jobya

Hi all! My husband and I along with our baby (who will be 9 months when we travel) are planning a trip to England end of June this year. Our plan is to stay in Bath for 4 nights and the Cotswolds for another 4 nights. Our first stop is Bath, so we're thinking of flying in to Bristol. This is our first time travelling with a baby, so we'd like it to be as stress-free as possible. So, I thought it would be best to ask for advice:

- Where should we rent the car from? Bristol airport or Bath? My husband prefers to drive as little as possible so I thought perhaps we should just take a cab from the airport to give him a chance to rest for a day before having to tackle driving on the left side. ...BUT, do you think it would be more stressful beginning to drive in Bath? (Note that we'll be arriving on Thursday morning, 24th June)

- Coming from the Cotswolds, where should we fly from to go home to the US? I know that Birmingham airport is closer, but I heard Bristol is not that far either. Which airport would be easier to drive to? Note that we're thinking of staying at a B&B in Broadway during our time in the Cotswolds. Note also that we'd be leaving very early on Friday morning, 2nd July.

Thanks in advance for you help.

Joby

julia_t

Probably the easiest way of getting from Bristol to Bath is the shuttle bus to the station in Bristol and the train right into the middle of Bath.
You won't need a car in Bath and parking is tricky unless your hotel/B&B can offer free parking. Anyway after a long overnight flight you shouldn't really drive in heavy traffic anyway.

However if you have a baby with pushchair and large suitcases then lugging these onto the bus and then on and off the train, you'd maybe be better off having a car from the start. Though driving through Bristol isn't the easiest option either. And it will take you a minimum of one hour to get to Bath. That's a big taxi fare.

Frankly you'd almost be better to fly into Heathrow from which it is easy to drive away, then it's barely 2 hours to Bath along the motorway. The drive into Bath from that direction, the A46, is (IMO) preferable to driving into Bath from Bristol.

Birmingham airport is a bit closer to the north Cotswolds, but an hour more would get you back to Heathrow. From Broadway it will take you as long, if not longer to get to Bristol Airport as Heathrow.

Looking back at this reply it may seem a bit muddled, but I've topped this now and hopefully others will see it and post advice.

bilboburgler

Good questions. You really don't need/want a car in Bath but its a small town so I expect you will want to day trips out. In that case it doesn't matter but you will want a hotel with parking.

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk is a pretty good web site. Taxi to Bath would be "way high". If you use this web site they can quote you. Train and bus links are also shown. You might like to get a train central Bristol to Bath if the drving is too much. Again links on this or in www.thetrainline.co.uk will help

Broadway to the airport I suggest google it, but check the time required to check in

sap

Joby, this all partially depends on your departure city because that affects the length of your flight and the amount of jet lag you'll be dealing with as you drive that first day or two. I agree with Julia that flying into Heathrow is a good option, but you might want to consider spending the night before renting a car and heading out into the country for a two-plus-hour drive.

If you do decide to make the drive from Heathrow, you can rent your car the next morning, stop at Stonehenge and/or the pretty town of Salisbury on the way to stretch your legs and get to your place in Bath by the late afternoon. We stayed at a B&B in Bathford and left our car there while we took the bus into Bath for a daytrip. Spending more time in Bath is recommended and we wish we had. It is a lovely city, though you'll definitely want to avoid driving in it.

I can't help you too much on the other end. After our five days in the Cotswolds, we looped back through Oxford and Windsor before dropping the car off and flying out of Heathrow again. You could drop your car off in the nearest town from your Cotswolds B&B and then take a train back to Heathrow to fly out. That last decision really depends on where in the Cotswolds you are based on your last day.

flanneruk

Assuming you're travelling from North America:

1. Don't even dream of driving on the proper side of the road, in the developed world's most congested country, after an overnight flight with 5-hour or more time change.

2. Bristol is the nearest airport for Bath - but is it the most convenient airport for any American, even if they live next door to a train to EWR? Heathrow has dozens of flights a day from everywhere in North America, and frequent buses to Bath. Bristol has at most one flight a day from Newark. The chances are that, even from Noo Joisy, a route via Heathrow will be cheaper.

