Itinerary advice South Coast England

Old Nov 7th, 2016, 09:47 AM
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Itinerary advice South Coast England

We will be travelling from Canada to England June-July 2017. I grew up in England and have visited several times; last UK holiday was in 2005 for several weeks. I last visited in 2013 for family reasons.
We planned a return trip for 2017- the original plan-fly into Gatwick, drive to Canterbury, continue along the coast to Plymouth sightseeing over 2+ weeks and then return to Gatwick and go home.
We now have a family wedding to attend in Chichester on July 15 the trip will end with that event and visiting the newlyweds in Battersea after the wedding. A complication is that I have to travel to Harborne, Birmingham to visit family.
The plan is arrive Jun 27-28th to avoid school holidays and more tourists, and return home approx July 18, 3 weeks is the most we can be away. We will rent a car, and drop it at Gatwick after the wedding, then use the Gatwick express in and out of the city.
On this trip we are not planning fine dining, nightlife, shopping or extravagant accommodation. We prefer to stay in smaller towns/villages when possible. We enjoy outdoors, scenery, photography, history, caves- places that are somewhat off the beaten track. We have done many long distance road trips, and know that driving distances in England takes longer.
My DH has to go to Port Isaac, a Doc Martin fan, and Highclere Castle-Downton fan. There is no information at this time about opening days for Highclere
We would like to visit some really old interesting villages maybe places like Alfriston in East Sussex, Corfe Castle village.
Sights seen previously: Winchester, Stonehenge, Warwick Castle, Bath, Clovelly, Tintagel, Cheddar George, City of London
This is a very preliminary itinerary, places/areas we want to visit:
Kent-Canterbury, Dover Castle, Rye, Eastbourne>3-4 days
Wiltshire-Salisbury, Highclere Castle, Avebury>1-2 days
B’ham 2-3 nights
Dartmoor and vicinity> sightseeing, a walk or two>1-2 days
Port Isaac-day trip>1 day
South Devon area Dartmouth, Kingswear, Newton Abbott, Dart/Teign Valley, Totnes, Brixham, Torquay, Kents Caves >2-3 days
Drive around Lyme Bay-look at beaches along the way- Teignmouth,Beer>Chesil Beach>1-2 days
Dorchester-Shaftsbury>Cerne Abbas>Ringwood >1-2 days
New Forest > drive through, maybe a walk or two>1 day or not
Portsmouth>Chichester, Fishbourne before and/or after wedding>2-3 days
Battersea >1-2 days>home

I am going more than slightly crazy trying to create a workable plan. Maybe there are just too many choices. Any comments or suggestions would be great.
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Old Nov 7th, 2016, 12:06 PM
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I was with you until you threw such far flung places as Canterbury, Port Isaac, Highclere and Birmingham -- all in 2.5 week (since you would have to get to Chichester by at least July 14th for the wedding festivities.)

That is a very ambitious list for such a short time. The musts appear to be Birmingham, the wedding and a couple of days in London. Assuming you can get tickets to Highclere - you are talking about 3 days for Birmingham and Highclere, leaving you 2 weeks to play with.

So which would would be most important to you . . . Canterbury/Kent/Sussex/Hampshire . . . or Cornwall/Devon/Dorset/Hampshire? I'd focus on one or the other
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Old Nov 7th, 2016, 01:22 PM
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Kent-Canterbury, Dover Castle, Rye, Eastbourne>3-4 days>

I'd hit Battle, the nice village that was the scene of William the Conqueror's winning battle against the Saxon king - culmination of the Norman Conquest of England (or the beginning of it)-the old battlefield is still there and you can walk thru it with signs at important places and an old abbey or monastery still stands- not far down from Eastbourne.

Battle itself is a quintessentially cute small village:

https://www.google.com/search?q=batt...Hdn8DQcQsAQIHQ
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Old Nov 7th, 2016, 04:01 PM
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I'm not sure I understand the problem, if we drove directly from Gatwick, to Canterbury, to B'ham, to Port Isaac, to Plymouth, to Chichester the total distance 1152km divided by 18 days is an average of 64km per day.
I know that isn't an accurate estimate so if we make it 100km per day to account for wandering around and not taking direct routes that's still very doable.
The B'ham visit will be straight there and back, and accounts for a lot of the distance.
It's about 150km from Avebury to Harborne, stay 2 nights and about 250km from Harborne to Dartmoor, even if we drove really slowly at 50km/hour, it's 3 hours there and 5 hours back. We regularly drive 4.5 to 5 hours one way to see our daughter in Ottawa for the weekend. At least half of that drive is on 2 lane roads.
The drive takes as long as it takes. Isn't the journey and what you see along the way part of the experience?
It leaves us plenty of time to spend 2-3 nights in B'ham and 2 nights maybe more in several other places.
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Old Nov 7th, 2016, 04:10 PM
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>>Isn't the journey and what you see along the way part of the experience?

