Trip to England, Scotland, and Ireland

We did London, a couple days in Cotswolds and then Dublin, Dingle and Kilkenny two years ago in 3 weeks. That was a lot of moving around but we saw quite a bit and had a great time. Just depends on what you’re up for.

Limit your time in England to London and York-no Cotswolds but definitely see the Yorkshire Dales. Take train from York to Scotland. How are you planning to get from Scotland to Ireland?

Honestly, to me this seems like too much. I would do England and Scotland and save Ireland for its own trip of at least 2 weeks.

Are you flying out of London or were you planning to fly home from Dublin? Are there reasonable flights from your area to Edinburgh?

Here's how I would divide 3 weeks:

London - 7 nights with one or two day trips. Possibilities that I enjoy but would depend on your interests - Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace or Bletchley Park (WWII - Alan Turing - The Enigma machine).

York - 3 nights with the possibility of 1 day trip

Edinburgh - 3 nights
Loop into Scotland depending on what you want to see - 5 or 6 nights depending on where you need to fly home from
Edinburgh - 1 night or
Back to London for 2 nights to allow for any travel disruption

I've been to all 3 areas - England more times than I can count, Scotland 5 or 6 times, Ireland once on a Rick Steves 14 day trip so I did not have to drive or navigate, hahaha.

There’s no way you can see each country in a week, so choose carefully what you want to see and minimize travel time between places. Personally, I feel the itinerary is unreasonable.

If you are still in the planing stage also have a look at Wales.
There is so much there to see and it often gets ‘forgotten’ between England and Scotland.

I suggest that you try not to do all three countries on one trip.
The LESS you travel from place to place, the more time you have to see each place.
Limit. this tour to England and Scotland. Wales is fascinating as well.

We completed two tours this summer, the first was for Ireland and it was 10 days-8 nights- and didn't cover Northern Ireland.
It was a Gate 1 Travel tour and excellent. The second tour was of Devon and Cornwall (that is two counties in SW England. It was for five days and four nights with Rabbie's. It was excellent as well.

On the second tour, we only covered a small fraction of England.

On another trip in 2017, we rented a car and for 28 days we drove around the countryside (nothing in London) of S. Wales and England. We loved it and planned except for two days not to drive from place to place more than 1.5 hours.

The smaller cities and towns are cheaper to visit than expensive London.

Definitely visit York, we loved it, staying at The Minster Hotel, located walking distance from the north gate of the old city.
Don't miss the National Railway Museum and walk the ancient walls. The Minster (cathedral ) is amazing, we spent four hours thee.

Let's dive into Scotland.

Since you said you aren't interested in cities, I'm going to suggest the following if you drive yourself.

At least two nights in Edinburgh. Why? Because it is a beautiful city that needs to be explored. Focus mostly on the "Old Town."

From there, head up to the Highlands and focus on that area including Inverness, Skye, Glencoe and perhaps another island. (My personal belief is that the Highlands and the Islands are the magic of Scotland.)

Then head down to Glasgow airport for a quick flight to Ireland.

An alternate, if you didn't want to drive, would be to take a series of one day tours from companies such as "Rabbies." They have departures from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness, among others.

In England, you won't have much time to explore. Stay in London a few days with some day trips, head up to York, and then up to Edinburgh. You could do all of this easily by train.

Your trip will feel and be rushed, but if that's okay with you, have a good time.

It really depends on what you want to see and do. In three weeks you can hit the highlights but certainly not "see" all three. Obtain guide books for all three, be realistic about how much time you will actually have in country, be realistic about travel time between locations and don't discount how much time it takes to pack, unpack and get oriented at your next location.

I agree with those who say keep this to England and Scotland and save Ireland for another trip. If you have 3 weeks, you could go to London, York, and I agree with Emma that Wales deserves a look. It is gorgeous and has wonderful castles and history. Then you could head up to Scotland.

You can absolutely visit these three places over three weeks! You just need to be a bit judicious about where in each place you want to visit. For me, I would spend some time in London, get the train to York and visit there, and then get the train to Edinburgh and you could do day trips from there. Then it's very easy and quick to fly from Edinburgh to Dublin (as well as other cities in Ireland, depending on where you want to go).