Trip to England, Scotland, and Ireland

With only 11 days (and if that includes flying days, really only 9), you probably need to pick 1 (maybe a bit of a second). Since you need/want to fly round trip via London, I'd suggest England with maybe a short visit to Scotland. Partly because they are my favorites and partly because they are easier to get around by train/bus (without driving in other words). There's almost unlimited 'photogenic' opportunities. In fact, you could stay in London and do 1-3 day trips by train and not even begin to touch the opportunities in London and the nearby areas. I'd suggest you all do a bit of reading and internet research and talk about your individual interests. That could help you narrow things down a bit.

Do you have plenty of guide books yet? If so, great. If you might still be needing some, RS has several covering the areas you are interesting in. They can be purchased elsewhere on this web site. We get one, or two, every year when we go to Europe that covers the area we will be visiting. Most helpful.

I agree that you should not try to do all three unless you go for an urban tour--London, Edinburgh, Dublin. But in my mind, missing out on the countryside of any of these countries is a big mistake so I would not advise it. Come back to us with a bit less ambitious plan and we can help. :)

Pam

I don't know where you're flying from, but you can save time, by flying "open jaw" into London and out of, say, Dublin or Manchester or Glasgow. Or vice versa. Why lose a day backtracking? Look for the "multi city" option on airline websites or search engines like kayak.com. That's unless you need to be in London at the start and end of your trip for some reason.

I agree with others that 11 days is too short for England, Scotland, and Ireland. You'll spend too much time getting places and not enough enjoying them. Start your planning with a good guidebook or two, and a discussion about what kinds of things you each want to see and do. Try to involve all four travelers and compromise if there are divergent interests. This forum seems to work best with specific questions about places or transportation or local customs etc.

Have a great time!

Good suggestion from Charlie. You need to get some guidebooks and start reading and making some decisions about which cities and locations you want to visit. We can't do it for you. We don't yet know what your specific interests are, besides wanting some good scenic areas for photography.

Good suggestion from Toni. You really do not have time to do England, Scotland and Ireland. Covering a lot of ground means you miss a lot in your rush to rush here and there.

I suggest an itinerary of London and surrounding area, York, and Edinburgh.

Concentrate first on one area, and build from there. London is a fascinating city, and it is possible to spend eleven days there and the area surrounding it, and never be bored. There are endless photographic opportunities around London. The River Thames runs through London, and some of the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen are taken standing on one of the bridges, looking up or down the river, with the landmark buildings of London seen along the river.

You will want to see Westminster Abbey, The Tower Of London, St. Paul's, the Houses Of Parliament, and the British Museum, just to start you off. You will want to start looking at different London locations in order to choose a hotel and a neighborhood in which to stay. Plan your London itinerary and then look for side trips around London.

Take a trip out of London to Windsor Castle or Hampton Court Palace. Consider going to the Cotswolds for a day or two. Cute cottages in small villages. Beautiful scenery.

Take the train north from London and go to York. A unique city with Medieval, Viking, and Roman roots. A beautiful city wall surrounds the city. York Minster is a stunning cathedral.

North of York, you could stop along Hadrian's Wall. Great photo opportunities there.

Then back on the train to Edinburgh, where you can climb to the top of the hill and see Edinburgh Castle. Lots of great photos possible here. Sometimes it's foggy in the morning with the Castle looking very mysterious. Then, you could fly home from Edinburgh airport, if you're out of time.

If you still have some days left on your itinerary, rent a car and drive around Scotland.

You need to start reading some guidebooks right away, so you can form your own ideas of what areas you want to see.

To address "We are just at beginning stages of our trip planning. Any ideas of locations, must sees, b&b's and restaurants would be appreciated. Also travel help with trains and transportation would also be a great help."

Specific questions get the most answers on this forum. For example, you might ask, "Can anyone recommend a hotel convenient to most of the tourist attractions in London? Our budget is $100 to $150 per night."

This will get a lot of answers.

Same with your inquiry about restaurants.

Once you zero in on what towns or cities you'll be visiting, ask specifically for hotels and restaurants at those locations. Your original question was too broad to answer, because you had not nailed down your itinerary yet.

When you have a rough itinerary outlined, a specific question to ask about trains and transportation might be (for example): "We plan to leave London and travel by train to York on June 18. How long will this trip take? How do we go about booking tickets online to get the best price?"

