Highlights of England, Ireland & Scotland Tour

Black Hackney cabs grumble past red telephone boxes. Double-decker buses splutter through the streets. Central London unfolds in all its iconicity and chaos. Everywhere you look there is something from the postcards. From porcelain mugs emblazoned with the Union Jack to Big Ben chiming; a crowded statue on Trafalgar Square to the beautiful serenity of the National Portrait Gallery; taking a walk along the Thames to turning around the capital city on the London Eye. Welcome to the heart of London, a place of quintessence unlike anywhere else in the world. Today you’re greeted at the airport and transferred to a boutique hotel within Zone 1, a location that minimizes travel time when exploring the city. This first day is free. So take a stroll and enjoy it.

Regal landscapes and iconic architecture, that’s the focus of today as you tour the heart of London. First up Buckingham Palace, grand reception rooms and glamorous corridors hinting at royal life. Go up the staircase of St. Paul’s Cathedral then down below, into a crypt where the legends of British history are laid to rest. Gaze up at Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, and then travel into the Tower of London and eye up the Crown Jewels, the collection including the world’s largest cut diamond. It’s a busy five to six hours of touring followed by a relaxed late-afternoon tradition, a high tea experience in a timeless Central London venue. Rest, relax, indulge in the cakes, and feel that little bit more British after all the tea.

London is more than famous sights. It’s a patchwork of neighborhoods that are only loosely connected. Today you explore beyond Zone 1 and see a more local side to the city. First down Brick Lane to a vibrant marketplace, where quirks juxtapose with the smell of English curry. Then out into places like Shoreditch, where the high street is dotted with boutique shops and small cafes. You find underground tube stations turned into eateries, dozens of traditional pubs, architecture from Victorian and Georgian eras, along with excellent museums that are well off the tourist trail. When you visit London, you can’t miss the major sights, but you must also get to know how the city ticks, and that is what this day is all about.

High-speed trains connect London to Edinburgh in just over four hours. Relax in a first-class carriage and watch the landscapes transform; the flat green farmlands of the south, rolling hills, and villages of the Peak District, through Yorkshire’s industrial towns then up and out into the wilderness, dry stone walls and sheep as you cross Northumberland and enter Scotland. Arrive in Edinburgh and this first day is at your leisure, a chance to wander the Royal Mile and check out how it contrasts London. Tomorrow you’ll go on a guided tour, but Edinburgh is an excellent place to start exploring without a guide as well, so many initial impressions around pedestrianized backstreets and Georgian architecture.

Today begins with a relaxed start before starting the tour in Edinburgh Castle, perhaps the grandest of all British castles. The Scottish Crown Jewels twinkle and the fortifications impose before the road descends into Edinburgh’s New Town (mostly from the 18th century). Stop for a classic Scottish lunch then escape the city, spending the afternoon at two evocative abbeys from the past. Melrose Abbey lies in ruins, Robert the Bruce’s heart beneath the ground and rutted archways all around. Rosslyn Abbey speaks of mysteries, and that has always been the case, not just since it found fame through The Da Vinci Code book and movie. Discover them with a guide before returning to Edinburgh and another evening in the heart of Scotland’s capital.

Stirling Castle seems to come from the movies. You can picture the battles, imagine the scenes from centuries past. From the outside, it’s rough and ready, yet on the inside, there are softer stories, of queens and rebellions and all things Scottish. It’s a convenient stop on your journey north to the Scottish Highlands. Granite mountains begin to rise. Lochs (lakes) extend, reflecting rugged peaks. It feels wild and remote even though you’re only two hours from Edinburgh, immersed in the world of heather-lathered valleys and waterways. For the next two nights, you stay at a hotel perched on Loch Lomond, a retreat from the world that seems to embody the Scottish experience.

