We are going to be in London in October and would like to take a day trip from the city. Any suggestions and details about trains etc would be helpful.

What are your interests?

Lee Ann

As ms. Pickle asks -- what sorts of things do you want to see/do? There are so MANY places reachable from London on a day trip, your general question doesn't give us enough to work w/.

Windsor/Eton is one of my favorites. Beautiful stretch of the Thames there.

I agree Windsor is a nice day trip. The castle is spectacular and there is an impressive changing of the guard ceremony. It is about an hour from London by train (Waterloo or Paddington station).
http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/i...ttolondon.html I think there is also boat service between London and Windsor in the summer and there are definitely boat tours in Windsor to see more of the Thames.

I would also recommend a trip to either Oxford or Cambridge.

Hampton Court is easy to get to by train from London.

Oggsford is my favorite day trip - less than an hour by train - the stately colleges and their courtyards - the place reeks of history and is also a thriving regional town with great shopping, restos, etc. Train station is about .5 mile from center - you can also take the Oxford express buses that deposit you right in the town center and are i think cheaper but may take longer due to vagaries of London traffic

My DH and I are retired teachers with interests in history and theatre. Would like a place where we can stroll around and check out some local pubs and maybe avoid huge crowds for a day.

Not a day trip - but a trip within London. With those interests you should check out Borough - it has LOADS of old pubs including one where Shakespeare and Johnson's plays were performed, and the Globe is there too.

Shakespeare's brother is buried in the Cathedral too. Just go to London Bridge and follow your nose.

There is a train to Bath, that is a great place to visit.
Also a day trip to stonehenge and/or Avesbury to see stone circles (probably need to take a tour).

Most of the places mentioned above are good day trips from London. However, none will be places to avoid crowds. Because they are so popular, and easy to reach from London, and are vibrant places on their own - Oxford, Bath, Cambridge, Windsor, and Hampton Court will all be crowded even in October.

Not trying to scare you off - each would still be a wonderful day out - but just not "idyllic, quiet" places.

One place you might want to consider fo a couple of hour break from the hub bub - take a walk across Hampstead Heath. It is basically in central London - but you'd believ you were far out in the country. It is a vast, heathland type park w/ views across all of London from a couple of the hills, plus Kenwood House. Then you can have lunch at the Spaniards Inn and wamder through Hampstead village.

I did the Hampstead Heath thing janisj talks about and loved it. Especially Kenwood House. And i think Karl Marx grave is in Highgate Cemetery which could be in the area i believe.

Very nice day trip without leaving London.

That said i think a day trip out of London is great because you see a more typical English city - cosmopolitan London is great but a day in Lincoln, Oxbridge, York, Bath is a whole different type place.

Like New York City and some more typical American town.

Karl Marx is indeed in Highgate Cemetary - it's the original communist plot. (boom boom)

I would also recommend Winchester for a day (I'm biased - I'm from there) but it has a staggeringly good cathedral - is a pretty town in itself and has lods of pubs and restaurants and isn't too touristy.

It's also an houir from Waterloo on the train.

perhaps the grave is also the first Communist cover-up?

We went to Hampton Court Palace on a London Walks trip. It started with a train ride to Richmond, a little tour around the town, followed by a boat trip to Hampton Court Palace. We were on our own to catch the train back.

I loved the time on the boat. You go by assorted houses, pubs, small towns.

If you're doing this by yourself, maybe take the boat back; downstream is faster. But I enjoyed every second of our 90 minutes. It was a great break from the hectic crowds of London, much more relaxing than our similar trip to Greenwich.

groan.

Winchester is wonderful. It's one of my favorite places, and it always seems just a little less crowded than many of England's other cities.

If going to Stonehenge, you should include a visit to Salisbury, its cathedral and close.

I second the trip to Hampton. You can also do Kew Gardens. My daughter goes to school in Richmond and it is a cery nice area. Hampton will not be crowded and neither will Kew. You can tube it to richmond and then bus to Hampton and Kew or Boat to Hampton and bus to Kew. Richmond is a very neat area as well.

If you want to go to Hampton Court - get the overground train from waterloo - it takes about half an hour, and is a short walk from the station

Hampton Court Palace (a k a The English Versailles) - a romantic palace rather than a fortified castle, to me is one of Europe's most overlooked places.

To me it's as nice as Versailles itself and perhaps more interesting because the presentation inside is so novel.

The Great Maze, The Vine - a cutting from Capability Brown (?) from the 1700s in its special glasshouse - great gardens - the sweet Thames River - a vast deer park, etc. The most complete surviving Tudor Kitchens anywhere.

Plus the palace is separated into themed areas and there are often folks in period costume say playing piano, a Barqoue quartet, etc. (Christmas sees an elaborate show here)

And of course there's the ghost of HenryVIII and some of his various wives (including one real ghost of i think Catherine Howard (?) that haunts the palace after she was hauled away to the axing screaming.

"divorced, beheaded, divorced"
"divorced, beheaded, survived"

The palace thus reeks of history and this was Henry's stomping grounds.

I had a lovely walk 4-mile walk here along Thames paths from Kingston - take the north bank.