Four weeks in the UK

I think Steve's itinerary is very good. I would skip Ireland in order to spend more time in England and Scotland, which I just love. (I love Ireland too, but I would save it for another trip.) I would spend 2 days in the Cotswolds (skip Stratford) and Inverness and 3 days in Skye and Edinburgh. I haven't been to Pitlochry, so I can't comment on that with any authority, but I would skip it to get an extra day in London. If you can't give up on Ireland, cut a night out of Bath, Edinburgh, Pitlochry, Skye and London, or possibly skip Conwy or Keswick to get at least 6 days in Ireland. I would fly into Shannon and split my time between Doolin (Cliffs of Moher, Burren and Aran Islands) and Dingle.

You could follow Rick's three week UK itinerary:

Britain's Best Three Week Trip

And then fly out of London to Dublin (lots of choices of airlines and cheap flights.) Or just add days in the UK. (If you have a car you might want to detour to Northern Wales for the national parks.)

If you want to fly out of Edinburgh, check out Aer Lingus as well as Ryanair. Competitive pricing and less restrictive rules.

The Chelsea Flower Show in London is 24-28 May 2011. It was extraordinary. We went in May 2009. The first few days were only for RHS members. The gardens of Kent and Wiltshire were gorgeous and the weather uncannily superb for 2 weeks. After one week in London, we spent a week with a car, divided between Tunbridge Wells and Salisbury, and saw a lot of stately homes, gardens, and castles. The British were wonderfully helpful and friendly.

A few years ago my husband and I spent 3 weeks in the UK and put 3000 miles on our rental car. We stayed in Lancaster for a week and from there visited Liverpool, Skipton Castle, the Lake District (Beatrice Potter's House) Blackpool, and the castles at both Conway and Caerfyn in Wales. We then headed north to Scotland, spending 3 days in Edinburgh,(this included one day going to Stirling Castle, we then headed north and spent two days going to distilleries and made the trip to see Nessie at Lock Ness, Then to York for 2 days, then down to London then to Bath for 3 days were stayed and traveled to things in the area including Stone Henge,and Averbury Circle. Not far from Averbury is a very nice Pub called the Horse and Wagon that does a very nice Sunday roast. We then headed to London,where we included a trip to Windsor Castle. Warwick Castle is also really interesting and includes wax figures of some great people in history including Henry the VIII (plus all 6 of his wives) and Winston Churchill. I have spent a total of 7 weeks just on the one island and still need to go back as I have not yet gotten to Cornwall. Have a great trip.

Lucky you--we never get more than three weeks. I would suggest this: one week car rental for the western side of Ireland, skipping Dublin. Choose Connemara and either Donegal area or the SW peninsulas of Dingle, ROK, Beara. (pick two)

Fly to Edinburgh and give yourself one full day to sightsee there, than pick up your rental car at the airport and see some of the highlands (pick one or two spots, don't try to see it all). Spend one night in the borders area and see Dryburgh Abbey, then drive to York for one or two full-days. LIndisfarne Abbey is fascinating, although a bit out of the way. Or visit Fountains Abbey, closer to York.

Third and fourth week. Drive from York towards Devon, through the rather unscenic midlands. Possible stops enroute include Kenilworth, Warwick, Cotswolds area. Bath is also in this area if you are a big fan of Regency England---the only thing we liked there were the Roman Baths, but to each her own!

Continue past Wells, Glastonbury, Tintagel towards Cornwall which has lots of cute villages perched above the sea. Exit Cornwall along a more southern route past Corfe, Salisbury, Stonehenge (arrange for private access ASAP)and Avebury, Winchester.

Turn in your car at LHR. Head into London for the grand finale.

We have been to the British Isles several times, visiting most of it. This route includes what we found most scenic and historic. I did not include the Lakes District, Wales, or SE England. You don't have time for everything and we didn't like those areas as much as the ones I recommend. But once again, to each her own.

I assume you want to see as much as possible---the route is comfortably paced, but not leisurely.

Is Granite Bay near San Francisco? If so, the most comfortable way to fly economy is the Virgin Atlantic round trip to LHR, then buy separate tickets for LHR to Shannon and Shannon to Edinburgh.

Thanks for all the great help!

Yes, Granite Bay is about 1 1/2 hours from SF, so we probably would fly out of SF.

Now the hard part...do we go to the UK? Too many great destinations to chose from..hard choice! But, what a problem to have.. :)

Susan and Monte, my wife and I spent 3 weeks in England last year. No Ireland or Scotland. It was a full 3 weeks. We had a rental car for the 1st two weeks but turned it in as we arrived in London for our last week.

From Heathrow, we went to see Winchester Cathedral and had lunch at the Slug and Lettuce nearby. We spent 5 days in Bath as my wife is a Jane Austen fan and she participated in the Jane Austen Festival. She was in full dress and was in the promanade through Bath. We day tripped a lot out of Bath (Castle Coomb, Lacock Abbey, Stourhead Gardens, etc.).

We then spent 3 days in the Cotswold. A car is really essential if you want to see everything. We did see all of the villages. Then, it was off the Oxford and then up to the Lake District. We toured Ambelside, Windemere and Hawkshead. We stayed just outside of Keswick at Overwater Hall. It was great.

Then off to York. We stayed outside of York near Castle Howard. We took the bus into York and visited the sites and museums. Then, it was a long drive to Cambridge and then on the Canterbury where we stayed in a wonderful lodge inside the Cathedral grounds. We didn't see it in the RS book and it was great. Then, it was on to London for 6 days. Name a castle, garden or museum and we probably saw it.

Our objective was large gardens, castles, cathedrals and museums. This included the British Library and Museum. We did good.

If anybody wants, we have an Excel spreadsheet that shows our entire plan. It shows all expenses as well including the admission costs to all of the sites we visited. Just send a private message and I can get it to you.