England, Ireland and maybe Scotland

If it is my trip, I would fly to London, spend maybe five days there with side trips to Windsor, Hampton Court, etc. Then train to Bath. Get rental car there and tour area, maybe a day or two in Wales. Not sure how much it will cost to drive to Scotland and leave car there, say Glasgow or Edinburgh but would definitely head to Scotland. Then cheap flight to Dublin. Spend three or four days there, then rent a car and drive around Ireland and home from Shannon or Dublin or even Belfast. You have to price this all out but for a month you can see all three places, in my opinion.

3-4 weeks will definitely give you enough time to include some of Scotland! I'd include 2-3 days for Edinburgh and a few days for the highlands. You'll have lots of daylight up north in May! I suggest you fly into London, but then fly out of one of the cities in Ireland (we flew into London and out of Dublin). That way you don't waste a day (or even part of a day) on the trip back to London. Depending on how you schedule your trip, you could travel from London to Edinburgh (with maybe a stop in York) by train; then pick up a car as you leave Edinburgh to travel through the Highlands. Consider booking your lodgings before or shortly after you book your flights. If you are choosy about where you stay (or about your budget) you may have more trouble finding rooms at the right times than you will finding flights.

Thanks, Gail and Ruth, for your quick responses. I am feeling a little more focused now on planning the flights and our trip....Sylvia

Fly into England and home from Ireland. Air Transat has convenient non-stop open-jaw flights to England, Scotland and Ireland from Toronto. I've been checking for my trip to Scotland next May. They seem to be just getting underway with the scheduling, but if you check Canadian Affair there are more complete listings. You probably know already that on Transat the seats aren't particularly roomy, but the choice of destinations is the best. You could consider a similar itinerary to what I've done before. Fly into Glasgow and go directly to Edinburgh (quick train ride). See Edinburgh (we stayed three days), use one of the days to take a day-tour (by tour bus) to Inverness/Loch Ness area. Pick up car when heading south to England. Take whatever route you want to London (we went York-Liverpool-Wales-Stonehenge)and finally drop off the car outside of London, taking transit into the city. I expect there'd be lots of budget flights from London to Ireland. Both times I went to Britain I used British Car Rental. There are no fees to drop off in a different location from pickup. They are a Toronto family business.

Thanks to Andrea, Gail and Ruth for your excellent suggestions...makes our planning much easier...Sylvia

Sylvie,
I would recommend that you explore a wee bit of Scotland. It is different from the UK or Ireland. Don't pick up your car until you are ready to leave London. And you may want to take the train to Bath and pick up a car there. Then after touring Bath and the Cotswalds you can head North. I would take a day or two to make the drive. You could stay in the Lake District, but check with others on getting from the Cotswolds to Scotland. I would recommend exploring the Border area as you head into Scotland. Hadrian's Wall, the Abbey's, Sir W Scott's Abbotsford, the Debatable Lands can introduce you the tension of the Border between Scotland and England. Bear in mind that there will be a vote on Independence for Scotland in a bout a year or so. It adds an interesting twist to visiting the country these days. Pam

Husband and I are so recently back from UK/Scotland/Ireland/Wales that I am not even sure what day it is today. However...if you can manage to include both Ireland and Wales in your plans, I would definitely do that. We were on a tour, 3 weeks total, and are SO glad we saw all those countries! London and Dublin were (not surprisingly) Big Cities and we preferred the country towns. We flew from NYC to London. In Scotland, we visited a ranch where the owner raises and trains border collies for sheep herding and I found that experience absolutely fascinating. In Wales, we went down a coal mine...not something I'd do again because of the physical part (bending over) but something I'm very glad I did...it was quite an eye-opener. We found the people of all those areas to be very friendly and helpful. Be sure to keep your money separated, tho, they don't like Euros in the countries that use pounds, and they do tell you that. :)

If you can avoid using Heathrow Airport in London, you will save money. As an example, we are using points on American next May. The best connections were through Heathrow. We were flying into Heathrow and back from CDG in Paris,but with a plane change at Heathrow. Using points, the airport usage fee for 2 people was $1274. I searched around and finally found a route into Manchester from New York and back from Paris through Boston. The total fees for that reservation using points was $174. We were going north anyway, so this worked great.

To Margaret from Clarkston and Thomas from Texas. We really appreciate your input. We are also planning for next May and on points for flights. We are not on a tour and will use a combination of rail and car rental and will not see Ireland this time but concentrate on England and Scotland. We will see Ireland another time. Everyone's suggestions have been so helpful. Stay tuned i may be in touch again with more questions as we begin the detail planning of our trip....Sylvia

For efficiency fly into London, out of Ireland and Scotland in the middle, or vice versa. You can do bus tours out of London that do the Cotswolds, Warwick Castle, Oxford and Stratford upon Avon at very reasonable prices. You can also take the train there, as well as Cambridge and Bath. We just returned from two weeks in Scotland and London where we purchased a Britrail pass which was much easier than driving for long distances. If you do fly into London you can take the East Coast line from the Kings Cross station to York, which is a fascinating city. Spend one night and two days there and then take the train to Edinburgh. Three days will cover that and three are reasonable B&Bs in both cities. If you get a Britrail pass apend a little extra and get first class, which you can get them through this website, and it includes food and drink. You will need to book seat reservations a day or two before you travel, but they are free in the UK. Renting a car.....right hand steering wheel, left lane of the road. I was reluctant but did it anyway from Edinburgh to St. Andrews. You will bump into curbs on the left until you get your bearings. To prepare for this, and I wish someone had told me, ride around your streets sitting in in the right passenger seat. Have the driver stay in the left lane and pretend you are driving. Focus on where you are on the road, which will be 1/3 from the right edge of your lane. The roads in the UK are often narrow and if you haven't practiced this your eyes will gravitate to where they uaually are on US roads, which is 1/3 from the left edge of the lane. If you do that you will hit curbs, run your left tires off the road or worst case scenario, run into a parked car. It takes a tremendous amount fo concentration to drive there. Good luck.

More than enough time to see the UK. Personally I would fly into Heathrow, spend 4 full days in London, train to Bath, explore Bath, rent a car and drive to the Cotswolds. 3 days in the Cotswolds. Drive to Manchester, drop off the car. Overnight. Next morning fly to Edinburgh, 2 days there, rent another car and explore Scotland for 3-4 days, back to Edinburgh and a flight to Dublin. 1 night in Dublin then back on the road (you'll be a pro driving on the opposite side of the road now and know to watch out for sheep and lorries) and spend 5 full days seeing Eire including NI. Flight back to London OR Fly home from Shannon. I was born when Truman was in office and am female. Drove all over Ireland (even in Dublin traffic) with nary a problem. Simple matter of training the brain to reverse a thought pattern to stay on the opposite of the road. Took a matter of minutes and a few trips around a round about and I was good to go. Anyway, you will be able to see and do a lot of the UK by combining flight, car and train travel. May should be a lovely time to visit but ALWAYS bring a rain coat, hat and gloves. ALWAYS!