We are flying into London on June 29th and fly out on July 11th. We have been planning to spend most of our time in Scotland (Edinburgh, Oban, Isle of Skye, Inverness) but reading the Rick Steve's guidebook it looks like he leans more toward time in England (Bath, Lake Districk, York etc.). Any suggestions on how to best spend our first trip to Great Britain?
Posted by
Charlotte, NC, USA
3428 posts
This is hard as I LOVE both places. You could base yourselves in London and stay in one place with lots of day trips (see end of post for an article I wrote about doing that). That would be very relaxing and allow you to immerse yourselves- esp. if you haven't been to the UK before.
Scotland is beautiful. If you want to do that I'd suggest something like the following: London 2 or 3 days with one day trip, train to York- 1 night, train to Edinburgh- 2 days, train to Aviemore- 2 days (could skip this and add time to Edinburgh or Inverness), train to Inverness 3 days with possible day trip to Isle of Skye, train to Glasgow, 2 or 3 days, train to London- 1 night, fly home.
If we knew more about your intersts, we might could make better suggesstions- Do you like Art? History (what periods)? Nature? Adventure? How do you like to pace yourself? etc. The more info you share, the better our advice.
Feel free to private message me- we've been to the UK more than 40 times.
Here is the link to my article (note: if it asks for a zipcode, use 28208. If it goes to current issues, select archives and Jan/Feb ,2008)
http://www.aaacarolinas.com/Magazine/2008/Jan-Feb/britain.htm?zip=28201&stateprov=nc&city=charlotte
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Toni has some good ideas and this is absolutely one of them. Saved me a bunch of typing. However, I'd skip Aviemore and go from Inverness to Glasgow along the Great Glen / Caledonia Canal via Ft. William(using roads on the north side where possible). Loch Ness tourist stuff is mildly interesting, don't take time to wander down into Urquhart Castle, leave time to stop for lunch and antique shops at Ft Augustus while you gawk at the staircase series of locks in the canal.
You won't regret missing Lake Distric/Peak District/Bath/Cotswolds for a trip like this.
Late Edit. Uh Oh. Toni was talking train, I was thinking driving. Both would work, but my substitution can't be done by train.