a starting point, you can pretty easily do the same thing in places where the blue books don't take you. I just got back from a trip to Colombia, I'm now finalizing plans for a trip to southern Japan, and in the fall we will be going to Corsica (all places where there are no Rick Steves books to follow), and I use the same process to develop my own plans (inspired by previous trips where I used Rick's recommended itineraries as starting points). The same methodology works almost everywhere. You can do it!

Hope the above is helpful - have fun!

London to York to Edinburgh is fast and easy by train. If you’re not planning to go exploring the countryside, it’s a great way to travel. There’s plenty to see in Edinburgh proper, and if you want to explore the Highlands, you could take a day trip with Rabbies. Small groups (I think we had 9, including the driver/guide who was a recent college grad with a Scottish History major.

You have a very healthy budget in my opinion. We had a similar trip in September and October. We started in Edinburgh and spent five days there then the train to London which I seem to remember was about four hours. We then had seven days in London with side trips by train to Hampton Court, Windsor, York and Royston. We then went on to Paris by train. A week excluding airfare should not cost $6000 unless you are set on luxury hotels. I use booking.com to research hotels and then book.directly with the hotel that way if there is a problem.we have booked direct. We stay in hotels with breakfast and usually the breakfast holds us until an ear!y afternoon snack.then dinner. Be sure to.book.Train tickets.early for.the best price.and use the two for one train tickets for.day trips.

You can create your own itinerary and maybe do some day tours from Edinburgh, York and London?

Mountain Goat tours has been highly recommended on this forum (I have no personal experience...yet...) and they have day tours out of York.

I think your budget will be fine, but of course I do not know your travel style. My husband and I are planning a 10-day/9-night trip to the UK in September 2024 also, and our budget is a tad lower - even though it is more generous compared to my past trips.

We have toured much of the UK on our own, renting cars and loving the amazing countryside.

This requires a lot of planning for all of your needs, transport, lodging, what to see, etc. You can save $$$ doing this instead of taking a tour.

However, we are now in our late 70s and planning to visit Ireland again. We don't want to drive and do all this planning, so we will take a tour that takes care of all your transport, lodging, touring sites, etc.

Taking a tour in the U.K. is useful for anyone with limited time who wants to see a snapshot of several places. Personally it would drive me crazy, as they are usually very fast paced and you seem to spend more time in motorways compared to actually seeing anything.
In any event no one is likely to have the route that you want anyway. And it is very easy to organise yourselves as all 3 cities are on one railway line.
How long you spend in each place is of course up to you but I can easily understand not prioritising London and I only wish more visitors would spread themselves more widely across the country - there is much to see almost anywhere.
Absolutely take the train from London to York and then on to Edinburgh. Much quicker and more relaxing than trying to handle our very busy roads whilst wrangling with driving on what for you I assume is the “wrong” side of the road.
Hiring a car is however very viable in both York and Edinburgh to see the countryside. But equally both Rabbies and Mountain Goat offer small group tours in both cities if you prefer.
Assuming arrival in London look for a hotel in the King’s Cross area. It’s on a direct tube line from Heathrow or a direct train from Gatwick and it’s where the train for York will leave. There are good options at all price points. There are 3 Premier Inns within walking distance at the budget end and the wonderful St Pancras Renaissance at the other. Don’t be seduced by the Heathrow Express - it’s a very expensive way to get to a place where you don’t want to be a few minutes quicker.

Even if you don't do a full tour (lodging, transportation, guides) taking 1-2 hour walking tours can make your time much more rewarding. In London the tours by www.walks.com are fantastic and cover a wide range of interests. In York they have a free public tour by volunteer guides https://avgyork.co.uk/ If you are a fan of "All Creatures Great and Small" then the Herriot Museum is an easy bus ride from York. Although we haven't done them there are also tour companies in York that will take you out to the countryside for a few hours.

Just a few comments: I agree with others that your budget is very generous unless you want high-end hotels and restaurants and first class flights..

Assuming you're flying from the US, I think you're spending a significant amount of time and money for transportation to and from England for only a 7 day trip. I realize work and family responsibilities may have put that time limit on you, but if at all possible, I hope you can add more days to your trip.

As for hotels vs alternative lodging, I look at hotels, and particularly major chain hotels, as predictable and easy to use. For a relatively short, somewhat fast-paced trip, I think they provide safe, clean, efficient, and completely forgettable accommodations. Small, privately owned and operated hotels may have a bit more "personality" and reflect more of the local charm. Bed and breakfasts and short term rentals are far more diverse in character and quality. If carefully researched, they can be just as efficient as a well-run hotel but with a lot more space and character. Because they are unique and sometimes a bit quirky, I would recommend them only if staying in one location for more than a few days. During longer trips I like to intersperse hotels with short term rentals. I chose rentals that offer added space and comfort, a kitchen so I can comfortably eat some meals "at home" and a washing machine so I can do laundry (and pack lighter) while relaxing.

As for renting a car, keep in mind that you will be using a standard transmission (unless you special request an automatic) in an unfamiliar car on roads you don't know while driving on the left side of the road. In addition, roads in the English country-side tend to be narrow. You won't need (or want) a car in the cities you plan to visit. If you want to explore outside York, I suggest you use public transportation.

We don’t care for tours mainly because there’s no flexibility. You go when and where the tours goes and stay for a fixed amount of time before moving on to another location. They also tend to only go to popular destinations. They are perfect for people who prefer to travel that way.

We research and plan our trips because we visit many out of the way places. We stay in hotels or B&Bs and we rent a car. In the UK we do rent an automatic.

Based on the places you mention you should be able to plan the vacation on your own and using public transportation. Each is easy to reach by train.

You have said:

My spouse isn’t interested in London at all, but I feel we need to at least spend a day there.

Consider leaving London out of your plan.
You could do round trip air into and out of Edinburgh.
You could spend several days there seeing the sights.
Take day trips from Edinburgh with Rabbles Tours.
Then take the train south to York.
Spend 3 nights in York.
Take day trips from York with Mountain Goat tours.
Take the train back to Edinburgh, stopping at Durham to spend an afternoon and see its cathedral.
Farther north, you may wish to stop and see Alnwick Castle.
Back to Edinburgh; spend a night or two; fly home.

As TexasTravelMom said on another thread,
"A waste of money is going to places you didn’t really want to go."

Leave London for another time when you are both really excited about spending several days there.
One day is not enough, hardly even enough time for a glance at what's there.
You'll possibly be jet lagged that first day anyhow.

There's plenty to do without including London in the plan.

I'm just throwing this out there as an option.

Wow, thank you all for your responses. I feel a weight lifted and empowered to do this now!