Luxury UK Vacation Review: Scotland, Britain, London, Edinburgh, Cotswalds, Dowton Abbey

The original itinerary was very well planned with all the desired elements. The execution was less than expected .About 70 % of the trip was fine with excellent hotels in St. Ermins and Swan Inn and top notch driver/guides in both Britain and Scotland. The enjoyment was tempered with several nagging events that happened day after day including:

No advance warning of the massive London biking event that caused difficulties in getting into attractions ,theatre tickets and dinner reservations - if known we would have made more advance plans. This event also caused no cabs to come to the hotel so we had to grapple with 4 bags thru multiple tube connections to get to the Scotland train.

Arrival package had no London map, theatre schedule or suggested restaurants as well as missing vouchers.

Confusion on several days as to who had paid for admissions, advance booking at HighClaire and high tea. All due to lack of documentation of vouchers.

Scotland Apex hotel was a business like hotel that was not on a par with St. Ermins or the charm of the Swan Inn.

Scotland train tickets departure schedule were incorrect and we just made the train. Tickets were not made for reserved seats as expected.

Lack of warning of the impact of Fringe Festival in Edinburgh also affected us with reservations and no event or dinner info was provided.

A final note was that a complimentary wine to soothe our concerns was delivered with an inexpensive Chile red which then was attempted to be added to our hotel bill.

All these issues while not catastrophic  were not what we thought we paid for. We just had to spend time wondering what the next day in the trip would bring in terms of a concern.