My husband and I are planning a trip to the UK end of May, beginning of June. We are pretty open as far as where we go and what we do, so we are looking for some input.

We had planned on a two and a half week trip, but ended up owing a heck of a lot in income tax, so we’re scaling the trip back to 10 days (with 1 travel day on either end).

A little background about us – I’m 31, husband is 43. We’re professionals, no kids - yet. My husband lived in Norway teaching at a college for four years and traveled extensively around Europe, although never to the UK during that time. He was in England for about 3 days when he was in college. I’ve been to Europe several times, but my experience in England has also been about 3 days in London, also when I was in college.

We intend to spend 2 days in London, but that’s probably it. There are some things I’d like to see/do in the city, but mostly we want to get out of the city.

So this is the type of thing we have in mind – I want to see the English countryside. I want to see hedges, and rolling hills, and farms, and smaller towns/cities with winding streets, pubs, castles, ruins, etc. We both like history, nature, people, culture.

When we were planning the longer trip, we had planned on several days in Bath (use as a base to see Bath, Salisbury, Stonehenge), several days in Straford-Upon-Avon (use as a base to see Oxford, the Cotswalds, maybe over into Wales), a few days up in York, and two days in Edinburgh. I didn’t really have a lot of good reasons for picking those destinations, it was just based off of reading here, and talking with friends. Obviously we have to cut that back quite a bit.

The other thing to keep in mind, we will be traveling via public transportation everywhere. I doubt we’ll bother with the hassle of renting a car and attempting to drive. While my husband drove in Rome and Paris and all over the rest of Europe, he’s not sure he’s up to the challenge of driving on the other side of the road, and I know I’m not. We also are in a good shape, so don’t mind doing some walking.

Finally, we don’t have a huge budget for the trip. We got slapped with income taxes this year and built a new house last year and still need to pay for things like landscaping etc. We also plan on trying to start a family in the near future, so don’t want to spend too much of what we have saved. We’re thinking we’d like to stay in bed and breakfasts, and I’ve found some good websites with info on those through this website.

So what would you recommend for us? I greatly appreciate any advice and recommendations you can give us.

TH

I'll only post a short bit now but you'll probably get lots of input overnight.

You say your two main objectives are 1) hedges/countryside/farms, and 2) to do it on a budget. Well - you have only picked cities to stay in which defeats both of those. Bath and Stratford and York and Edinburgh are all glorious cities (well maybe not Stratford so much) - but they all have more expensive accomodations than you would find out in smaller villages and on farms.

If it were me - I'd get over all the fretting about driving (thousands of Americans do it successfully every month) and either stay in two bases for 4 nights each (the Cotswolds and N. Yorkshire are two good choices),

OR - rent a cottage for a week in the Cotswolds. From that base you could see everything from Stonehenge/Avebury/Bath, to South Wales, to Stratford/Warwick, to Oxford.

Renting a cottage would save you a good deal of money over moving every few days from city to city, B&B to hotel.

We saw some of the most lovely countryside on our drive from Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds thru Cumbria and into Stirling, Scotland.

janisj took the words right out of my mouth. From your description of what you like, I'd say skip some of those cities and find a b& b in the Cotswolds and then either Kent or the Lakes District (Cumbria) or Yorkshire and do day trips from there. I myself much prefer the little towns and villages to the cities.

I think all of the cities you mention will be MUCH too ambitious for 10 days, especially if you're wanting to get out into the countryside as well. If you're happy to spend your time constantly running, then I guess it could be done. If you're anything like me, you prefer country walks and poking about in shops and lingering in pubs over crossing off a bunch of sights off of a list.

I actually have a trip planned for the summer in which I'm basing out of a family-run b&b in the Yorkshire dales and one near the town of Bakewell in Derbyshire (with two nights in York in between). Plan to do very little "sight-seeing" and lots of just, as you say, seeing farms and hedges and rolling hills.

i might be misunderstanding your post but i just want to make sure that you don't consider the places you mention (bath, salisbury, york, oxford, etc) as countryside. these are busy, fair sized cities and taking the train or bus to each of these places will not result in seeing much countryside (except perhaps from the window of the train or bus).

in the UK anything but the smallest villages will typically have a very urban feel. this creates a problem for you if you don't drive. how best to see the real countryside without a car? if you really want to get out in the countryside, it is possible but not convenient. you will most likely need to base yourself in one place for the whole time...or two places maximum.

why not go on a walking holiday? england's beautiful countryside is best explored on foot. this is a very different thing that what you describe as it involves less sight-seeing, more countryside and much more physical effort.

Ah - a fellow Van Morrison fan???
I live in North Yorkshire, and the Yorkshire Dales tick most of your boxes - beautiful scenery, farms, castles, abbeys etc. If you search my name on here you will find loads of Yorkshire info.A 'farm stay' in the Dales is often very reasonably priced, although a car would be absolutely vital.
Do get back to me if Yorkshire sounds what you are looking for.

