UK First Timers - 15 days

Day trip to St. Andrews might be too long and boring for little kids. Would definitely fly into London train to Edinburgh and home from there not backtracking to London just buy multi city tickets called.open jaw, very easy. Just some.thoughts as you begin planning. Take them.to see.Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh and read book about him.to.the kids.

Look on the National Rail site for Family and Friends travel ca
Really heavy last 3 days so maybe steal a day from Edinburgh.

If you want a bit of fresh air and exercise maybe break at Aviemore ,for a half day
Theres regular cheap bus to up Loch Morlich.
Reindeer centre
The famous Green Lochan is maybe 45 mins walk from the centre.
Some years theres still a flash of snow up on the summits
Theres luggage storage available in Aviemore.

We loved York and spent three nights there and didn’t feel like it was enough time. It seemed very kid friendly to me.

I have been to Edinburgh but not outside it. I do wonder if the trips you have planned would be too much traveling to be enjoyable with kids.

And definitely buy airline tickets into London and out of Edinburgh. That is what we did and it worked really well.

Thanks for the input! I was looking for more things to do around Inverness area so that’s helpful.

The reason for the sleeper train is avoiding multiple connections on travel day. If we flew it would be train to Edinburgh/Glasgow - flight to London - flight home which is a really long day with kids. I’m open to other suggestions/ways to rearrange the itinerary to avoid. I’ve thought about completely cutting the Inverness portion but not sure.

What is your US airport?- does it have a non stop flight to Glasgow or Edinburgh. If it has then book a multi city US- LHR/GLA or EDI to US.

Or if flying back from LHR what about (on the same ticket) starting the return journey on an INV- LHR connecting flight?

If you come down on the sleeper train the easiest and fastest way to Heathrow is to alight at Watford Junction (the last station before Euston, around 20 minutes before). There are two different Heathrow Express bus routes from right outside the station- the Green Line and the Rail/Air bus.

That way you also avoid the tube trains in the peak morning rush.

Flying from DFW on AA (we have miles from my husband’s work travel). I think the only direct flights are from Dublin or London. Our original plan was to end the trip in Dublin but I thought that may be squeezing in too many cities. I will look into INV - LHR flights - I hadn’t considered that for some reason!

Travel to St Andrews from Edinburgh Waverley station is easy; just take the train to Leuchars and grab a taxi for the short ride into St Andrews proper. (The taxi ride is quite inexpensive.) It's both a scenic and historic little city, and if anyone in your group is a golfer, they will always regret missing it. I will admit that there are few child-centric activities there, though there is an aquarium.