3 Weeks in United Kingdom/ Ireland

Scotland's highlands has it's best weather around this time. Up around Glencoe is very nice. We stayed at a wonderful B&B for a week last year south of Glencoe. Had tons of stuff to do and the owners we sooo nice. We did 24 day driving tour of the UK (Brittian, Wales and Scotland) and used Rick's guidebook for alot of the planning. I can give you detais if you wish.

Congratulations on your graduation and your first trip to Europe! The British Isles are a good place to start because you won't have a language barrier (not much anyway). The first thing to note is that you shouldn't try to "see it all" because, hopefully, you'll have many more chances to travel in the coming years. Pick some priorities and save others for future trips. Check out some guidebooks from the library, they don't have to be the latest editions, look at some of the itineraries most of them suggest, see what interests you most. Try to spend at least two nights in any city or town where you stay -- more of course in big places like London or Edinburgh or Dublin. The more time and money you spend moving from place to place, the more the whole trip will cost and the more tired you'll be. Remember that each hotel change means packing, checking out, finding the station (if going by train), getting to the next city, finding the hotel, checking in, unpacking -- a routine that can eat up half a day. Also, try to fly "open jaw," into one city and home from another, to avoid the time and cost of backtracking. Search engines like kayak.com or the airline websites call this "multi-city" travel and it should cost little or no more than round trip. For instance, into London and home from Dublin or Glasgow.

Check out Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door for planning tips and some destination ideas. Decide whether you're willing to rent a car, or cars, for parts of the trip (like Scotland or Ireland or rural parts of England), driving on the left. You've chosen an excellent time of year, with generally good weather and long days. I think three weeks is a good length of time for the trip -- long enough to make the overseas flights worthwhile and give you a real sense of the places you're going, short enough to be affordable and not exhaust you.

Beer and casual drinking can be found in abundance in Britain and Ireland, and conversations in pubs are among our most enjoyable travel experiences there. English people seem to be especially friendly, helpful, and kind, and I'm sure the same is true of Scots and Irish.

I'm sure you'll get lots of destination ideas on this board, but ultimately these are your choices. Enjoy planning this and come back with more detailed, specific questions in new posts as you go along. And get started now, or soon -- airfares won't get any lower, train tickets cost a lot less in advance, and accommodations in some places will start filling up.

If you want to do the Highlands, spent 1 1/2 weeks each in Scotland and England. Save Ireland for another trip. England-you could do York for a couple of days between Scotland and London.

Other than drinking, you haven't said what your interests are, so detailed advice is difficult. Cities or countryside? The usual tourist haunts or something off the beaten track?

Three weeks isn't much time to cover three countries, as there is much to see. For first timers, you could easily spend 5+ full days in London. I suggest that you fly open jaw to avoid back tracking. Personally, in your timescale, I would limit myself to just England and Scotland, but that is my travel style, which isn't necessarily yours.

You may struggle to hire a car if you are under 25. There is a Bank Holiday the last weekend in May, so places will be busier and will book up early.

I would suggest something on the lines of London 6-7 nights including one day trip elsewhere;
train to York for 2-3 nights, possibly including a day trip to Whitby or Harrogate or the Yorkshire Dales/North York Moors;
Hire a car and drive to the Lake District for 2-3 nights;
Drive via Hadrian's Wall to the Scottish highlands, such as Glencoe area for 3 nights;
Skye for 3 nights;
Drive to Edinburgh for 3 nights and fly home from there.

You are going to have to choose. Get a 'taste' of each country, or explore a bit more in depth, but skip something else. If you want to just get a taste of each, then pick a major city in each country (ex- London, Edinburgh, Dublin) and plan on 1 week in each. You could do 1 or 2 day trips out of each city. You won't get to see everything (you couldn't do that if you lived in each city for a year, really), but you can have a nice experience and a great trip. If you'd rather explore more in depth, including more of the countryside, then narrow things down a bit. You could spend 3,5,15 weeks or more in England (or Scotland or Ireland) and only see a small portion of it. BUT- you could do a week to a week and a half in 2 of the 3 countries you've mentioned. Based solely on personal experiences and preferences, here are some suggestions:
A taste of the Isles-
Fly into London- stay 5-9 nights. Day trips (pick 1 or 2)- Windsor (1/2 to 1 full day), Bath, Winchester, Greenwich, Brighton, Cardiff Wales, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford-upon-Avon. See 1 or more plays/musicals.

