louistraveler5

My dad, DH and I will be going to England for the first time next September. We need some advice and suggestions on the best route to see what we want. We will be there for a total of 10 days excluding travel days.

In the beginning stages, this is what we are trying to incorporate:
London (When we leave London, we will get a rental car.)
Bath
Stonehenge
?
Hadrian's Wall
end the trip in Edinburgh

The question mark after Stonehenge is for Fodorite's suggestions. We would like to fit another English countryside city/town. My dad loves British history, time frame post Roman, think King Arthur, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood. Would York be a good fit?

If we can't fit it in, we do not have to end the trip in Edinburgh. I was only thinking one day for Edinburgh and then flying home the next day. If this is too much we can fly home from London.

Thanks in advance!

PalenQ

How about the Lake district and Windermere or Keswick as the English country town/city - the Lake District has so so much to offer - from Beatrix Potter's bucolic cottage to ancient cities like Keswick pencil the Pencil Museum here into your itinerary) to Rydall Mount, Worsdworth's House and of course lovely mountains and lakes.

You could easily day trip to Hadrian's Wall from the Lake District - or stay in a smallish English city like Hexham, near the epicenter of Hadrian's Wall primo sights and a neat old town that you seem to be asking for.

jamikins

You really have two 10 day trips here:

London/Bath/Stonehenge and maybe another town

Hadrian's Wall/northern England and Edinburgh

London is worth spending 1/2 your time then you could rent a car and do a loop stopping in Salisbury, seeing Stonehenge, maybe Cotswolds, Bath then looping back to Heathrow.

Or Fly into say Manchester and see northern England and end with 2-3 days in Edinburgh.

Or you could see London and Edinburgh, with a stop in York inbetween. Fly into London and out of Edinburgh, or vice versa, and take the train via York.

But I dont think in 10 days you can achieve all of your locations and actually get time to see anything in any of them.

I hope this gives you some ideas.

PalenQ

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-edinburgh.cfm

an excellent current thread of a trip report uncannily similar to your outline!

louistraveler5

I like the suggestion of two 10 day trips but we are trying to do this in one. If in one, we could do London 3 or no more than 4 days; Bath 1 1/2 or 2; Stonehenge 1/2 day on the way to York or Hexham/Hadrian's Wall; last day Edinburgh then fly home. What would you do in Edinburgh for one day?

PalenQ: Can you tell me more about Hexham?

louistraveler5

PalenQ: Thanks for the link...that is too funny!

jamikins

Are you accounting for driving time?

For example - Bath to Stonehenge is 1 hour, but carrying on to York is an additional 4.5+ hours of driving time which pretty much takes up the rest of the day.

York - Edinburgh is probably 4-5 hours again.

This is assuming you are driving on the unscenic motorways and dont encounter any traffic problems. It took us 8 hours to get from London to the Lake District due to traffic one day. If you want to take the scenic route the time will increase by a huge amount.

So if you plan to spend time actaully seeing these places make sure you take into consideration how long you are going to spend driving and how long you are giving yourself in each place to actually see it. The motorways are not lovely scenic routes through villages etc. They are large grey motorways...

jamikins

Just looked at the trip report PalenQ refered you to - note they did that route in 24 days, so they had 2.4 times more time than you do...something to consider...

PalenQ

well I mentioned it only so they could perhaps glean a few places from it to fit their shorter time span.

louistraveler5

I did check google maps to determine time between each destination but I need to factor that in more.

One more point to make about this trip is that my dad is using airline miles. He has enough miles to have a free flight. DH & I are travelers and this is my dad's chance to go to his number one destination because my mom will only fly on short flights such as two hours. Mom will never fly to Europe/UK. This is our big trip together so we are trying to see all we want but it sounds like we will have to eliminate something and rework our destinations.

jamikins

I think its a great post to look at PalenQ, just meant that they should note the time differences.

I understand it is a dream trip - I am just trying to help you make it something you remember and enjoy. If you slow down a bit you will get to know and see things in each place, you will be able to stop for a pint in a pub, spend a few hours at the historical sites, and enjoy each place as opposed to just driving from one place to another and checking things off on a list of things seen.

Surfergirl

This sounds like a once in a lifetime Bucket List sort of thing for your dad, so that's what you should focus on, since it sounds like you can always come back.

So my 2 questions are, how do you plan to get from Place A to Place B? Drive or take the train? And . . . can you stretch this out AT ALL?!? Even a couple of days -- 2 weeks -- would be fast paced, but my goodness, there's so many wonderful places to go and so much to see!

England is a relatively small country -- it fits quite nicely into California. Before the motorway speed cameras, one could get from London to York in 4 hours -- substantially less time than going, say, from Los Angeles to Monterey.

If you could get 2 weeks (or more), I would stick to your original plan and put York in the question mark spot.

sofarsogood

What about flying into Newcastle, stay in Hexham for 2/3 nights, visit Hadrian's Wall, Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle - (so many castles in that part of the world)

Then drive to York which would tick a lot of your boxes - stay 2/3 nights - lots more history and countryside in Yorkshire

Then take the train to London for the rest of your stay and do a day trip to either Stonehenge and / or Bath?

ElendilPickle

Another thought - swing southwest out of London and visit Stonehenge on your way to Bath.

From Bath, you could take the train to Edinburgh, but I don't know how you would fit Hadrian's Wall into that scenario. Anyone?

Lee Ann

PalenQ

Another thought - swing southwest out of London and visit Stonehenge on your way to Bath.>

Or the Avebury Stones just north of Stonehenge and of the same ancient era and which many, like myself, find more spectacular and romantic than Stonehenge and its noxious tour bus groups that take for me at least much of the romance or allure or whatever out of Stonehenge.

Snowflake25

Another suggestion is to do Bath, Stonehenge, Salsbury as a day trip from London using one of the day tour companies. You avoid the hassle of driving, parking and waiting in lines (for the most part) and many of them have hotel pickup and drop off. We did a similar tour a few years ago and were still back in London in time to enjoy an evening in the pub and an evening stroll. It might be a good way to spend a day when you are still suffering from a bit of jet lag as you can rest on the bus.

janisj

"<i>I did check google maps to determine time between each destination but I need to factor that in more. </i>"

No matter which mileage site you use (google, viamichelin, aaroutefinder, etc.) you need to add at least 30% and sometimes even double the drive time.

10 days 'on the ground' is really 9 days since day one is often pretty much eaten up w/ logistics and jetlag.

So you need to decide if you want London, drive to Bath/Stonehenge and maybe one other southern destination - possibly Oxford or Windsor -- OR -- London, train to York, train to Edinburgh. Either of these would be a slightly rushed but reasonable 10 day trip.

kendalcottages

The Lake District would fit in nicely to that itinerary. Keswick is a town not a city by the way and, whilst the Pencil Museum is a nice enough attraction, I wouldn't suggest it as a must-visit for any itinerary. If weather permits, the scenery of the area is much more inviting.

Morgana

Hexham is a nice small town - let me know what questions you have about it if it interests you, as I know it well.
Personally I wouldn't spend 2 or 3 days of your precious time there. Whilst it is handy for Hadrian's Wall it isn't handy for some of the sights mentioned in Northumberland. For instance Hexham to Bamburgh will take you an hour and three quarters at least.
You are trying to do far too much in too short a time, but I think you know that.