ChgoGal

Hi, Fodorites!

First time to Kent in September and hoping for a look at my itinerary. Sadly, only have 6 days before moving on to London. No car, solo travel. For the places I want to visit, Tunbridge Wells appears to be a good base. QUESTION: Is there another base that might offer better public transport options?

Focus is on Tudor Dynasty this trip, so 15th-16th century. QUESTION: Are there other sites with deeper connections to Richard III, Henry VII or Henry VIII in/around this bit of England? (Welcome suggestions for London/Richmond, too. I plan to revisit Hampton Court and The Tower to see them again with fresh eyes.)

Most desired sites below. So many places I long to see but no time. Also, I tend to need many hours at these sites so focusing on one/day. (I usually ask so many questions, the docents edge away from me.)

1. Hever Castle
2. Leeds Castle
3. Knole
4. Bodiam Castle
5. Sissinghurst
6. Penshurst Place

Listing these other sites for future reference, and for those researching the area...

• Rudyard Kipling’s Bateman’s
• Scotney Castle
• Igtham Mote
• Dover Castle
• The Historic Dockyard at Chatham
• The Vyne

Day 1 Sat: Arrive am; Heathrow from Chicago. Train to Tunbridge Wells.

• Underground Piccadilly line to Hammersmith. District line to Embankment. Walk to Charing Cross. Southeastern Rail to Tunbridge Wells. QUESTION: Is this the easiest transfer from LHR to Charing Cross via Underground? (Not needing car service or HEX.)
• Arrive Tunbridge Wells around noon-1pm. QUESTION: Any rich, historical sites in Tunbridge Wells for my jet lag day?
  • I may try to bus/Uber from Tunbridge Wells to Penshurst Place; house is only open 11:30-3:30 though, gardens till 5. And bus back (40 min.; I will have to fight to stay awake, I think.) QUESTION: Anyone know if Uber/Bolt works around Tunbridge Wells? I seem to be able to book on Uber, even in Chicago, but I wonder what driver availability is like. I won’t count on rideshare, but would be great.

Day 2-7 (Sun/Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri). No particular order to visit my top 6 attractions above. But best weather day for Sissinghurst because of its gardens, and Penshurst on travel day to London due to ease of public transport to/from base.

QUESTION: Of the top 6 sites above, are there any you’d replace for another historical house with origins/history pre-1850? (My interest in happenings past this decade plunges as I’ve done less reading past this point.)
QUESTION: Any tips on saving on entry fees/trains/buses? I'll calculate National Trust fees to see if Royal Oak membership saves me anything, but wondering if there's any pass for SE England?

Thank you in advance for any tips (small or large) you can offer.

janisj

Each site on both of your lists are super worth visiting.

For my trip back in May that was my plan -- 11:00 AM arrival, freshen up in the arrivals lounge, Tube to Embankment, train Charing X to Tunbridge Wells. But AA changed the fight times and that became totally unworkable because my 11-ish arrival morphed to 4:30 PM. So I ended up booking a driver from LHR all the way to Sissinghurst (where I was staying)

Tunbridge Wells makes sense as a base -- but so does Tonbridge, as well as Staplehurst. All have rail service to London. If you were to hire a driver for the day it would be easy to fit in 3 or even 4 properties on the same day without rushing. For instance Sissinghursr/Bayham Abbey/Scotney Castle/Penshurst are a grand total of 25-ish miles apart and barely an hour's drive total -- easy in a car but very inefficient/essentially impossible by public transport.

uktravelover

For your train transfer, I would look at catching the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow to Farringdon, change to Thameslink train to London Bridge and then pickup a Southeastern train to Royal Tunbrdige Wells.

janisj

Meant to ask -- are you totally 100% averse to renting a car for even just 2 or 3 days??

That part of the country is soooooo full of Tudor properties/stately homes/fabulous gardens/castle all really close or semi-close to each other and easy drives. Having to rey 100% on public transport will severely limit how much you can see/do.

ChgoGal

Thank you, @uktravelover and @janisj.
uktravelover I will look at that train transfer--thank you. Would be my first time on the Elizabeth Line.

janisj ; I didn't seriously consider renting a car, but if you think that's an easy area of the country to drive, I will rethink that. There's an Enterprise in Tunbridge Wells with an automatic for $80/day, also Croydon and Crawley have rental locations, it seems. Going to mull it over, because I could see a lot more. There's something about dealing with the practicalities (parking, car insurance, navigating, fueling up), that takes a little romance out of visiting some of these historic places for me. I really like hiking the mile (or more!) from the bus stop/station to the house rather than the car park. I think it's what I've gotten used to. (I rented once out of Manchester and into York, and was stressed the entire time.)