Knowing that your first stop will be London, I will suggest that you research the hotel chain Premier Inn. They have several locations around London, most of which are convenient to the tourist attractions.
http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/LONCOU/london-county-hall
For a small hotel or B&B, consult Rick Steves London guidebook, or post a new topic here asking for suggestions. It is not too early now to make reservations at a London hotel for next summer. Some hotels are already booked up for July. If you are going in June, reserve in London as soon as you know the dates you will be there. And research the hotel's cancellation policy in case your itinerary changes.

Have a great trip!

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far. I agree that we should stick to mostly London and the surrounding area. I would like to do a short trip to Edinburgh though. ( Maybe a 3 day trip.) I do think we will probably hit the main attractions in London like Tower of London, St. Paul's, British Museum, Houses of Parliament. Is there a certain area I should be looking for hotels in London or any area we should stay away from?

Good locations are all the areas near tourist attractions, to start. Westminster, the neighborhood around Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, is excellent but very pricey. Very pricey in London is $350 to over $1000. But you could luck up and get a special deal on one of the hotel websites.

Walk across the Westminster Bridge and you are on the bank of the river near The London Eye. A very good and reasonable hotel is behind the London Eye, Premier Inn County Hall. That is South Bank, south of the River Thames, also a good area. Walking distance to many major sights, but this area is in the medium price range for London $100 to $189 per night. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is also on the South Bank, and another Premier Inn (Southwark/Borough Market) is near there.

Many other neighborhoods in London are good to stay in and have good tube and bus transportation. Covent Garden and Bloomsbury are two such areas. Kensington and South Kensington are also good. Look on your map of London. The areas near Victoria Station and Waterloo Station are good to stay in because trains leave from these stations for day trips out of London. Also these stations are served by tube and bus lines to zip around London. There are small hotels and B&B's in these areas in Rick Steves London guide.

My two favorite locations I stay in are South Bank, and Bloomsbury (because the British Museum is there). There are good restaurants all over London, so you never have to worry there.

Another reason Bloomsbury is a convenient place to stay, King's Cross Station is a couple of blocks to the north. Trains leave from Kings Cross to go north to York and then on to Edinburgh.

I'm sure others will chime in soon recommending their favorite neighborhoods, also. There are no areas to avoid, per se, just don't stay too far a distance from tourist sights, for convenience sake.

Given your latest post I would say do London, York and Edinburgh. It's 2 hours by train from London to York and 2 hours from York to Edinburgh. I would give London at least 5 days, York 2 and the rest in Edinburgh. I also agree starting with RS book on England and Scotland is a good place to start.

If you do decide on London and Edinburgh which to me seems the best, suggest you really need to get open jaw tickets, say into London, train to Edinburgh and flying home from Edinburgh. We found Edinburgh airport much easier to fly home from than Heathrow.

If you focus your trip just in England and Scotland, then a BritRail Pass can be a convenient way to pay for trains, allowing hop-on convenience, perhaps for 8 consecutive days or for 4 travel days spread out. If four adults travel together on a BritRail or BritRail England Pass, the first two pay the regular pass price and the other two each pay half.

No need to make a transportation decision until you've chosen your destinations (and you can't buy a rail pass more than 6 months before the date you'll start using it). British trains serve many small towns, as described and mapped in guidebooks, and you can see more rail maps at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/maps.aspx. A car rental of one week or longer can also be a good value for a family of four.

You may want to begin to shop around for your airfare. Gail had a great suggestion, to fly into London and out of Edinburgh open jaw. This saves you the time and expense of traveling back to London to depart, to state the obvious.

Book your flights first, then hotel reservations for London.

It sounds like the first thing you need to do is get a RS guide book and read it. Your questions indicate that you have not done so. You are looking at a multi-thousand dollar trip so be bold and spend twenty bucks on the planning. We have found the B&B's in Rick's books to be good deals as described, the problem is that you are already on the late side to reserve sine you are looking at peak season an there are thousands of people who are reading the same books wnaitng the relatively few rooms that are listed. A secondary source would be one of the booking sites like Hotels.com or Venere.com. The UK is expensive turf, people from Paris complain about the high costs in London. As to restaurants, we found the affordable route was to do what the natives do and rely on pubs. You can Google Nicholson pubs and get a good idea of what they offer and what the prices are. For 11 days you have way too much planned, cut out Ireland since that is four hours plus on a ferry each way.