Ireland vs Scotland

For two weeks, you are looking to cover too much. 3 major cities and an additional whole country! If you want time for outdoor activities, pick one big city and one more rural area. London and the Scottish Highland or Paris and rual Brittany, Barcelona and .... that will give you time to enjoy the areas, the activites, and, most importantly each other.

The other alternative, is to just do the 3 cities. You could spend 3 to 4 days in each, take the Eurostar or fly from London to Paris and fly Paris to Barcelona. That gives you a taste of 3 cultures.

Persoanlly, I LOVE Scotland. The Inverness or Aviemore areas would make a great base for 4-5 days of hikings, horseback riding, etc. Then spend a week in London. Give yourself a few days on the train inbetween. I'm sure others will advocate for Ireland, France and Spain. If you share your interests more specifically, we might be able to make better recommendations.

Pretty much we would love to just hike and bike and travel the country side and small towns in Scotland(or Ireland) (would love ideas) and then just see the big sights in london and paris (we are more about history and architecture and wandering local areas vs art and museums). I would love some more down time in Barcelona and don't know much about the surrounding area or what the city has to offer!

Ashley, Listen to Toni!

Trying to cover all these places in two weeks is a wasteof your time and resources. We are not big on museums or art galleries either, but these cities are vast with different neighbourhoods and ambience. It takes time to get a feel for a city and decide where you want to spend your time. Exploring aimlessly will leave you disatisfied. To try and cover three cities in two weeks is about right, but to add "the countryside" to even one of them is afr two much in 14 days.

Ashley, Why not consider this:

Fly Chicago to London-
London 3-5 nights with 1 or more day trips to any of these: Windosr, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, Canterbury, Dover, Cardiff Wales. Have at least 1 night of theatre.

Train to York- 1 night

Train To Edinburgh- 1-2 nights

Train to Aviemore- 5 nights
Lots to do- steam train ride, hiking along river or around lake and up the mt.or take the funicular up Mt. Caringorm and hike down, canoeing, horseback riding, etc. Local microbrewery gives tours and samples- about a 20-30 walk from center of village. Do 1 or more Scotch distillery tours (several can be reached by train or bus). Day trips by train possible to Inverness and/or Glasgow.

Train back to London-1 or 2 nights London

Fly home

Scotland is one of my favorite places; can't wait to return. The Orkney Islands are stunning, and the neolithic sites there are older than the pyramids.Driving along Loch Ness where there's almost no development and then stopping at Urquhart Castle is well worth a day trip. We found the Scots to be so friendly. If you're interested in Highland Games, there are usually still some until the end of September. We attended a small one in Bonar Bridge where the competitors were local individuals/teams. It was held in a farmer's field, no grandstands---you just walked around to the various events.

If you fly into London, you can spend sev days there and then take the fast train to York and/or Edinburgh. Picking up a car in either city would allow you to see the rural countryside. You could then return car to Edinburgh and fly home from there.

And remember this is your honeymoon. You don't want to start your marriage out being tired from moving all the time. Take some time to enjoy the trip (and each other)!

We like doing a mix of big cities/rural towns on our trips. You get the big sights in the big cities, but you get to know the country and its people when you get out of the cities. You've gotten some good suggestions.

How are you on hiking and biking in the rain? If that is likely to be a deal breaker, I would opt for the Dordogne region of France, Castille region of Spain or somewhere else (south of the Alps) that is likely to have good weather in late September for your outdoor activity.

speaking as someone who goes to ireland every year to visit family you need two weeks to cover the major parts of ireland and that is not even enough time. Make Ireland one trip and keep scotland/england/wales for a seperate trip.