Aromas guide you through a whiskey distillery. Then the distiller takes over, talking about the purity of water and process. Enjoy a tutored tasting and feel how it warms the throat. Then go for lunch at a country farm, where it seems the only neighbors are the sheep that roam. Back on the lake, you while away an afternoon on the water, taking a boat cruise that celebrates the inimitability of the land. After the bustle of two capital cities, this time in the Highlands is an opportunity to unwind. If the sun is shining there are few landscapes in the world that can rival the Highlands.

After a short transfer to Glasgow, you travel on the East Coast mainline, a high-speed railway that rushes out of Scotland and into the Lake District. While the Scottish Highlands are all granite and rugged peaks, England’s lakes are more rolling green hills and soft contours. Check into another lakeside retreat and take a hike, so many trails extending from beside your accommodation. This is another place for a spot of English tea, perhaps a boat cruise around the lake, maybe a local pub experience, or even the beauty of doing nothing at all. Even though your time here is short, you get to experience the stark contrasts in the landscape between Scotland and England’s most picturesque destinations.

Continuing south by train, you enter Britain’s most underrated destination, a city that was once at the heartbeat of the world. Grandeur still drips from the walls of Liverpool, a merchant port city from a time of empire and exploration. So much was exported from here, not least the music of The Beatles. Touring the city in search of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane provides a great overview to what Liverpool is all about. The afternoon is left free, and you’ll find a number of superb museums around The Royal Albert Dock, along with a walking route through grand neoclassical architecture. For evening entertainment you can visit the bar where The Beatles first performed – cover bands play through the day with the next generation of English bands performing at night.

A short flight to Dublin and once again you’ll need a couple of hours to get your head around the contrasts. Ireland’s accents, architecture, atmosphere are completely different to England and Scotland. You can get around most of the city in one relaxed day, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Trinity College the two most iconic destinations. Then walk past the presidential palace to the Guinness Storehouse where they have brewed for 250 years. Spend the evening in Temple Bar, where the art of Irish storytelling remains alive. Dublin is a city that loves visitors, and it’s likely you’ll be swept into the jolly atmosphere, the guide on hand to help you fully settle into the cultural inimitability.

The gift of the gab is a peculiar Irish trait, meaning you can talk and talk and keep people engaged even if what you are talking about doesn’t have any real relevance to anything. Legend says that kissing the Blarney Stone gives you this gift. You don’t need to believe it to try it. Blarney is just one stop on your travels today, another being the majestic Rock of Cashel. Patchwork green fields extend in all directions, and you soon see why this is called the Emerald Isle. Your destination is County Kerry, the greenest county of all Ireland. Your hotel is surrounded by the colors, in a small Irish town that’s as quintessential as they come.

Clovers flutter on open valleys. Cliffs rise above Atlantic Ocean waves. White beaches extend, far below. This is coastal Kerry with a 112-mile coastal route that’s one of the finest drives in the world. Drive past mountains and beaches, feel the wind rush past your ears, stop in tiny villages of stone cottages. Shards of rock rise like sentinels in the ocean. A village pub has the ethereal feel of a Tolkien book. There’s time to descend steps onto the beach, time to look out towards America from the cliffs, time to inhale the freshest of ocean airs. A guide does the driving so you just admire the scenery and take in the best of coastal Ireland.

Of course, if you travel to County Clare, the locals will say that their coastline is more impressive. It’s the one with the Cliffs of Moher, a mythical stretch of rock that surges from the Atlantic. Walk the coastal path, and to one side you have endlessly green pastures. Down below are the waves. Across from you, there is a seemingly endless stretch of cliffs. A ferry, a drive, the famous cliffs, and then onwards you go to Limerick, where the medieval-era old town is a grand place to end your vacation. A 13th-century castle is your compass point when walking around and the guide points out differing eras, notably the Georgian architecture around St. John’s Square. Limerick is relaxed, and even today you’ll hear them singing old limericks, five-line poems that get more raucous dependent on the amount of Guinness that’s been drunk.

You fly out of Shannon, a small airport with connections to Dublin. The morning is at your leisure before your departure.