July or August for Britain?
We have a choice of going to England and Scotland the last two weeks of July or last two weeks or August. Will there be fewer tourist in July? Any comments? Also, is it better to avoid Edinburgh in August unless we want to see the festival or Military Tattoo?
Claudia
Portland, Oregon 11/9/09
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We love going to England and Scotland in late July. We did it for more than 20 years! The weather is usually great and we did not find the crowds to be overwhemling.
The big difference in July and August is that the last week of July and all of August are British school holidays. So during that period family-aimed attractions will be busier in weekdays with local visitors, and accomodation may probably be significantly more expensive.
August is one of the wettest months on average in England. As said above, the UK school holidays are only 6 weeks centred on August with a week either side. This means hotel rates in business hotels and city centres like London are often cheaper in August than July but leisure hotels and in places like Bath attractive to the Bristish will be more expensive. In mid July a lot of the places you visit may have large school parties on end of term visits.
I appreciate the feedback I received from everyone. We now have enough information to make a decision.