Itinerary help for Scotland/England/Wales

Christina That's quite a lot of the UK you and the kiddoes will be scouting round. Looks like 3 or 4 weeks' worth of time to me before you add York. Is that about right? Remember that 2 nights somewhere is only one full day, and transportation between hotels will take time. Rome wasn't built in a day. Regarding some of the specific questions you raise... Number 3. Do you have another person in your party who will watch out for the kiddoes while you are up in the seaplane? Or are they going too? Number 5. Liverpool may or may not have ships in dock, and the Mersey is a very tidal river. Number 6. Snowdonia. What people do there is climb up Snowdon on foot or by train. And then climb back down. Number 9. Brighton area. The Seven Sisters just down the coast is wonderful, both the beach (shingle) below and the cliffs above; we love to walk along the edge (not too close - people do fall over both accidently and on purpose regularly - watch the wind and the crumbling edge); and the marvelous rolling hills above. We love it - much more than around Dover. Number 10. Train to Paris. Be sure to check in plenty early at St Pancras for the Eurostar. There can be queues. You must, absolutely must, be checked in no less than 30 minutes prior to departure or you won't be carried on that train.

Continued 4. On to the Lake District. Is the Peter Rabbit attraction worth time? 5. Liverpool to possibly look at the docks (ships for my son), the war museum, and bug world experience. 6. Go to Snowdonia. Not sure where is best to stay here or even what is best to do. Seems somewhat difficult to get around here. 7. Maybe Cardiff or Bristol or Bath? Here is where my plans get even fuzzier! 8. See Bath, Stonehenge, and other sites in area. 9. Off to Brighton area. My daughter would like to see Brighton and I just want to see white cliffs some where. 10. Train to Paris. Is it worth trying to get over to York? Any other tips or things that I haven't thought about will be much appreciated. I am also a bit worried about what to do with our suitcase at times. Thanks so much,
Christina

General Consternation: Why plan on going some place if you don't know what's there. It seems backwards. Seaplane: The wing don't give a rat's rear bumper if the plane is on wheels. skis, or floats. The view out the window is the same. All three bump on take off and landing.

I think that I would like to trim it down to 2 weeks if possible, but 3 is also doable. As I said, we are quite flexible. As for the seaplane...I'm a skydiver and enjoy riding in different planes, balloons, etc. My husband can get airsick and wouldn't get into one with me, but my children gladly will. It's an experience, nothing more...and the location doesn't really matter. I think that I also need to stress that with my children's limited attention span we are generally done with touring places about 2-3 times faster than everyone else. I also do not expect to go into many of the places that others would (eg. we never went into Westminster Abbey, we just admired it from the outside)-I shall certainly need to pick and choose the castles to see. I envision that many of our stops to be only for a few hours to walk around for a bit and see some scenery. The highlight of the trip for my children will probably be riding all of the trains. It looks like I may be able to get the Eurostar in Ashford and not have to head back to London. Is this correct? Thanks for all the help.

There are 4 trains which stop in Ashford in the timetable up to the end of the year. I haven't looked at next year's timetable yet. Ashford, near the tunnel entrance in Kent, which used to be a regular stop on the Eurostar, is gently being downgraded in favour of Ebbsfleet International.

So, I think Liverpool will get taken off the list. And I may be going into London after all for the Eurostar. It looks like I could stay in Chester and take the train over to Llandudno and then take a bus on to Caernarfon if we chose. Or, if the weather is not so pleasant we could head to Liverpool for the bugworld experience I suppose. I was also thinking about staying in Swindon. From there we could visit Avebury (instead of Stonehenge) and Bath/Bristol. I was also worried about Bath being too boring for my children and had only thought of spending a half day there. Thanks so much about the Seven Sisters tip. When in Brighton it looks to be quite easy to make it over that way for some walking.

I don't get the idea of Swindon. Where did that come from? There's not much there as I remember that would attract me on a trip like yours. If you had been driving you could have experienced the "Magic Roundabout" which is one of the biggest and most confusing roundabouts in the country. It is so strange that it has 5 outer roundabouts around the outside and a big roundabout on the inside. Traffic goes in both directions, clockwise and anti, around the Magic Roundabout. The other thing is a large outlet shopping centre in the old Great Western Railway shops which includes the headquarters of the National Trust at Heelis. But I don't see what would attract a tourist.

I'm merely looking for a place to sleep and leave our luggage. Is there a more attractive place that has convenient rail access to Bath/Bristol and Avebury?

HI Christina,
We have taken our kiddos all over the world--love it that you are taking them along! A few thoughts on your itinerary: I would cut Bath and Glasgow--too boring for little kids. Most young kids like castles, esp. if they can "dress up" in princess hats and wooden swords for touring. Amazing what an imagination can do! Stirling, Caernarfon and Harlech are all awesome castles along your route. Cardiff castle is less cool for kids, but still nice. Stonehenge is ok for grown ups, a complete letdown for kids. What good are huge rocks if you can't run around them? I recommend Avebury Henge because you can actually get up close and personal with the rocks. Snowdonia: you can wear hard hats and visit the Sygun Copper Mine. There are also tourable gold mines and slate mines. The Welsh Slate Museum has live demonstrations of various historic trades. There are a number of cute little steam trains to ride as well. Check out travelforkids.com for tons of good kid ideas, and wonderful book recommendations to accompany them.

Swindon- No. I have spent quite a bit of time there on business. Its possibly a convenient overnight stopping point, but nothing exciting there. For an overnight in that area- any of the Cotswold villages, maybe even Malmesbury. I find Stonehenge very mystical and go there as often as I can. Avebury has the advantage of being able to touch and "run around" the stones. So if possible, do both. If i had to choose, I would do Stonehenge.