As others say some of the places you want to visit are not exactly countryside anymore. With 10 days I'd choose 2 areas and stay put taking day trips. We have done this in the UK several times and it was very enjoyable. No packing/unpacking every day, no overly long rides and it was nice having a "home" to come back to each day.

Driving is not as terrible as it sounds but I would NOT drive with jetlag,i.e. jumping in a rental car after a grueling 10 hr. flight (it's 10 hrs from where I live). When we did this sort of thing we chose a hotel near the airport for the first night. We were told many times most accidents involving tourists happen within 10 miles of the a/p and are due to jetlag. While I cannot prove that I have seen some mighty weird driving exiting the Hertz lot at Heathrow !!

Anyway, Salisbury might be a good spot for a few nights - lots of 1 day trips can be accomplished from there. York is another good spot.

You really need a car to do this sort of thing tho. What I'd suggest is renting an automatic (we do) and let one person be the driver. It is easier to get used to driving if only one person does it.

"we had planned on several days in Bath (use as a base to see Bath, Salisbury, Stonehenge)"

I'd go to Salisbury, Stonehenge AND Avebury on my way to Bath from London, why spend time & money backtracking. Oh and it's an easy train ride from London to Salisbury, easy to get a bus to Stonehenge & Avebury and easy to get another train to Salisbury, just do a search as this is asked on a regular basis

I'm going to second (or third or fourth) what the other posts have said: choose two places to stay, and consider renting a car; it is difficult to see many sights worth seeing without one. One problem with your suggested itinerary is that you've not left yourself much time to see the sights since you would be spending so much time travelling around. So I would suggest finding a nice B&B for four days somewhere around Bath (perhaps between Bath and Salisbury?) and then another B&B elsewhere - I travelled to north Yorkshire last May and so agree enthusiastically with Morgana that that area would offer you what you want. In 2003 I stayed outside of Wilton between Bath and Salisbury, in an old mill that was apparently mentioned in the Domesday Book; it was centrally located, approximately 15 minutes from Salisbury, and about 30 minutes from Bath. In 2005 I stayed at Bridge End Farm in Grassington, and would highly recommend both the village and the B&B. Finally, the nice thing about staying outside of town is that B&B's are much less expensive.

Hi, just to let you know two really important things to consider before you come over.
1/ I live here and know for a fact that it NEVER stops raining, so pack a raincoat during those months. Walking vacations during those times are delusional unless you like to be REALLY WET. Yes you can be lucky, god knows it does occasionally have blue sky and sun, but you will be lucky.
2/ The rail system is shockingly expensive and quite honestly rubbish. So it is far cheaper and easier to hire a car. Yes its a pain to drive, but the sign posting is incredibly easy and driving on the other side of the road is a snap after a day or so.

Have you considered a bus tour? there are many that leave from London and you could cover a vast amount of the countryside during those 10 days, all without the hassle of driving or catching public transport. There are day trips to all sorts of places, Windsor, Cotswolds, Salisbury etc all from London and could make you life a little easier. If you stay outside of the main areas you will find the B+B's cheaper, however they have become quite expensive in the last few years so beware!. Sometimes a small hotel is cheaper. Look up the cheap hotel websites before you come, and you may get a real bargain that beats a B& B.
There are also very cheap flights up to Edinburgh from London Luton or London Heathrow (see EasyJet.co.uk) if you book early enough you should get cheap tickets. It will take you hours to drive there otherwise. The majority of the places you are interested in are in the south (you will also get the best weather in the south during that time). So you can drive around the south - drop a car back to London then catch a super cheap flight to Scotland.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

just a couple of comments re jjah's post.

Most coach tours of the UK are pretty dreadful. Some day trips are OK - like a day trip out of London. But on most week-long organized coach tours you spend more time on the bus than off, can only eat at large places that accept coach parties, and actually see many of the sites from inside the bus. For instance most coach tours drive past Stonehenge so you can take a photo - but they don't stop or let you off to explore.

Sure, there are some posh B&Bs. But there are still MANY wonderful places in the £20 to £30 per person per night range. I personally wouldn't want to stay in a £20 hotel - but a £20-£25 B&B is usually fine.

And &quot;<i>..know for a fact that it NEVER stops raining</i>&quot; - that's just silly. Tens of thousands of folks take walking trips every year w/o drowning.

In response to Janisj's reply, I have organised many trips for relatives over the past several years who have come to visit and I have never been able to find a decent B &amp; B at those type of prices, so good luck with that. As for the comment with regard to the rain, no, you wont drown, yes people do still walk in it, yes they do still enjoy themselves, yes they are British. Enough said.

jjah: now that you've found Fodors, you will find it is a great resource when you have to arrange the next family trip. There are many (probably hundreds) of threads on here about B&amp;Bs and many w/ very reasonable rates. The MOST I've ever paid single is &pound;40 and usually less than &pound;35. Double usually between &pound;50/55 and &pound;65.

Thank you all so much! This is exactly what I was hoping I'd get. Talked with the husband, he says he's game for driving. So I will look into that. Just a quick web search and it already looks like renting a car will be much cheaper than the flexi pass I was looking at for the train. I had assumed wrongly that a car would be more expensive.

