Help please...One week in UK

[Skywalker]

I will be coming this weekend and have until August 5 when I have to meet up with someone in London. So I would have nearly a week and I am so overwhelmed. I'll either be flying into Manchester or Gatwick...I don't know for sure yet.

The main places I wanted to see are Edinburgh and Inverness, and then Windsor / Bath / Stonehenge.

Is this doable? Are there tours and trips that would go these places? Can you recommend good ones? All the ones I keep finding begin in London and I won't be there yet.

Any suggestions?

As I said I feel overwhelmed and I wish someone would just tell what to do, lol.

 

[Mad Mark]

If you fly into Gatwick get the Gatwick Express train to London Victoria (takes about 30-40 minutes). I know you don't want to do London just yet but most of the tours run out of Victoria coach station which is directly next to Victoria train station. I haven't done any tours i'm afraid so cannot advise which is best.

For Inverness and Scotland either get the over night sleeper train from London or fly up.

 

[NikkiMouse]

Wow that's a lot to do in less than a week!

National Express coach will take you 16 hrs from Gatwick all the way up to Inverness.

Train would be just under 10hrs.

Think your best bet would be to get to you chosen destination by train or coach then jump on a city tour bus. No way to do all 5 destinations!

Here are some links. Hope they help.

http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/

http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

http://www.city-sightseeing.com/

Happy and safe travels

 

[stba2006]

As you are just thinking of 1 week, time wise you will be pretty busy to fit all of those places in , but if you plan it right, it should be doable it think.

To save some time I think you may be better off flying to Gatwick as Manchester is in the middle of the places that you mentioned so where-ever you start you would be coming back on yourself to go to the other places almost.

 

[disneyholic family]

personally in that amount of time, and assuming i really wanted to see both Scotland and England, i would just do Edinburgh and London...
but that's me - i like to immerse rather than just skim the top....

inside London and Edinburgh there are lots of tours, bus, walking....and very good ones...

the obvious starting point is the cheesy open top buses.....but you do get to see the lay of the land from them...and then lots of walking tours...

in london there are several open top bus tour companies....
i think the one i used is this one:
http://www.theoriginaltour.com/tour-information/tour-info.htm
i also did two of their "free" walking tours (included in the price of the bus tour). Both were excellent, with a really fun guide (i did the ghost pub crawl and the changing of the guard).

but there are many walking tours in london - the best known company is london walks:
http://www.walks.com/

they're very good - i did their ghost walk as well.....

in edinburgh you can try this one for open top:
http://www.edinburghtour.com/

and for walking tours in edinburgh: you can walk edinburgh on your own quite easily, but i think it's more fun to go on an organised tour. i'm not familiar with the walking tour companies there, so maybe someone else has a recommendation. You can google "walking tours Edinburgh" to find out.
You can find everything on the internet. i also recommend Frommers online guide as well as fodors.

also google whatever it is you want to see/do...
bus tour of england/ scotland/walking tour of edinburgh, etc etc.

 

[ButterbearUK]

I'm afraid I can't help much with the Scotland bits, but Bath, Stonehenge, Windsor is a fairly standard tourist trail. It usually takes in Oxford or Winchester as well.

I would echo the others though, fly to Gatwick, take the train or bus from there into London. You can catch a direct train from London Paddington to Bath Spa, then work your way back towards London. Would you be willing/able to hire a car? That might be the easiest way to then get from Bath to Windsor via Stonehenge. It's an easy drive. Mostly motorways and A-Roads.

The nearest train station to Stonehenge is Salisbury (worth a visit in it's own right anyway - fantastic mediaeval Cathedral, beautiful mediaeval town!) You can get a direct train from Bath to Salisbury then catch a bus or cab from there.

To get to Windsor by train you will most likely have to change somewhere.

PM me if you need more help.

Milia

 

[disneyholic family]

as i always do, i strongly advise against driving in the UK for those of us who are side-of-the-road challenged...
it's not just being on the wrong side of the road, i find the signs and rules to be quite challenging....

and it's not the easiest way to sightsee - if you have a partner for navigation maybe possibly (but even then i'd advise against it)...but with someone riding shotgun you might have a chance....

organised tours might be less spontaneous, but they're a lot easier...

there are many...just google "tour to bath from london" or any such thing..
you'll get lots of options..

 

[NikkiMouse]

I second Beth's comments at the start of post no 5.

Concentrate on Edinburgh and then London. It will make your trip more memorable.

Edinburgh's Festival will be on when you are here and that is worth the airfare alone.

Very very busy but some cool things to see, lots of free shows and the town goes all out for tourists.

Here is another link to give you an idea

http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk/?gclid=CJ7z5uOGn6oCFUFC4Qodvh2i6w

Let me know if you need any more info on Edinburgh, I live 12 miles outside of Edinburgh and I'm happy to help

 

[Skywalker]

Want to thank you all for taking the time to help me out!

I really wish I could have got a flight to Glasgow, that would have made my trip so much easier! As it is, I still have to decide between Manchester and Gatwick...and the train up to Edinburgh takes longer than I thought. I will have a 90 year old and two small kids with me, lol.

Anyway, I'm checking out the info you have given me and I really appreciate it.

 

[disneyholic family]

Want to thank you all for taking the time to help me out!

I really wish I could have got a flight to Glasgow, that would have made my trip so much easier! As it is, I still have to decide between Manchester and Gatwick...and the train up to Edinburgh takes longer than I thought. I will have a 90 year old and two small kids with me, lol.

Anyway, I'm checking out the info you have given me and I really appreciate it.

that completely changes things!
forget the walking tours - not good for 90 year olds or little kids...

 

[Li-sa]

Like the others have said, you will have a lot of travelling to do if you want to see all of those places in a week.

How about flying into Manchester and seeing York instead of Scotland? Still very historic and lots to do, but much easier to combine with the other places you want to visit.

 

[paula34]

there are also cheap airlines to get you around here ...the further ahead you book the cheaper they are, ryanair and easyjet are the biggest flybe aren't too bad either, the only downside of them that they can use secondary airports but having a look won't hurt especially for the london - scotland leg

 

[cove61]

Edinburgh has heaps to do. Dynamic Earth is a great place to visit with kids

http://www.dynamicearth.co.uk/home

it also has the zoo, but it is very hilly!! The castle of course and the plenty of Museums, the National Museum of Scotland has just reopened, my kids would spend all day wandering around there.

If you arriving in London, you can either take the bus train or plane to Scotland, many of the cheaper airlines ie easyjet, BMI fly to edinburgh or inverness

anyway have a great time

 

[JulieBarlow]

I would say it depends on your budget but the easiest option that I can think of would be to fly into Manchester and get a flight from there to Edinburgh. Flying would take about an hour which is a much easier journey with young/elderly passengers. FlyBMI definitely does flights from Manchester to Edinburgh but times/prices depend on what day/time you arrive in Manchester.

Once you've done Edinburgh you could then fly from Edinburgh to Bristol relatively cheaply with Easyjet which would put you very close to Bath and takes about 1hr 20mins to fly down.

From there I guess you could search for a coach tour that would take you to Bath, Stonehenge and then on to London in time for the 5th, or a day-trip to Bath and/or Stonehenge then get a train to London.