Chelz7676

Hi,

My husband and I will be staying with family for a few days in Yeovil. (Friday May 18th- 21st). We are wishing to do a daytrip of the cotwsolds in there somewhere - would settle for one village but would be nice to visit 2/3 villages. I see there are tours from LONDON, but what is the best way to take a tour from YEOVIL- which is really not THAT far from cotswolds. Or, would we have to take a train to BATH, and then go from there? Bus??
I have attached a link of what would be ideal - however this is departing from London...

http://www.premiumtours.co.uk/tours/...olds.id63.html *(Note we are not as interested in Stonehenge...


Thank you!

Gordon_R

I'm assuming you are not that familiar with the geography of the south of England. Yeovil is nowhere near the Cotswolds and would be a minimum 250 mile (5-6 hour) round trip. I doubt very much that there are regular tours of the kind you have in mind operating out of Yeovil (which is not at all a tourist destination itself).

You say you are staying with family - won't they be taking you out for the day while you are there? Although Yeovil's no great shakes of a place, there is plenty to see closer to hand than the Cotswolds.

janisj

Realistically can't be done (Have you mentioned this idea to your Yeovil rels??) Though it is not entirely impossible.

Taking the train - You'd have to be on the train in Yeovil by 0620 to get to Bath before the MadMax tour departs. (MadMax from Bath is the only viable option --but just barely). You wouldn't get back to Yeovil until nearly midnight.

MmePerdu

Here are some places to visit on day trips that are closer to Yeovil that I've enjoyed:

Thomas Hardy birthplace outside Dorchester:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardy-country/

Forde Abbey & Gardens:
http://www.fordeabbey-gardens-dorset.co.uk/

Lyme Regis (think 'French Lieutenants's Woman')
http://tinyurl.com/7pmof2j

janisj

I agree. Lots to see nearby. If you want to see the Cotswolds - stay in the Cotswolds. If you want to visit the family and see Somerset and the west country - stay in Yeovil.

(The Cotswolds aren't really a day trip sort of place anyway)

chartley

If what you want is to visit an ancient town with honey-coloured buildings and an abbey, then Sherborne, just a few miles from Yeovil, will be just as good as going all the way to the Cotswolds. There are fewer shops selling pot pourri, Portmeirion pottery and fudge, and the planning rules are slightly less rigid, but it is a real place with much to see.

Yeovil has good public transport links to other attractive destinations such as Bath, Wells, Salisbury, Weymouth and Exeter, and there are local places like Montacute which are the equal of anything in the Cotswolds.

trudels

So with a name like Chelsea, one would think you'd be more familiar with the geography, but then If by chance you hail from Canada, perhaps 250 miles is a mere hop, skip and jump. Perhaps your intention is to explore further reaches than the obvious nearby spots because you've actually already covered them on previous visits. Well I wish you a good trip. All the best.

flanneruk

"There are fewer shops selling pot pourri, Portmeirion pottery and fudge"

Outside our local Waitrose, I'm unfamiliar with any Cotswold shops selling fudge (hand-reared local pork, or designer goats' cheese from one's Tuscan estate preoccupy local shoppers far more). And anyone round here wanting Portmeiron pottery or pot pourri goes to the provincial suburb their underachieving relatives still live in for it. Chartley really oughtn't to generalise from the charabanc trip his Auntie Ethel took him on in 1957. Or, more likely, from the inane inventions about the area outsiders living in the ugly bits of Britain churn out on forums like this.

Yeovil is served by direct trains to an extraordinary range of England's prettiest towns and villages (at least one in the Cotswolds, and only an hour away). For a list of places with direct trains from its two stations, go to http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ldb/, then enter (separately) YVJ and YVP as the leaving station. Click on "show calling points" for each train: you'll find regular, painless, trains to delights like Castle Cary and Bradford on Avon (which actually IS just inside the Cotswold AONB, and as devoid of pot pourri outlets as everywhere else round here) from Yeovil.

chartley

I forgot that Flanner lives in his own demi-monde of single Gloucester cheese and treacle-coated bacon.

However, in the real world of Lower Slaughter, where the real travellers go to get away from the tourists, they have gift shops like this.

http://www.oldmill-lowerslaughter.com/#shop

Brass coal scuttles, fluffy cushions and books about how old people forget things.

Chelz7676

Thank you all for the replies, very helpful. Lots to see around Yeovil yes, but not afraid to go a little further afield, should we find a good tour. Found a good one for Cheddar & Wells. So that's a start, though not quite the cotswolds I know...

So it got a little heated there in the end! Entertaining though, thx for the laughs!

PS trudels - it's like you know me or something! Canadian, yes! (agree = "hop skip and a jump")

texasbookworm

Whatever you decide to do should have plenty to enjoy in it.

If you go to Cheddar/Wells:

In Cheddar: Be sure to plan to buy Cheddar in Cheddar. Wonderful stuff! If you have time, walk to the top of Jacob's Ladder. The views are worth it.

In Wells: The Cathedral is the prettiest large church/cathedral I've ever seen (which is only about a 15-20 in the US, the UK, Germany, and Rome). There are more awesome ones, but this one is somehow my favorite. We were there on a market day and found plenty of local foods for a lunch right outside the Cathedral grounds.