Train to York- spend 1 night (you'll have most of a day to explore the city)
Train to Edinburgh- spend 5-7 nights- day trips (1 or 2 ) Highlands bus tour, Inverness, Aviemore
Fly to Dublin- spend 5-7 nights (someone else will have to suggest some day trips) Fly home from Dublin

A bigger bite of a smaller pie-
Fly into London- spend 3-8 nights. Day trip to Windsor, possibly to Bath or Cardiff. See 1 or more plays/musicals, possibly concert(s).

Train to York- spend 1-2 nights
Train to Edinburgh- spend 2-4 nights- possible day trip to Sterling or St. Andrews, possible hike to Arthur's Seat.
Train to Aviemore- spend 2- 5 nights- do day trips to tour 1 or more whisky distilleries, see Highlands, possible hike up Mt. Cairngorm (or take funicular) and hike down. Ride steam train roundtrip to see Spey River countryside.

Train to Inverness- spend 3-7 nights- day trips to Orkney, Glen Coe (and other glens), Isle of Skye- including stop at Ellien Donnan Castle. Cruise up Loch Ness, see Urquhart Castle. Cruise on firth- whale, dolphin watching, puffins, etc. Possible hikes. Possible distillery tours. Possibly fly home from here or Edinburgh- might have to fly/train back to London though.

tris I did this trip England-Scotland-Ireland in three weeks back when I was your age. I can only tell you that I was exhausted by the time I got to Ireland. I didn't see nearly enough of any place to get a good feel for it, other than a lot of rail stations. Even though all the interesting places look like they're close together on the map, it still takes up a huge amount of your precious vacation time getting from one place to another.

I'd save Ireland for another trip (so much to see there) and concentrate on England & Scotland. I'd also consider using the train from city to city (e.g., from London to Edinburgh) and rent cars locally when you want to explore an area. Its easy to get sidetracked by car, as just about everywhere looks interesting.

I apologize for not getting more specific. I know I have a lot more research and will absolutely post a more specific itinerary for advice, but I just wanted to get input on big picture realistic itinerary before I started adding to my wish list in each place and thoroughly researching.

As far as interests I would say food is definitely up there, gorgeous scenery, history and architecture such as castles. Definitely not interested in art and limited on museums, not ruling them out, but definitely not a top priority. I would say we are interested in hitting some of the bigger tourist attractions, but definitely interested in off the beaten path. As far as city vs. countryside, we don't prefer one over the other, probably want a good mix.

Jennifer and Toni, I really appreciate the sample itineraries. That is kind of what I'm torn on, should we hit the big cities, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, etc. as that would be more doable in 3 weeks, or is it better to expand just in Ireland and Scotland or just England and Scotland. Originally I was thinking a week in each, but now I'm considering focusing on Ireland and Scotland and either beginning or ending the trip in London. I've had a lot of suggestions for focusing on Scotland, London and Wales, etc. and saving Ireland for another time but, I'm just having a hard time letting go or Ireland, because it is extremely high up there for me in terms of my wishlist.

If Ireland is what you want, then do Ireland. It has less public transportation, so unless you go with a tour group, you'll probably want to drive. You could easily do a week to a week and a half drive, with 1-2 night stops. Or you could spend 2-3 days in Dublin then rent a house or apartment in the countryside and do day-drives to see lots of lovely places. Then you could either fly or take the ferry to Scotland. England, Scotland and Wales have much better rail (and bus) networks and you could consider using them instead of driving (we prefer not to drive in Europe and love using the trains and the occasional bus). Do some research on-line or read some good guidebooks. Decide what appeals to YOU. Many here like to take things slowly and not spend less than 3 nights at any one destination. Others move every 2 days, except for major destinations. Most do a mix of short and long stops. There is NO one right answer.

Europe will still be there. You won't get to see everything on any one trip. It will simply whet your appetite for return trips. We've taken more than 40 trips (most included at least a short stay in the UK) and I'd go back tomorrow if I could.