first time London in 10 days.
 

need advice with my trip.. i plan visiting london o and nearby city in 10 days.. just don't know how to plan my itenary.. will arrive at heathrow airport on the 9th of july..stay in london for 3 days, going to bath 2 days, cotswald and oxford..btw how far is london from this cities, should i take tourist guide or just go there without any advance booking on accomadation (thought of staying at B&B) and train ticket.. is it possible to include paris and fly back from there.. i'm 50 yrs old lady and will travelled with my 25 yr old daughter.. should i take train to travel from london to bath? and how far is oxford and cotswald.. really need your advice.. i love to see beautiful england and a bit of shopping.. thank you..

I might try searching each of these using the forum search above because each of your questions come up time and time again.

Basically it depends a little on where in London you are staying but Oxford is an hours bus trip away (cars are useless in Oxford), Bath is a train (or bus)trip but more like 2+ hours away. Tourist guide makes no sense but I would buy a good UK guide book. Rough Guide is good. Accomadation at the End of June should be ok. Tourist info in Bath (by the Roman baths) should be able to book you in some where.

Yes Paris is an easy trip but you can take the train under the Channel which is by far the best. Booking ahead is probably best

Cotswalds is a whole area so either rent a car or take a tour (not my idea of fun at all)

Buying train tickets on the day in the UK is very expensive. Pre-book your tickets by looking first at www.nationalrail.co.uk for all train schedules and costs. You can book an 'advance' ticket which gets you a reserved seat on a particular train at a set time or a flexible ticket which lets you travel on any train that day. If buying a flexible ticket, travel at off-peak times to save money. Advance are cheaper than flexible but don't miss the train... I missed an 'advance' booked train only yesterday and had to buy a replacement ticket for £66! The advance ticket only cost £20 so you can see big savings can be made by booking in advance!!!

One more thing, when you come to buying the ticket, use www.eastcoast.co.uk - this train operator sells tickets on all services but isn't as restrictive as some operators. Virgin Trains for example force you to choose a train time when booking off-peak tickets but East Coast don't giving you flexibility for the same price!!

You want to do London, Bath, Oxford and Cotswolds in 10 days. Thats a tall order.

One suggestion is to stay the 10 days in London and do day trips to Bath and then Oxford/Cotswolds with London Walks.

www.walks.com

Didn't I just read a post by your daughter asking for input on a 10-day trip to Amsterdam and Frankfurt with her mother? Have you decided where you plan to go? Several people on the other thread suggested Paris instead of Frankfurt. What about London and Amsterdam, London and Paris or London and the Cotswolds? Have a chat with your daughter and decide where you both want to go. It will be easier to provide answers with that information.

You are asking questions about your plans but apparently don't yet have your flights booked since you asked if you should fly home from Paris.

Have you been to London before? If so 3 days us very VERY short since the first day is mostly eaten up arriving/checking in/recovering from jetlag.

On "your" other thread your daughter asked about the trip mamcalice mentions. Are you and your daughter using the same screen name? Are we talking about the same or two different trips?

Do you have your flights yet? If so, where are they into and out of? (If you don;t have them yet you are either very rich or in for a big surprise.)

IMHO very late to get decent accommodation without spending the earth - or a large amount of time on the round finding a place to stay.

Please provide clear info on your flights and desired budget and people will try to help with specifics.

thanks.. yes..my daughter would love to go to amsterdam and paris but i prefer london since July is a bit crowded in amsterdam. that's why i try to include paris in my london trip. so both of us decide to write in to see the pros and cons for both places. we will purchase tickets after read all the response from you guys.. anyway thanks for helping us....

Do you actually have 10 full days in Europe not including your day of arrival and day of departure? Ten full days for London, Bath, Oxford and the Cotswolds is pushing it.
Adding Paris makes for a miserable trip IMHO. I would stick to London and Paris if this is your first trip. Oxford would be your easiest day trip from London as it is only 100 minutes by bus from Victoria and about a hour by train from Kings Cross. (if all goes well of course)

Assuming you have any money left after buying flights in high season with less than a month to departure...

If this is your first visit to London, you really should count on spending most, if not all, of your 10 days there. Perhaps take a day trip to Bath and a day trip to Oxford. I love the Cotswolds but it's very difficult to see without a car so drop it from your list on this visit.

Seriously, there will be more than enough for you to see and do in London in 9 days (you can't count the day of arrival because it'll be pretty much a write off due to jetlag, checking in, etc).