3. Once you're used to the car, from Broadway Birmingham is marginally the easiest place to leave from, though I regularly catch transatlantic flights round 10-11 from Heathrow, leaving the North Cotswolds round 0630.

There's scarcely a convenient town to drop a car off in and train it to an airport: if you've got a car anyway, it'll always take longer by train to LHR or BHX than by car.

janisj

Since you haven't bought your tix yet -- check out the best schedules. But as mentioned above, the easiest airport really is heathrow. What would probably work best if you have an extra day to play w/ would be to fly into LHR, pick up a car and drive 7 miles to Windsor. (or take a taxi to Windsor and collect your car the next day)

Rest/relax and see Windsor. Then drive to Bath the next morning. After Bath drive up into the Cotswolds. Fly home from Birmingham only if the schedule/fare are better. Otherwise, fly home from LHR -- it is VERY easy to get to from the Cotswolds.

If you don't have an extra day -- then do the same thing, only do Windsor 1 night, Bath 3 and the Cotswolds 4. For Bath either make sure to book a place that has parking included, or stay in an outlying village B&B and do Bath as a day trip using a park and ride lot.

jobya

The nearest airport to our home town is Newark (EWR); we live in New Jersey (aka Noo Joisy I just checked Expedia and roundtrip fares to Bristol, Birmingham and Heathrow from Newark aren't too different.

Sounds like flying to Heathrow makes the most sense, so that's what we'll do. The B&B we chose in Bath does have off street parking and is located near Henrietta Park. We plan to just walk to city centre when sightseeing in Bath and use the car only for day trips.

Janisj, your advice to stay in Windsor sounds like a good idea. We'd prefer to take a taxi from Heathrow and just rent a car the next day. Do we rent a car from Windsor or should we go back to Heathrow?

Stopping at Stonehenge / Avebury / Salisbury on the way to Bath also sounds like a great plan!

Thanks everyone for you advice! I know I'll have more questions as we get closer to the date, but I have to do more research and narrow down the places we'd like to visit.

Joby

sap

If you make those stops on the way to Bath, keep in mind that you'll have to choose between Stonehenge/Avebury OR Stonehenge/Salisbury. You won't be able to do all three, 1) Because Stonehenge is crowded practically from dawn to dusk (get there near opening if you can) and 2) Avebury and Salisbury are in opposite directions from each other and (without looking back at the map) I seem to recall that you would end up taking different roads into Bath from each. Frankly, I'd pick Salisbury over Stonehenge if it comes down to just one.

Another alternative is to take the train to Bath and rent the car there, but you'd miss the aforementioned sites and have to deal with luggage & a baby.

I don't know if you have driven in England before, but in the event you haven't, you might want to note that we actually found driving on the slightly wider roads heading out from Heathrow helped us gradually adjust to driving on the other side of the road (well, enough not get us killed headed into oncoming traffic). By the time we got to the tiny little medieval strees in the Cotswolds, I had stopped clutching the door,stomping my foot on the floor and screaming every time we narrowly missed a hedge or stone wall. Even the towns around Bath have itty-bitty streets and the locals drive like a bat out of hell on the narrow country lanes which look like they were built for carriages yesterday. There is no such thing as right of way for anyone entering. That and the roundabouts were surprisingly much harder than we thought they would be! Of course, if you've read these forums, you probably know this already. Our experience is not exactly unique.

We were finally just figuring it out when we dropped the car back off three weeks later. (I still remember the calm, charming English female voice on our GPS: "Second roundabout, first exit" while we frantically scanned the map and scrambled to figure out what to do in the next few seconds. When we had to turn around in a field after missing an exit, she'd say, "Please make a legal U-turn." If she were human, my husband would have strangled her.

