enough time?

Thanks everyone, I guess it might be back to the drawing board. We will have a car for the majority of the trip with the exception of London and Edinburgh. We have driven in Ireland not too long ago so it shouldn't take us to long to get acclamated to the changes again. It's definitely hard to decide what to cut out : )

Wow, that's a quick site stop! You have to realize that by the time you stop somewhere, see the sites, its time to leave. I would cut one of the stops and combine the days at another location.

You should really figure 1st day is getting aclimated to the new stop. Day 2 is to see the place, and you depart on day 3... which is still not a lot of time to see any place.

Have your travel agent suggest which place to cut..??

"Does this seem reasonable with enough time to see most sights?" 2 or 3 nights in London is not enough time to see "most of the sights" in London but you already know that, and if you're efficient you'll certainly be able to see some of the major sights. For your other stops (other than London): For you to be able to answer your question of "is it enough time" you would need to know approximately what's the non-compressible train or driving time to get from one place to the next. Then add to that time--for each leg--the unavoidable time to pack up your things every other night, check out of your lodging, retrieve the car or get to the train station, the driving and stopping time to get to the next destination, checking into the hotel, freshening up after the trip, unpacking a bit, and then hitting the street. These things always seem to take longer than we think they will. The penalty for not having a pretty good idea of approximate travel times between destinations is this: What some people learn, after it's too late, is that in planning their trip they didn't allow sufficient time to actually do what they went on the trip to do--which was NOT to stare at the road in front of them or the inside of trains. Sometimes these people get home and see a check on their checklist next to a place name, but don't remember too much about what it was about the place that they went there to do in the first place--because too much time was unexpectedly spent getting from point A to point B, which is not why people go to Europe.

I'd agree that you are packing way too much into the trip - it will be all travel and no time to be a tourist.

For Scotland, I would skip Fort Williams - there's not much at all there, rather it's just a place on the way to other places. And with your time limit, it would be very, very rushed trip to the Isle of Skye. To be honest, I'd do Inverness OR Oban and Edinburgh. You can explore the Highlands from Inverness or Mull from Oban (IF you have a car), and then have a few days in/around Edinburgh.

You need a car for Mull (and to do Iona is a full day trip as it's a long, single lane track for 99% of the drive to the ferry).

If you are driving, drop the car off at the Edinburgh Airport because you don't want to drive in the city.

Hope this helps!

I think you should cut two destinations out - although you'll have to decide what is most important to you. Are you renting a car or using the train? This will affect your plans significantly.

Although I adore all the places you are seeing in England, I would cut either (this pains me) York OR Lake District. Try to stay 4 nights in London, as you will be exhausted your first day and there is so much to see.

Consider London(4)-Cotswolds(2)-York(2)-Inverness(2-3)-Oban area(2-3)-Edinburgh(3). Just an idea. If you would rather see the Lake District, cut York. If you can cut down on your travel, you will have a much more enjoyable vacation. Picking up and moving every other day gets to be very tiring.

Always remember the words of the wise Rick Steves "Dont miss out on culture trying to do too much at once - always assume you will return"...

Amber: We enjoy getting feedback from the person submitting the itinerary, sometimes we never hear from them. Don't give up on your itinerary, a couple of tweaks and I'll bet you get it just the way you want. Having a car in the Cotswolds and most of Scotland will save you some valuable time, if you don't get lost and having a GPS, if possible, will help avoid the time wasted and stress of getting lost. Your itinerary is not bad at all: you're not trying to do 4 countries in 2 weeks and you've avoided "1 night stands."

If you take a sheet of paper and list the time it takes each day to do all that you plan to do you will find that you have scheduled too much.

Think of the time it takes to get from the airport to your hotel, check in, unpack and find transportation to the first sight, take time to eat, wait on transportation and all the other time-consuming chores and you will find how many of those towns you can actually visit.

And there are always unexpected delays that consume valuable time. I always plan my itinerary and then allow an hour each day just for surprises.