europeannovice

I started this thread before but it was posted in the wrong place and I think disappeared.

Trying to still sort out how much time is needed to explore the following:

Dover Castle--told approximately 5 hours or so to do it justice

Sissinghurst--???

Deal and Walmer--about an hour each?

Petworth?

Wisley???

Penshurst???

Knole???

I know they would be approximations but looking for a general guideline. Thanks.

nytraveler

How are you planning on getting from one place to another?

And who/how many are you? (Kids or elderly can slow things down a lot.)

MmePerdu

The older thread is here:
http://fodors.com/community/europe/m...-questions.cfm

My answer there:
In the context of a day's visiting I like to schedule a half day for each of the houses/gardens, including the drive between places and lunch at one or the other. So, generally speaking, a morning at one and the afternoon at another, assuming you still plan to have a car. Do keep in mind the particular opening times (and days) for each.

What I didn't say was that I've been known to spend most of a day at Sissinghurst alone. I think it's a good idea to not schedule yourself too tightly beforehand in case one place does peek your interest particularly. You don't want to feel rushed.

europeannovice

We do plan to have a car. The we are my DH, DS and myself. We just want to use the car the least possible amount of time since we find it a bit nerve wracking driving on the other side of the road. So where we can go someplace using public transport easily we will opt to do so and leave the car at the hotel or B&B and where it only makes sense to have the car we will do that.

I don't want to over plan and have too many things listed in a day. Some things clearly take more time than others and I'd like to get a better handle on which ones would take up more time vs. less. Some of the places I think only require about an hour or two of exploration and that is enough. Others demand more time and attention and I want to sort out which ones are those.

Should I expect Sissinghurst to take between 2-3 hours then? However, Deal and Walmer only an hour or so? Etc. Etc.

Janisj provided an excellent grouping of places by day but I'm afraid if I list all three such as Hever, Chartwell and Penshurst, we would only have time to explore two and something gets left out. I want to ensure we go to the top two if that is the case or plan to spread things out more leisurely.

MmePerdu

Really, who can say which will strike your fancy and take longer. Travel in general and visiting places like these specifically is just so ideosyncratic that, while a general plan is good, I feel you must give yourself the time to enjoy at length those that you find you particular love and and know when emotionally or esthetically a place is a dud for you and time to move on. That's why it makes sense to try to use the car as much as possible so you can leave or otherwise adjust your schedule on short notice. No time wasted backtracking or trying to get somewhere unexpectedly by public transport, or why have the car? In other words, the car allows some flow to a day on which you decide spontaneously to do more or less and no watching the clock for departures or trying to figure out if you can, in fact, change your mind (how I do go on).

janisj

The reason I grouped those three together is because they are very near each other and easy to do in one day - Hever taking longer than the other two. Other three-fers are possible if they are near enough. sissinghurst/Scotney/Bodiam is another, Sissinghurst needing the most time.

However your idea to use public transport even though you'll have a car messes things up quite a bit. Using buses will mean you might only get to one major site a day. Trust us - for what you want to see and do, driving is much MUCH better/easier.

europeannovice

Well you haven't steered us wrong yet, so we might as well use the car since we will have it That way we can hopefully get to see most of the places on my very long list.

People had recommended at least three hours for the Tower of London and we spent about 5 there. The consensus was a half day for Hampton Court Palace and we spent most of the day there too. Just trying to determine rough estimates of time needed for each of the places so I allot the right number of days too. Thanks everyone.