Help with UK trip--plan B
 

OK--we get off the plane at Heathrow, take either a bus or train to Oxford (whichever is easiest), stay in Oxford the first night, pick up a car at the station the next day, stay 2 or 3 more nights in the triangle area, turn in the car in Bath, Take the train to Paddington, stay at the Paddington Hilton, or some other hotel nearby, tour of London next day, spend a second night, taxi/tube to Waterloo next day, take Eurostar to Paris. I didn't realize Slough was so bad--any other advice I need? We are retired folks with some health problems. In Paris we are hooking up with a tour group.

I like this a lot better than original plan. But you don't really stay near Paddington station. That's in the NW "corner" of London, and is a relatively long tube ride to most attractions. Why limit yourself to hotels in that area when you're not taking the train out of London from there?

There are lots of good hotels in London at various price level. Don't limit yourself to a single area. Just cab to your hotel, and cab again to Waterloo on your departure.

The bus is much easier from Heathrow to Oxford. It's called The Airline and is blue ... you can't miss it.

Depending upon where you are staying in Oxford, you can either get off at Queens Lane/High Street (more central) or the bus station (Gloucester Green, the last stop, near the train station).

This is soooooooo much better! You will be a lot happier and have much more free time this way.

A bus from LHR to Oxford will be easier than a train for sure. There is no direct train so you'd either have to go into Paddington and then catch a different train to Oxford - OR take a bus to Reading and a train from there. So just catch the express Oxford bus from the airport.

I posted to your other thread about hotels at Paddington - basically I agree w/ rkkwan. I would not stay near Paddington. Yes it is convenient to LHR - but it is inconvenient to most everywhere else. Plus you need to be at Waterloo to catch the train to France. Crossing London from Paddington to Waterloo during the morning rush will take a lot of time and be expensive.

I would stay somewhere nearer to Waterloo. Either the County Hall Marriott (a splurge) or the County Hall Travel Inn (a budget place) are right around the corner from Waterloo.

Or even someplace in Victoria or St James would be just a very short cab ride from Waterloo.

I only want to add that returning a car in Bath is a bit of a pain. We rented there once (pick up and drop off) and also did just a drop off on another occasion.

In both cases, the rental companies were quite far from the city, in an industrial zone that was hard to find and hard to navigate. In both cases, the process at the agencies was lengthy and difficult, and then we had to wait a good long time for an expensive taxi ride back to town.

It is all doable, but will require planning ahead and getting good directions.

I suggested the Paddington Hilton (which is virtually in the station) in your Plan A thread because:
- you can roll your luggage to it from the train, and
- there is a direct tube line from it to Waterloo (for Eurostar), which is practically the only stair-free route to Waterloo around. At any time of the day, getting to Waterloo from Paddington is easy, cheap, painless and fast.
I wouldn't particularly recommend anywhere else round Paddington. Getting a cab to the County Hall hotels offers similar stair-free travel for your luggage from the Bath/Oxford train and onto the Eurostar.

Incidentally, given your concerns about health and being up to it, and tuscanlife's observations about returning cars, you might like to consider getting the bus to Oxford, staying there for the whole three days, and getting the train from Oxford to and from Bath and Salisbury/Stonehenge. (Or you could get the bus from LHR to Bath and use it in the same way). That way, if you didn't feel up to travelling one day, you could see a bit more of Oxford (or Bath), or get the local bus out to somewhere like Blenheim (or Cheddar). Or just lie in, and do a bit of leisurely meandering in the afternoon.

BTW, Slough isn't that bad, though comedians out for a cheap laugh love to crack jokes about it. It's the best possible place in the world to put the head office of a multinational corporation. It just isn't a very good base for meandering round the English coutryside