I’m hoping to do England, Scotland, and Wales in spring of 2022. What’s the best time to go? Hoping for a sweet spot when things are open but crowds are low. Are most schools in session in May?
the middle of May is a good time, both weather wise and crowd wise. Just be careful about the start of May and end of May. Usally the first weekend in May and the first weekend in June are whats called Bank Holiday weekends, where the Monday is a public holiday. These weekends would be like Labour Day weekend in USA and are very big family holiday times when UK and Irish families holiday domestically.
Irish primary schools usually end at the start of June and Irish highschools / secondary schools usually end at the end of June.
UK schools usually end at the start of July.
HOWEVER
All that was before Covid. It is far too soon to start planning or predicting what 2022 will be like. The UK and Irish hospitality and tourist industry is basically shut down at the moment. I would not even research tourist attractions, places to visits, hotels, restaurants right now, as huge numbers will never reopen. Non essential business in both countries are struggling to survive and pay their bills for January 2021, so no one is even close to thinking about 2022.
The same with school and term times. Right now most schools for all ages are closed in both UK and Ireland and the majority of children in both countries have home schooling / online learning. The state exams in both countries have not been decided yet and the 2020 / 2021 academic year in both countries is just as disrupted as March to summer 2020 was. Again its way to soon to try to predict what the academic year 2021 / 2022 will be like. The Educuation Departments in both countries have not even decided about Spring Break 2021 yet.
Basically you need to get your head around that the old way of planning European vacations 18 to 20 months out is gone for good. By all means, put the money aside, but the new post Covid way of planning vacations is that even 6 months in advance is too far out. Forget about planning May 2022 for now and come back about September 2021 and ask us Europeans for an update.