My husband, 14 year-old son and I are planning a trip to England and Paris. Our flight will arrive at LHR at 9:00am on Monday, March 12 and depart on Friday, March 23. We have a reserved time for Stonehenge’s inner circle on Tuesday, March 13 at 4:30 pm which has thrown my itinerary off a little. Since our time on this trip is limited, I really do not want to “waste” the first day. On the other hand, I also do not want to be too ambitious either. What do you think about the first two day? Is it a feasible plan? Does anyone have any other suggestions of where to begin trip? My husband and son have kind of shot down the idea of seeing Bath. Windsor Castle could be an alternative, but I do not know if we should spend the time seeing it in addition to Warwick.

Day 1 Arrive at LHR at 9:00am; rent car and drive to Warwick Castle; overnight in Oxford
Day 2 Visit Bodleian Library and Christ Church College in Oxford, drive to Stonehenge (we have inner circle tickets for 4:30pm); overnight in Winchester

Are you planning to spend any time in London?

Mr. Pickle and I were horribly jetlagged when we arrived at LHR in the morning; we got almost no sleep on the plane. We spent our first day, after we checked in at our hostel, on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. We got off a couple of times to walk so we didn't fall asleep. Then we had a nice dinner and went to bed fairly early.

Have you ever driven in the UK? It isn't all that far to Warwick, but I would strongly recommend you not drive that first day. The roads are very busy and you will, most likely, be jetlagged and tired - not a good driving combination.

Lee Ann

oh, noooo, tx girl. WHY?

you are arriving on 12th March, and by the end of the NEXT DAY, you've seen 1/2 of southern England. Ambitious? yes - Mad - yes.

Ssslloowww dooowwn. Windsor AND Warwick - in the same 24 hours - OMG.

Arriving at LHR at 9.30, you are unlikely to get through passport and customs until about 11.30 am at the best. you will be tired, possibly jetlagged. Best option - make for Windsor. if you are feeling tired, you can go to bed, if not, you can go to the Castle. In the morning, you can do the Castle if you missed it the day before, or set off for Stonehenge straight away. There is a Birds of Prey centre near Stonehenge plus Avebury to see on the way, before you get to Stonehenge - enough to amuse you for the day.


After Stonehenge make for Winchester and continue with your plans, or head to Warwick - thought you'll need somewhere to stay on the way.

but please don't try to do what you've posted above - it's completely mad.

Thanks so much Lee Ann and annhig for your quick replies. I was thinking that it was stretching it a little too much to drive to Warwick and see the castle the first day. Lee Ann- We are going to be visiting London the last leg of the trip since we are flying back from LHR. What about this instead?

Day 1 Arrive LHR, drive to Windsor castle, overnight in Windsor or Winchester
Day 2 Salisbury and Stonehenge
Day 3 Oxford
Day 4 Warwick Castle (drop off car in Warwick and take train to London)
Day 5 Eurostar to Paris
Day 6-8 Paris with side trips to Chartres/Versailles
Day 9-11 London
Day 12 Fly Home

still mad, but better!

you are going to be spending loads of time in the car, and not much time seeing things.

try this:

Day 1 Arrive LHR, drive to Windsor castle, overnight in Windsor.
Day 2 Salisbury and Stonehenge, overnight ?
Day 3 Drive to Warwick through the Cotswolds. overnight, Warwick.
Day 4 Warwick Castle, drive to Oxford, return car, stay overnight.
Day 5 train to St. Pancras, Eurostar to Paris
Day 6-8 Paris with side trips to Chartres/Versailles
Day 9-11 London
Day 12 Fly Home

Day 5 is still a bear, no? I thought oxford to london trains came into Paddington, which means you'll need to transfer across town to St Pancras. It's a LOT of train that day.

Any way to juggle this around so that you're doing Stonehenge and Salisbury and Warwick as day trip(s) from London and adding a night to Paris?

Day 5 - direct train to Birmingham Airport (1 hour), fly to Paris, have lunch in Paris

Oops - Day 4, drop car off at Birmingham Airport which is 20 miles from Warwick, fly to Paris (flights at 17:20, 20:00), have late dinner in Paris

Day 5 - Hey we've got an extra day in Paris

Day 5 is still a bear, no? I thought oxford to london trains came into Paddington, which means you'll need to transfer across town to St Pancras. It's a LOT of train that day.>>

not really - Paddington to St. Pancras is 5 stops on the Hammersmith and City line. we did Lampeter [mid wales] to Bristol parkway [a 3 hour drive] to Paddington to St. P to Paris in a day and lived to tell the tale, so Oxford to Paris should be a doddle.

but i also like alan's idea, though by the time you've got to B'ham, hung about there waiting to check in for a couple of hours, then spent two hours struggling through customs at CDG, and another hour on the RER getting to your hotel, you might be thinking that the train would have been easier.

Hopefully you haven't booked Eurostar tix yet. I'd do something like alanRow's plan and not hassle w/ going into London at all on the front end. Fly to Paris and then take the Eurostar back to London later on.

No reason to go to London for one night and/or schlepp across town to St Pancras. Warwick to Birmingham airport takes 30-45 mins depending on time of day. Return the car at B'ham

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. Annhig, I think your itinerary will actually work quite well for us. I have not purchased the Eurostar tickets yet. I do like allanRow's suggestion. It looks like there is a flight from Birmingham that leaves a little after 9:00am that would get us there before noon. Traveling by train may be a little more annoying, but I think that we could leave Oxford a little before 9:00 that morning, change trains at Paddington and catch the Eurostar and arrive before 3:00pm. Not having to go through airport customs again might be a bonus. It has been awhile since I have flown through CDG, so I do not know how bad it is now. I will definitely take everything into consideration.

BigRuss- Day trips are a possibility. I could move most of our London days to the beginning of the trip and we could spend the last night at a LHR hotel. The only problem I can see with doing so is the Stonehenge trip. Since our tickets are for 4:30, it looks like the next bus to come around is not until 6:00. It may not be a problem if the weather is good, but you can never count on it.

"<i>. . . change trains at Paddington and catch the Eurostar and arrive before 3:00pm.</i>"

Nope -- you don't 'change trains', you change <u>stations</u>. Paddington to St Pancras across London.

I normally recommend Eurostar over flying, but that is usually when one is starting from central London. Not in a situation like this where you are less than 1/2 an hour from the nearest airport.

Thanks janisj! I really need to sit down and go over everything once again to see what can be rearranged.

Not in a situation like this where you are less than 1/2 an hour from the nearest airport.>>

But you do have to factor in returning the car, checking in, the hanging about endemic in air-travel, getting through passport and customs the other end, struggling to find your way round CDG, getting the RER into Paris, etc.

I bet that once you've done the research, you'll find that there's little in it, time-wise; I'm not sure about the cost.

as jj says, you do have to change trains at Paddington - you catch the hammermsith and city line round to St. P for the eurostar. if you do decide on the train, do book the ticket through from Oxford to Paris - this means that they are obliged to put you on the next available service if you miss the train for some reason.

as jj says, you do have to change trains at Paddington >>

oops - stations - you've got me at it now!