Pls help, I'm overwhelmed but have no plans yet

Pls help! Coming soon (April 24th) for 2 week vacation landing in Manchester International Airport.  Need to know where to stay 1st night and how do we get there.  Would like to get auto rental in smaller town, as airport area is very expensive.  Main purpose is to visit Yorkshire to scatter my mom's ashes (she grew up and married in Otley).  I've also been told the Cotswolds are beautiful little villages with thatched roofs.  We would like to see beautiful villages and not London.  Would love to stay at less expensive and quaint B&B, coach inns & pubs, or working farms.  Time is getting close and I don't know what we will do when we land in Manchester.  I heard the bus system and rail system is superior.  Any ideas would be very greatly appreciated!  As a side note, my husband would love to just see Edinburg Castle one day and then back to England?

Hi Heather

Regarding visiting Yorkshire, POE is an excellent place to search, also this web site is very helpful.

http://www.yorkshire.com/

As for Manchester Airport, I've been there twice this week, it's a nightmare. It is virtually built onto the M56 motorway, I would suggest you hire a car there and just get away. It won't take you long to get to the countryside. The airport and car hire companies have a good selection of maps. If you don't want a manual gear shift car you will have to specify automatic or you will as a matter of course be given a manual.

The Yorkshire Dales are lovely, so is the Lake District. The distance between the Cotswolds and Edinburgh may make it a bit rushed if you only have two weeks. 

Otley is a small market town and very nice.

Good luck and enjoy your trip. 

How lovely to be planning a Spring time trip to England, I do hope the weather greatly improves for your visit!

Have you thought of the possibility of perhaps going by rail from Yorkshire to Edinburgh - I don't think it would take too long and I am sure there must be timetables if you google for information.

Anywhere in England would be lovely at this time of year so have a look at some of the places on POE (Just put the name of a place in the search box top left column, it will also include suggestions of places to stay and things to do).

It might be possible to include a coach tour which would take you from place to place and include accommodation so you wouldn't have to worry too much about it.

I guess if you could book into accommodation for the night of your arrival near Manchester, they might collect you from the airport?  I guess some of the residents might be able to confirm if this is an option!! 

Hi Heather:  Wow, you are cutting it close, aren't you?  Not being from England, my advice may or may not be very good, but since you're flying into a big city, it might be best to find your B&B or holiday cottage somewhere outside Manchester, book it online, and then take public transportation to that town.  Then maybe book your rental car there.  Have you ever driven in England before?  I'm guessing that since Manchester is one of the biggest cities, driving for the first time in England might be a nighmare there, almost as bad as London.  If you've not driven there, it's probably best to start out on a quieter road than a motorway or near a huge metropolitan area.

When we were over there, we flew into Leeds Bradford airport and then took an airport shuttle to York railway station.  We were able to pick up a car there the next day and once we drove outside the city, there were plenty of beautiful, uncrowded country roads to practice on.

Take Ron's advice and try to get a booking thru this site.  The column on the left of the home page has a B&B link by county.  It would probably help to pick up a map to get the names of some of the smaller towns around where you're planning to stay.  I looked up Otley and it's in W. Yorkshire.  James, can you tell Heather about how far that is from Manchester?

It will be a truly lovely vacation if you plan on driving thru North Yorkshire.  The scenery is jaw droppingly gorgeous.  And there is a lot of history in the area if that's your cup of tea.

Good luck with your plans and have a great trip!

Hello Heather:

One possibility would be to catch a train from the station right at Manchester Airport and take the train to Keighley, Yorkshire (about a 2 hour trip at about £10 per person). Keighley is relatively small when compared to Manchester, Bradford or Leeds, and also has an Enterprise Car Rental office about a 1/2 mile walk from the train station, so it would be easy to pick up the rental car and drive to Otley 12 miles away mainly in the country so that you could get used to the roads. You would have to specify that you want an automatic transmission beforehand, which costs more, unless of course you can drive a manual transmission. I have listed a couple of sites below that might help:

National Rail--type in Manchester Airport (from) and Keighley (to), along with the dates and times:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/default.aspx

Here is the Enterprise Rent-A-Car site for Keighley:

http://www.enterprise.co.uk/car_rental/deeplinkmap.do?gpbr=U820&bid=004&cnty=GB

You will have to change trains in Leeds, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Alternatively, you could also rent a car in Leeds as there are many choices, but that would entail having to drive in the city and Leeds is not the easiest place to drive, even for the locals!

There are many hotels, inns and B&B's listed in nearby towns on the POE site.

Just a thought

There seems to be plenty to do in and around Skipton itself, the dales of course, skipton castle, museum and boat trips on the Leeds/Liverpool Canal!  With only two days available it might be better to see everything you can in one place.

If you do decide to got to York - with it's incredible wealth of history, I would suggest going by train again, otherwise finding parking and driving in the city could be very unnerving!  I am used to driving on the left but was totally bewildered by York and trying to find parking there! 

Sounds like you've been busy, Heather--nice work!

Driving a manual in the UK is not difficult and within an hour you should be quite proficient. Remember that the clutch-brake-accelerator positions are the same as in the US and that the shift "H" pattern is also the same, with first gear in the upper left hand corner, second gear straight down to the lower left hand corner, etc. Piece of cake! Just remember that you might have the tendency to crowd the left hand side of the road, so don't be afraid to move closer to the center of the road so that you don't clip something as you drive along.

Also, you might want to have a look at The Highway Code, especially the PDF links to signs and their meanings: https://www.gov.uk/highway-code/contents in order to help you navigate.