If you were travelling to Scotland from the South with a 2 year old...

[GordonTheGopher]

Would you drive all the way or fly then get hire car? Obviously second choice is more expensive but if money were no object...?

Have done both and actually it works out around the same travelling time door to door with airport check in and waiting for nags etc.... - driving is a bit longer but you can stop whenever and wherever you want.
If money was no object I would probably fly but it would depend largely on how long I was staying in Scotland and if I had to do all the driving alone.

IS there a 3rd choice? .
I do this regularly and my transport of choice is train then car at other end (borrow in laws', not hire car). Failing that, I would fly. If it's one 2 yp you'd probably be OK as they're easy to amuse, it's only since ds was born that I've grown to hate the journey by car!

He's not great in the car - we've got a DVD player but he doesn't sleep for ages anymore. Hadn't thought of train but I think that's too long a journey as well. We're thinking of getting a cottage for a week so we really need a car.

where are you going in Scotland?

We can do London to Glasgow in 8 hours, no less. And that's with minimal stopping - one break for breakfast then another one/two for the toilet. This is with dd who is 3.9 but we've been doing it once/twice a year since she was born.

We are totally reliant on the DVD player to make this work.

We also sometimes fly and the advantages of flying are that you've got lots of stages to the journey to break it up - before you get on the the plane, when you get off etc. If hiring a car you'll either have to hire one with a car seat or take it with you - along with all the other crap you'll need to transport.

Both are equal hassle, flying less exhausting. But if you've got a long drive at the other end e.g. Edinburgh to Inverness then it's going to be just as exhausting

Oh we've done the train too. Much easier now she's older. The worst part about the train is the toilets.

When we're driving we get up really early - 5ish - and get straight into the car. Give her some breakfast in the car and then she usually goes back for a nap.

We've never done it, but some people swear by driving at night when the los are asleep.

The train is fab!! DD can get up and move around, she can use the toilet whenever she needs to and most now have sockets where you can plug in laptops, DVD players etc. The food is nicer than airline stuff (and much cheaper too) I really do find it the least stressful way of travelling.
(And if you travel with Virgin they give under 5s a really brill goody bag )

we have done train too - great going up but be sure to check the route as we ended up coming back a totally different route and there were line works etc which took an extra 2 hours

We have done North Hampshire to Edinburgh in about 6.5 hours in a car. Train it took 6 hours there (just on the train from London though not from our house) and 8 back!

Gosh the train's expensive! I can get a plane for £40!

Try megatrain.com for really cheap train tickets. Same trains, tracks, times etc but a fraction of the price as long as they cover your route. The last journey we did was £140 from Birmingham through Virgin and £12 through megatrain.com- it was exactly the same journey!