MelissaBeckoff

These are the day trips that I have selected to do while we are in London. we are a family of four, 2 adults 2 older children 11 & 14.
Please let me know if I should add any trips
Can any be combined?
Bath
canterbury
dover castle
greenwich
leeds castle
sailsbury & stonehenge
stratforf upon avon
windsor & eton

Melissa

amarc

we are going to London for 6 days in August. Take a look at the Virgin Atlantic Web Page. Follow the steps for booking a trip to London and, after selecting hotels, look at the various options for day trips.
We are, in 3 separate trips, seeing Canterbury, Warwick, Dover, Greeenwhich, Statford on Avon, Stonehenge, Oxford, Bath, Leeds Castle, Windsor Castle.

I have booked these, along with the trip, ahead of time & glad I did. I have already recieved my trip documents. by doing this I have avoided fuel adjustment fees for the flight & have pre paid for my day trips in dollars. We spaced out these long days with days in London to break up the pace.

PalQ

All the day trips are fine - just to make sure you know about the Days Out of London Pass - a bargain for what you are planning to do especially since you kids get a free pass equal to what each adult buys.
The pass: 2, 4 and 7 days out of 8 or 15 days - unlimited train travel throughout southeast England- about 100 mile radius of London
2 days out of 8 $70 p.p
4 days out of 8 $132 p.p.
7 days of 15 $176 p.p.
and each child 5-15 gets a free pass equal to what adult buys - this is one reason the pass is a boon to you.
No restrictions on times, etc. any train any time just hop on. Good from Gatwick Airport on trains but not on Heathrow Express. And not on the Paddington-Bath line at all - otherwise good to all over destinations you have exc Stratford is just outside the bounds so you'd have to buy supplemental ticket of a few bucks to add on to the pass.
check www.nationalrail.co.uk for ordinary fares to compare.
(For larger parties the pass has a Party Pass where the 3rd thru 9th adult pays only 50% of what the first two pay)
From Nov thru Feb the London Plus Pass prices above are 25% off - an even better bargain.
Not sold in UK - only marketed thru RailEurope in US - for current prices, questions i always recommend BETS - www.budgeteuropetravel.com for their expertise - pass prices on their web site. They also don't charge RE's $15 mailing fee.
You may also want the Great British Heritage Pass since you're going to so many pricey castles and sights- 4 straight days $51 - 7 straight $71
The six Stratford Shakespeare properties are all covered and cost about $25 themselves - Roman Baths and Pump Room in Bath $20 - Windsor Castle another $20, Eaton College another several bucks to go in the quads - in London St Pauls Cathedral ($10), Shakespeare's Globe Theatre $17, Tower Bridge $10, Stonehenge $10, etc. Can also buy thru BETS or RE - as cheap as buying in UK i think because don't pay VAT here and no need to go pick up - also used to fast track entry at Windsor Castle rather than waiting in line.
Which can be combined? Leeds Castle and Canterbury and Canterby and Dover (easier to comine these two) Greenwich could be twinned with Leeds Castle near Madistone.
Windsor and Eaton just opposite Windsor Castle, which isn't on your list
possible to combine Bath with Salisbury (Stonehenge as there is a direct train between them and on this route most of it is covered by the London Plus Pass - but not on the more direct faster route from Paddington in London. But would be a long day to twin these in this way- with Stonehenge i think Salisbury itself is a fine city with a fine cathedral and should be explored for its other sweet attractions such as the classic walk thru the cow meadows for the glimpse of the soaring Salisbury cathedral towers immortalized on canvas by Turner (?) or Constable, one or the other.

PalQ

Or yeh like the poster above there are bus excursions that in three separate days could take you to all these - they run about $100 per day per person but not sure about child rates. RailEurope also sells these, and BETS of course thru them. 800-441-2387 for details. Can save money on train, esp with free kids passes but bus excursions have obvious benefits - and drawbacks - early morning departures and late back arrivals and obviously no possibility to linger where want. But an effortless way to see several fine sights.

