8 Days England Itinerary Help
 

Hello All

I am going to England mid-July with my 18 year old daughter for her graduation. We are arriving early Sunday 7/15 LHR nonstop from San Francisco. We are spending the last 4 nights in London(already booked-Priceline).
We would like some suggestions for the first four nights. We will not be renting a car but would be fine with trains or short tours.
I have considered 2-4 nights in Bath with side tours to Cotswalds etc or 2 nights in Bath, 2 in York. I am not sure where the weather and the crowds would be most pleasant.
Also any affordable($200 US or lower), centrally located B&Bs in Bath, York or wherever you suggest would be great.

W/ just 4 days to play w/ I would either go west (Bath and the Cotswolds) or go north (York/Yorkshire)

2 days in Bath and 2 days somewhere else like Oxford or Stratford-upon-Avon before heading in to London.

Or 4 days in York as a base to see Castle Howard, Fountains Abbey, the Moors/Whitby/Robin Hood's Bay, and the city itself.

Either choice would be great but I wouldn't try to do both Bath and York.

There are no direct trains from LHR to either city. For Bath the best option is the direct LHR/Bath coach. Then 2 days later you could take the train to Oxford or Stratford. Both routes would require changes but are not difficult.

For York - the best would be to take a car service (or if you can easily handle your luggage - the Tube) to Kings Cross and then a train to York. From King's Cross it is a bit over 2 hours most days.

The Tourist Information Centers in Bath, Oxford, Stratford and York are all large and helpful and can hook you up w/ local tours to sites in each area.

Both my girls love London - I've been to London/England twice with my 18 year old daughter (and once with my 21 year old daughter.)

You could easily spend all 8 days in London, with maybe a day trip or two We've done Oxford, but you could also do Windsor, Hampton Court, Greenwich. Even Bath or York could be done as day trips.

My 18 year old loved York, which we did as an overnight. We found it quite crowded during the day, but the crowds thin in the evenings. I got up early in the morning and had the Shambles all to myself. York Minster is amazing - a huge collection of original stained glass. If you go, don't miss the undercroft for excavations of the original Roman structures. You can walk the original city walls.

Sorry, I was writing while janisj was posting. Her suggestions, as always, are great and based on lots of experience.

i agree all the suggestions are good.
i have been to england 4 or 5 times (england is a small country but sooo much to see). London is a great city, and short day trips to Oxford, Hampton Court are fun. If I had to chose between Bath and the Cotswolds, I would choose the Cotswolds which is not too far from Oxford. You could visit the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon which is a beautiful city. It might be worth it to rent a car just for the day so you could toodle around the Cotswolds which is like the England you imagine in the picture books. I also loved York but it of course, is quite a bit further north - but worth the effort.
have a great trip! whichever side trips you decide on you can't go wrong.
you'll have a great time.

I would do London (with day trips) or London and York(with day trips from York..not London). Remember much of the Cotswalds are rural and it is nice to have a car.

All suggestions are good but I would seriously recomend a car for the cotswolds and york, buses and trains do not always take you to the nicest places AND are few and far between

Getting from Bath to Stratford without a car is a real pain, usually taking around 3.5 hours, three changes of train and a change of station (either by taxi or on foot) in Birmingham.

Getting from Bath to York isn't a great deal easier. Without a car, Bath and Oxford make sense, and a one or two day trip from London to York makes sense. You DON'T need a car to see York (indeed a car is a positive liability), where there's more than enough to fill a few days.

But without a car, you miss real exposure to the Cotswold or Yorkshire Dale scenery and villages. I'm not aware of satisfactory organised tours around the local countryside from Bath or York, though others might be.

Hi,

If you choose Bath, there is a little company in Bath called Mad Max (www.madmaxtours.com) that uses a mini bus to give tours of the Cotswolds and/or Stonehenge. One is an all day trip to several small villages. The other spends part of the morning at Stonehenge and the rest of the day in the Cotswolds. We did not feel rushed and had plenty of time for walking and for lunch in one of the villages.

Something else I highly recommend is Blenheim Palace, just outside of Oxford. It is gorgeous, with amazing grounds.

I agree trying to do both the Bath and York areas sounds like too much travel for the short time.
I would think your daughter would be interested in seeing either Oxford or Cambridge. Oxford makes more sense geographically if you are going to Bath

If you were interested in York because of the cathedral, you might want to consider Canterbury as an alternative close to London

Thank you all for the advice. I have not been outside London and wasn't sure what was reasonable for 4 days. We will either use Bath as a base and take the Mad Max tour to the Cotswalds and the train to Oxford or go straight to York and take some day trips from there. We are looking forward to it.

This might not work for you, but, depending on the time of arrival from SFO-I usually take UA's 6:30/7:30 getting in 12:30pm or BA's 4:30, arriving 10:30 am. I did take UA's noon flight once getting in at 6:00 am or so, and never again!! In any event I would arrange for a private car pickup at Heathrow direct to Kings Cross train station. Also, knowing my love of train travel I would either pre-purchase tickets or a Britrail pass to cut cost and make travel a bit easier. York has many nice B&B in you price range. My most favorite is Four Seasons B&B. Last Noverber I stayed at St. Mary's B&B, a four star place for only 35 pounds per night for a single, thats about $70. Let me know if I can be of help, Also, from York you are onlu a short ride to Durham and Edinburgh.

UK trains are a great way to go to all these places, even the Cotswolds, at least to get there.

like Rogerdodger says either do the online discount fares (www.nationalrail.co.uk) or investigate the BritEngland railpass (cheaper than a BritRail pass which would cover Wales and Scotland as well but you're not going there so just dwell on the fairly new BritEngland pass)

Value of a pass is that walk up tickets, as you'll find on nationalrail.co.uk can be sky high and the pass can be used an any train in England anytime without formality 0 just board. You can often make reservations free if you want up until the night before if you want. But for your trip, walk up flexibility that pass should be a great deal. You can cut costs by doing the non-refundable non-changeable (largely) online discount routes. For current prices and any questions i always refer folks to BETS (www.budgeteuropetravel.com; 800-441-2387 for their expertise and tremendous service) on their site ask for their free European Planning & Rail Guide that has a good chapter on British trains and the places you're going to. www.ricksteves.com also has great info on this and he also covers bus travel in UK, which can be very cheap but take much longer and not as comfy as the train IMO. And you can try www.britrail.com

since your dauger is 18 she gets a cheaper Youth England pass, which is hard to beat if you do the travel you expect. passes also valid on Heathrow and Gatwick Express airport trains.

I'm endorsing the Bath/Oxford or York only options. From York, you could do a daytrip to Durham on the train, see the cathedral. Tickets about 20GBP.

Durham Cathedral is one of my favorites. As stated above, it is a quick trip from York and well worth it IMO.

Right by the York station is the National Railway Museum, perhaps the world's finest such collection of railway memorabilia including many train cars, engines, etc. And this is a very popular excursion for families with lots of kid-oriented interactions.

Best of all free - take special walkway from York station to museum.

As for crowds in York - Saturdays the town is mobbed as it's shopping mecca for the region.

Check out famous Betty's Tea Shoppe on the main pedestrian drag - Uber famous and popular - look in the windows at the ornate glassy decor if nothing else and ogle the mouth-watering pastries.

<<< Betty's Tea Shoppe >>>

Please tell me they haven't renamed it as that

Is (and always has been as far as I know) "Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms"