Input on proposed itinerary

Do you have plane tickets yet? If not suggest fly into London and out of Edinburgh, is that possible for you to do, saves going back to London.

I agree about flying into Edingburgh, we have done it and the car rental was very reasonable plus you can visit the Stirling and Falkirk areas too. Bamburgh Castle is an impressive looking castle to visit on you way south back to London and a stop at Durham Cathedral is worth a few minutes. You could still do the same trip but in reverse and ending in Bath.

Two nights in Bath should be fine - there are lots of things to see and do there and just a fun, pretty modern city crammed into a 19th century town crammed into a medieval town. I recommend the free town tour lead by the local mayor's team, the Abbey tour and the Roman Baths tour/museum. There is a Fashion museum and the Assembly Rooms (only for the Austin obsessed or if it's free IMHO). Sounds like you have but look into the UK Heritage and National Trust passes. The Fashion museum and Assembly Rooms are on the pass so they're "free". The Heritage covers more "ruins" like Hadrian's Wall sites. I really like the freedom of having a pass that let's try sights at random without having to worry about whether it's "worth it". Renting a car in Bath (I've done it) means you're starting in pretty urban area that can be pretty congested and "trafficy" and that's probably the biggest challenge. You get outside of the city pretty quickly so it passes but there's no big open area to try it out and get oriented at first. As to the challenge most people say that after the first 15 minutes or so you get used to it. I found my biggest challenge was hedging to the left side of the lane as I went along - I had to concentrate on staying a little more right in the lane than I felt like I should. The other challenge is that British speed are crazy fast for the conditions sometimes but just resolve to ignore the people behind you and pull over when you can. Also learn to love roundabouts - they're a challenge at first but the great thing about them is that if you get off in the wrong place you can always "U turn" by doing a 360 at the next one and come back to try again. I missed the roundabouts when we left for Ireland where they are much less common. Have a great trip,
=Tod

Thanks Everyone! Yes, I am locked into Heathrow for arrival/departure. Originally planned to do the South and Cotswalds but my teenager is interested in the North and I've not explored it so we will see Bath, up to Stratford and then on to the North. I'm wondering about the driving? Am I going to be a panic stricken mess? I'm pretty steady nervewise and I've driven on some Caribbean tracks that were more like golfcart paths for two lane traffic. I'm wondering if anyone might have suggestions for a "base" to stay once we get up North. How much time should I budget for York? And is there anything "can't miss" that I am going to be near? I've spent quite a bit of time developing this trip using the National Trust site and the England AA routeplanner. Invaluable resources. It's wonderful to have this resource as well. I haven't been overseas in 20 years and I'm terribly excited! I just want a smooth, mellow vacation without a lot of drama/wrong turns.
Susan

Also, I'm curious--is 2 nights in Bath too much?

We stayed two nights in Bath as we had a car and did some sightseeing with Bath as our base. You could I guess see all you want in Bath in one day. We took a lovely tour from the Abbey, very informative and I think about an hour plus maybe, I think it was free but can't remember. It is a lovely place. Also noticed you will have car, drop it off before going into Edinburgh, no need to have it there. I personally would take train to London from Edinburgh but see what others say about cost, time involved.

If you have a car in Bath, highly recommend Wells, probably one of my favorite places maybe because we were by chance able to go into Cathedral at night for a choir practice. Lovely little street across from cathedral, I can't remember history but was wonderful, I think called Vicars Close. Anyway, enjoy.

This is incredibly helpful! Thank you. Looking at my Google driving map it seems the leg from Stratford to York is pretty barren. What am I missing? I've added Warwick and Dunstanburgh. I particularly like architecture, gardens and villages. I'm sure that is rare. wink
Susan

I'm 64 and drove around southern England for two weeks this past August and everything went well. Driving on the left wasn't a problem for us and we popped for a navigation system that worked well. On previous visits, we borrowed my daughter's Garmin and loaded the England maps which also worked well. The most nerve-wracking thing for me was not being familiar with the car enough to know just how wide it was. The roads are often narrow so I found myself slowing to a crawl as someone came whizzing by from the other direction. No one ever honked, though, so I have to thank the British drivers for their understanding. We also went for an automatic transmission which was significantly more expensive. But there's enough to think about without having to work the gearshift on the left as well as a clutch.

Yes, Thomas, I've definitely heard to go with the automatic! I will have my 15 year old daughter with me so I am really anticipating lots of screams and sighs. It's nice to know that folks were kind. I've heard gasoline is much more expensive. Did you find it so?
Thanks. Susan