freetogo

I need some help figuring out where my wife and I might establish touring bases during a six-day period on our mid-September trip to England. We are spending 5 days in London (where we've been before), then 5 days in Bath (where we've never been). We'll be taking a day trip from London (Oxford, Stratford, Warwick Castle) and day trips from Bath (Chawton, Winchester, and The Cotswalds). We love history, architecture, and seeing historical sites and museums (especially English, not so much Roman). Here's the rub: We will be using public transportation only by determined preference, no cars. As seasoned travelers, we find it works wonderfully if we're in one place for at least 3 days. Since we have six days, we could be in two places during that period, or just one. So in looking for a town or city to base for that period of time, we could spend it entirely within city limits, or by taking day trips on public transportation out of town (e.g. to Blenheim Palace from Oxford). Does anybody have suggestions for where to locate that would have enough history, enough sights, and enough potential day trips that would work? If it might make a difference, we're going to Dublin via the ferry leaving from Holyhead at the end of our England visit.

I'd greatly appreciate any and all suggestions.

janisj

York for sure. The city is wonderful plus there are local buses and tours to paces like Castle Howard, Fountains Abbey, etc. Then There are places like Thirsk (James Herriot connections) or Durham reachable by train.

Or maybe Lymington in the New Forest - day trips to the Isle of Wight, Beaulieu, etc.

VirginiaC

York is one of our favorites.

Since you're heading for Holyhead, you might want to consider spending some time in North Wales. We parked ourselves in Bangor for a few days and visited Conwy, Caernarfon and Beaumarais. We traveled to Bangor by train and cabbed to our castle destinations. There are probably more economical ways to do it and possibly more interesting cities in which to stay, but it was most centrally located for the three castles we wanted to visit.

Bangor is about a 4 hour train trip from York, with one or two changes, less from London with direct service. Bangor is about a half hour from Holyhead.

Grindeldoo

Perhaps Manchester or Liverpool? Both have interesting art galleries (the Tate and Walker galleries in Liverpool, the Manchester Art Gallery and the Lowry Gallery just over the river in Salford for Manchester), and easy access to other places in the area, such as Chester. Since Chester itself is connected to both by train it could be an alternative.

alanRow

<I>We'll be taking a day trip from London (Oxford, Stratford, Warwick Castle) and day trips from Bath (Chawton, Winchester, and The Cotswalds). </I>

You would do better staying in Oxford for a couple of nights for SuA, Warwick and the Cotswolds - travelling from Bath to the Cotswolds makes no sense

janisj

Oh - I completely overlooked the ferry bit. North Wales would be very good . . . It isn't England however (I took your title literally)

freetogo

janisj and VirginiaC... Good suggestions, as I had wondered about using York as a base. It seemed like a possible, but I wasn't certain about it. Your encouragement gives me more confidence.

Grindledoo.... Thanks for the ideas about Manchester and Liverpool. They make sense in many ways, but we'd like to stay out of the bigger cities, due to metropolis fatigue as a result of our last few trips to Europe.

alanRow........... Contra to your suggestion, our Cotswalds tour from Bath is booked. Basing in Oxford is attractive. Do you think that we could find enough to do/see without a trip to the Cotswalds?

Thanks, all.

Smeagol

Well Stratford and Warwick are about 10 miles apart so you could do both of those in one day , you could then do the Cotswolds ( note spelling it's cotswOlds - just may help you better if you put it in search engine) another day

Although that said there is a direct route from London Marylebone station to Warwick ( 1hour 20 minutes by train) so that may be easier than say from Oxford. ( but am sure there would be a direct train too to saybStratford upon Avon. I would look at the options before deciding where to base my self but agree with Alan, Oxford seems like a more sensible option than Bath.

