Can y'all help me plan a trip to England / Scotland / Wales?

[Rajah]

Ugh! I'm already up to 12 days (including flights) and haven't even gotten out of Wales yet.

Does all of this sound about right, or am I putting too much time in one area or not enough in another, and where to from Snowdonia?

UK Schedule

Day:
Depart Houston
(night air)

Day:
Arrive London
(night London)

Day:
Tour London
(night London)

Day:
Tour London
(night London)

Day:
Tour London, travel somehow to Cotswold
(night cotswold)

Day:
Bath and Stonehenge
(night Cotswold)

Day:
Cotswold
(Night Cotswold)

Day:
Stratford-upon-Avon
(Night Cotswold)

Day:
Route from Cotswold to Cardiff
(Night Cardiff)

Day:
Pembrokshire Wales via Brecon Beacons National Park
(Night in Pembrokeshire area)

Day:
Route from Pembrokeshire to somewhere in Snowdonia National Park probly via coast
(Night in Snowdonia region)

 

[Rajah]

Ahh, had to hunt to find Oban! Hehe.

Hmm -- how long would it take to run up to Loch Ness?

 

[Rajah]

Okay, I know that I don't have 3 weeks right now, but I want to know if this 3-week plan is feasible or if I'm trying to fit too much in a couple of the days.

If it's feasible, I'm going to talk to my manager to see if there's *any* way I can take one more week while we're already out there.

---

Fri: Depart Houston
Sat: Arrive London, approx 10am. Get settled
Sun: London gardens and play??
Mon: London sites (Westminster, changing of guard, etc)
Tu: Train to Oxford or Winchester, end in Cotswold, picking up car along way
Wed: Bath & Stonehenge
Th: Cotswold area

Fri: Day trip to Warwick Castle, Glouchester, dinner @ Warwick Castle
Sat: Down-day
Sun: Travel to Cardiff, Cardiff castles
Mon: BB Nat Park in Wales to Pen
Tu: Penbrokshire, King Arthur Labrynth
Wed: Snowdon
Th: Snowdon to Beatrix Potter area

Fri: Beatrix Potter area
Sat: Down-day in Beatrix Potter area
Sun: Drive to Edinburgh
Mon: Edinburgh and Stirling and Blair castles
Tu: To Loch Ness
Wed: Lochs
Th: Loch Ness to Glasgow region

Fri: Glasgow region
Sat: Fly home

 

[Rajah]

YES!!!!!! My manager just said OK for me to go for a full 3 weeks! Not only did he say okay, he said that he feels 3 weeks is the minimum to do for the UK, so he understands! So this means that we'll be able to hit everything on our "if we never get back, we'll regret not seeing this" list (which isn't long, but one is Stonehenge and the other is Loch Ness, and those are on opposite ends of the Island!)

 

[Rajah]

Now... can I figure out how to fit York into the trip.... *scratches chin*

 

[carolfoy]

York is more to the East, if you're travelling up along the West coast it'll put your plans out by probably another couple of days!

 

[Rajah]

Yeah. Hrm. :/

Is there another town similar to York with the midieval style buildings like that but on our way? Or is York unique?

We've got castles, ancient monuments, stone buildings and thatch covered...

 

[lynnmci]

okay you have had the answer about Skye. Culzean Castle is in Ayrshire and is probably about 1hr drive from Glasgow. For all castle and the like I have attached a link to Historic Scotland which has some fab places.

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/

I hope this helps.

Blar Castle is the historic seat of the Duke of Atholl and is in Perthshire which is maybe about 1.5 hrs fro m Edinburgh. Loch Ness is maybe about 3hrs from Edinburgh but can go through Perthshre to get there.

I would agree that the peoples palace in Glasgow is fantastic. It is all about teh ordinary man and woman of Glasgow and their lives. Very interesting.

I hope the link works.

Lynn

Ps I stay in between Edinburgh and Glasgow and would love to have you for dinner one night if you want a home cooked meal and yo could fit it in.

 

[disneyangel]

Hi Tammi

I think your Scottish leg looks a bit optimistic.

What do you think Lynn ?

I think you will need a day for Edinburgh alone. If you're keen to go to Blair Atholl and Culzean castle I would suggest.

Mon: Edinburgh Must do Witchery tour in the evening

Tuesrive to Blair Atholl , Could also visit Beatrix Potter Garden in Birnam near Dunkeld then onto Loch Ness. Can recommend the hotel in Birnam for lunch(we got married there )

Wed:Loch Ness back via Oban to Glasgow

Th: Glasgow -city area

Fri: Ayrshire (Culzean Castle) and maybe Burn's cottage and back to Glasgow (or dinner at Lynns !)

Sat: Fly home

 

[lynnmci]

Angela that sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[susieh]

My comments:-

I think that trying to do Bath & Stonehenge in one day is not feasible, in fact I would say it is impossible.

