By plane, train or automobile?

I have a conundrum. Well it's not really a conundrum but more of a dilemma. And when I mean a dilemma, it's a First World Problem.

I have planned to do a small tour of the southern United Kingdom some time in the middle of 2015. Being the obsessive compulsive person, I have already mapped out my trip in advance. After landing at Heathrow, I embark to Newbury to see a friend, followed by stops at Stonehenge, Bath, Cardiff, Abergavenny (to take in the majesty that is the Brecon Beacons), Oxford before finally seeing another friend in Cambridge.  That will be six towns (UK doesn't really have cities) in eight days.

The quandary here is my method of transport. I didn't have this problem when travelling in USA earlier this year. With the American public transport system being so poor and automobile travel being so popular in the United States, choosing a road trip was an absolute no-brainer. In UK the railway system is considerably better to make travelling by train a viable option, although a bit expensive. Also adding to the equation is that renting a manual transmission car is cheaper than automatic in UK, and I haven't driven manual since I passed my driving test over ten years ago.

So the logical part of me, researched the problem and come up with the pros and cons of travelling by car or by train

Pros of travelling by car / cons of travelling by train
1. The journey time will be quicker - 10 hours 30 minutes compared to 12 hours 31 minutes by train. And the car journey time is including a trip to the Stonehenge, which is not feasible if I go throughout my whole journey by train. If I was going to include Stonehenge in my train journey, I would need to travel to Salisbury and get a bus from there to go to Stonehenge, and that is not something I want to do.
2. I have more freedom of where I can go and I am not limited by public transport. That would definitely help for certain places where public transport is not great, such as Abergavenny and going to St Fagans Castle in Cardiff.
3. I am not limited to train timetables. I can leave and arrive by car whenever I want.
4. I can select hotels or bed & breakfasts in the outskirts of town If I was travelling by train, I would have to select accommodation near the train stations or near the city centre.

Cons of travelling by car / pros of travelling by train
1. Cost: the cheapest price for an automatic car for the dates I have selected is £190.83. That figure doesn't include additional costs like petrol and parking. If I was going by train, it would be £159.80.
2. I would need to get a satnav for the car. If I get the system through the car rental company, it's going to cost £100. So the car rental companies can F.R.O. A better option is to get a prepaid SIM card for my smartphone and use Google Maps or Waze to navigate. At least that is a cheaper option of about £10 and I was going to buy a SIM card anyway.
3. I need to find hotels or bed & breakfasts with car parks. If the parking is free, that would be even better.
4. With a train journey, I don't have to drive. I can sit down and enjoy the view. I can take a lunch on to the carriage. I can catch up on my sleep on a train. When I drove in USA, I got sick of driving at the final days of my trip. I didn't note how many kilometres I drove when I returned the car in San Francisco but I've gone back and calculated I drove a minimum of 2400 km in eight days. For the same time period, I will be driving about 800 km. Not so bad this time but I still would like to keep my driving experience to a minimum.

My problem is basically convenience over cost. If I was stretching this journey out over a longer period, I would consider going by train. With the tight schedule I'm having, I think I might opt to travel by car.

Vacations I want to go on.

For the past two vacations I have had, going back to work was so bad I suffered a relapse of my depression. Thankfully I'm much better but still having residual symptoms at the moment.

I probably shouldn't go on such fantastic holidays such as a three week road trip in the Western United States or going to see the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, with concerts by Robbie Williams, John Legend and Jennifer Lopez. Despite all this, my mind wanders to what trips I want to go in the future. Currently I'm planning going to back to the UK between March and May to see my younger brother and his family, with a quick detour to Wales.

Yet there is always another part of me think about other ideas about where I can go on holiday...

1. Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Having turned my back on movies and started enjoying British comedy more, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has more appeal for me. I want to see shows my comedians I watch on TV or listen on the radio. I want to see the next big thing in comedy and the best place is the biggest arts festival in the world. It would also give me a chance of visiting Scotland.

2. Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is another arts festival I want to go to because it's a hotbed of comedy talent. I was planning to go in March 2015 to coincide with the ICC Cricket World Cup final. I had already researched the attractions I wanted to go to, including the National Sports Museum, the Melbourne Aquarium, the Melbourne Zoo and the Royal Botanic Garden. However having spent a gazillion dollars on my last two dalliances, I've postponed going to Melbourne to a later date.

3. Scandinavia trip
I was planning this trip recently, mainly because I have never been to Scandinavia and I wanted to see most of it in one go. The simple trip would be Oslo - Stockholm - Copenhagen but I have an extended version here. I wanted this to be a road trip but having looked at the exorbitant prices of car rentals, it would be most likely done by train instead.

4. Eastern Europe
Due to troubles in the Balkans and the recent infighting in Ukraine, the only places which have any appeal to me in Easter Europe are Budapest, Krakow and Prague. Budapest and Prague have reputations of being beautiful cities and Krakow is most famous for the Nazi concentration camp. I remember going to the Dachau concentration camp in 2003 and it was horrifying and eye-opening at the same time.

5. Eastern USA road trip
Returning to the theme of the road trip, I had ideas of this way back in 2005. The main cities would be Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. but anything could have been tagged to that.

6. Caribbean cruise
Another idea I had ages ago. Even though I can't swim, I would love to lounge around and go to exotic locations. I even did the research and found that it would be very expensive to go alone. It would be best if I could go with my significant other on this one.

7. The Pan American Highway
Probably the ultimate road trip for me. I don't want to transverse the whole of the American continent; only the Central American portion between Mexico and Panama. Again I need the time, money and logistics for this. The main worry for me is the car - do I rent one and return it at the end, if it is possible, or buy a car at the beginning and sell it at the end.

You can get the general theme of my fantasy vacations: either comedy festivals or trips cramming as many places in one time.