Semi-doable - understanding it you'll spend as much time in transit as in Amsterdam.

But w/ your other day trips and only 5+ days/6 nights you have very little time IN London.

Can Bath and Stonehenge be done together in one day? Or Bath and Oxford? They're all west of London but not aligned. Of course, maybe these destinations deserve more time than to be split with another.

Can they be done together - sure. Several tour companies combine them. Good idea? Not IMO. The tours are expensive and one spends as much time on the bus as visiting things.

Now, Stonehenge + Bath would make a perfectly sensible coach tour. Stonehenge doesn't require much time. Unfortunately, every London-based coach tour I've seen combines Windsor/Stonehenge/Bath, or Stonehenge/Bath/Oxford, or Bath/Oxford/Stratford-upon-Avon, and not enough time anywhere

As long as it isn't April 30th it is doable, but daft. You don't have time to do much, or appreciate the city. With such a short time in London stay there,save your money, and enjoy that city.
Amsterdam will still be here for another trip, when you can give it more time.

Day trip to Amsterdam from London?
Posted by: scrb11 on Feb 23, 13 at 3:19pm Posted in: Europe
Probably would make for a hectic day but is it a completely crazy idea?
That is nuts.

If you could (a) get to London City airport within about half an hour (b) get a good fare from there, then it wouldn't be impossible - you could be in central Amsterdam in maybe 3 hours. But would it really be worth it?

For years I have been flying through Schiphol, and try to plan layovers between 4 to 24 hours. With even as little as 3.5 hours I've gone into town and walked around for an hour before getting back to the airport (being on the cautious side) for security and allowances for mishaps, which never happen. 4.5 hours is good for some strolling and a meal. Six hours or more allows for some serious exploration.

IMHO too much time in transit for the hours in Amsterdam.

And unless yuo have been to London before and seen many of hte main sights - you will really be running out of time to do muset see there.

Been to London, not Amsterdam.

Flight itself is listed as just over an hour each way but of course, there's time to and from the airports, going thru security, etc.

I know people have taken overnight trips to Paris through the Chunnel? But it sounds like its not common for Amsterdam? Heard that its 5.5 hours city center to city center, London to Amsterdam. Figured it was comparable transit times to Paris or Brussels.

How far to LGW, LCY or SEN? Further away than LHR?

All the day trip destinations around London seem reachable by rail? So I wasn't thinking of coach tours, unless the train stations are more than walking distance from places like Bath?

Bath and Stonehenge are to the west but not on the same train lines?

Stonehenge and Salisbury are a great day our using the railways...

Eurostar, London city centre to Paris city centre, is two hours, 15 mins, so much shorter than getting to Amsterdam.

I wouldn't bother with Amsterdam given the travel time.

The only reason I mentioned tours is you asked about Bath/Oxford, which isn't a doable day trip unless one does a coach tour (I wasn't recommending taking one)

Stonehenge isn't on a train - but Salisbury is. So you'd take the train to Salisbury and a local bus tour or taxi to the stones and back. Salisbury itself is worth a few hours so there'd be little time for Bath. A train from Salisbury to Bath takes just about 1 hour. So if you put on blinders in Salisbury, and avoided the gorgeous Cathedral you could manage Stonehenge and 5 or 6 hours in Bath.

Bath by itself is a terrific day trip from London. So is Oxford - which is even easier because it is a quick trip by either train or express coach. But Bath AND Oxford is not a one-day trip.

It's probably less than 3 hrs via London City: check in at LCY is 15 mins, and it's rarely much more than 30 mins from plane at Amsterdam to somewhere in the centre.

6 hrs travel time is what most of us consider unexceptional for a day trip to attend a meeting in a nearish city, or spend a day reviewing field operations: I imagine lots of us have spent longer in travel to attend a family funeral or First Communion, go to a trade show or address a conference.

