Best way to tour the UK

If you are here in the summer, a lot of the very touristy areas in Wales and Scotland will have trains if there are tracks but yeah, it's certainly not as well integrated as in Switzerland. We lost a lot of services in the 60s when the Government were trying to encourage the buying of cars by building motorways. And we never got most of them back.

In remote areas, where most of the really beautiful scenery is, it's car or hiking boots, I'm afraid.

Local buses can be good, but check that there is a return service. Trains are OK - but check the times. There is a good coach system but it can take AGES to get to the place you want to be. Hiring a car is probably your best option. Driving can be scary. The British School of Motoring do what they call a familiarization lesson that can be tailored for individual requirements. http://www.bsm.co.uk/contact-us/request-a-call-back I know it says call back, but you can ask them to email you.

Or bicycles.

Driving in Britain is not so bad. As to the scenery bit, drive to where you’re going and then get out and look. Snowdonia, frex, has hiking trails to the top and also a cog railway. You get the train at Llanberis. So you could drive to near Llanberis, spend a few days in the area taking in the sites, then drive somewhere else. Repeat.

IF YOU DO DRIVE, be aware that it takes a LOT MORE TIME to go 55 miles in most of Wales and Scotland and a lot of England than it does to go 55 miles in the US. The roads are narrower and more twisty. There are no Motorways (Highways) in most of Wales and Scotland and, in northern Scotland at least, there are even few dual carriage ways. I seriously mis-budgeted driving time in Scotland the first time we went and we ended up driving frantically from place to place to make our reservations with not much time to do anything else.

Two weeks to do Scotland, London, Wales and parts of England seems ambitious to me. Especially on a train.

You could start in London and get a coach (bus) to tour Stonhenge on a day-trip. Remember to make reservations, as Stonehenge now does ticketed timed entry. If you’re doing that, then consider getting a coach trip that will go to Avesbury also. That’s almost more interesting than Stonehenge.

Then, when you’ve done London, you can either take a train to Wales or just hire a car and drive. From my looking at a map for my own trip to Wales and England and Cornwall next month, there is a Motorway and a good dual carriageway most of the way to Snowdonia. You can find a place to stay for a few nights and take in the sights there. Then drive to Scotland where, again, you have Motorways to Glasgow or Edinburgh. North of there, the driving slows right down.

You definitely need a car, or a coach tour, for Hadrian’s wall. We did that in 2005 and had a lot of fun.

The best museum in London is The Museum of London. Better than the British Museum, IMO. All exhibits layed out chronologically, just follow the line through English history.

If you make it to northern Scotland, do not neglect to try Orkney Ice Cream. Best I’ve ever had. Also, the Oakwood restaurant on the road between Loch Ness and Inverness, in Dochgarroch. It’s on your right as you’re driving from Loch Ness. It doesn’t look like much either inside or outside but It. Is. The. Best. Food. In. the. Country. Or the continent. Incredible. The first review here is mine, from 2005 (They stole it off a message board where I was telling someone else about the restaurant; but I don’t begrudge them.) We went back in 2009 and it was still just as good.

Agree with Ultragotha about the BM. The British Library is also worth a visit.

A dual-carriageway (which is what UG meant) is two lanes going one way, a barrier (usually), then two lanes going the other way. Speed limits vary according to location.

Hoplite said:

Is Orkney Ice Cream available throughout Scotland, or just in the Orkney Islands? If the later, it gives me a great excuse to add it to our itinerary!

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It’s not available all over Scotland, or wasn’t in 2009, but it is available off the Orkneys. We saw some in small cups in shops in the north. It's also available on the ferry from John O'Groats (need advanced reservations!) Plain was meh, but vanilla and chocolate and other flavors were awesome. Very rich, but not greasy and not as sweet as US ice cream and … just extraordinary.

You might think about going to the Orkneys anyway, ice cream aside. It will take a chunk of your two weeks (go for three!). We went to Tomb of the Eagles (wow!) and the Ring of Brodgar on Mainland (the largest island) where there is now an archeological dig, and Skara Brae (wow!). Maes Howe (with Viking graffiti) has timed tickets and they were out of tickets when we went so couldn’t go there. There are over 1000 listed historical sites in the Orkney’s. All Europe probably had that many stone circles and cairns and tombs and stone age villages dug into midden heaps. But in other areas, they re-purposed the stones or turned them into shopping centers.

Mind you, we drove from Glasgow and never went near London that trip. London to Wales to the Orkneys in two weeks would be extraordinarily ambitious.

mirandashell said:

A dual-carriageway (which is what UG meant) is two lanes going one way, a barrier (usually), then two lanes going the other way. Speed limits vary according to location.

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Not to be confused with a controlled access freeway, as we refer to Motorways in the US. A dual-carriageway is higher speed than regular roads, usually lower speeds than Motorways, but there isn’t usually controlled access (set exits and entrances). Sometimes there are but often cars are entering the carriageway at many crossroads.

Have to say train is ideal- HOWEVER- unless you book your tickets early (try one of the Uk train booking sites like Trainline or REdspotted hanky) they can be horrendously expensive. Travelling in peak time doesn't help either (before 9 after 15:30). London Euston - through B'ham ( stop here its not as bad as most people imagine, there is some lovely countryside around Birmingham and it does have a good history).
There is a huge amount of upgrade work going on the rail infrastructure at the moment so you will need to check national rail enquiries which will list the areas that are being worked on plus the weekends that they'll close the tracks down and put buses on.
Saying all that the route from B'ham to Glasgow is impressive and its just a case of sit back, ignore the numpty on the train with his/her headphones on soooo loud you can hear the music and enjoy the trip.

I've done the train journey from Bham to Glasgow and it does go through some beautiful countryside.

And if you do stay in Brum, let me know and I will find you historical stuff to see. And some great shopping.