Help me find a great stopover spot
 

My daughter (age 10) and I will be stopping over in the UK for about 5-6 days next August on our way to Barcelona. I am looking for a nice town we can get to via public transport from LHR and could spend a few days there or using public transport to get about. If I had more time I would go again to places like Falmouth in Cornwall or Tenby in Pembrokeshire. However I think we need to stay within a couple hours travel of London airports . Please help with town and any accomodation you recommend.

You can get almost anywhere from LHR by one sort of public transport or another. Tell us more about what sorts of things you and your daughter want to see/do and we can give you all kinds of ideas . . . .

Thanks so much! We are looking for things we can do together like walking (hiking) touring castles etc. But we would also like a nice town with some fun shops (nice high street), modest places to eat and perhaps a leisure center where she might find other kids to play with.

You know - there are so many places but the one that comes immediately to mind is Bath. It is probably too obvious - - but some reasons

-easy express coach connection from LHR
-beautiful city w/ lots of parks
-great shopping/restaurants
-Lots of wonderful sites -- Roman Baths, costume museum, river/boats
- bus and/or train connections to nearby villages/towns and other terrific sites like Stonehenge/Salisbury etc.

In less than 3 hours by train you can be in lovely Weymouth from London Waterloo. It's a great seaside town, with nearby Portland worth a day visit, check out www.weymouthpanorama.co.uk/portland.htm and www.weymouthpanorama.co.uk/harbour56.htm for scrolling panoramas and much more on the same site.

Nearby there is a dinosaur museum, subtropical gardens, a Teddy Bear museum, several castles, and the city of Dorchester is just up the road.

You have many options to go from Heathrow - check them out at http://plannerint.b-rail.be/bin/quer...n?L=profi&
or at www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Thanks janisj and WallyKringen! I had thought of Bath but I have already been there twice (pre-kid) so I am looking for a new place for both of us. Weymouth sounds very nice and logical to get to. Any recommendation on a B&B or reasonable hotel that would be centrally located?

My husband and I had a great time in Cardiff. There are several castles within easy distance and Tinturn Abbey is close as well (but we didn't make it there on our trip).

St. Fagans (on the outskirts of Cardiff) has a great outdoor museum:
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans
We spent a lot of time here!

Cardiff also has some great shopping areas and a science museum that looked like a lot of fun, but we didn't have time for that either.

Cardiff was a little over 3 hours from London on National Express. Here's a link to some tourist info:
http://www.visitcardiff.com/

Cardiff is a great suggestions. There's a neat castle in the center of town -- guard your lunch from the predatory peacocks -- and Caerphilly, one of the largest and most interesting castles in Wales, is a short bus ride away. Caerphilly and St. Fagins are each worth a full day's exploration.
Another possibility is to explore one of the university towns. I'm a Cambridge partisan, but Oxford has it's supporters, too. If you select Cambridge, the Lensfield Hotel is a pleasant and convenient place to stay.

I would base out of Oxford. It's a beautiful city with easy access to the Cotswolds for hiking and charming villages. Close to Blenheim Palace and other sights as well.

Lizziebelle, Weymouth is indeed a lovely place, but be aware that in August it will be packed with holidaymakers. I would agree with Cimbrone that Oxford would be a good choice (or that other university town, Cambridge).

Cambridge is compact, so it is easy to walk to the various colleges and the Fitzwilliam Museum. Rent a car and you can drive to Newmarket to see the horseracing studs and training stables. There is also Ely with its cathedral, Wicken Fen nature reserve, and several stately homes in the area.

I don't think Weymouth would be that great. It would be absolutely packed and getting there from LHR would be a bit of a bear.

Oxford is a short direct coach ride from LHR - and would be a terrific hub to see lots of the surrounding area by bus, local day tours, or trains. The Cotswolds, Stratford upon Avon, Warwick, Cheltenham, Blenheim, etc.

Besides what has already been mentioned about Cardiff - Chepstow castle is nearby and close to Tinturn Abbey

If Bath isn't your first choice - then I'd probably pick Oxford #1 and maybe Cardiff #2

Both are very easy trips back to London for your flight to Barcelona

AFter reading everyone’s notes I was thinking Cirencester which is a smaller version of Bath and about 1.5 hrs from LHR. They have a Roman museum and should have easy bus route to Bath. Cute B&B's and it's surrounded by little towns like Bibury, which is this lovely very small country town with great hikes. They have a trout farm in Bibury so it's fun for kids to feed the trouts and also a 14th century Norman church which is worth a walk around. Cirencester has a great leisure centre for the kids so you’d be set. http://www.bibury.com/ Let me know if you need more info on this.

The main problem w/ Cirencester is it is about 2 hours from LHR by coach - and as far as I know the coach only runs every 2 hours - so it could be as much as 5.5 or 6 hours from landing.

WoW! everyone has sent some great ideas and I like them all. I will admit that I did ponder Oxford but thought it would be full of tourists in August. I was once in London in August and it was just packed. But perhaps I am wrong. That said, Cardiff is intriguing me. I was in Pembrokeshire for three weeks in 2001 and saw a great number of castles and loved Wales. I had not thought of Cambridge but perhaps I should. Does anyone have a good B&B/hotel in these places? I was looking for something that is not a chain and reasonable priced? That may help me make a decision for this trip. Again! Thanks!

Lizziebelle, I don't have first-hand knowledge of these Cambridge B&Bs, but here is a list which I hope will help: http://tinyurl.com/kho8a. Go to the home page of the website it it will give you some ideas of things to do and see in the city.

Incidentally, Cambridge is about an hour from London's Kings Cross railway station, but, considering transit time from airport to station, it might be even quicker to take an airport bus directly from LHR to Cambridge.