Lots of us have happily spend longer, say, getting to Agra and back from Delhi to see the Taj Mahal, or getting from Karachi and back to see Moenjodaro. I imagine many Californians think nothing of spending that long going to and from Las Vegas, and many people living in a major city near a ski resort will spend far longer on a midseason Sunday en voyage

You'll easily get 8 hours on the ground on a day trip to Amsterdam. Strikes me as a no brainer if you want to see the town.

It's an easy day trip from London, plenty of flights leaving in the morning and returning same evening. 1000s of people do it every day for business meetings, there is no reason why you shouldn't do it. I have done it myself and to plenty of other cities further afield than Amsterdam. The ones who are saying it shouldn't be done are likely those who don't travel that much. You can visit many cities from London for the day, Brussels, Paris and others.

>>The ones who are saying it shouldn't be done are likely those who don't travel that much.<<

Sorta presumptuous don't you think?

>>It's an easy day trip from London,<<

But the cheapest headline fares are for flights out of Gatwick, Stansted or Luton, which means trekking out of central London at silly a.m. to meet their check-in times, which can add a good few hours on to the whole experience. Or you pay through the nose.

I've often done a day in London, from Antwerp, flying to City. Arriving at City at 7 am - return to Antwerp 8.30 pm. Lots of people do this (you see the same people on both flights).

If you get a reasonable rate flying from London City to Amsterdam, then go for it. You don't have luggage, check in online, be at the airport 30 minutes before your flight - and in Amsterdam, it's a quick train ride to the center of town.

Cityjet gives a roundtrip fare of 120 pounds.

Thanks, there's some divergence of opinions here.

I was thinking maybe of a 8 or 9 AM departure, then 6 or 7 PM return from AMS. Seems like that would leave me about 6 hours in Amsterdam before having to return to AMS. Do they require a full 2-hour check-in? It is an international flight, though it's short.


As for day trips around London, Cambridge and Oxford sound similar. Bath sounds the most interesting to me. So I guess I could swap out one of these shorter excursions for Amsterdam, if feeling really ambitious.

Fares are $100-150 now. Would be nice to book that week, so that I could go if the weather is good.

Check the transit and check-in times in London - that's why I would only consider it from London City. And watch how the fares change over time.

absolutely no reason why you shouldn't do this, if you want to. as flanner says, lots of people do longer day trips for business or other reasons.

but that for me is the point - have you seen so much of the UK that is within London or easy reach of it that you want to spend upwards of 4 hours going to Amsterdam? 6 nights gives you only 5 days in London - if it were my first trip, the furthest I'd want to go I think would be Windsor.

BTW, you won't need 2 hours to check-in - with easyjet, for example, they say that it's a 30 min minimum from check-in to flight -time, but personally I'd allow a hour, though you won't be checking in luggage of course.

I thought Windsor was closer than Bath or Oxford or Cambridge?

I've been to London before but haven't done the day trips to the nearby areas.

Windsor is closer - why the question? Is it that you are finding transit times more? Could be that Bath, Oxford and Cambridge are on fast train lines and Windsor isnt. I believe from Waterloo you need to actually make a change at I think Slough.

Distance from London geographically doesnt necessarily = faster to get there.

AMS has to be one of the easiest airports to get to the centre, it takes 15mins by train and you are in central Amsterdam. You don't need 2 hours checkin, you will be checking in online for both flights before you leave the UK and either print your boarding passes or have it on your smartphone to be scanned (if the airline you fly allows this). So you go straight to the gate. Be at the airport an hour before departure (check gate close times), and allow time for passing through security.

Where in London are you staying? Make sure you can get to the airport in time for an 8AM departure, allow an hour or a bit more before departure because the airports are really busy at that time.

there are 3 trains an hour from Paddington to Windsor and Eton central, changing at Slough as Jamikins says.

journey time varies between 30-40 mins.

If you do end up heading to AMS, don't forget there's an hour time difference.

