QUESTION ABOUT ENGLAND,IRELAND,SCOTTLAND,FRANCE,AMSTERDAM

Tim is right about time...you're not giving yourself enough of it.

If I'm getting this right, you have a timeshare in London that you are leaving vacant while in Paris & Amsterdam?

My suggestion is to check out of the time share early, and fly between Amsterdam and Edinburgh. It will save an entire day of train travel.

As far as renting a van, well, how do you feel about driving on the opposite side of the road? And if you are going to Ireland as well, it's best to leave one van in Scotland and pick up a new one in Ireland. Are you trying to split the week between Scotland and Ireland?

I like Frank II's idea of flying from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. No time spent backtracking to London only to have to turn around and head for Scotland. Your budget airline choices are easyJet and Flybe. This would allow you to have another full day in Amsterdam.

I don't know enough about EuroRail passes, (we only used it once). But, we have used BritRail for our travel in the UK many, many times and really enjoyed the train trips. We found we liked not having to commit to a specific day of travel (weather, change of plans, etc.). Scotland is easy to explore by rail and personally, I just don't want to risk having to drive on the left, use a manual transmission, drive on small, curvy roads (some are still single lane), and navigate at the same time. Then there is the problem of parking in the cities and the very high price of petrol (gas). Inverness makes a great "base city" for Scotland and is well served by rail. There is a good Tourist Infomation office there and LOTS of day trips offered by tour companies. By the way- please don't use all caps- it is considered shouting on the web.

sorry for the caps, didnt notice them, i'm to old to yell anyway

Do I have this right? You want to travel from London to Paris on the 15th and travel from Amsterdam back to London on the 18th? Assuming you take an early morning Eurostar from London to Paris on the 15th, a Thalys train from Paris to Amsterdam in the morning on the 17th, and a late afternoon IC train from Amsterdam to Brussels in time to catch the last Eurostar from Brussels to London on the 18th, you'll have two nights in Paris and one night in Amsterdam--with a lot of time traveling in between--for less than two full days of sightseeing in either city.

I can tell you how to get the best fares for these routes (no railpass). However, before I do, I recommend that you consider skipping Amsterdam this time and spending all three nights in Paris. It's your trip, of course, not mine; but unless you have your heart set on getting a brief taste of Amsterdam, it would be more effective both cost-wise and time-wise to stick to Paris and save Amsterdam for another trip.

If you do go to Amsterdam, I suggest that you investigate how late a flight you could get to London on a budget airline, giving you more sightseeing time on the 18th. VLM flies Amsterdam-London City; easyJet flies Amsterdam to Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted; and bmi flies Amsterdam-Heathrow.

Amsterdam is terrible. It is dirty and full of drug addicts. Spend as much time as possible in Paris. We were in Paris and London in 1970, this past May and are returning this next May. Paris and London are wonderful. Elaine Obermann [email protected]

Frank II's suggestion for using separate vehicles in Scotland and Ireland was probably based upon his knowledge of the legal/insurance issues involved in moving a rental vehicle between the two places. Most experienced travelers are aware of this problem.

It is doubtful that either Raymond of Frank II is unaware that Ireland is surrounded by water, hence the term Emerald Isle.

What is the purpose of the little map with the dots all over it?

Amsterdam is full of drug addicts and is dirty? Not as "perfect" as OC, but that might be overstating things...

London and Paris have a few spots that aren't that spiffy. Dilligent research indicates that they both have dope addicts as well.

Amsterdam is no better or no worse than any place else. It's interesting and has a lot of charm.

I might eliminate it based on time avaiable, but that would be the only reason.

I must respectfully disagree with the negative comment on Amsterdam. Hubby and I had only 3 days there in 2006, liked it so much we saved up for 2 years and went back for 8 days in 2008. (And no, we are not into drugs.)
We found most of the people friendly and helpful, most of the city clean enough. We spent time at the Anne Frank Museum, the Dutch Resistence Museum, the VanGogh and Rijksmuseums, took both a day and night canal boat tour, wandered thru a Sunday market, ate a lot of cheese and had a wonderful time.
You do have to be very careful while walking, tho, as the bikers have the right-of-way.
We'd go back in a minute.

As far as renting a van for 6 adults, it may be hard to come by, and very expensive if you find one. We traveled around Ireland this summer with a group of 11, my family of 4 and my sister's family of 7. We looked into getting a van, and it was well over 1000 euro/week to get one. But the biggest car she could get next to that was something they categorized as a "people mover", basically an SUV with a 3rd row. It seated 7 people, but only 2 suitcases. We ended up with one of her kids squished between our guys in their car seats in the back seat of our car. Plus some of their luggage.