re: UK trip

I plan on hitting up most of Europe for sure. Whether that’s 10ish day trips to single countries or longer month long type trips to multiple countries when the kids are older.

For now with youngsters I think 10ish is the longest we’d want to do.

I did a 24 day trip to the UK a couple of years ago. I would've loved having more time. Do Ireland as it's own trip. I think you need a minimum of 2 weeks for England, Scotland and Wales.

Personnally, I get bored with Edinburgh after about 3 days. Driving Scotland will be a blast. I would think you would need 15-20 days to do all of Scotland so you will likely have to choose some places to skip. I would recommend St. Andrews, Inverness, and Isle of Skye as must visits. Glasgow is good for a day or two. Don't go to Aberdeen.

Is it ridiculous to just plan on doing 10-14 day trips and do one country per trip?

England for 2 weeks then a year or 2 later do Germany, then Italy, then France, etc.

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I was leaning UK since I figured it be an easy way to knock out 3 countries in one trip, but the more I lean towards a 10ish day single country tip I guess I could go to any European country.

This will be my first Europe vacation, have done Mexico multiple times and Thailand as my other non US vacations.

For a first time European vacation for a 1 country trip of 9-12 days would England be a good first trip? Also interested in Germany if just doing a single country curious which the more traveled would pick as a first?

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I think you pick based on the culture/environment you're most excited about. You can do 3+ countries in Europe in the same time with ease. I'm not saying you should, but it's absolutely doable.

The UK is a good starter trip because language isn't much of an issue and for some it feels more familiar. That said, I want things to feel less familiar, so I'd probably opt for the continent. But you can get a little more "different" by getting out of London, which you'll do regardless.

My first trip to the UK was London/Liverpool/Netherlands. It worked well for us (we had reason to go to Liverpool and friends in London), but it was nice to break up the UK portion with a few days in the Netherlands because it got our feet wet for more adventures in Europe later on. I usually suggest three ideas to people who want to go to the UK/Europe:

1) UK+Scotland or UK+Ireland or UK+Netherlands. This usually ends up being London+daytrip or one other UK city+Dublin/Edinburgh/Amsterdam. You don't have to combine, but a lot of people won't be back for multiple years so seeing a little more now is reasonable, IMO.

2) Paris + some other region in France (Alsace, Normandy, a wine region, etc.).

3) Some combination of German, Austrian, Czech and Hungarian cities (not all). It's a region with fairly good travel between the major cities and provides immediate, easy exposure to fairly differing cultures.

I would focus on England and Scotland for a 2 week trip

London for a few days... Venture north to Lancashire... English Lake District....

Then travel up the west coast to Scotland . Glasgow... Then the highlands .. Edinburgh...

Drop back down south to York/Yorkshire...

And round it out to the Cotswolds... And back to London...

What I'm trying to suggest is a round trip of England and Scotland...

Hope it works out

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I would focus on England and Scotland for a 2 week trip

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Yeah in general I'm leaning 1 country per trip but England/Scotland may be the exception where one trip I could do both.