I believe I've worked out how to tour the UK.

Hear me out...

I'm from London, I have never left England without leaving the UK, yet, and I've already booked and paid for 2 nights in Belfast next year.
Now, I'm aware I'd need a few lateral flow tests and I'm in-between my vaccinations if that matters any and it's not until 2022 anyway.

My plan is;

British Airways LHR - EDI return flight taking the first 6 am return flight landing at 7:30 am back to London Heathrow so I can catch the first National Express for £17.60 from that terminal at Heathrow non-stop for 3 hours and be in Cardiff for check-in Cardiff.
This is because I couldn't find a direct flight for that day because I didn't want to pay £200.00 to change trains in Crewe or spend £35.00 on a Coach via London Victoria from Edinburgh to Cardiff for 14 hours because I'd be so close to home I was thinking of adding an extra day in my UK tour trip at mine while I over night'd it here; then I realised if I used Heathrow, that has the bus to Cardiff for £17.60 for 3 hours and...
British Airways still owe me and I've still got my voucher with an expiry date I'm looking not to waste it, so, I'm flying BA from LHR rtn to use my voucher and catch that Cardiff bus because I couldn't find a flight to Cardiff from Edinburgh that day...
Day 1 I will arrive for check-in on a Sunday at 3 pm, I plan to eat and shop as much as I can and do a city tour hop on hop off bus.
Day 2 I want to do this day-long Loch Ness etc tour from 7 am - 8 pm and enjoy Edinburgh for a little bit that evening before heading back to my hotel at 9:30 pm to be back around 10 pm for an early night, wake up at 2 am, get packed and ready, check out at 3:40 am to get the airport bus at 4 am to be at the airport 1 hour and a half before the first flight to London, so, early night/early flight.
Get the first coach at 9:40 am from Heathrow Airport to Cardiff, arrive at 13:30, walk to the hotel, check-in, IDK, sleep, whatever.
I'd be looking for a laundrette to wash my clothes I wore in Scotland/for Northern Ireland, take my Covid Lateral Flow test in Cardiff for Northern Ireland, should be fine, check out at like 07:20 am and get the 07:40 am train to the airport to arrive at 8:15 am for a flight that takes off with Eastern Airways CWL - BHD at 10:45 and then shop and sightsee,
Day 1 like the Titanic Museum, or a guitar shop, tourist shops, celebrate Thin Lizzy,
Day 2 I want to do this day-long tour to the Giant's Causeway that's like 9 hours putting me back in Belfast at 6 pm where I'd have 1 more night before checking out and going back to Belfast City Airport for I guess the first easyJet BHD - LGW where I can land, buy a ticket to Thornton Heath or East Croydon and catch the bus, etc.

It's a mad schedule I guess for doing so much, but rather than add days, I want to instead just always be thinking of getting to where I've got to be all week and seeing stuff and buying stuff along the way.

That's all I'm going to be doing really.

Like I gotta be at this place at this time to catch the bus that leaves here at this time or I've got to be on the way to this airport at this time for a flight that takes off at this time, and from that, working out what, if any, to do with my own time in that and being in a new city as I'm trying to figure that out - like in Edinburgh, I've got 2 hours in the evening on day 2 to kill after I've done everything I could think of, and so could Edinburgh from 20:00 to 21:30, just, I'm thinking, bar, whiskey, night walk.
Cardiff, I've got pretty much 2 days not to care there, so...
Laundry, chores, flea market appeals to me there, welcome to Croydon Cardiff - although I could buy a bunch of touristy Welsh stuff there and eat Welsh Cakes, and plan to.
Then Northern Ireland I should be ready for from taking it easy in Cardiff where I'd be doing everything I want to do in Northern Ireland for 2 days with Belfast at my feet.

7 days...

Day 1 Sunday
Fly up to Edinburgh, £7.50 Lothian Bus for airport or £20.00 Lothian weekly pass for all busses including the airport bus (maybe)/sightsee/shop/eat everything I want to try in Scotland
Night 1

Day 2 Monday
Day trip to Loch Ness and other things on that tour, be back in Edinburgh at 8 pm, see the city at night for a nightcap, early night.
Night 2, wake up, get ready check out at 3:40 am, get to the airport.

Day 3 Tuesday
I could wake up in the air for all I care as long as I'm on that aeroplane that morning taking me to that bus so, I'd pay for 2 nights in Scotland but check out in the middle of the night to be in the air for that bus to Cardiff back at Heathrow for £17.60 - Arrive in Cardiff, check-in, sleep/chores like laundrette and maybe Post Office to post Scotland and Wales gifts home to save any Brexit red tape and to travel lighter/lighten my load.
Night 3

Day 4 Wednesday
Shop, fleamarket, if I buy something good there, send it back home too, take my Covid test for Northern Ireland.
Night 4

Day 5 Thursday
Check out at 7:20 am, get the 7:40 am train to the airport for £5.00, fly to Belfast, land just after noon at Belfast City Airport, go to my hotel with UlsterBus, £5.00 each way, sightsee, shopping, city tours.
Night 5

Day 6 Friday
Giant's Causeway/Scary looking Rope Bridge 9 hour tour be back in Belfast at 6 pm, enjoy my evening in Belfast.
Night 6

Day 7 Saturday
Check out, take my covid test for Northern Ireland day 2 and also for England, go back to the same airport, go home, land in London, go home, unpack, maybe go to Denmark Street or Oxford Street/reflect on my trip in my own habitat; go back to Thornton Heath, go back out for a night in London's West End maybe or something, get home sleep having seen the UK and had a homecoming
Night 7

Wake up Sunday a week later in my own bed after my homecoming and trip.

