United Kingdom 6 Day Itinerary (No Traps)

Six days properly links London and Edinburgh by train, with a sixth day left over to push further north into Scotland rather than home. This itinerary spends three days on London’s icons plus one train day trip, two days in Edinburgh, Scotland’s own capital, and a sixth day on a guided run into the Highlands for Glencoe and Loch Ness. Bring a passport and book your ETA before you fly, budget in pounds sterling (never euros), tap contactless everywhere, pack a rain layer regardless of the forecast, book the long train legs and the Highlands tour in advance, and expect the whole trip to be expensive and, pickpockets aside, very safe.

Book these before you go:

Day Focus Base / train Rough daily spend (GBP)
1 Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London London 70-120
2 British Museum (free), South Bank, West End show London 60-150
3 Bath and Stonehenge day trip London (train out and back) 90-150
4 LNER to Edinburgh (~4h8m), Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh 90-140
5 Royal Mile, Arthur’s Seat, Grassmarket Edinburgh 60-120
6 Highlands day tour: Glencoe and Loch Ness Edinburgh (day tour, no overnight) 70-100

Day 1: Westminster, Buckingham Palace, and the Tower of London

Start at Westminster Abbey and the Elizabeth Tower, the clock everyone calls Big Ben though that name technically belongs to the bell inside it, both a short walk from the Houses of Parliament. Time the morning for the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace if the seasonal schedule lines up with your date; check gov.uk or visitbritain.com the week before you fly rather than trusting an old post. Tap a contactless card or phone at any Tube reader to move between stops, same daily fare cap as an Oyster card, no ticket machine queue.

Give the afternoon to the Tower of London: nearly a thousand years of continuous use as a fortress and a prison, the Crown Jewels behind glass, and Yeoman Warder tours funnier than the ticket price suggests. Book a timed slot in advance, especially April through August, rather than queuing at the gate.

Day 2: Free museums, the South Bank, and a West End show

The British Museum charges nothing to get in, arguably the single best “things to do” fact in this whole country: the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures for free. Reserve a timed entry slot online in peak season so your morning does not disappear into a queue. The National Gallery and Tate Modern are also free for their permanent collections; pick one rather than forcing both into an afternoon.

Walk the South Bank from Tower Bridge past Borough Market to the Globe and Tate Modern, with the London Eye there if you want the paid view. Book a West End show for the evening instead of hoping for a walk-up seat; the good ones sell out days or weeks ahead. Prices already include 20% VAT, and there has been no tourist VAT refund on Great Britain purchases since Brexit.

Day 3: Bath and Stonehenge, as one long train day out

Take a morning train from London Paddington to Bath, about 1 hour 12-20 minutes on GWR. Go straight to the Roman Baths before the coach groups arrive, then walk up to Bath Abbey and along the Georgian Royal Crescent; Abbey entry is free, though a donation is requested.

Stonehenge has no direct rail link, so the honest route is either an organized day tour from London or a train to Salisbury followed by the dedicated Stonehenge Tour Bus from the station. Entry is strict timed-ticket, roughly £25-30 for adults, and walk-up is not reliable, so book the date before you commit to it. The stones sit roped off at a distance, which some visitors find underwhelming after the hype; go anyway, then take a late train back to London.

Day 4: The train north, and Edinburgh Castle

This is the day the trip changes shape. LNER’s fastest direct trains run London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley in around 4 hours 8 minutes, with roughly 29 direct weekday departures; standard advance fares on nationalrail.co.uk start from about £34-35 one way if you book ahead, rising sharply closer to the travel date. Treat it as a scenic, comfortable travel day, not dead time, and do not drive this leg: self-driving means the left-hand side of the road plus hours of motorway for no real time saved.

Once you land in Edinburgh, drop your bags and walk up to Edinburgh Castle, perched above the whole city. The Stone of Destiny and the Scottish Crown Jewels are the two things worth prioritizing inside, and the view from the Castle Esplanade at sunset is free. You are in Scotland now, a different nation with its own capital and its own devolved government, not “England with a castle” and not full of English people; the locals here are Scottish.

Day 5: The Royal Mile, Arthur’s Seat, and Grassmarket

Walk the Royal Mile downhill from the castle toward the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The main street is tourist-market heavy, but the closes (narrow alleyways) running off each side lead to quieter streets and better coffee. Arthur’s Seat, the extinct volcano rising above Holyrood Park, is a roughly 45-minute climb to panoramic views over the whole city, free beyond a decent pair of shoes.

For whisky, the independent bars around Grassmarket below the castle are more atmospheric and cheaper per dram than the tourist-facing tasting rooms on the Royal Mile; ask for a Highland single malt if you only try one. Save your energy for tomorrow: Day 6 is a long one, and an Edinburgh hangover makes an 8am pickup considerably less fun.

Day 6: Glencoe and Loch Ness, the honest way to do the Highlands

Book a guided day tour rather than a rental car for this one. The reason is blunt: self-driving the Highlands on a tight schedule adds real risk on unfamiliar single-track roads, and a guided coach lets you look at the scenery instead of the road. A typical Edinburgh departure leaves around 8am, runs north through Stirling and the Trossachs, stops in the dramatic Glencoe valley, then reaches Fort Augustus at the southern tip of Loch Ness, where an optional boat cruise (booked separately, roughly £20-25) is the closest most tours get to actually looking for Nessie.

Be honest with yourself about the shape of this day: it is mostly coach time, with a series of short, genuinely stunning stops rather than long stretches on the ground anywhere. Tours typically return to Edinburgh by 8-9pm, so plan a quiet dinner near your hotel rather than anything requiring a booking. If you’re flying home from Edinburgh the next morning, this still works; if you need to get back to London, add a seventh day rather than trying to catch a late train after a 12-hour tour.

For a shorter trip that skips Scotland entirely, see the 2-day or 3-day itinerary. The 4-day and 5-day versions add Edinburgh but stop before the Highlands, and the 7-day itinerary has room to slow down further or add a stop like York on the way north.

Do you need an ETA for the UK?

Yes, almost certainly. The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation is now required before you board for most visa-exempt visitors, including US, Canadian, Australian, and (since April 2025) EU nationals. Apply through the official ETA service on gov.uk , roughly £20 as of 2026 though confirm the current fee before you pay, and apply a few days before you fly. British and Irish citizens travel without one.

Is the UK on the euro?

No, and it never has been. The UK uses the pound sterling (GBP, £), not the euro, even though some travelers still expect otherwise after Brexit. Don’t confuse this with the Republic of Ireland, a separate country that does use the euro; Northern Ireland, by contrast, is part of the UK and uses sterling. Contactless works nearly everywhere, and displayed prices already include 20% VAT.

Is 6 days enough for London, Edinburgh, and the Highlands?

Enough, but only just, and only because two of those six days are spent almost entirely in transit: the London-Edinburgh train and the Highlands coach tour. What you get in return is a genuine three-nation-flavored trip, London plus Scotland’s capital plus a real look at the Highlands, without a rental car or a flight north. What it does not leave room for is Bath and Stonehenge done slowly, or a stop in York; that is the honest trade a six-day pace makes.

One concrete tip: book the London-Edinburgh train and the Highlands day tour the same week you fix your dates, not after you land. Both sell out their cheapest slots well ahead of the travel date, and neither is the kind of thing you want to be sorting out from a hotel Wi-Fi connection on Day 3.