Hi,
Next summer we will be visiting my aunt, who is graciously renting a house for a month in Edinburgh, which will be a home base for us. We are a family of four (2 middle school kids) and don’t have a whole lot of extra money to take many multi day trips away, but we’d definitely like to do some exploring. We’d likely visit UK, Ireland, and maybe some on the continent (if reasonable to do so), coming back to Edinburgh in between outings.
What are some good day trips and perhaps short multi-day trips in and near Scotland that we shouldn’t pass up? We’re fine with some touristy places, as well as those off of the beaten path. We’ll probably go over to London for a few days, and I know we would like to see Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. We’d likely travel down to Dublin since we really didn’t get enough time there last time.
Is it worth taking the train under the channel to France? On that note should we even consider going to other countries besides the UK and Ireland or should we just stay in the isles for this trip? We really want make this a memorable trip for our kids, but not have huge loads of debt afterward!
With living in the States, I know scales are very different. We’re used to driving a lot. My husband did reasonably well with driving when we spent a couple of days in Dublin, but I’m not going to try it myself!
I think we’re open to any means of travel - bus, cheap flights, train, boat/ferry - but we’d like to try to keep the travel expenses lower. We’d also love some recommendations for B&Bs if you have them. It’s great fun for me to meet people from other parts of the world!
I know this is a rather broad request given the nature of our trip - we are just starting to get some ideas together.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!