Trains from Paddington travel to Windsor/Eton Central station w/ a change. Trains from Waterloo travel to Windsor/Eton Riverside station w/o a change. Which is best mostly depends on from where in central London one is starting out.

indeed jj. I was trying to point out that the journey time to Windsor was not very great - probably less than Bath or Oxford, and certainly less than Amsterdam.

I am a strong believer in the "snail shell" type of tourism - if you go to a place, you start at the centre and work out. What [I ask rhetorically] is the point of going to London and spending a substantial portion of your time there going somewhere different? Why go to Rome and spend a whole day going to Pompeii [which you then only have a relatively short time at] instead of going to Ostia Antica which is just down the road and can be seen well in a day or so?

How bad I are the costs and transit times to the outlying airports?

Fares out of LCY seem to be $30 to $50 more but it sounds like the savings in cost and time would be worth it.

I'll probably end up staying around the Blackfriars Tube.

Three birds with one stone? I know it could probably be done cheaper and the time they devote to each destination may not be optimal but this coach tour would hit 3 destinations which would not be reached by one train trip?

Can these 3 places be reached by train without returning to London or backtracking to somewhere else to change trains?

http://www.viator.com/tours/London/Stonehenge-Windsor-Castle-and-Bath-Day-Trip-from-London/d737-3858EE021


Also, if you could only visit Oxford or Cambridge, which one?

>>How bad I are the costs and transit times to the outlying airports?<<
An outlying airport to me means Stansted or Luton. Just be aware of the times of the first tube esp if you are taking an 8am flight.

From Blackfriars you can take the tube to Gloucester Road and change onto the Piccadilly line with a straight run to Heathrow. For LCY take the tube from Blackfriars and change onto the Docklands light railway at Tower Hill. For Stansted take the tube from Blackfriars to Liverpool Street and then a train to Stansted on the Stansted Express, cost $53 approx & takes about 50 mins. For Gatwick take the tube to Victoria and then the train to Gatwick.

It is perfectly possible to get 8 hours in Amsterdam if you want. As a general rule, fares may be lower at weekends but you cannot do a day trip from LCY on either a Saturday or Sunday as it closes from lunchtime on Saturday for 24 hours to give the locals a day of peace. Only consider flights from Heathrow, Gatwick or City Airport, the other airports are simply too far away from Central London to be viable. You can easily arrive at Heathrow or Gatwick 45-60 minutes before departure, providing you have already checked in on line and even less time at City Airport.
A good website to check fares is Skyscanner.com which should indicate the cheapest fares available on the day you want to travel, if you use Easyjet from Gatwick, just be aware that it operates on the basis that it will try to sell you lots of extras and you often need to untick boxes, if you fly BA you will still get food and drink included in the fare and Cityjet from LCY use relatively old but interesting aircraft with the wings above the cabin so you get good views if the clouds behave, and you can get a window seat

I remember spending a lot of time in line for security in Amsterdam before a flight -- but that was a flight to the US.

I assume you wouldn't have to go through immigration upon arrival in Amsterdam since you're only flying from London.

But like others I'd recommend staying in London and adventuring further afield from there. As for the Oxford/Cambridge choice, Cambridge is a small town, nicer in good weather. Oxford is a small city, has more to see and lots of indoor sights so better if the weather isn't so great.

I loved Bath, spent several days there. So, yes, a day there would be great.

Other closer excursions from London: Windsor as previously mentioned, Kew Gardens, Greenwich, and Hampton Court Palace. The latter two I saw with London Walks (www.walks.com) and boat trips were included. The HCP trip went first by train to Richmond, then by boat, arriving at Hampton Court Palace just like Henry VIII on his barge -- kinda. Loved the trip up the Thames, past riverside homes and pubs.

If you're not familiar with London Walks, they do a great job. And have many in-town walking tours as well as daylong excursions.

You will definitely go through immigration control when you fly from London to Amsterdam, however it is done right as you get off the plane so I dont remember the lines being very long.

UK isnt part of Schengen so you will go through immigration again upon your return.