Castles to visit from Gatwick?
 

We have a whole day at Gatwick Airport, staying overnight at the Sofitel. We are trying to decide whether to hire a car to take us either to Bodiam Castle or to Arundel, or whether to take the train into London. We were in London last summer for a week and loved it. This time, we are on our way to Italy. Just waiting for our flight. Thanks for any and all advice.

You could do Arundel by train. It is only 40 minutes or so, and trains are quite frequent (http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk)

Thanks for your answer. Which do you think is the more interesting castle?

I suppose it is all to do with your perceptions of what a castle is. Arundel, although definitely a castle, to me is more "Fortified stately home" - it has constantly evolved over time, and long since become aa genteel sort of place with historical remnants of it's past. There is probably a lot more to see at Arundel as you can wander through parts of the castle that were lived in , and see the collections of antiques etc.
It is quite a pleasant train ride to Arundel, and the village is pretty as well.

I have not been to Bodiam, but to me, it is more of a "real castle". Perhaps there is not quite as much to see there, bit I love military history, so would personally prefer it. I don't think you would be too disappointed whichever you choose.

We have been to both and for your purposes I'd recommend Arundel. It's in a nice little town, the river flows through it (you can walk along the river). Arundel will take less then one hour to reach via train and the station is not too far from town/castle. We walked it, both coming and going (we took train from London). There is a cafeteria at the castle as well should you decide to eat something there. The grounds are also very pleasant to walk around on.

It's been many years since we were at Bodiam and we had a rental car when we were there. It seems to me it was not adjacent to any town and while quite a "romantic looking castle", complete with moat, I think Arundel is a better choice.

Thank you both for the information. While I love the look of Bodiam Castle . . . and I can only imagine the photos we would take! . . . I think you're quite right that Arundel would be more suitable for our purposes. Thank you both so much for you input/