England 10 day itinerary?
 

I am in the very early stages of planning a 10 day trip to England in October. Want to spend first 4 days or so in London, and then see some countryside. We are thinking we would like to take a train to York, rent a car there, then drive back via Lake District, N. Wales, and Cotswolds before dropping the car in Bath and taking the train back to Heathrow. Does this sound do-able? The ten day window is not written in stone (yet). What about car drop-off charges; will this be costly?

just a few quick comments:

car drop-off fees? Not usually an issue. Normall no extra fees for one-way rentals

Your basic route? It is fine, but 6 days is not long enough for York, the Lakes, Wales, the Cotswolds and Bath. You need to delete some areas or add 4 or 5 days. (unless you just want to drive through and not see much)

train from Bath to LHR? There isn't one. You would need to go into London and back out to LHR or take a train to Reading and then a bus from there. Probably easier to just take the direct coach from Bath to the airport.

Thank you. I meant the bus (not the train) from Bath to Heathrow.

Maybe we could save a day or two by doing the Lake District on another trip, and just heading for N. Wales after York? I mostly want to see Caernavon (sp?) Castle.

I have been working on this a little bit today, and here is a "quick and dirty" itinerary. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Day 1 - leave Seattle
Day 2 - arrive London AM
Day 3, 4 - London
Day 5 - AM train to York
Day 6 - morning in York, rent car, drive to Chester (area)
Day 7 - Chester through N. Wales to Warwick area
Day 8 - Warwick Castle in AM, afternoon in Cotswolds.
Day 9 - Cotswolds - drive to Bath, return car
Day 10 - Bath
Day 11 - coach to Heathrow and home

Does this sound like too much? We are considering this to be the first of (hopefully) many trips.

Well, Day 7 sounds a bit full. Plot your trip, including stops in north Wales on www.multimap.com. I love their maps for England, lovely little details on the largest scale.

And I assume you know you're not doing justice to London.

Yes!!

There really is no point in spending two hours on the train to get to York and then having only the morning there.

While I suppose one could get from Chester to Caernarfon Castle and back to Warwick area in one day, I certainly wouldn't advise it. You'll have to take the A55 both directions if you have any hope of doing it. That's a long trip (especially since you'll be back-tracking) for a couple of hours at the castle.

For day 11, is your flight leaving that day or the next? If on the 11th I'd allow more time to get to into London and on to LHR, unless it's a evening flight.

Please use one of the map sites to plot your distances and travel times. It'll give you a better idea of what kind of drive times you'll be facing.

Sorry, I see you plan on taking a coach from Bath to LHR. So no problem there.

azzure: Sorry, but your itinerary isn't very practical.

just a few things to think about.

Warwick in the morning? Warwick castle by itself is worth 4 hours or more. And that doesn't include the time you'd need to see the town - like the Church which is magnificent. Warwick at the fastest is worth 1/2 a day, but is really an "all day" sort off place.

The Cotswolds are not a place you can drive to and see - They are a region where you need to get out of the car and explore the villages. If you are just going to spend 1/2 a day it is really better to just skip it.

Chester to NW Wales to Warwick is a nuts day. North Wales again demands getting out of the car and traipsing through a few of the terrific castles and at least driving through Snowden.

There are several other issues like - 3 days in London after a flight from the West Coast means you will be awfully jet lagged on day one and really only have 2 days for London.

All you dropped from your original ideas was the Lakes - but you added a stop Chester into the mix so really didn't gain any extra time.

You need to drop something or add days.

For London, York, Caernarfon/N Wales, Warwick, a peek at the Cotswolds, and Bath you would need a minimum of 2 weeks. something like 5 days in London, 2 days/nights in York, 2 days/nights in NW Wales, 3 days/nights for the Cotswolds/Warwick and 1 day/night in Bath.

..This is really a 4 day trip..your first day in London you will be toast and the last is just getting to the airport. I would spend over half the trip in London and then pick another destination..York with day trips or Salsbury , Bath, Wells. I would limit myself to 2 hotels ie 2 bases with day trips.

..whoops I meant an 8 day trip..