I will spend some time doing some more research and perhaps come back with more questions. Right now we like the idea of 2 days in London, and then a B&amp;B over in the Bath/Salisbury area - but in a smaller town in that area, and a B&amp;B up near York somewhere. So we will look into that.

What a resource you all are. Thanks again so much! I will certainly do some more searching of this website and the web and come back with more questions if I have them.

If anyone is searching for a holiday in North-Central Indiana - we're your source.

1) have you added in the cost of petrol
2) have you checked out how long it will take to do the driving
3) Check both Salisbury &amp; Bath for the cost of renting a car as you DON'T need a car in London until you are leaving it. It may even be easier renting from somewhere at LHR or around there.

Still think that renting a car, including petrol will be far cheaper than using the train. However agree that you certainly wont need a car in London. As for driving times, you have mainly concentrated around the southern areas and all of those are within a couple of hours of London. You could easily do Bath in a day for example. Have a wonderful trip.

We had a wonderful ten day trip in SE England last May/June. We used public transportation because my husband did not feel driving would be a vacation. We got a relatively inexpensive pass called, I think, London Plus - just for SE England.(Check Rick Steves website for rail pass details and cost) We landed at Gatwick, got on the train for Rye, stayed there at a wonderful B&amp;B for 55 pounds a night right beside a field full of sheep. We stayed there for four nights, did lots of walking in the countryside and took train to Battle and Hastings and took a taxi to Bodrium Castle and a nearby Elizabethan manor with a wonderful garden. Then we got on the train and went to Hertfordshire to do some ancestor hunting and stayed in a B&amp;B for 55 pounds in Much Haddem where we had a wonderful time going on walking paths and visiting the Henry Moore (sculptor) farm/museum. Again, we got on the train and went to Faversham next to Canterbury and stayed in a pub next to the railway station. We were there for the open garden weekend and could go in and out of Canterbury in ten minutes by train. We ended up our trip with a couple of days in London. We really did not miss having a car and were able to do this trip inexpensively by staying in small towns and villages. We hope to do this again soon. We loved seeing the countryside.

I totally agree with Saraho. We did the same last June. We traveled all over England and into Scotland using the train. We could have gone even more places but we kept it fairly simple and stayed 2 or 3 nights in 6 different places. Skipped London because we had done that another time.

We did take a small bus day tour from Bath to see the Cotswalds

BEFORE you go get a Britrail pass. It covers all trains everywhere at any time of day. Even the fast train from the airport. It seems expensive but much less than individual tickets when you get there and the convenience is worth something. We had the 8-day as I remember. The only problem we had was going to visit Stratford Upon Avon from Oxford. There was a cow hit by the train in front of us and we had to all get off and find other transportation. Only problem in 2 weeks.

Our favorite town was Haltwhistle. It is near Hadrian's Wall. There is a train from Carlisle to Newcastle.
We stayed in B&amp;Bs that were all wonderful. I kept the cost around $100 a night - some a bit more others a bit less.

Have a wonderful trip!

I need to apologize ahead of time if this post occurs twice, as something quirky happened when I first posted it.

In reference to purchasing a rail pass, I'd like to add a caution or two to Barb's post. I was totally convinced that an 8/15-day rail pass was the way to go for my trip to Scotland, since I was envisioning at least 7 major legs of my journey, with possible short-hops in between. In fact, it does not always work out to be the better deal. All of my train trips will be one-way, which I assumed would be more expensive if bought separately. However, I ended up returning my pass for a refund, and even with a stiff penalty for doing so, came out way ahead! To calculate which option to use for train ticket purchase, go to this site and check the box &quot;if rail passes are cheaper.&quot; You may be surprised. http://www.railpass.com/new/railsaver/railsaver.asp

The other drawback for me was the limitation that a pass cannot be used before 9:15AM Mon.-Fri. Since I am an early riser when traveling, this restriction wasted significant amounts of time when taking into account that departure times are extremely limited for many segments outside of the major cities in Scotland. Perhaps this would not be as much of an issue in the areas you plan to travel.

I definitely recommend Bath. I stayed at a B&amp;B called the Athole House. It was lovely and the owners very gracious. They picked me up at the train station. Drove me into town. Had a wonderful British fry-up every morning. Lovely conservatory and garden to enjoy. Also within walking distance of town.

I didn't want to rent a car either, but wanted to see the countryside. So, I took the Mad Max Tour out of Bath, to Stonehenge, Avebury Circle, Lacock, and Castle Coombe. (My B&amp;B host made sure breakfast was a little early AND drove me to get the tour). Saw some of the White Horses, too. Small tour (15 max) and very good information. You are pretty much on your own when you get to a place, but they play a recording and give you a thorough background before you get there. You lunch in a very, very old pub in Lacock. If interested, search Mad Max Tour and make a reservation in advance.

Also, if you want an excellent meal, I highly recommend Popjoy's in Bath. Best meal of my entire trip to Britain. But as with most of my best meals, I heard about it here.