driving to stonehenge/bath or cotswalds
 

We are visiting London in early November and want to rent a car for the day and drive out to Stonehenge/Bath or the Cotswalds.<BR><BR>Is this a feasible one (long) day trip? What's the driving time? Is it difficult to find your way around these places?<BR><BR>Any advice/input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I heard that the drive to Stonehenge and Bath is very long-something like 3 hours each way. Besides the Stonehenge monuments and Bath there is nothing else to see or do. So that trip will take up a whole day.<BR><BR>Personally I'd rather visit the Cotswolds than Stonehenge/Bath.

It'll be a long day, and considering how early it gets dark in November your time will be fairly short. Also, it depends where you leave from. The A4 heads directly out of London toward Bath, about a 90 minute drive . . . once you get to the outskirts of London. <BR><BR>From Bath, seeing both the Cotswolds and Stonehenge may be a little tough. The Cotswolds are a little north and east of Bath and Stonehenge is a little south and further east of Bath, and for the most part, on small unpredictably congested roads.<BR><BR>To do this trip justice, you might want to leave London to arrive in Bath by 8:30 or 9:00am at the latest. I don't see how you'd be able to spend more than 2 or 3 hours in Bath . . . <BR><BR>Wait a minute, I don't think you can do this in one day. To see any part of the Cotswolds you wont be near Stonehenge before dark unless you drive like crazy people. Maybe from Bath you could head for Marlborough, then see Stonehenge and Salisbury.<BR><BR>Steve

The days are shorter in Nov and the weather is iffy. It is hard to drive on unfamiliar roads in the dark, so you probably want to be back to London fairly early.<BR><BR>Plus getting out of London takes time - If you rent your car in Central London you have to fight the traffic to get out to the countryside, and if you rent the car at LHR, it takes time to get there and fill out the paperwork.<BR><BR>So if you want to get to Stonehenge by the 9:30 opening time you will need to leave your hotel by about 6:30 or 7 AM. from S'henge to Bath is about 40 miles which can take an hour or more due to traffic. So now you are in Bath by about 11:30. Bath takes several hours to see. By 4PM you will be thinking about heading back to London - which is about 110 miles.<BR><BR>A trip to the Cotswolds would take the same sort of time - getting to / from the area is fast on the M40/A40 main road.<BR><BR>If you do a 2-day trip you'd have of time to do all three.

JC asked about "Stonehenge/Bath OR the Cotswolds" - I don't think he is trying to do it all. One or the other is doable - but either would be LONG days.

<BR><BR>I'll add my two-cents even though some of my observations have already been covered.<BR>Stonehenge is in the middle of nowhere, and would require too much time to get there and back to warrant it.<BR>Personally, I'd skip Stonehenge. It's sort of boring. Once you've seen it, then what?<BR>But if you do Stonehenge, I'd do it in connection with a trip to Bath. And limit it to those two places for one day.<BR>The Cotswold area makes from great driving and great sight seeing. I'm a good navigator and had a pretty good sense of direction, but I found myself getting turned around on a few of the back roads. I had a good, but not great, map. But you should count on getting (momentarily) lost at least a few times. it's a BIG area and lots of little teeny roads.<BR>Have fun.

What about a day tour? I see that Astral Travels has a Bath/Stonehenge day trip, and also a Bath/Costwolds. It would save the hassle of having to rent a car and drive on unfamiliar roads. I took the Stonehenge Special Access tour with them this past July and liked it very much--small group, knowledgeable and witty guides. I mention Astral Travels because I've used them but there are others.<BR>http://www.astraltravels.co.uk<BR><BR>Patti

If you're intent on seeing Stonehenge, you could combine it with a visit to Salisbury and Avebury rather than Bath. Less driving, more do-able. Tyr to go on the day of the week when Salisbury has its market day (IIRC Tues.).

To the poster on driving vs train to Bath