Morgana

How about a trip to York? Trains from Kings Cross run regularly (GNER service), and there is much to see in this beautiful city in the north of England. The train station is very close to the city centre (a few minutes walk).
The Minster itself is worth the trip!
If you do a search on here you will see lots about day trips to York. Or look at www.york-tourism.co.uk
M

MelissaBeckoff

we will be in london for 16 nights and i have picked 8 day trips.is this too much time out of london?
will it leave us enough time to really see london?
should i just alternate a day in london with a day trip?
melissa

jsmith

Without knowing your arrangements in London nor whaether you are willing to drive in the UK, not London, I suggest you consider renting a car for some of your trips.

You could easily drive from Heathrow to Winchester/Salisbury/Stonehenge for an overnight stay. I enjoy both Salisbury and Winchester but the latter would be my first choice.

The next day travel to Bath for another overnighter with maybe a visit to Stourhead/Longleat. The Safari Park should appeal to the kids.

The third night and day you could spend at Warwick/Stratford.

The fourth day head back to Heathrow/London with a stop at Blenheim/Oxford.

Another excursion would be Rochester/Leeds Castle/Canterbury with an overnight in Canterbury.

The second day go to Dover and then follow the coast road towards Brighton. You can stop at Battle (of Hastings) and the spectacular Beachy Head.

The third day at Brighton would be another experience of Britain - the seashore/pier and the Royal Pavilion.

You could drop the car at Gatwick.

You could consider doing these as bookends to your time in London.

Have fun.

jsmith

Forgot to mention how easy it is to do trips to Greenwich and Windsor. Take the boatride from Westminster Pier to Greenwich and return by walking under the Thames to Island Gardens, the London Light Railway to Canary Wharf and then the tube.

Lot of info elsewhere on getting to Windsor for the castle and Eton.

janisj

What I wouldn't like about your plan is this: London has the most expensive accomodations in the whole country - yet you are using London as a base to spend 8 days elsewhere. Plus for each day trip you spend quite a bit of time just traveling to/from.

It would make more sense both budget and time-wise to spemd 7, 8 or 9 days IN London and a week out in the country touring by car and staying in B&Bs. It would save you hundreds of £ over daily guided tours from London and let you see more.

For instance - Take the train to Gatwick, pick up a rental car and drive into Kent for Leeds (WHY is this place so popular - but never mind), Canterbury and Dover. This a full two days worth so an overnight or 2 in Kent somewhere.

Then drive over to Salisbury (visiting more lovely castles/gardens enroute). Stay the night in Salisbury and visit the Cathedral, etc. next morning to Stonehenge and then on to Bath for another overnight.

Then up through the Cotswolds staying somewhere like Broadway or Chipping Campden fro 2 nights (one day for the Cotswolds and one for Warwick/Stratford)

Then SE to Windsor, drop the car at Heathrow and either fly out of there or take public transport back into London for the last day or so before leaving.

An itinerary like this would save you a TON of money and avoids all the backtracking from/to London 8 times.

Greenwich is actually IN London so isn't really a "day trip" as such since you can get there by tube, river boat or light rail.

janisj

jsmith's post wasn't there when I started mime - but we are sort of on the same wave length.

Doing 8 day trips out of London will be extremely expensive and not very efficient . . . .

jgg

I agree with jsmith. Instead of doing daytrips consider staying over night for several days outside of the city in a location where you can see several of those things. I just think doing them all from London would be a lot of extra driving and early mornings.

We just spent a week in London with a daytrip (on a tour) to Oxford/Stratford-Upon-Avon/Warwick Castle, then one day we did a 1/2 daytrip by train to Hampton Court. Our kids are 10 & 13. Here is the link to my report ifi you are interested: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34786762

With 16 days I think I would stay in the countryside for part of the time.

jgg

janisj and I were posting at the same time - but sounds like were are giving the same advice!

