h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You can travel overnight from Dublin, and if you get the 'slow' ferry (which takes a bit under 4 hours) you can get a cabin and have a bit of a kip - there's a really nice new ship on the Dublin Holyhead route - only had its maiden voyage about 3 weeks ago.

There are not a great deal of overnight train journeys you can make in Britain, however - there are night trains from Holyhead to connect out of the ferry, and there are sleepers that go up to Scotland from London via York, but most train journeys in this country are just not long enough to justify overnight travel. Buses, on the other hand take rather longer.

Agreed. You can get trains (and some buses come to that) that dump you, quite unceremoniously, in the wee small hours. In those situations, it's expensive to take a hotel room for a couple of hours (and the type of hotels that open 24/7 are dead pricey). The alternative - sleeping on an uncomfortable park bench surrounded by scary people, is not to be recommended.

ravelling late or early in the day, however, could maximise on your useful time and still keep you snuggled up in bed when it matters.

There is nothing more depressing than hanging round a tourist town that hasn't woken up yet and waiting for things to open. I used to work in those nice tourist infrmation centres rightly recommended above, and Americans would bring in itineraries they had drawn up when when back in the states, with lines like "8.30am - visit Windsor Castle"

okay, i don't have the sheet me and my girlfriend drew up, but here it is by memory (but with no travel specs, as i can't remember).
drum roll,
THE ITINERARY
Day 1 = may 4th
day 1 - leave toronto pearson international.
day 2 - arrive in glasgow, travel to cairnryan, ferry to larne, meet andy there and drive to belfast.
day 3-9 - chill out in belfast where the sleeping in free and the food is cheap.
day 10-11 - dublin, leave dublin at night, pulling overnight to london (ferry/bus)
day 12-13 - london, leave in evening for bath, sleeping there that night
day 14 - bath
day 15 - bristol, overnight to liverpool
day 16 - liverpool, overnight to edinburgh (by bus)
day 17 - edinburgh, overnight to inverness
day 18 - inverness to dufftown, distilery tours stay in dufftown or elgin
day 19 - (early) rail to glasgow, stay in glasgow
day 20 - depart galsgow at 11am (may 24th)

on any overnights we plan to pull, we're aiming to catch it later, and not be standing around in the morning. maybe wishful thinking, but hey, we're not really bound to this, it's just a sort of guideline. so, thoughts?

Day 17/8
don't, DON'T ***DON'T*** overnight from Edinburgh to Inverness!!!!!!
That is your one chance to see Scotland. Please. Trust me on this. Inverness itself will give you no flavour of the Highlands (I know it very well, in a current, family sort of way). It is an almost entirely modern town: even the 'castle' is a modern courthouse. Even if you do the bus trip down Loch Ness/Urquhart Castle on your one day there you really will be missing out.
Please heed this fatty, it's truly from the heart. Edinburgh to Inverness - up the A9 on a bus, done it more times than I can think - isn't perfect, but in daylight you will see: castles, distilleries (the cute old fashioned type), mountains, salmon rivers, etc. Don't miss it!

Now - what are your plans for Edinburgh?

Clovis-the-working-in-the-Scottish-tourist-industry-for-the-last-ten-years-Cat

I have to back the Cat on this one, fatty - you really shouldn't miss travelling from Edinburgh to Inverness in the daylight. I know Canada has some impressive scenery, and you may not be the scenery loving type, but Scotland is achingly pretty, and as Cloviscat says, although the A9 may not be the best Scottish Highalnd route, you'll get a real flavour of Scotland.

Liverpool - if you have time visit the Albert Dock. It's all been refurbished with attractive shops and eateries, and there's a brilliant Maritime Museum you can lose yourself in for a few hours. It gives you a real taste of the history of Liverpool as a port, with an evocative display of the emigrant route from Europe to the Americas which may interest you, amongst lots of other stuff.

If you're into museums and galleries, Liverpool is well served - over the road from Lime Street Station is where to look - I can't remember what they're called but I'm sure a proper scouser will post a reply with the details.

I'm sure that h2g2's Irish researchers will give you the low-down on Dublin, but I'll just say this - have a pint of Guinness! In fact have several!

Captain-lives-in-England-but-tours-Scotland-in-his-classic-car-on-a-regular-basis-Kebab

When my son's girlfriend went to Ireland I printed her out a little booklet with all the relevant bits of the Guide. She's only just got back and I haven't spoken to her yet to see if it was a help.

Don't forget to search the guide for all the relevant places. And don't forget to collect material to write entries on places that aren't covered yet. It will be interesting to see what you think of the UK and Ireland in general, especially if it's your first visit. You will probably notice things which the locals take for granted. This is a fascinating subject - and it would be fun if you could hold a mirror up to us Brits afterwards describing the country as seen through your eyes!

Do I calculate right - you are in London on 14 May?

(by "guide" I mean this site - H2G2, of course)

okay, lots to cover,
first off, i didn't mention that we'd be taking the train back from inverness to galsgow in the morning. we'll hopefully be catching an early train, so we'll see everything as the mornting starts. better? next, edinburgh. well, i'm not fully certain. we'll definitely be hitting a pub or a few. it is apparently one of the most beautiful cities in the world, so we'll be digging what makes it so nice. liverpool. i'm a huge beatles freak, so we're going to be seeing the cliche stuff, the cavern, penny lane, strawberry feilds, (we'll also be seeing abbey road and saville row in london), but i really want to see albert docks. we probably won't spend a huge ammount of time there, but some for sure. we're going to be journaling while we're away, so i'll probably do a guide entry on our trip. maybe a few. whatever. so yeah, we're down to d -8 and counting. i'm giddy, and my girlfriend is done exams tommorow, so she'll be getting into it. i can't wait.
cheers
fatty
oh yeah, london is may 14th-15th (i think)

correction
london is may 15th-16th (by above schedule). plus, we seem to ahve lost a day, which will probably translate into another day in edinburgh, and a day time trip to inverness. we'll see.

Edinburgh is a very beautiful and impressive city. The setting - buildings perched on cliffs and high hills, with bridges arching over the hidden streets - is unique, and the range of buildings of all ages cheek by jowl is fantastic. Everything is packed in nice and close together, but be prepared to climb plenty of steps!

For shopping, Princes Street is all chainstores, and the Royal Mile is mostly tartan tat (There's a shop a few yeards from my office called "Thistle do nicely" - aargh!) for more unusual shoips try Victoria Street or Rose Street (also home to a lot of pubs )

Please listen critically to buskers before giving them money, and don't encourage the bad ones, for the sake of my sanity!

well this is it.
d -1 but in five minutes it will be d-day. to be completely honest, i'm getting a little nervous. everything is falling together, and life is peachy, but still, i just want to get it all going. thanks so much to everyone who's tossed in their own two cents (or whatever currency) worth. i really have appreciated your input. with your guidance and our lonely planet books, our stay will be full, at least, and very exciting. i'll still be checking my email and this thread, so if you feel like posting anything, i'll probably get it. updates to follow, and possibly a guide entry once i get back into the flow. once again me and my girlfreind would like to extend our thanks to the courtesy we have recevied, while we're still an ocean away (but as close as a keyboard). maybe we'll pass in the streets. many, many thanks, and my best regards,
fatty

Have a lovely time and safe flights

Good luck and have fun! It is a nice country and PERFECT in May. Drop an email if you want a drink and a bit of company in the bits I know about.

A tour-guide called Ben