Suggest a 5-night loop from London
Mar 3rd, 2013, 10:26 AM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 81
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Suggest a 5-night loop from London
After spending three nights in London we are planning on doing a 6 day/ 5 night road trip around Wales and the Cotswolds. The amount of information out there is overwhelming, so I thought I'd see if anyone has any suggestions for an itinerary.
Only real two must-sees are:
Stonehenge
Royal Shakespeare Company (there are evening performances on the 1st, 2nd, and 5th night, or a matinee on the 3rd day).
Other than that, we'd like to just have a relaxing week. Maybe some walks, visiting nice small villages, old castles. We love eating well, so one or more of the more food-centric b&b's would be great. Seen some articles recently that recommended the Drawing Room, the Bell at Skenfrith, and others. Fishing and clay pigeon shooting seem to be popular in wales which sounds fun, though we would need a guide/lessons. We love the ocean so a detour along the Welsh coast would be nice. I think 2 hotels would be ideal, but we could do 3 if it makes more sense for the itinerary. We will be driving back to Heathrow the last day to fly home, though our flight is not until 5pm so we will have plenty of time to get back from wherever we are.
Thanks for your help!
Only real two must-sees are:
Stonehenge
Royal Shakespeare Company (there are evening performances on the 1st, 2nd, and 5th night, or a matinee on the 3rd day).
Other than that, we'd like to just have a relaxing week. Maybe some walks, visiting nice small villages, old castles. We love eating well, so one or more of the more food-centric b&b's would be great. Seen some articles recently that recommended the Drawing Room, the Bell at Skenfrith, and others. Fishing and clay pigeon shooting seem to be popular in wales which sounds fun, though we would need a guide/lessons. We love the ocean so a detour along the Welsh coast would be nice. I think 2 hotels would be ideal, but we could do 3 if it makes more sense for the itinerary. We will be driving back to Heathrow the last day to fly home, though our flight is not until 5pm so we will have plenty of time to get back from wherever we are.
Thanks for your help!
Mar 3rd, 2013, 11:01 AM
#2
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mar 3rd, 2013, 08:23 PM
#3
Sorry - but 5 nights trying to cover Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Stratford, and Wales really won't be a relaxing loop. (you won't have 6 days - can't count day 6 since you'll have to dump the car at LHR by about 1PM)
One question- have you been to London before? If yes, great. But if not you have next to no time in the city.
Assuming this is not your first time in London and you have 5 days I'd drive first to Stonehenge/Salisbury and on to Bath or somewhere nearby to stay the night. Explore Bath the next day and then drive to somewhere in the north/central Cotswolds and use it as base for Stratford/the Cotswolds/Oxford. (or you could stay 2 nights in Bath and the rest in the Cotswolds)
1 day seeing Salisbury/Stonehenge/Avebury
1 day seeing Bath
3 days - seeing the Cotswolds, Stratford and the general area
Drive back to LHR the morning of day 6.
One question- have you been to London before? If yes, great. But if not you have next to no time in the city.
Assuming this is not your first time in London and you have 5 days I'd drive first to Stonehenge/Salisbury and on to Bath or somewhere nearby to stay the night. Explore Bath the next day and then drive to somewhere in the north/central Cotswolds and use it as base for Stratford/the Cotswolds/Oxford. (or you could stay 2 nights in Bath and the rest in the Cotswolds)
1 day seeing Salisbury/Stonehenge/Avebury
1 day seeing Bath
3 days - seeing the Cotswolds, Stratford and the general area
Drive back to LHR the morning of day 6.
Mar 17th, 2013, 05:13 PM
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 81
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mini-bump
Current thoughts:
Day 1 - leave London, stop by Stonehenge, continue to wales. Will stay somewhere in Brecon beacons area for 2 nights. Any suggestions?
Day 3 - make way towards pembrokeshire coast. 2 nights in st David's or Newport, or other suggestions welcome
Day 5 to Stratford. Evening show at royal Shakespeare company.
Day 6 back to Llr
Google maps tells me that day 1 should be about 6 hours total driving, and day 5 maybe 4 hours. Does that seem right? That seems acceptable for me since we'll have 4 night in between with not much driving. Any suggestions for specific places to stay or sights? (Esp good food and ruined castles). Does this seem like a good plan? Obviously we cut out most of the Cotswolds, but there will always be more trips.
Current thoughts:
Day 1 - leave London, stop by Stonehenge, continue to wales. Will stay somewhere in Brecon beacons area for 2 nights. Any suggestions?
Day 3 - make way towards pembrokeshire coast. 2 nights in st David's or Newport, or other suggestions welcome
Day 5 to Stratford. Evening show at royal Shakespeare company.
Day 6 back to Llr
Google maps tells me that day 1 should be about 6 hours total driving, and day 5 maybe 4 hours. Does that seem right? That seems acceptable for me since we'll have 4 night in between with not much driving. Any suggestions for specific places to stay or sights? (Esp good food and ruined castles). Does this seem like a good plan? Obviously we cut out most of the Cotswolds, but there will always be more trips.
Mar 17th, 2013, 05:35 PM
#5
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,900
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I am not looking at your route, but we used google maps to plan our driving in the UK but I DOUBLED the time it suggested and in reality it took us an average of 1.5 or more times what google maps says. (We drove LHR to Oxford to Shrewsbury to Conwy to Carlisle to eastward of where you are going to be). So I think you'd better plan for much longer than 6 hours the first day. Will you already have a car? Do you have to pick it up like at LHR? That could take you several hours, depending on where you are coming from. Stonehenge will take some time--at minimum 90 minutes?
If you look at my TR from 2010 you will see we did an ambitious, one-night-stands driving loop, so I'm all for driving such, but I reiterate that driving in the UK takes up to 2 times as long as allowed by Google--and that's without major weather, traffic, accidents, or construction to add to the problem.
Just our experience.
If you look at my TR from 2010 you will see we did an ambitious, one-night-stands driving loop, so I'm all for driving such, but I reiterate that driving in the UK takes up to 2 times as long as allowed by Google--and that's without major weather, traffic, accidents, or construction to add to the problem.
Just our experience.
Mar 18th, 2013, 08:04 AM
#7
I'll just add a note to texasbookworm's caution on driving times. I find that driving in unfamiliar territory is much more tiring than driving at home. And more so if I'm driving on the left side of the road and must pay close attention at all times. A 6 hour drive, or 9 hour, may seem an eternity. It's SO much nicer to trim the driving time, be able to stop along the way, take back roads instead of the motorways. I find I don't see more by driving farther. I see less.
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
insouciance
Europe
33
Dec 11th, 2009 05:56 AM