Yes -- but driving 4 or 5 hours every day leaves not so much time to see/do along the way. Plus a continual series of 1 night stops get really tiring really fast.

>>We regularly drive 4.5 to 5 hours one way to see our daughter in Ottawa for the weekend

No comparison of the wide open spaces in Canada or the US w/ the congested roads in the UK. If you stick to the (mostly) non scenic motorways you can make better time. But on scenic/rural/coastal roads (ESPECIALLY in Devon and Cornwall) you will be lucky to average 35 mph.


BTW, driving to Canterbury directly off an over night flight is not at all recommended. Depending on the time of day that could easily be a 3 hour drive.

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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 04:43 AM
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I usually try to fly into one city and home from another, using a multi-destination search function. If you are wedded to WestJet, as the Gatwick mention suggests, you will be limited to Glasgow and Dublin (Ireland) as not-very-useful alternatives to London. Looking at other airlines, you might be able to use the busy international airport in Bristol, on the edge of the Cotswolds, for arrival or departure.
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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 05:45 AM
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Is Canterbury a must? I was hoping to find a direct [ie non-stop] flight from LGW to Birmingham but it looks as if that doesn't exist, though you can fly direct from B'ham to Newquay which would cut out one lot of driving.

So if you are intent on Canterbury, I would want at least 3 nights there to recover from jet lag, and give you chance to look round the area, before driving to B'ham to visit the rellies.

Then fly to Newquay, which is less than an hour's drive from Port Isaac. Stay there 3 nights [plenty to see there too] then drive across Bodmin Moor to Plymouth for another 2-3 night stay.

After that, Chichester via Dartmoor - the A303 - Stonehenge - Salisbury and/or Winchester.
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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 05:51 AM
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wandering, I used to have this problem with consultants, I'd ask a question and I'd then challenge them on what they told me they knew. After a bit I decided to either listen to consultants or not hire them.

Now what did janisj say?
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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 12:41 PM
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The Canterbury area is great - Kent the Garden of England- so many easy day trips - Dover and its cliffs and castles
-lovely Rye and the other Cinque Ports

Bodium Castle on of England's finest

Chilham - a neat small town near Canterbury with a great castle in it

Yes rest up here then move on. Many folks on fodor's never seem to consider Canterbury and Kent but it is so so lovely.

And Canterbury though at best an average larger town has the stunning Cathedral.
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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 08:26 PM
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We will not be spending any where near 4-5 hours per day other than going to and from B'ham, and we will not be doing a series of one night stays.
"No comparison of the wide open spaces in Canada or the US w/ the congested roads in the UK"
take a look at this link, this is where I live https://canadaalive.wordpress.com/20...8/highway-401/
the busiest highway/motorway in north America, we have lots of experience with gridlock even with 16+ lanes. We have a grand total of 8 four lane highways in Ontario, total area 415,598 square miles.
The only roads that are in wide open places are in the middle of nowhere, and there is only 1 road, usually 2 lanes, sometimes 1.5 lanes, often unpaved and if you get stuck behind a logging truck or there is an accident you could be there for hours. When there is only 1 road everyone has to use it.
Now lets go back to the beginning my question was about places to visit, not about drive time.
Are there any suggestions for interesting small villages to visit in any of the south coast counties?
Thanks
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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 09:07 PM
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>>we have lots of experience with gridlock even with 16+ lanes.

And almost all the roads you will be on are two lanes - and some in Devon and Cornwall will be ONE lane - not one lane in each direction. Both directions sharing one lane.

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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 09:12 PM
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>>We will not be spending any where near 4-5 hours per day

My original point was . . . to cover that much territory in 2 weeks you will HAVE to drive 4 or 5 hours a day -- sometimes more. An awful lot at 35-ish mph/55 kph. And some even slower.

