Looking for travel tips - Scotland (with a little bit of London thrown in)

[dreamshark]

I have now booked airfare for a mother-daughter trip to Scotland in July. So it's official - we're going! Now I have the basic dates I'm trying to fill in the rest of the details. I'm looking for tips on:

* Car rental overseas (specifically UK). I'm particularly baffled by the constantly changing information regarding insurance, collision damage waivers, and credit cards. I have several credit cards to choose from: which should I use? Do I need to pay the exorbitant rental car insurance? Should I rent from someplace familiar like Hertz, or can someone recommend a reliable European car rental agency? How hard is it to drive a stick shift with the gearshift on the wrong side?

* Someplace affordable to stay in London for 2 days. We won't have much time there, so we'll need someplace centrally located. But I don't want to pay $200/night. It doesn't have to be fancy, just relatively safe. Has anyone ever used Priceline to find hotels? Does it work?

* Trains. We'll be taking the train from London to Scotland and back again. I see that Britain no longer has a national rail system, and there are a bewildering number of choices. Yikes! Where do you start?

* If you only had two days in London and wanted to be leisurely about it, what would you see? I'm leaning towards the Tower, the Eye, and the British Museum.

* How about Edinburgh?

* Have you been to Scotland? If so, what was the best part?

Comments

[fuzzygabby.livejournal.com]

When I go to London, I usually stay at the Arran House Hotel. It's a few blocks from the British Museum. Last October, I only had 3 weeks notice and Arran House was full up so I stayed at the unfortunately named Beaver Hotel, which was fine, but not as conveniently located, though it's near the Underground.

I would definitely recommend the Tower and the British Museum. I've actually never done the Eye. Really must one of these days. (Assuming I can afford to get back to Europe sometime. Thank you, Scott Walker!)

I spent 2 nights in Edinburgh once, but my main memories are of meeting and getting to know a cousin. He took me on a drive by the Firth of Forth which was pretty. Oh, and an online friend took me to the Christmas market which was fun, but unlikely in July. On an earlier trip, a friend and I drove up to Loch Ness and then the Orkneys both of which I would highly recommend. Be aware though that the roads in northern Scotland are extremely narrow. Basically they're one car-width, but traffic goes both ways. It took us just about 2 full days to drive from Orkney to Cambridge. I think we rented our car through Hertz and they were fine. We picked up the car in Glasgow (after Worldcon 2005) and turned it in in Cambridge.

That's all I can think of that's relevant for now...