UK Itinerary

Subtracting your 3 days in Amsterdam you have about 2 weeks for the British Isles. As you noted, you won't see everything, but 2 weeks is a reasonable amount of time to see a lot. Using public transit will slow you down a bit because you'll be restricted by when a train or bus runs to take you where you want to go. You'll also spend $$ on tickets for 6 people, of course. You might start now in getting the 11-yr-olds used to the idea of helping their grandmother with her luggage. The places you've listed that are not so well served by public transportation are the Cotswolds, the Lake District, and most of Ireland outside major cities.

The Rome2Rio site is very useful for finding out the options for traveling between any two locations. https://www.rome2rio.com/ Also, for train travel, check The Man in Seat 61 https://www.seat61.com/news.htm

To get an idea of the flight connections available from your home, you might do some searching on an aggregator site like Kayak.com. That will help you figure out where in the British Isles would be your logical arrival airport -- if you're departing from Amsterdam. (When it's time to book, however, I recommend doing it directly on the airline website. If you buy through a 3rd party like Expedia and you then need to contact the airline for any reason, it can be a hassle.)

I'm not sure what you are asking in your third-to-last paragraph: "Has any taken in Parts of..." ???

By taken in parts of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England, I mean trying to see some of each of these countries in 14 days?

epltd - thanks for the reply. The kids have been to Europe before (with Grandma - 17 days and 4 countries 😊) . We will be using backpacks (larger hiking size - not school bags). We are light packers, too - planning on AirBnB for laundry. I look at the cost of a vehicle vs rail passes - starting to investigate Brit Rail Passes and so forth.

What I meant by my parts of comment - has anyone done Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England over 14 days. That probably wasn’t clear 😬.

Probably someone has, but I don't think it's a good idea. That just doesn't give you enough time anywhere. It would mean seeing one or two places in each country, then hurrying on to the next country.

Ireland's especially challenging on a short trip like this because you'll need either to fly (dealing with two airports is such a day-killer) or take a ferry.

Seeing the dramatic rural parts of Scotland also involves some transportation challenges unless you want to sign up for a "Higlands in One Day" bus tour and spend most of that day sitting on a bus.

Two of the areas you've chosen in England involve getting around by bus, not trains, which are usually a lot faster.'

The most I'd want to attempt in the time you have is England, Wales and Amsterdam. Or perhaps Ireland, Scotland and Amsterdam--but I've never researched a trip to Ireland, so I don't know how well that would work.

My goodness this sounds like an exhausting trip - and all the more so by public transport.

I'm going to concentrate on Scotland, as this is after all the Scotland forum, but will comment on England too. I've never been to the Republic of Ireland (only the north) so can't comment on that.

Much of the western Highlands area is pretty tricky by train. There is a line from Glasgow out to Oban, and up to Fort William, from where there is a branch line out to Mallaig. There is also a line from Edinburgh up to Inverness, from where you can connect to Kyle of Lochalsh. However, the services are not very frequent and tickets are (IMO) expensive. There are rail cards you can buy to reduce the cost (e.g. Two Together, one for young people/students and one for seniors). The national rail portal is here. You can plan journeys, look at rail card options and buy tickets (usually up to about 11 or 12 weeks in advance). This site is the one to use as it is the official UK rail site and doesn't charge any commission. UK National Rail planner

There are no rail services on any of the Scottish islands.

Bus services in the Highlands are really slow. Citylink run services between the main towns, but to give you an example the journey from Glasgow to Portree on the Isle of Skye takes all day, with a 15 minute rest stop in Fort William.

You might consider a small bus tour to the Highlands with a company such as Rabbies. But you'll spend most of your time in the mini bus with stops for photos and very short walks. They do both day trips and multi day tours all over Scotland and are pretty well regarded.

You will also struggle with train travel in the Cotswolds and the Lake District. The beauty (although vastly over rated in my opinion and I used to live there!) of the Cotswolds is in the honey coloured stone buildings of the small villages, although I really cannot understand the attraction to so many American visitors. There are a few rail stations in the Cotswolds, e.g. Moreton in Marsh, but I think it would be pretty frustrating trying to see much of the area if reliant on trains.

The Lake District is wonderful, but can be very busy. Wild hills and of course the lakes themselves, with some nice (but busy) villages. The west coast mainline (rail line) from London to Glasgow passes close to the Lake District but there are no trains you can take into the National Park itself. Bus services are infrequent.

It's noticeable that the places in the UK you mention are those heavily promoted in Rick's books. And while I'm not criticising him (he does a great job), you might also consider looking at other guides, e.g. Lonely Planet or Rough Guides. Both do really excellent books on the UK and the individual countries of England and Scotland. They include sample itineraries which you might find useful.

If Aer Lingus serves your home airport, you could get a taste of Ireland by doing a layover of 2 to 3 days in either Dublin or Shannon before continuing on to London or Amsterdam or Edinburgh or Glasgow -- or the other way around. As an example:

Days 1-3: Shannon
Day 4: fly to London
Days 5-7: London
Day 8: train to Chester
Day 9: see a bit of north Wales
Day 10: train from Chester to Edinburgh
Days 11-13: Edinburgh and a day trip to highlands
Day 14: fly to Amsterdam

This would allow you to avoid too many one-night stays and get a taste of a few different places.