That being said, I HIGHLY recommend the GPS in addition to maps and notes. The Cotswolds are seriously, utterly gorgeous and the only way to see them is by "motoring."

janisj

"keep in mind that you'll have to choose between Stonehenge/Avebury OR Stonehenge/Salisbury. "

I don't agree at all. Windsor > Avebury > Stonehenge > Salisbury > Bath is a very doable day. Not to have any free time in Bath - but just to see the 3 sites enroute there. The crowds or lack ther of at Stonehenge really don't impact your schedule all that much.

"There is no such thing as right of way for anyone entering."

?? Not quite sure what you mean by that. Like most places, one waits for an opening/break to enter.

As for where to rent the car. All the usual suspects are at LHR so if you have a favorite agency, you can rent from there.

In Windsor - here is a local agency - you'd have to return the car to Windsor -- but they would drop you off at LHR. http://www.baldockscarhire.co.uk/

sap

Janisj: You might be right of course about tackling those sites all in one day. We ourselves ran out of time, but it may be entirely possible. I was certainly sorry that we missed Avebury. We had wanted to go back later and were not able to do so.

Regarding the right-of-way issue, that is merely a British versus North American custom I was pointing out to a compatriot. I had casually read it somewhere and forgot about it until it was more starkly encountered first-hand while we were there. When entering a freeway here without a designated stop sign, the person entering to merge is theoretically supposed to be given the right of way. In England, the cars already on the freeway are given that right and an entering driver does have to learn to "wait for an opening/break to enter." It is just something one doesn't usually think about that needs to be considered among the other unfamiliarities, i.e. you needs to develop a more "defensive" state of mind. My guess is that Europe in general is that way and it's just a minor cultural quirk that the U.S. does it differently. Well -- minor until the confusion causes an accident.

Jobya: Not to overwhelm you as you're planning, but do consider a trip to Windsor Castle if you're there. It really is an interesting, historical place that helps capture the essence of England. I only spent one day there, but wish it had been two so I could have seen more of the Great Park and surrounds It was built by William the Conqueror and has been continually occupied by the Royals to this day. I seem to recall it's the longest continually-occupied castle in Europe. Also, I don't know how much time you'll have, but a little roundtrip boat ride on the Thames is a very pleasant interlude in the summer.

chartley

I think that the main difference between driving in the U.S. and driving in Europe is that American driving is much more regulated. Driving in Europe is less formal, with all drivers trying to cooperate in order to keep the traffic flow moving.

You will therefore see fewer Stop signs. You should not stop before entering a roundabout unless there is other traffic coming round. You are expected to change lanes to enable other people to enter the traffic stream.

Going all the way round a roundabout not normal, and generally only an option if you want to go back the way you have come.

janisj

" . . . the person entering to merge is theoretically supposed to be given the right of way."

Not sure where you live/drive normally. But the folks in the flow of traffic have the right of way where I live . . . . .

The CA Driver Handbook states that when merging, "freeway traffic has the right of way". Same most places I've driven -- and it only makes sense since they are usually traveling a higher speeds. You either need to speed up to merge into the flow w/o them having to brake -- or you wait for a gap in the traffic.

In practical terms tho' when an on-ramp merges w/ a freeway lane you just sort of work it out -- a combination of the right speed, a gap, and give/take by both drivers. Just common sense and driving smarts . . . .

In fact it is generally MUCH easier to enter a UK motorway than a CA freeway. In the UK, if it is possible, folks tend to move over one lane when approaching an on ramp, freeing up lots of space to merge.

sap

All that being said, our own experience coming from the San Francisco Bay Area where we have lived for 25 and 60 years, respectively, was that it was much harder to merge onto the freeways in England. Traffic seemed faster, more aggressive and less compromising to us than any of the CA cities, including L.A., but that could have just been because my DH was nervous and still adjusting to the other-side-of-the-road thing. Someone nearly ran us off the road one day on the way to Oxford and our B&B host told us that was not uncommon. I loved England & the Brits, though, so that was our only negative experience. BTW, DH is not a slow driver by any means, so it wasn't that.

bilboburgler

You will find that attitudes vary, down near London road space is at a premium and people tend to drive more aggresivley. Come to Yourkshire and the attitude is more friendly