Hooameye

"( note spelling it's cotswOlds - just may help you better if you put it in search engine) another day"

My thoughts as well but just out of interest I put the Cotswalds into Google and it corrects it to the Cotswolds (well it is an American website).

bilboburgler

you may find this public transport tool very useful
http://www.transportdirect.info/Web2...epeatingloop=Y

annhig

if you weren't staying in Bath already, I would have suggested staying in Bristol.

loads to do in and around the city and buses to almost anywhere you'd want to go.

VirginiaC

If you decide to base yourself in York, consider taking the half hour train trip to Leeds to visit the Royal Armouries Museum. All kinds of neat weapons plus demonstrations of falconry, jousting, dueling et al.

If these things interest you, it's a great way to spend a day.

flanneruk

"Oxford seems like a more sensible option than Bath."

If you're relying entirely on public transport, such judgements depend on your precise itinerary, timetable and budget - which may in turn be influenced by where you're staying.

The best places to stay for public transport connections are by a million zillion miles the larger cities, especially London, Birmingham and Leeds. The past decade has seen an enormous boom in cheapish urban hotels, and these are now usually dramatically cheaper in the larger cities than in heritage towns like Oxford and Bath (and to a lesser extent places like York), where building restrictions can often inflate hotel prices to central London levels. On a budget, I'd infinitely prefer staying in a Travelodge in the middle of Birmingham or Liverpool, within walking distance of railway stations, restaurants and art galleries and surrounded by magnificent Victorian extravaganzas, than in a pricier Legoland box on Oxford's dismal ring road, over half an hour by bus from its station and medieval buildings.

Bath has by far the best railway connections of any heritage town in Britain: Oxford has extraordinary (and extraordinarily cheap) bus and train links to London and all airports in SE England, but limited railway connections elsewhere. With a couple of exceptions (like getting to Stonehenge from Salisbury and to Blenheim from Oxford), local bus connections from heritage towns to nearish visitor attractions are limited and surprisingly infrequent.

There aren't railway station websites with lists of connections, in the way airports have them. But go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and type a city name in the "Live departures" box at the bottom left. Press "Show" and a set of departures comes up: press "Details" opposite each departure and the list of stations it stops at comes up: a wider range of connections appears if you try "arrivals". For Birmingham, select between New St, Moor St and Snow Hill, all with different connections and easily accessible from the centre. For Liverpool, select Lime St: for Manchester select Piccadilly

chartley

"Bath has by far the best railway connections of any heritage town in Britain"

Flanner usually gives sound advice, but I have to disagree with him on this. Bath has regular longish-distance direct trains, at least every hour, to London, Portsmouth, Salisbury, Cardiff and Weymouth (this last generally an all-stations stopper). For other destinations, you have to go via Bristol, so your journey may start with 15 minutes on a crowded commuter train.

York, on the other hand, can offer frequent direct trains to London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter and the south-west, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and many more.

Oxford also has direct trains to London, Worcester, Birmingham, Manchester, York, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Southampton and all points in between.

flanneruk

"Bath has regular longish-distance direct trains, at least every hour, to London, Portsmouth, Salisbury, Cardiff and Weymouth.

And Cheltenham, Salisbury, Bradford on Avon, Castle Cary, Yeovil, Great Malvern and Worcester and a dozen other visitable Westish country beauty spots..

Bath is one of the very few smaller cities in Britain with a credible LOCAL railway network. Oxford saw most of its dug up in the 1960s, before it had the good fortune to have the head of British Railways live in its hinterland and save what remained.

Getting to York or Bournemouth is of limited value if you want to tour the nearby countryside, and the bus network doesn't let you.

stevelyon

What about Chester - not a patch on York, but interesting enough, and nearing towards Holyhead. Anglesey in itself is delightful. There are some lovely pubs/hotels you could stay at on Anglesey.

Im not a big fan of Manchester, despite living there.

freetogo

Thank you everybody. You've been very helpful in pointing us in the direction of York and Oxford as our bases. I'm deeply appreciative. Thanks for saving us a lot of guessing, and, possibly, a less than satisfying time for our six days at liberty.