Maybe I'll look at hiring a driver for a day, which makes me feel a bit posh, actually. Any ideas on how I'd go about locating one? Tunbridge Wells looks like a posh town, actually, so there's likely a lot of chauffeurs.
Thank you for any advice!

janisj

I'm dashing out for a few hours but just some thoughts . . .. Driving in the countryside between your sites is pretty easy. The M-25 and major towns/cities are a pain but for most of the area things are a lot better. I think renting a car for 2 or 3 days (or even the whole time you are in Kent/East Sussex) would be great for a couple of reasons

1) Seeing more much more efficiently. Not that I'm necessarily suggesting you'd do Sissinghurst/Bayham/Scotney/Penshurst all on the same day -- you'd have to hit one right at opening time and the last one near closing time. Totally doable but would require some planning. But any three of them would be easy. Hever is easily combined with Penshurst or Chartwell (Hever's grounds are so enormous its hard to do more than 2 properties the same day)

2) having a car means you could stay just about anywhere -- Tunbridge Wells is fine but it is a pretty large/busy town - nearly 120,000 population and you might want to stay in a smaller town/village with less traffic/etc.

Wherever (if) you collect a car, consider dropping it at LGW. Easy to get to the rental lot, and quick train straight in to London.

MmePerdu

If you can expand your territory just a bit into East Sussex consider visiting Great Dixter, an amalgamation of two 15th & 16th c. houses with its famous garden.

https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/

ChgoGal

Thank you, MmePerdu . Wonderful suggestion in Great Dixter!
janisj I didn't even think of Gatwick. For some reason, I thought this airport was in an entirely different area of England. Still mulling. I so resist rental cars but maybe navigating is a lot easier now with google maps as opposed to when I last rented back those many years ago and used my garmin. How do you navigate? Do you mount your smart phone on the dash and do google maps?

MmePerdu

I dislike renting cars . . . anywhere. But when I want to visit several houses & gardens in a given area, my favorite thing, I bite the bullet & do it. It really is often the only sensible way. Of course, a driver would be nice, too, if you can manage it. I just use printed road maps, usually OS maps (1/25,000 scale are best but 1/50,000 are ok, too) & once you're close road signs I've found are good.

janisj

Nope --I hardly even use my iPhone to navigate at home. I use my cars GPS when needed. In the UK I rely on an old fashioned proper paper road atlas augmented by the almost universally provided satnav (GPS) in the car facia (dashboard) Like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/36390787671...hoC_QIQAvD_BwE

One gets a much wider overview of the area with a road atlas - When I'm driving solo I have the atlas laid open on the passenger seat so I can see at a glance what's what/where's where. The dulcet tones of the satnav lady can give turn by turn directions . . . but doesn't always know what she's talking about - especially in really rural areas. Having a road atlas has saved my bacon many times. You'll note that a lot of country pub / B&B websites include specific instructions about problems using their post code with a satnav and what to enter instead.

Janeyre

Think about Hatfield House (QE1) easily accessed from London by train.

uktravelover

On the matter of driving, if you find it stressful, I would avoid the M25 and the M23 for Gatwick on weekdays unless you enjoy heavy traffic. However driving on both of these motorways at the weekend will be quieter except late afternoons when people will be going home after a day out. The A roads and B roads should be fine for your sightseeing and you can get to Royal Tunbridge Wells from Gatwick using A roads; it takes about 50 minutes. I think Royal Tunbridge Wells could be a better location for the car hire pickup and drop off as you can take the train straight to London having returned the car.

Take a look at ViaMichelin or the AA Route planner on line. Use the preferences to avoid motorways and the “ via / stops” option to plan what you want to do each day. Then print them so you can use them should you need to and/or compare different options. I would also recommend getting a map book as it helps to give perspective and is easier to manage than the folding maps.

janisj

To drop a car at LGW from say Tonbridge or Tunbridge Wells or Staplehurst it would never cross my mind to go north to catch the M25 to go back south on the M23 to the airport. Takes the same amount of time to just drive due west on local roads. Things can go pear shaped on the M25 at any time.

uktravelover

Absolutely Janisj. I think the OP is going into London afterwards so that is why I suggest Royal Tunbridge Wells it takes less time taking the train from there than driving back to Gatwick.

ChgoGal

Thank you, Janeyre, janisj, and uktravelover. I'm still working on my plan, so I very much appreciate this feedback. Driving doesn't seem too bad if I stay off the big motorways (and am in awe that you both do so without google maps in the corner of your eye while driving! It's like another limb for me while driving outside Chicago.)

I'd been planning Cornwall for the longest time and, oddly, wasn't getting all that excited about going even as I kept researching the history of the SW. Even London was palling because of it. But redirecting my focus to Kent brought it all back. New histories, houses, countryside. Happy to be planning again. The coasts, as beautiful as they are, just leave me a little cold. (Like driving, I suppose.)

Thanks, again!

janisj

If you wanted to drop the car at LGW (which is often easier than dropping it in a city because the rental agencies are all co-located together at the car rental centre meaning no city-centre driving) - you could leave your hotel or B&B after breakfast, drive to Nymans to visit the house and lovely gardens, then it is only about 10 miles from LGW when you can drop the car and catch the train to London.