We will be arriving in Dover in late July by car from France, and are going up to see friends in Cheltenham. We will be cat/house sitting for them for a week from 30th of July to the 6th of August, so we are assuming we will be making day trip to places like Bath and Oxford from there during that stay.

But we are trying to plan a few days driving trip from Dover up to Cheltenham. We would have 2 night and 3 days to explore the southern part of England. I don't know this area at all. Can someone suggest a route from Dover to Cheltenham that might be fun? We were maybe thinking of going out towards Portsmouth or even out towards Exeter.

Are there any "not to be missed" villages where it would be fun to explore or stay in along the way. We would prefer smaller places rather than larger cities since we will be driving just because of congestion and parking, but really we are wide open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

I would suggest to first of all head west along the A27 in the direction of Portsmouth. There are plently of intersting small towns and villages to explore along this route (although the road itself is just a means to an end). Perhaps stop at one or more of Rye, (beautiful old town), Battle (for the 1066 stuff), Lewes, Arundel (historic towns with castles), Chichester and maybe Portsmouth itself to see the Historic Dockyard. Plenty of folk on this forum will recommend Brighton (aka London-on-Sea) but it's big, brash and crowded so maybe not your thing (mine neither).

After Portsmouth, you could head further west toward the New Forest, before turning back north through Salisbury (handy for Stonehenge if you've not seen it before). From there it's a painless 2h drive through some pleasant countryside up the A338/A345/A419/A417 to Cheltenham.

Oh meant to add - Exeter. It's way too far out west to fit with your timescale.

Gordon, Thanks so much-I think you are right about Exeter. I have been to Stonehenge many years ago even before they roped it off and have stayed in Glastonbury also. My sister and husband I don't think have seen either place though, so that might be a good area to explore.

Any specific places you would recommend to spend the first and second nights-not necessarily hotel names, just particular villages or towns? I am guessing that Portsmouth itself could be kind of pricey in August and since we will be coming from the beach in France and then returning to Brittany, a beach stop is mandatory unless the place itself is nice or charming in some way.

You can take your pick from any of the places I mentioned for your two overnights - they're all good contenders. Use www.theaa.com (or similar roadmap websites) to build an itinerary that works for you.

No reason at all why Portsmouth would be busy in August - it's a largely industrial city which, though it has some good museums/historic sites, is far from being a holiday destination. I would not actually recommend staying there - Arundel/Chichester, or somewhere in the New Forest would be far better.

I didn't really follow your point about the beach stop - you want to do this or not? Beaches along the south coast from Dover to Portsmouth are gravelly not sandy and frankly not very nice. You need to go to the Isle of Wight, or further west to the Dorset coast for sand, but that will take up more of your time than you can probably afford on this short trip.

A final tip: it's the Cotswolds (not Cotswalds)

We had to spend several single nights in Portsmouth last year, booking fairly late, and found that there was a shortage of affordable rooms at places like Premier Inns. Portsmouth is a ferry port, and I think that lots of people stay there before or after their journey.

There are lots of places you could visit on a journey from Dover to the Cotswolds, and your choice will depend on what interests you. Here are some possibilities:

Dover Castle
Canterbury
Rye and Winchelsea
Gardens like Sissingurst, Nymans, Batemans
Old houses like Knole, Ightam Mote, Chartwell
Stately homes like Blenheim, Longleat, Kingston Lacy
Towns and cities like Winchester, Salisbury, Dorchester, Sherborne
Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, Butser Ancient Farm
Stonehenge, Avebury, Silbury, Wayland Smithy
Countryside like South Downs, New Forest, Purbeck, Jurassic Coast

You don't have nearly enough time!

What chartley said plus RHS Wisley Gardens, Hever Castle, Dover Castle and, and, and.

I <i>think</i> you meant a beach stop is <u>not</u> mandatory - right?

You've received lots of good suggestions so far. I LOVE RHS Wisley -- but if you go that way, then other good options would be missed/off route.

I would not stay in Portsmouth. W/ only 2 nights you need to pick -- it is a long way and there is a LOT to see/do. You'll just have to bite the bullet and pick two stopovers.

Dover Castle itself is worth at least half a day - so you can see the problem.

My favorite places to stay between Dover an the western Cotswolds would be

• Somewhere on the Kent/East Sussex border (for Sissinghurst and other gardens/castles/stately homes)

• Arundel/Chichester area (the Weald and Downland open air museum and Arundel Castle are both interesting.)

• Winchester

• Salisbury (W/ or w/o Stonehenge)

• Bath (not IN Bath but in a nearby village and use the park and ride lots to get into the city)

Which two I'd choose mostly depends on what sorts of things we all wanted to see/do.

Are you retracing your route back to Dover after your house sit? If so, you could take one route w/2 stops to Cheltenham, and vary the route w/ 2 different stops back towards Dover. That way you could see quite a bit and squeeze in things like Wisley.

Thanks so much to all. Sorry, I did spot my misspelling of the region AFTER the posting-I just hate that you cannot revise at that point!

Yes, I did mean that we are really not after a beach holiday since we will be in wonderful beach areas before and after in France. I didn't actually know that Portsmouth is a large industrial town-I sort of thought it was more a holiday destination like Brighton, so that is good to know. We definitely won't stay there-we will choose somewhere else that is smaller and easier and that will hopefully have free parking!

chartley, thanks for the heads up for booking the Premier chain because that is very likely the kind of places we will be booking, so I figured I better get moving on booking something soon since it will be the middle of the holiday season.

janisj-yes we probably will be crossing back either at Dover or Folkstone, so we will have a chance for 2 more stops on the way back to France. Now that I have this very comprehensive list, I will start researching the places and narrow down the possibilities to what we think we can accomplish on the way up and back. My sister will be with us and she is a photographer, so she loves beautiful gardens, and vistas, and my husband and I are probably most interested in some historical stops-our friends suggested visiting the HMS Victory in Portsmouth for instance. But in general, we do prefer pretty slow paced travel, so we definitely won't try to do it all. We figure with a week in Cheltenham, we will have time to explore a fair amount by doing day trips close to the region. We are equally interested in having great curry and hanging out at the pubs though. So we will probably have to push ourselves a bit to take the time to do some more organized visiting to houses and gardens though

"I didn't actually know that Portsmouth is a large industrial town-I sort of thought it was more a holiday destination like Brighton"

I lived in Portsmouth for 34 years and along with most cities in Britain the majority of the industry has moved to "foreign" shores (don't get me started on that one). Portsmouth is divided into 2 areas, Portsmouth and Southsea, Southsea is the "seaside holiday" part (that's how the local council tries to market it). It has quite a lot of hotels,
B & B's, guesthouses, pubs, a few museums, a pier and a small funfair and staying in Southsea for a short visit would be perfectly fine but like a lot of seaside resorts in this current financial climate, it's a bit run down in places.

I'd recommend Chichester as one of your stop-overs. The Premier Inn there is 10 minutes walk from the centre of town (on a large complex including some fast food restuarants and a multi-screen cinema. The Hotel was comfortable and you can leave your car parked for free. Chichester has a lovely cathedral, an excellent Art Gallery (Pallant House), lovely cafes and restaurants and the remains of walls that originally surrounded the city. The Weald and Downland Museum (about 10 miles from Chichester) is really excellent and you can walk for miles on the beach at Wittering.

Thanks both Hooameye and bellini-those are both excellent suggestions. The premier inn is at 29 pounds at the moment at a couple of the places we are lloking so I am going to nail things down today! Then I will move on to thinking about the various sightseeing possibilities.