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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 09:15 PM
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>>Are there any suggestions for interesting small villages to visit in any of the south coast counties?

Oh yes, too many really - but here are some to look at.

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/e...e-south/places

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/e...utheast/places

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/e...country/places

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Old Nov 8th, 2016, 11:26 PM
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Corfe Castle village is an interesting visit, nearly everyone you meet will have arrived from somewhere else as the village lives on tourists so loads of cream teas etc. The walk into the castle is worth the time and the history of the place is great, (strong female leader etc).

You'll have spotted that the mound of the castle is a pimple/gap in a long ridge. If possible do not approach it on the main road from the north but from one of the minor roads from the south east, great views.

Also worth visiting Swanage to see the houses made of flint.

The Shaftesbury to Blandford road. Don't follow the river road but follow the old military road to the east (it is the one that looks straightish on the map) the views are fantastic and if you stop there are some fine walks.

My NZ niece, used to tough driving, turned u pin the UK in the summer and gave up on a load of her visits, just because the travel was exhausting her. But, up to you.
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Old Nov 9th, 2016, 04:36 AM
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Both directions sharing one lane.>>

my road's got two lanes, jj! but you're right, the roads can be very narrow requiring lots of "give and take" from drivers.

>>We will not be spending any where near 4-5 hours per day other than going to and from B'ham, and we will not be doing a series of one night stays

good idea, Wandering.

>>The plan is arrive Jun 27-28th to avoid school holidays and more tourists, and return home approx July 18, 3 weeks is the most we can be away. We will rent a car, and drop it at Gatwick after the wedding, then use the Gatwick express in and out of the city.

if this is still the plan, you have roughly this:

27 June - arrive LGW. Drive Canterbury
28 June - Canterbury
29 June - Canterbury
30 June - drive B'ham
1 July - B'ham
2 July - B'ham
3 July - drive Cotswolds stay somewhere ? Tetbury ?
4 July - Tetbury
5 July - drive Dartmoor. Stay say Bedford Hotel, Tavistock or its sister hotel at Two Bridges
6 July - day trip Port Isaac
7 July - day trip Plymouth
8 July - drive to south Devon
9 July - south Devon
10 July - drive to Lyme Bay
11 July - round Lyme Bay
12 July - drive to Chichester.

In order to get Wiltshire into this, you could either do that after the wedding [and forego a day or two in London] or lose south Devon or Lyme Bay.

hope this helps.

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Old Nov 9th, 2016, 06:08 AM
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annhig's plan is doable -- it does cut out several of your wish list items including Highclere and still includes some significant drives. To give you an idea - Tetbury to Tavistock will take about 4 hours w/o stops. Canterbury to B'ham could take anywhere from 4 hours to 6 hours depending on traffic. Birmingham (depending a lot on where since it is a big place) to Tetbury through the Cotswolds will take about 3 hours plus frequent stops (faster via the motorway but that misses all the pretty bits.)

So before you got angry w/ me -- I was trying to explain that your list of 'wants' is not doable in the 2-ish weeks you'll have. You can have a terrific driving tour -- just not as much nor as far as you imagined.
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Old Nov 9th, 2016, 06:20 AM
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jj - most trips are a compromise aren't they and as the OP says that he doesn't want any one night stands, this seems to me the max that can be squeezed into this particular pint pot.

of course there are other choices that the OP could make - eliminating Port Isaac would make the trip simpler but by staying on Dartmoor, the OP can have Port Isaac and South Devon/Plymouth both as day trips [i just thought of that] - which leaves a bit more time for Lyme Bay.
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Old Nov 9th, 2016, 06:46 AM
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annhig -- I totally 100% agree w/ you. Your plan is very good as long as they are willing to compromise.


You are fitting a size 8.5 foot in as size 8 boot - so cramped but not bad at all. The OP's list is squeezing that 8.5 foot into a size 6 . . .
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Old Nov 9th, 2016, 11:42 AM
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Some folks, especially Americans, actually like driving and if you take back roads and stop at small villages or stately houses en route I can easily see 4-5 hours a day on the road would be something many may like.

One boot size may fit all types of feet.
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Old Nov 9th, 2016, 04:26 PM
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PQ -- please don't lecture me about driving. Look at my profile photo. I take several road trips every year. I dare say I drive a lot more than you do. OF COURSE road trips are fun. It is just that the OP wants too many places over too much territory in too little time.
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