SandM

Three ladies (60+) have three days to drive from Salisbury to Holyhead - Could I please have some suggestions on where to stay, what to see/visit etc early June.
We love castles, churches, gardens, scenery etc, not keen on big cities.
Also any suggestions on B&B or hotels to stay at on the way
Help Please, we leave in two days to start our travels.

SandM

ttt

Steve_James

Sand - You can certainly plan a lovely trip on this route, I think.

The first part of your journey takes you through some lovely Wiltshire/Somerset countryside. If you don't mind driving country roads, better still

Early June is the perfect time to visit Stourhead gardens - one of the most beautiful NT parks in England. En route there you could visit Wardour Castle.

From Stourhead you can do a lovely drive to include local beauty spots such as Longleat, Shearwater Lake, Nunney Castle ...

Much of this is a designated area of outstanding natural beauty.

From there you could continue via Wells and Cheddar Gorge/ Chew Valley towards the Seveern Bridge - or an equally scenic route would take you via Bradford-on-Avon and the lovely Limpley Stoke Valley area south of Bath.

From the Severn Bridge you could take the lovely Wye Valley route.

I'm sure others who know Wales better than me will be able to help you from there ...

Hope this helps ...

Steve

beanweb24

You should buy the latest issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine -- their feature story this month is on travel through Wales.

SandM

Thank you Steve and Beanweb,
The Wye Valley thing sounds lovely will look that up and also am out to by the magazine.
Any more suggestions?
Sandi

ozgirl

Hello Sand, I live a VERY long way from Wales and hence am no expert,but did drive through a similiar route to that which you propose a couple of years ago. We stayed near Bradford-on-Avon and found this to be a lovely little village. Would also recommend Tintern Abbey in the Wye valley, it was breathtaking. We then drove across the Brecon Beacons (stayed in a farm B&B) to Aberystwyth which is a nice coastal town and then we stayed at Caernafon inside the walled village which was also very pretty. We had about the same time frame as you so had to miss lots of attractions along the way but it certainly gave us a taste of Wales I think. We booked all of our accommodation based on the AA B&B Guide and it didn't let us down.

SandM

Thanks ozgirl, we are also from australia.
That sounds just great and the sort of thing we want.
Sandi

Steve_James

Sand - You could spend a week just visiting castles in Wales

You might find this link useful:
http://www.castlewales.com/home.html

Chepstow and Raglan are good ones to start.
http://www.castlewales.com/wales_se.html

And don't miss Conwy and Caernarfon in N. Wales

If you're interested in stately homes check out Wilton House near Salisbury.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

GreenDragon

If you are going to be near the Wye valley, check out Hay-on-Wye. It's a small town with a big reputation -- it has more used book stores than any other store in town, I think. We visited in 2000 and it was very cool. Hard to get to from where we were (shrewsbury) but worth it!