Two days, one for Bath and one for Stonehenge, is quite enough, I think, unless you have some special interest in either place that would warrant a longer stay. If you are at all interested in Jane Austen you might want to see her former home, now a museum, in Bath, and places like the Pump Room and the Royal Crescent. There is also an interesting museum of women's clothing in Bath that has everything from ancient underwear to Diana Ross beaded gowns----that's not something you run into every day :) Even if you add all that in, two days is enough imo.

Hi, Kswl2 - I had kept one day exclusively for visit the various things in Bath and 1 day to spend at Castle Combe, wanted to enjoy the country side.

In Bath was palnning to visit the Roman Bath and the Fashion Museum, The Aqua Glass Museum. Lunch at Sally Lunes and evening at Prior Park Landscape Garden. Then wanted to go to Castle Combe for the night. Next day just wanted to explore the various villages. And then head back to London in the evening.

Then I was planning to take day trips from London through Viator :
- Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Oxford Trip
- Leeds Castle, Canterbury and Greenwich
- Discover Shakespeare’s Country

So in that case do you thing what I have planned is okay, or do you still feel that 1 day in Bath is not really required, then will look at changing the stay part.

Actually, your plan looks good, I didn't understand that you planned to meander around the second day. If you want to stay in Castle Combe for the night and have no set programme for the next day you can go back to London anytime. And there's some interesting shopping in Bath you might not get to on your busy day, really interesting shops for handmade jewelry and beautiful stationery and papers. Plus it would be a night away for you . . . I think your plan is great! Just didn't want you to think there was two days' worth of "paid ticket" type of sightseeing in Bath.

Do you know where you want to stay in Castle Combe? All those B & B's look so inviting! I did not stay overnight but would have loved to stay at The Georgian House, did you see it in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd?

For travel to Oxford from London---there are two companies, the OxfordEspress (yes spelled that way) and the OxfordTube (which is NOT an underground like the Tube in London) which run busses. In general they work like this--there are several pickup points in London (like near Marble Arch) which both use, you show up at the pick-up point, you get on whichever bus comes by first, you pay on the bus, you ride into Oxford to the bus terminal in the center of the city, and then when you want to return you go back to catch a bus. No pre-purchase of tickets needed. Depending on the day of the week, fairly frequent trips. Takes about 90 minutes. This is the option we chose. Taking a train is an option that others will recommend. We chose bus because 1.Since we wanted complete flexibility, the bus was cheaper than train tickets purchased on a walk-up basis 2.We actually got off the bus outside of Oxford at its first "park and ride" lot and from there walked to C. S. Lewis's house and grave and then got a local bus into the city; we wouldn't have been able to do this if we'd ridden the train because the station is on the other side of the city.

I think you will LOVE Oxford; if your child is a Narnia or Lord of the Rings or Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter fan, there are lots of connections! If you decide to go to Oxford, check out their tourist information website for walking tours--sign up early as they fill up.

http://www.oxfordcity.co.uk/info/tours.html

And if you all aren't fans of any of the above, it's still a great visit and you still will enjoy one of the tours.

Oh, I thought I had stuck my two cents in before on this thread but haven't--if you want to see how we spent our two weeks based in London and took 5 day trips, or how we spent 13 days last summer with four days in London and 9 on the road, you can click on my name and go to my profile page and at the bottom see my trip reports.