That depends how many places and areas you want to see and how thoroughly. You will not see much merely by driving around. You need to stop and explore. Buy a good guidebook. See what interests you and make an itinerary. You will find main roads (freeways) in England are very congested and progress can be slow. For 16 days I would stick to England Wales and Scotland
(Other answer. Flying around a small country like the U.K. is ridiculous. You will see nothing and waste time on journeys between city centres and airports as well as long check i times. If you only want to visit major cities, go by train. Our system is dense and frequent and you will see a lot of the country as you travel. Buy a Britrail Pass before arrival. www,britrail.com
www.nationalrail.co.uk (Schedule information)
@ Bob, England/Scotland or England/Ireland are about the same in terms of travel/effort. The only real travel difference is you can take the train from England to Scotland while it's more practical to fly if going from England to Ireland. Ireland uses the Euro while all of the UK uses the Pound, so going to Ireland does involve a different currency. Ireland is not exactly the same culture as the UK and I do recommend visiting if you can.
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You only need a car if you plan to stay away from the cities and explore the countryside. If you want to visit places like Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh/Glasgow, and London then not only do you NOT need a car but having one would be a giant inconvenience/pointless expense. Especially reconsider getting a car if you are not familiar with driving on the left. If you insist on getting a car then wait at least a day to collect it so you aren't driving away from the airport already destroyed by the overnight trans-Atlantic flight. Also make absolutely certain the rental car is FULLY insured against everything, with no deductible.
You can realistically visit three cities in 16 days. A max of four if you cut your visit to one of them to only a night or two.
I recommend flying to wherever you want to go first in the UK, travel around, and fly home from Dublin. There is a US preclearance facility at Dublin airport and it makes returning to the USA much more convenient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...
If you visit Dublin you can buy a combination airport bus + hop-on/hop-off bus ticket. Also take a day-trip to Belfast (I highly recommend doing that).
http://www.dublinsightseeing.ie/
Check with your health insurance to find out if it covers you outside the USA and pays for medical evacuation to home (should that be necessary). If yes then take proof of coverage with you. If no or not sure then get trip medical insurance, which is cheap and sold by airlines & travel agents. PLEASE do not skimp on this as an otherwise-silly accident could turn into a crisis if you don't have medical insurance.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw...
The roads are more congested than in USA, especially in the South of England. Trunk routes and town centres ae very busy. The M25 circles London. It has multiple lanes but if an accident occurs, it can be a nightmare.
However, don't worry. Lots of Americans drive in UK without problems. Just factor in longer journey times.
If you are in Southern England, have a look at Witshire. It's not known as a tourist destination (apart from Stonehenge) but has lots of beautiful scenery and villages that look as if they are trapped in a time warp.
in the North, make sure you see The lake District (NW England) and the Yorkshire Dales.
Plan properly and if you are flying then you are not driving, so if you are over 23 maybe 25 you can hire a car locally, returning it locally or it will cost you a fortune and if you are going to NI then it is UK, not Ireland ..driving in NI will take you twice as long as mainland Britain regardless of what online maps say simply as the roads are not all A roads/motorways and even most A roads are more like mainland B roads. If you hire in NI and want to travel into Ireland then as it is another country you need additional insurance and many car hire will not allow you to.
Britain is an island so nothing like USA or Canada ....... it is possible to cover the UK in 2 plus weeks but you need to plan your travel well to do so
Check out 'Megabus' they usually do ￡1 promotions from one place to another in the UK - I went across the whole country for ￡1 and ￡7 for my friend (because the promotion was going) it would have cost us like ￡100-200 on the train. Not many non-UK people know about it!
You could also use 'BlaBla? which is a car pooling service - just make sure you use somebody with good reviews :)
We have a lot more traffic than most parts of the US so allow extra time to clear major cities and our motorways can get clogged up with traffic leaving you sitting a queue for hours due to accidents. How much you see will depend on where you want to go and how long it takes to get from one place to another. It is not worth hiring a car in London
Lots of parts of UK & Ireland crowded and petrol (gas) dear.....Ireland generally less so and in UK still some very isolated areas...BRITISH ISLES not PC these days (and HATED term in ROI), in view of fact Republic of Ireland is NOT BRITISH & has NOT been so for 90+ yrs.....W T Door telling us the culture is DIFFERENT? WOW....I never knew..The things you earn...There is us thinking was the same..!!! WHY, after so long, Ireland has to be LUMPED with the BIG neighbour next door? Is CANADA in the US???!!!!ALSO you do KNOW is an IRELAND section on here??? Clue in fact DIFFERENT nation state....Northern Ireland IS in UK.
