Help with England Itinerary
 

My husband and I will be cruising out of Southampton and are looking for things to do for 2 nights beforehand. Does this plan sound doable?

Day 1: Arrive LHR after red eye, pick up rental car, drive to Windsor, tour castle and walk around area; overnight in local B&B.
Day 2: Drive to Bath, passing by Stonehenge (or Avebury - which do you recommend?) ; overnight in local B&B
Day 3: Leave for Southampton approximately noon.

I really would like to see a bit of the beautiful English countryside and have been told that Bath is beautiful so I thought that this itinerary would be a good one. Feel free to offer up suggestions.

Sounds like a reasonable plan. Bath is OK but it is a busy town packed with tourist buses - if you really want to see some nice countryside and villages near Southampton (in fact much closer than Bath), you should investigate the New Forest:-
http://www.thenewforest.co.uk/

When are you planning on doing this? The time of year could make a difference to responses.

Do you really want to dive into a hire care after a transatlantic flight to drive just a few miles? Get a cab and hire the car from Windsor the next day.

"Day 1: Arrive LHR after red eye, pick up rental car, drive to Windsor, tour castle and walk around area; overnight in local B&B."

Take the bus, the roads around LHR are daunting to say the least and with no sleep you will be a danger to us all :-)

Pick up the car in Windsor

I think that driving to Bath just to leave there the next day is going to be a bit much, to be honest.

I agree with Gordon that If you want to see the quinissential english countryside, the New forest would be hard to beat, and it's closer to Southampton. Winchester would make a terrific town/city stop or Lyndhurst if you want to be in the Forest.

i also agree that picking up the car in windsor is a much better idea than collecting it at LHR when you've just got off an overnight flight.

Stonehenge (or Avebury - which do you recommend?) ;

both - not far from each other - to not see Stonehenge would be like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower - whether you like it or not you must see Stonehenge because it is world famous and you will always wonder why didn't I go to Stonehenge, etc. and probably then think Avebury - much more low keyed - is better.

Given your ultimate destination, I'm with Gordon--New Forest, then Portsmouth for the Naval Museum.

If you do go near Stonehenge, do go to Avebury also, as PalenQ says, they're complementary sites.

Wherever you go remember to wrap up warm, and make sure that you have sunglasses & and umbrellas due to the changeable weather we are currently experiencing in UK.

It is a safe bet you will need both.

If you are looking for a destination why not try Lyndhurst, the New Forests largest village. And no need to worry about provisions on your visit the village is blessed with a wide variety of tea rooms, restaurants, and pubs.

I spent much of my childhood in Lyndhurst and it is pleasant enough, there are great walks to the east and the child who inspired "Alice" is buried in the graveyard.

Thanks to all for the responses and suggestions! When I was initially doing the research on Avebury I stumbled across the town of Lacock and a quaint thatched roof B&B there. From my research it appears that the town is owned by the National Trust and retains many half-timbered homes and a former monastery. In short, it looks "frozen in time." Has anyone been to this town or the local environs and could tell me more about it?

By the way, we'll be arriving in the area in early June 2014.

Sorry but Windsor to Avebury to Lacock to Bath and off to Southampton the following morning verges on insanity. You wouldn't have time to spend anyplace nor see much. Bath will be a blur and driving in the city isn't all that easy.

Leave Bath and Lacock for another trip.

Windsor and the New Forest makes MUCH more sense.

As it stands we would be visiting Windsor and overnighting there. Then visiting Lacock and Avebury and/or Stonehenge and overnighting in Lacock. Then we would leave around noon the following day for Southampton. I can toss Bath off the list if I get to see that wonderful 16th century architecture. As nice as the New Forest sounds it's just not calling me at this point.

Your trip - still doesn't make sense IMO. Windsor to Lacock via those two sites is at least 3.5 hours behind-the-wheel time. If you spend 2 hours at Avebury and at least an hour at Stonehenge you are spending 6.5 hours just enroute to Lacock. Leaving very little time IN Lacock.

janisj - it appears that Stonehenge is actually enroute to Southampton so we could leave earlier on the morning of the ship's departure and see it then. I did a MapQuest which showed it to be due southeast. Understand that would make more sense, and would leave us more time in Lacock and Avebury for the previous day.

>>it appears that Stonehenge is actually enroute to Southampton so we could leave earlier on the morning of the ship's departure and see it then. I did a MapQuest which showed it to be due southeast. Understand that would make more sense, and would leave us more time in Lacock and Avebury for the previous day.<<

That <i>could</i> work, just be sure to leave <u>plenty</u> of time for the journey to avoid running into problems with the cruise check-in time. Some of those roads are slow and you can be stuck behind an HGV, farm vehicle or caravan for ages. I would allow at least 2 hours drive time from Lacock/Avebury to Southampton port plus whatever time you need at Stonehenge (for most less than 1 hour is enough).

Yes - that makes more sense. But whatever you do . . do NOT assume mapquest/google maps/AA journey planner or any other mileage calculator is accurate. Locals <i>might</i> make it in close to the 'advertised' timeframe, but visitors generally need to add 30% to 75% to the drive times. Sometimes more.

The on-line sites tend to be <u>very</u> optimistic. You need to take into account all that Gordon_R cites plus other issues. Plus you'll need to factor in the time to faff about w/ dropping the rental car and getting to the ship.

Thanks! I'll take your advice and get an early start on that final morning. Appreciate all your assistance!

if it's early june, beware the school half-term holiday traffic. We got caught up in it when traveling along the A303 on Friday which was the end of the October 1/2 term hol. 8 1/2 hours from cornwall to Kent was no fun. [it was more like 5 hours coming back today].

the area around Stonehenge can be particularly bad as there are notorious bottle-necks either side of the site.

when in June are we talking about - beginning, middle or end?

Lacock is beautiful, you'll enjoy it. Many movies have filmed scenes there: http://www.imdb.com/search/title?loc...f_=ttloc_loc_9

<i>Cranford</i>, a good miniseries from a few years ago, showcased the village. If you haven't watched it, try to before you go - look on netflix, ebay, amazon, etc.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/...ns/lacock.html

I think your final plan sounds fine. Just buffer in some extra time on that final day for unforeseen delays. Have fun.