andtrev

Could someone please have a look at our suggested itinerary (original one ditched and changed due to the royal wedding!) to see if I have created a doable itinerary for touring with a car, which is already booked. I have tried to take into account the very long weekend (with the royal wedding) by leaving the Bath area to later in the trip.

Wed 27/4/11 London to Stratford-upon-Avon (car picked up at 10 am in Marble Arch)
Thurs 28/4/11 Stratford-upon-Avon to York – leave early for York so can see sights in afternoon
Fri 29/4/11 York to Edinburgh
Sat 30/4/11 Edinburgh
Sun 1/5/11 Edinburgh (or other Scottish town?)
Mon 2/5/11 Edinburgh to Liverpool or Chester?
Tues 3/5/11 Chester to Cotswolds area? Where?
Wed 4/5/11 Cotswolds to Plymouth – want to visit Clovelly and a few costal towns
Thurs 5/5/11 Plymouth to Bath – arrive late in Bath
Fri 6/5/11 Bath – use as a base to see Stonehenge, Salisbury or even Cardiff?
Sat 7/5/11 Bath
Sun 8/5/11 Bath to Oxford – early arrival to
Mon 9/5/11 Oxford to London--return trip by 10 am to drop off the car

Must sees are Bath, Edinburgh, Bath, Clovelly and Cotswold area but would have also liked to stay/see a little bit of Wales. A possibility is to leave Oxford area or similar (?) to do a day trip from London (in total we have 7 days in London) which would allow our driving component an extra day.

tjhome1

Well it's doable but you will have little time to actually get out of the car between Edinburgh and Bath so as long as you are ok with seeing Chester, the Cotswolds and Clovelly from a car window then its fine. Stonehenge and Salisbury are a full days trip from Bath so it would be hard to fit Cardiff in. If you just want to drive through Wales then think perhaps of fiting it in between Chester and the Cotswolds. Overall its a very tight schedule you are on but I am a fan of touring holidays and so I think even I would spend a little more time in fewer places. Your list of must sees includes Bath twice - did you miss a must see off? Currently you don't have enough time to do credit to the Cotswolds and Clovelly.
Tim

McGill

In my opinion you are taking too much on and will spend so much time in the car and on motorways that each place will not be worth the travel.

What do you want to see in York / Liverpool / Chester / Cardiff Do you like cities or country? what do you hope to get out of the trip because it is not easy to tell you probably do not need 7 days in London it depends what are your interests. Give me an idea of whet you hope to see / get out of the trip and I will try & help with a more relaxing itinerary...

thursdaysd

Well, to my mind the first problem is picking up the car at Marble Arch. Much better to collect at Heathrow and avoid driving in London. Actually, I'd put Stratford later and take the train to York and get the car there, but I wouldn't sign up for anything this rushed in the first place.

annhig

where to start? sorry if you find what follows a little blunt, but you seem to have fallen into the trap of thinking that you can see places in 1/2 a day and that english/British roads and cities are easy to negotiate. Trust me - they aren't. i live here, and I would never dream of doing what you have got planned.

1. get the train to Stratford - and why are you going there just to leave the next day?

2. if all you are going to do in Stratford is limited to one night, why do you need a car? just get the train to York the next day, or even bypass Stratford all together and go straight to York, on the train.

3. Again why York? what do you think you will see in 1/2 day? if you really want to there, two nights would be a minimum, IMHO.

4. Train to Edinburgh - at least you have given yourself [just] enough time there with 3 nights. Hooray!

5. Again, why Chester or Liverpool? they are both good if very different places to visit, but as you don't know which one, why bother with either. instead, head back to the Cotswolds or Devon/Plymouth. [and why are you going all the way to Plymouth just to leave it again???]

6. Wed 4/5/11 Cotswolds to Plymouth – want to visit Clovelly and a few costal towns≥≥

this was the day that had me boggling - Clovelly is so out of your way, and will take you most of the day to get to and from. you can't just drive through it - it is a village built on a precipitous hillside where the traditional transport was donkeys. the rubbish is collected on mats or sledges! you park at the top, and then pay to walk or be driven down the hill to the harbour at the bottom.

as you say that Bath, Edinburgh, Clovelly and the Cotswolds are your priorities, why not do this:

Wed 27/4/11 London to Edinburgh [fly?/train]
Thurs 28/4/11 Edinburgh
Fri 29/4/11 Edinburgh
Sat 30/4/11 Edinburgh
Sun 1/5/11 Edinburgh to Warwick/Stratford or Oxford. Pick up car and drive to Cotswolds
Mon 2/5/11 Cotswolds
Tues 3/5/11 Cotswolds
Wed 4/5/11 Cotswolds to Clovelly
Thurs 5/5/11 Clovelly to Bath – arrive late in Bath.
Fri 6/5/11 Bath – use as a base to see Stonehenge, Salisbury or even Cardiff? [don't go to Cardiff; if you're going to go to Wales go to the part just over the Severn bridge or the brecon beacons]
Sat 7/5/11 Bath
Sun 8/5/11 Bath
Mon 9/5/11 Bath to London--return trip by 10 am to drop off the car

this gives you 4 bases in 14 days - which is not too many. you get Scotland and England - and a bit of Wales, but the rest will still be here when you come back.

texasbookworm

Last summer we spent 9 days doing a loop from picking up a car at Heathrow through Oxford, Shrewsbury, Wales/Conwy, Carlisle, Hadrian's Wall, Durham, York, by Lincoln, Canterbury, Dover, and Bodiam Castle/Battle on last day before back to LHR area. So I do understand that an fairly ambitious and busy tour can work and can be a good thing. We had a great time and while there were LOTS of places I would have loved to spend LOTS more time at, we did get a taste. HOWEVER, when I planned, I put destinations into different internet mapping sites (mostly googlemaps) and whatever time it gave, I DOUBLED it and that ended up being a fair estimate. And while we encountered traffic, we had the blessing of not encountering any major delays from construction, weather, or accidents. So I don't think you have realistically estimated the time it will take driving. So might want to recalculate a bit and see what you can really get to. It will be much better to get somewhere early and have more time than be stuck in traffic fretting about making some destination. And half a day is not enough time in York. And you have to figure time for finding parking in places (if it is to be had--it isn't a given) and checking in and out and such. We chose to spend just one night each place and so we did cover a good bit of ground in 9 days, but I think the average drive per day was 3-4 hours (couple longer ones, broken up, and a couple shorter).

If you want to read about our trip, you can click on my name and go to my profile page and see my 2010 trip report.

Also YOU WILL NEED A GPS!!! Even if you're good with maps.

Also as said above it may be much easier on you to pick up the car at the airport rather than navigate in London! But if that can't be changed---good lu

janisj

Sorry -- but your entire plan makes NO sense. And -- why would the wedding have you changing plans in the first place?

But just togive you one teensy reason why this is not well designed:

You drive to Stratford and leave the next morning for York. Then 5 days later (after traveling hundreds of miles) you plan less than 1/2 a day in the Cotswolds. If you look on any map, Stratford is about 10 miles from the northern Cotswolds (12 miles to Chipping Campden to be exact)

So you are zig zagging all around w/ no rhyme or reason.

Back to the drawing boards on this one for sure. (and what plans did you change due to the wedding?)