Day trip recommendations from London?
 

What is a good day trip from London? Would prefer something within a two hour train ride (hopefully even less than an hour or so, each way). A smaller village would probably be a welcome change from the hustle bustle of London.

I'll be taking my first trip to London in May. I'm only doing 1 week in London, so I'm going to take the train up to York. It's supposed to be a wonderful walking town.

We were in London two weeks ago and did a daytrip to Cambridge. Easy 1 hour trip from Kings Cross. Interesting guided tour of the college and several good tea rooms. We were back in London for dinner.

How about St Albans, 20 minutes by train from Kings Cross Thameslink, largely ignored by the mainstream of tourists, impressive cathedral, Roman ruins, small but interesting Roman museum, lots of old pubs, active town centre market?

York is more city-ish, altho you can do it in 2 hours from Kings Cross. It's a great place to visit but I would not call it a place to avoid hustle and bustle!<BR><BR>For a small village atmosphere I'd recommend Ely. It's about 75 min. ride from Kings Cross (they have direct trains, altho you can also change in Cambridge). It's a nice little town with a fantastic cathedral. It's along the Ely River and a very slow paced type of place. There are some tourist shops along the High Street (main street) as well as several places to eat. We enjoyed our slow pace day there very much. Sometimes the best times are the off the beaten path places. The day we were there we also visited an open air market (sort of a vegtable/flea market) and talked to many of the local people. It was a fun day.<BR><BR>Another place to go off the beaten path is Banbury, about 90 min from London's Marylebone Station. Nice town, good high street, lots of shops. The Banbury Cross is located there as well.<BR><BR>Sometimes it is just nice to get away from the tourist stuff and mingle among the locals!<BR><BR>I also recommend St. Albans, altho it is suburban London these days. Very nice city, interesting Clock Tower (very narrow stairs), Roman ruins, etc. Also a good High Street with shops, pubs, etc.<BR><BR>Another nice small low key town is Lewes which is south of London. We used it for a base one year and visited many sights in the area. It's a very nice place to spend a low key day.<BR><BR>There are dozens of other smaller towns but you need a car to get to many of them - for that I recommend staying outside of London tho.