Help with 3 week tour of Great Britain and Ireland

You're skipping the Scottish Highlands completely...I'd add one more day in Edinburgh to take at least a one day trip into the Highlands. (perhaps one day less in the Cotswalds--especially since you listed Windsor twice.)

It's a lot to cover in 3 weeks. And as you said...you will be moving.

You can see Windsor and Windsor Castle in the day trip you have plan from London. No need to go back, besides it would be an hour and forty five minute drive from Stratford Upon Avon to Windsor. I would add Burton on the Water and Broadway to your Cotswolds schedule. Where are you planning on renting the car? I would do the day trip to Windsor your last day in London, spend the night in Windsor and plan to pick up the rental around Windsor. Slough to next town to Windsor (eight minutes away) has a lot of rental agencies.

Hi Frank and Robin,

The Scottish Highlands sound great. Can you tell I typed my post late last night? I did put Windsor in on 2 separate days by mistake but am glad I did, because I learned that it is much more convenient to visit from London, and I thought your idea about picking up the car in Windsor the morning we leave for Bath was brilliant!

I was thinking that this trip is very full and the Cotswolds seemed like a lovely place to catch our breath with lots of easy sites to reach, but now you have me excited about the Scottish Highlands. Where would you take that day trip to if we added a day in Edinburgh? I wonder if we pull the day from the Cotswolds, should we add it to Ireland instead to make that leg of the trip more doable?

I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate both of your insights, and anyone else who might be able to offer input

You would need a helicopter (or a private jet) to achieve what you want to see in Ireland in 3 days!
I think you will have to skip the West Coast(Dingle) this time around. It will take all of your 3 days to do Glendalough, Kilkenny and Waterford.

Looks like a great trip. I think you could probably fit all of this in. Have Fun!

With only one day to see the Scottish Highlands, I'd suggest taking a one day coach tour out of Edinburgh. They know where they're going and can cram more in than you can. You won't see a lot, but even a little bit of the Highlands is better than none.

(My local PBS station aired "Visions of Scotland" this weekend so I'm big on Scotland right now. )

I think this is a good itinerary if you like to cover a lot of ground in a reasonable amount of time. At least until you get to Ireland. You may be running out of steam at that point, and trying to zip around the south and west of Ireland in three days just might do you in. Driving in Ireland is slow and stressful.

You could do Glendalough and Kilkenny in one day, spending the night in Kilkenny. I'd skip Waterford and drive to Cork or Kinsale (a great town on the south coast) the next day. If you want to head on to Dingle, which is my favorite place in Ireland, I would highly recommend you drop a night in Dublin so you can stay at least two nights in Dingle. It will be a lot of driving to get there and back, so you must have at least two nights or it's just not worth it. As far as Dublin goes, I think the smaller towns are much more appealing than Dublin, and Dublin is not nearly as enjoyable as London or Edinburgh IMO.

Wow, you arrive from San Francisco in London at 6:30am? The nonstop flights from Seattle leave at 9pm and arrive in London around 2pm.

Wow everyone,

Great advice! Would you choose South Ireland or West Ireland, if you had to narrow things down?
PS We will be starting from New York, not San Francisco. Thanks!

Sunday's LA Times had a blurb about the Waterford Factory shutting it's doors last week BUT a search of the net and Irish papers says no such thing. I wouldn't however count on it being opened when you visit. They did file for bankruptcy.

MANY other more fascinating things to see in Eire anyway and you have some of them included in your itinerary.

That's a tough call. I'd say you can't go wrong either way. If I had to pick, I'd say the west wins out. But again, Dingle peninsula is my favorite, which I would say is south west.

West, definitely, particularly if you'll be able to work in a visit to the Connemara area.

I did see on the Waterford website that it was closed, but the calendar was for 2008, so maybe it is not updated with the latest information. Too bad, I wanted to go there too.

Diane,

At some point, you have to make hard choices or you risk turning your vacation into a stress filled endeavor spent almost entirely in the car.

Unless you cut days from somewhere else, you don't really have time to see much in South OR West Ireland. If you decided to cut Glendalough/Kilkenny, you could go straight to Galway for a couple of days in the West. Or you could do as another poster suggested and go through Kilkenny and spend a night or two in Kinsale on the south coast. I don't think you have time for Dingle unless you cut somewhere else.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I'd hate for you to exhaust yourself by trying to do too much. Driving times are VERY slow in Ireland and you need to be conservative.

Best of luck with your planning. Have a great trip.

Diane - I don't know your specifics but is it possible you can fly straight to Edinburgh then work your way down to London and the Cotswolds?

I would agree with many of the others that you can't cover Ireland in that amount of time, especially the area you have targeted. We have friends who are musicians and travel to Ireland frequently and they either do the north or the south but never at the same time (they usually only have about 10-14 days)

Also note that Bourton-on-the-Water is wonderful but so wonderful that it's packed to the gills with locals at that time of year in addition to all the tour buses. Check out their website at http://www.bourtoninfo.com/ "The Venice of the Cotswolds" :-)

Have a great trip and try to include a couple of mornings or afternoons when you have nothing planned. The occasional nap is handy for a speed tour like this and leave some time open to respond to spontaneous invitations from locals you meet along the way. Those have always proven to be our best times. Have a great trip!

Driving in England on the wrong side of the road can be stressful. We took both Mad Max tours from Bath and we took the train to Cornwall. Turned out well for us. Week end track work can be a problem. Of course, we travelled in early March when the weather was against us but the trains and tours were quite comfortable. IOW not crowded.

There are some areas where car rental is best but do consider the many trains, buses and group tours. Hiking and bicycling are options too.

I would definitely schedule two or three days where you plan to do very little. Let your mind and body have a break and good things happen. I haven't always followed my advice. I plan to do so more in the future.