Now it's like £300.00 for all the airline tickets because with 1 week to pack for, I figure I'm going to want to check-in my bag and have a carry on too, so around £300 with 3 airlines, 1 rtn flight and 2 oneway flights, not counting for my voucher which that will knock 67 Euros/£57.00 off.
So this is knowing British Airways, Eastern Airways, easyJet will check-in my bags, for £294.00 (before 67 Euro voucher) (£235.00).

[ Edit: Edited on 27 Jun 2021, 05:38 GMT by Trebor Illusion ]

There's not much whiskey to be found in Edinburgh.

It impresses me, in a way, that you're such a worrier you're concerned about posting your souvenirs home from within the UK because of Brexit, but you're happy with the real risks of
a) an element in all these tight flight schedules going wrong
b) one of those lateral flow tests being positive.

Quoting AndyF

There's not much whiskey to be found in Edinburgh.

It impresses me, in a way, that you're such a worrier you're concerned about posting your souvenirs home from within the UK because of Brexit, but you're happy with the real risks of
a) an element in all these tight flight schedules going wrong
b) one of those lateral flow tests being positive.

I could do life in the fast lane if it means waking up early in the middle of the night in Scotland and sleeping in Wales.

Cardiff looks too much like Croydon to me with nothing I wanted to do, but eat Welsh Cake and buy Welsh touristy stuff and say I've been to Wales, so, I'm just going to eat, sleep, do chores and shop there, it's only Scotland or Northern Ireland I'm excited about, and the prospect of taking things easy in Cardiff.

That aeroplane from Cardiff to Belfast is the smallest 4 seater jet I saw, but it takes checked-in bags.

I could do a political taxi tour in Northern Ireland if I wanted to for £60.00 but, IDK, I'm not sure if I want to go down that route; Thin Lizzy/Titanic/DeLeron random fandom and shops should be enough for me, like this one guitar shop I've earmarked.

The day tours to Loch Ness and Giant's Causeway are more or less self-explanatory and I know where I have to get them and at what time.

[ Edit: Edited on 27 Jun 2021, 07:04 GMT by Trebor Illusion ]

When I first concocted this idea and saw no Edinburgh - Cardiff flights and was going to oneway fly it everywhere using a budget airline to get me up to Scotland for me on my 7-day tour, but no Edinburgh - Cardiff flight everyday and not for the day I wanted it saw me stumped as I was trying to beat 6 hours on the train between Edinburgh and Cardiff change at Crewe for £200.00
I got it down to £35.00 for Edinburgh - Cardiff on the bus with National Express, but it was 14 hours, and it was ==via London Victoria==, which is local to me and I was planning on just going home and spending the night at mine; then I worked out if I flew to Edinburgh from Heathrow and not on a budget airline (so just changing the airline and the airport) and get the bus from there, I get to use my BA Voucher, and I get to not see my local so I'd have no temptation to pop home during my tour, and I got the price down to £17.60 getting to Cardiff.

I would have loved to have used my house in this tour and have a night here, but...
not for 14 hours on a coach up and down England and Scotland and Wales, f' no, so waking up in the middle of the night and checking out really early and flying back on a return ticket on the first flight back down for the first bus out leaving back at Heathrow leaving me ample time to board that bus from that terminal (plane lands at 07:25, coach leaves at 09:40), is fine, as long as I'm able to be in Cardiff that day for check-in, which, getting this first coach does.

It's just somewhat amusing to me as I live in London and my life in is that city I'd be on the outskirts of, but it's just because it's the best way I found to get to Cardiff on time, albeit, having an early night in Edinburgh.

[ Edit: Edited on 27 Jun 2021, 07:00 GMT by Trebor Illusion ]

Is the point here to visit the national capitals as a ticking exercise and not see anything of the countries?

Quoting AndyF

Is the point here to visit the national capitals as a ticking exercise and not see anything of the countries?

Well, being in London and booking Belfast made deciding 'where' in Scotland and Wales a no-brainer Just tour the UK Capitals.
(Loch Ness tour in Scotland/Giant's Causeway tour in Northern Ireland) is seeing these countries too.

It's like a platter of seeing the UK.

[ Edit: Edited on 27 Jun 2021, 13:17 GMT by Trebor Illusion ]

I could always go back to these countries and do other trips, but this trip to tour the UK will be fun enough, for 7 days.

[ Edit: Edited on 27 Jun 2021, 13:14 GMT by Trebor Illusion ]

I've already paid for everything I can buy that's for sale right now for my Whitby trip, and I decided for that, 5 nights is more than enough for Whitby, so much so, I've given myself time to relax and time to see Robin Hood's Bay from Whitby, in North Yorkshire, but with that trip already paid for, I got bored and gave myself this other project to see the UK in 2022.

FYI, I can't wait for Whitby but that trip's still not yet and I can't buy anything for that until my train tickets go on sale in September.

[ Edit: Edited on 27 Jun 2021, 13:12 GMT by Trebor Illusion ]