Great Itineraries

Great Itineraries

With a car, you can see all the places outlined below on day trips from London, but it's worth staying at that perfect riverside inn or village hotel and settling in for a night or more. The area offers the greatest pleasure to those willing to leave the main roads to explore the smaller towns.

If You Have 3 Days

Begin at Windsor,where royalty is the predominant note, and spend a morning visiting the castle, leaving part of the day for Eton College and Windsor Great Park. The next day, follow the river upstream, taking in the village of Marlow,where the pubs offer decent snacks for lunch. Head toward Henley-on-Thames,where the Thames forms a harmonious dialogue with the medieval buildings alongside, and easy and tranquil walks beckon upstream or down. Reserve the last morning for scholarly Oxford -, with an afternoon visit to nearby Woodstock —a lovely English village—and Blenheim Palace,birthplace of Winston Churchill and one of the most spectacular houses in England.

If You Have 5 Days

Make your base at Windsor for your first night. From there you can take excursions to Ascot,for some of England's finest horse racing, and, to the north, Cliveden. For your second night, consider staying in Henley-on-Thames,from which it's an easy trip to the aristocratic Mapledurham House and a cluster of attractive Thames-side villages, such as Sonning-on-Thames and Dorchester-on-Thames. Reserve the third day and night for the medieval wonders of Oxford -; on your fourth day head for the nearby 18th-century village of Woodstock,site of magisterial Blenheim Palace. For the final day, swing eastward to the town of Great Milton for perhaps the grandest luncheon of your English trip, at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. Next, pay a call on one or two of a trio of stately homes: Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury,Woburn Abbey,or Althorp.