karanmehta

Hi friends,

My wife and I are visiting UK in June and would start with Scotland followed by England. We want to visit Hadrian's Wall (must-do), Kielder Observatory, Lake District and London in 9 days. We will take a rental car in Scotland and will keep it for a part of the England leg. We are thinking of the following itinerary for England:

16th June - Drive from Glencoe to Kielder Forest Park in Northumberland (almost full day drive including multiple stops) and overnight at Kielder. Would like to visit the Kielder observatory at night for one of their stargazing sessions.

17th June - Visit Hadrian's wall during the day and drive onwards to Lake District, reaching there by late evening / night.

18th, 19th, 20th June - Explore Lake District

21st June - Drop off the car at a nearby town and take a train to London. Counting half day in London as we plan to start early and reach there by midday.

22nd, 23rd, 24th June - Explore London. We plan to visit all the must-see attractions of London including a half day trip to the Harry Potter studio.

25th June - We have our return flight from Heathrow at 9:30 PM. We plan to go to Heathrow in the morning, store our luggage there and then visit Windsor Castle, spend the day there and be back at the airport by 6:30 - 7 PM or so.

Would like your feedback on how this looks. Does this breakup of Lake District (3 days) and London (4.5 days including Windsor) sound OK? Or should we tinker around with our arrival date (21st June) in London and prepone/postpone it by a day?

Morgana

Kielder's star gazing nights book up FAST so don't leave it too la

Morgana

Sorry, pressed send too fast! Book Kielder as soon as you can. I've been to one of their evenings and it was very good.

karanmehta

Thanks Morgana will do it as soon as the entire plan gets crystallized. How was your overall experience there? Which event did you attend and could you see various objects through the telescopes? We are getting only the "Aurora Night" event on our dates.

I've heard that on many nights it is so cloudy that watching through the telescopes is not possible at all. Hopefully our night will be clear!!

thursdaysd

You need to check where you can drop a rental car in the Lake District, and how early. You also have few options for train stations (see map on nationalrail.co.uk). I wouldn't count on being checked into your London hotel and ready to go until the middle of the afternoon.

So, two and a half days plus a bit (assuming you can really keep your HP visit to half a day) for ALL your London "must-sees"? What does that include?

karanmehta

We will most probably drop the car at Manchester. Have checked for Penrith and Lancaster but not many good rental options allowing dropping the car there, as we would be starting the rental from Edinburgh. Whatever options I'm getting are almost twice as costly than a Manchester or Liverpool drop.

We are planning to take a Sixt car with drop location very close to Manchester Piccadilly station. How much time should be budget for the return process? If we reach there by 10 AM, can we take a 11:30 train to London? That would arrive at London at around 1:45 PM so after lunch and checking in the hotel, we will be good to go by early evening I guess.

By "must sees" I basically mean the top attractions that are mentioned in all the guidebooks and forums - Tower of London, Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham and Kensington Palaces (probably from outside only), Hyde Park, Greenwich Observatory (if possible) etc. Have to prioritize out of these and see what all is logistically possible to visit.

thursdaysd

No museums? No theater? There is an astounding amount to see/do in London. Suggest reading past the top ten lists and deciding what interests you, not what you are "supposed" to like. Also, have you looked into the two-for-one deals? (Do a search here.)

karanmehta

Thanks thursdaysd for your reply.

We are not very interested in theater and museums, especially the art ones. No offense to them, we are just not into that kind of stuff - had spent a few hours inside Louvre on my trip to Paris and had got thoroughly bored!

Museums related to human history does interest us. We will visit some of them along the Hadrian's Wall and can look at some in London as well. We did give a thought to attending one of the Broadway musicals (Lion King) but then decided not to spend time on that.

We are more interested in the sights and activities within the city and are yet to do a thorough research into it. We had thought to first finalise the itinerary and then get into the specific things to do but now it seems that we should do that analysis first to figure out how much time to budget for it.

But assuming we decide to skip most of the museums and theater, do 2.5 day look OK for visiting the main sights and attractions properly?

On the flipside, in case add a day to London, would 2 full days be enough for Lake District? There also we do not plan to do hardcore hiking, the idea is to just drive and stroll across the area and take in the sights and the local culture.

Will look into the two-for-one deals for London as well.

thursdaysd

Are you planning to visit the Beatrix Potter and Wordsworth houses in the Lake District? If not, and you are not hiking, I would think three nights/two days would be enough, although June is a good month to visit.

Well, the British Museum has a whole lot of human history! I'd also recommend the Victoria and Albert and the Museum of London. Then there are house museums like Leighton House and the Dennis Severs house. I am not overly thrilled by art museums either, so I wouldn't recommend the National Gallery, although the Portrait Gallery can be interesting, but there are plenty of specialized non-art museums besides the general ones I mentioned.

You can see Broadway musicals on Broadway, although they may be cheaper in London, but London theater encompasses much more than musicals (see https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/ ). You might consider the Globe for the experience.

Morgana

In answer to your question we enjoyed our evening mainly because of the great staff. Do read Gary Fildes recent book before you go (An Astronomer's Tale).
However, the Observatory is VERY remote up narrow, twisty roads, and you need to take a torch and warm clothes whenever you go.
Toilet facilities are very basic. And we were unlucky and got a cloudy night so couldn't see anything!! That's the luck of the draw of course.
The talk was billed as being suitable for all but my group (me included) soon found it way beyond our very limited Astro Physics.

janisj

Even not wanting that much art/museum -- I would probably cut one night from the Lakes and add it to LOndon.

You really can't do the HP studio in less than 3/4 of a day because of the logistics, and it is very likely you will not get checked in to your London hotel until mid to late afternoon. So you are really left w/ two days and two extra evenings in London.


>>By "must sees" I basically mean the top attractions that are mentioned in all the guidebooks and forums - Tower of London, Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham and Kensington Palaces (probably from outside only), Hyde Park, Greenwich Observatory (if possible) etc.<<

I don't know which guide books you have seen but that is not really a list of musts. Buckingham Palace is a 'walk by'. Big Ben is also a 'walk by/look up at' which you can't miss if you go to the Abbey. Trafalgar Square is a 'walk across'. Kensington Palace from the outside only is not really worth consideration. Hyde Park is fine -- but after all it is a <i>park</i>. Some thing to stroll through but not a 'must site'.

There are many terrific museums and sites in London that are not 'art'. The Imperial War museum, the Churchill Cabinet War rooms, the British Museum, the Museum of London, and more. Plus Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's, Covent Garden, etc etc. A day trip to Greenwich will eat up about 3/4 a day.

karanmehta

Thanks guys for all the wonderful feedback. We have decided to move one extra day to London and start from Lake District on 20th June itself (instead of 21st June). Though now I am a bit worried if 2 days will be enough for LD, especially if the weather turns bad on us.

We would have our base in Coniston and would have a car. Could you guys suggest an ideal itinerary (places to cover) for two days? We are not into serious hiking, the idea is to drive and stroll through the area, walk a bit, sit back, relax and enjoy the sights and the local culture.

Will ask for your guidance for planning the London leg as well but want to do some thorough research on it myself first.