Have you checked that you can have dinner @ Warwick Castle? Unless you are planning on visiting for a special even the castle is only open until 5 or 6pm

Snowdon is nice if the weather is good but I would suggest Caernarfon and the castle there if you want castles. The trip up snowdon on the mountain railway is about £20 each too.

Driving to Edinburgh will take you at least 6 hours - and that's averaging 65mph! You may find it quite stressful as the roads here are a lot busier than we have experienced in the US.

 

[florida sun]

Rajah

Hows the planning going, I have thought of another lovely castle for you to see in Cardiff, its called The Fairy Castle by us locals, Its real name is Castle Coch and its beautiful.

Sue

 

[Rajah]

*pant*

*pant*

*pant*

I still haven't gotten past figuring out the details for the London / Stonehenge / Bath / Cotswold section yet.

Yeah, I saw that Sue! I've got that on our list of "want to sees" in the Cardiff area!

I've also discovered several private guides that will do day-trips and stuff around Bath, and we're pricing them out. We really liked the sound of hiring a guide to do the driving, and at first glance it looked like the pricing was reasonable, but so far our inquiries are finding it more expensive than it first looked and now we're not sure we'll be able to do it.

Susie -- according to the website for the Warwick castle, the dinner-theater type things run every Fri and Sat night, and I'm trying to arrange our schedule to make a visit to Warwick Castle be on a Fri or Sat night.

Which drive to Edinburgh will take 6 hours? Is that from Chester?

Also, I've looked at the pictures of Chester and think that town will satisfy my desire for a place similar to York. York looks better, but since we can't fit York in this visit, I think we'll be happy with Chester instead.

 

[Rajah]

Oh, and as for Bath -- the more my mom and I see pictures of it, the more we think we want to just spend about 3 hours there this visit. The biggest thing we want to see are the Roman Baths, and the view overlooking the city. There's a LOT more there that we would put a lot higher on our list if we had more time, but for our tastes and what we've found so far, for this visit, I think we're just going to do half a day there.

IF we do just half a day there, can we combine it with either Stonehenge / Avebury or with another castle I saw that's to the west a bit farther. (Yeah.... um.... lemme go hunt down the name of that castle again... )

 

[Rajah]

This is my list of castles I'd like to see in Wales if we can, with * being more important

*Caerphilly Castle (Between Cardiff and the BB Nat Park)
http://www.castlewales.com/caerphil.html

Cardiff Castle
http://www.castlewales.com/cardiff.html

Castell Coch (near Cardiff)
http://www.castlewales.com/coch.html

*Caldicot Castle (on road to Cardiff)
http://www.castlewales.com/caldicot.html

Pembroke
http://www.castlewales.com/pembroke.html

*Picton Castle (near Pembroke)
http://www.castlewales.com/picton.html

*Carew Castle (Pembroke area, for the cross)
http://www.castlewales.com/carew.html

Manorbier Castle
http://www.castlewales.com/manor.html

*Caernarfon Castle (if we get to the far north west)
http://www.castlewales.com/caernarf.html

 

[Rajah]

Found the other castle we were looking at. Dunster Castle -- which I haven't located yet exactly

 

[Rajah]

Hmm, finally found it. Looks to me like Dunster Castle would take about 2 hours to get to from Bath, is that about right?

 

[Rajah]

Okay, is this getting better or worse for the beginning weekish of our trip?

Fri: Depart Houston

Sat:
Arrive London
Check into hotel
Portobello Road
(if time)
Ride the hop on / hop off bus to get a feel for London
Take the London By Night bus tour
Night: Hotel in London, Sat & Sun night

Sun & Mon:
Hop on / Hop off bus tour
Changing of the Guard (~2 hours incl wait time?)
British Museum (~2 hours)
Library's room with ancient maps, etc (~1-2 hours)
Tower Bridge (~30 minutes max)
Tower of London (~2-3 hours)
Tower of London Keys ceremony
Westminster Abbey (~1 hour)
Big Ben and Parlaiment (~30 minutes max)
Trafalgar Square (~30 minutes)
Globe Theater (~1 hour)
St Pauls Cathedral (~1 hour)
(if time)
Queen's Garden in Regent's Park
National Gallery
Brief stop in Kensington Gardens & view of Kensington Palace
Mon Night: Transfer to Hampton Court Palace B&B, Mon & Tues night

Tu:
Hampton Court Palace & Gardens
(if time) Windsor Castle

Wed:
Train to Southampon Airport
Rent car
Winchester Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Stonehenge
Avebury
To B&B in Cotswolds (Wed - Sun night)

Th:
Cotswolds

Fri:
Down-day

Sat:
Warwick Castle & ?Stratford-Upon-Avon?

Sun:
Bath overview (Roman Baths mostly) & ?Wells?

 

[Rajah]

Oh, and a side note -- I know I could spend 2 days at the British Museum, but there are only a couple of exhibits that I reallyreallyreally want to see (like the Rosetta stone) and since we have some great museums here, I'm limiting our Musuem time this trip.

 

[Rajah]

Which airport should we fly out of? Edinburgh or Glasgow?