Bill_I

Another possible day trip, which both you & the kids might like - is to Portsmouth. There are a couple of historical ships, including the HMS Victory, which was the ship that Lord Nelson was killed on at the battle of Trafalgar, that you can actually go on & tour. There is also the restoration of the Mary Rose - Henry the VIII flagship, going on which you can view. My kids loved this, & those ships are really quite something to see. There are also boat rides that you can take around the bay & you can get glimpses of the modern navy ships that may be in port. Portsmouth is an easy train ride from London. & the ships are just a short walk from the train station.

MelissaBeckoff

I do agree that taking the day trips from london is going to take alot of time and money but if neither my husband nor myself will drive; where does that leave us except to stay in london and take day trips?
I am certainly open to suggestions as I have not booked my london lodging yet.
melissa

janisj

Is there a reason you won't consider driving? Millions of visitors do it successfully every year.

If you are dead seat against driving - then you may be better suited to a guided tour of the UK. (Lordy, I can't believe I said that). But paying a huge premium to stay in London when you realy want to see vast areas of southern England is inefficinet and super expensive.

MelissaBeckoff

to begin with,
the driving on the other side of the road issue as well as the stick shift.
Neither my husband nor myself know how to drive a standard.
melissa

janisj

Then rent an automatic . . . .

MelissaBeckoff

what about the side of the road issue as well as the price of gas?

vcl

Melissa:
We're with you on the not driving. Don't let anyone make you feel like a wuss because you choose not to spend any part of your vacation doing something that makes you uncomfortable. We've visited Great Britain more than a dozen times -- usually staying a month at a clip -- and have never rented a car. (We did rent a car once in Ireland; the highlight of that trip was turning it back in.) On our last seven visits, we've rented an apartment in Kensington for about $100 a night and used that as our base. It's not luxurious but at that price we can leave our luggage and spend a couple of nights out of town. We usually spring for Britrail flex passes and use them to go down to Wales and Cornwall or up to York for a couple of days.
You've put together a good day trip list. I might suggest skipping Stratford unless you are Shakespeare fanatics. The people of the town have managed to put a price on anything and everything that begins with "S;" I wouldn't be surprised if there's a premium to pay if you want salt for your chips. On the other hand, the Royal Armouries in Leeds have a wonderful collection of things that go clang and bang and such delights as fencing and archery demonstrations are included in the price of admission.
Brighton is a fine old seaside city with a fascinating royal pavillion and an old-fashioned amusement pier. It's an hour out of London by train.
Cambridge with its beautiful colleges and wonderful bookstores is another of mh favorite places. Your children would love trying out a punt on the Cam or just watching other punters get stuck or fall in. (You can hire a professional oarsman.)
In London, leave plenty of time for serendipity. Stroll through the parks, watch the buskers in Covent Garden. Go to a lunchtime concert at St. Martin in the Fields -- the concerts are free and last about an hour. Poke about in the markets at St. Martin's and St. James Picadilly.
If there's something you really want to see, splurge on a car and driver. On our first trip (with our daughter, then 14, and one of her friends) we used a car and driver for a day out at Bath and Stonehenge with a side trip to Castle Coombe, one of the prettiest villages in England. Our daughter must have been impressed. She grew up to be a travel agent.
Have a wonderful trip.

janisj

&quot;<i>what about the side of the road issue as well as the price of gas?</i>&quot;

Trust me - you get used to the &quot;side of the road issue&quot; in about 10-15 miles.

And even w/ the price of petrol, renting a car and staying in B&amp;Bs would be MUCH cheaper than paying for guided tours and London lodging.

If you are competent drivers at home you will do fine in England. You wouldn't be driving in any major cities.

You could do your plan by rail/bus. It would cost more and you would be at the mercy of train schedules and have to schlepp your bags everywhere w/ you. And you would not have the flexibility to go where you want when you want - but it would still be better than trying it w/ London as a base.