kschenley

I am interested in feedback on day-trips from London to the castles in Leeds and Dover. We will be there May 15-20, and looking for the best tour operator, with the best photo and informational opportunities.

janisj

I am pretty sure you mean Leeds Castle and NOT the "the castle in Leeds"

Leeds is a city far north of London while Leeds Castle is in Kent not far from Canterbury and Dover.

Leeds Castle is a lovely garden w/ a very ordinary castle. There are many excursions from London to either Leeds Castle and Canterbury, or sometimes Leeds/Canterbury/Dover.

But if it were me I'd just take the train to Dover and explore on my own. The castle alone can take up most of a day.

PalQ

Or take the train to Bearsted (sp?) and taxi to nearby Leeds Castle, near Maidstone. I agree that Leeds seems tres ordinaire as castles go but gets a lot of ink and the gardens may be great i don't know...and the dog collar museum in the castle.

kschenley

Yes, Leeds Castle and Dover Castle. Are there any other castles worth recommending. We will also be visiting Warwick Castle and seeing a Shakespeare play in Stratford-upon-Avon.

PalQ

Hever Castle is one of the finest in England trains go from London to a rural station about a few miles away. Windsor Castle of course. Warwick is often called the finest castle in England. Dover Castle is the castle of your dreams - plus great views over the Channel to France and paths from Dover Castle lead to the tops of the Cliffs of Dover. Bedsides that however Dover is a washout except for the hubub of ferries coming and going from the Eastern Docks, right below the castle, to France and back.

Neopolitan

You don't need a tour operator to visit Dover, which is easily reached by train from London. In fact, you can also stop enroute in Canterbury to view the impressive Cathedral (for historical as much as aesthetic reasons).

There is a fair amount to do up at Dover Castle. The exhibit that shows how the tunnels were used during the war are especially interesting, set up as a sort of journey of the senses -- even smell. And the views from up there are indeed impressive.

Leeds Castle looks so pretty, but everyone keeps putting it down. It still eludes us for this reason -- maybe this year. . .

CotswoldScouser

Leeds Castle looks wonderful from the air, and from some angles across the moat. Otherwise, the castle itself as unimpressive as previous posters suggest. It's also heavily used for weddings and conferences (including some which mean the castle is actually closed to visitors, so check your dates on its website). When there are several hundred people sitting through the launch of Brekkie-Wekkies, that romantic atmosphere you see in the ads can easily disappear. And to be honest, I've always found the Brekkie-Wekkie launch presentation a lot more interesting than this castle.

But you can get some great photos, the gardens are nice and from the right angle it's a great deal prettier than Dover, which is a proper fighting castle (and beats every new product launch ever for interest).

It's really very difficult to get to both castles in the same day by public transport: there are buses from Leeds Castle to Bearsted station (timetabled on the Leeds Castle website), but it's another hour on to Dover, and the first bus isn't till the afternoon. Doing both Dover and Hever in the same day by train is even trickier.

The alternatives are to drive or to use package tours like Evan Evans or Golden Tours. They're a bit Vacationally Incorrect on this site (so there may not be a great deal of expertise about them), but if you want to see Leeds and Dover Castles, they may be your best bet.

Larry_M

I did the Evan Evans Canterbury/Leeds Castle/ Dover tour about 8 years ago, on an uncharacteristically sweltering (for England) day in August. Canterbury is a gorgeous little town with tons of little pubs and inns where the patrons spill outside in nice weather; it was absolutely mobbed the day we visited. The Cathedral is very impressive.

We also thought Leeds Castle was lovely, especially the surrounding grounds and gardens.

Even though the tour is an all-day affair, there was no time left to actually visit the castle once we reached Dover. Our tour bus parked near the pebbly beach, we looked up at the White Cliffs, and our tour guide pointed up to the castle ... "there it is" ... then back into the bus for the return to London.

I'll never forget that tour guide, though. It certainly wasn't his fault that we had no opportunity to go into the castle. He was one of the funniest, friendliest people we've ever met in Europe. We shared lunch and an ale with him and a sweet elderly Italian woman from Naples, in a little place in Canterbury. He had us rolling on the floor in stitches as he carried on about how the French didn't know how to brew a decent beer. A true character who I will never forget.

Neopolitan

Well, I'm glad you had a good time, Larry M, and I don't know how the tour was advertised, but I'd have been pretty upset if I had signed up for a tour that would include Dover Castle (the best of the three attractions in my opinion) and found out we couldn't do it. Maybe the description just said to see the white cliffs of Dover or something like that. But too bad you missed Dover Castle.

Larry_M

Neopolitan - As I remember, the tour was simply advertised as a visit to Dover, and did not specifically note a tour of the castle. I didn't know much about Dover other than the White Cliffs at the time, so I was blissfully ignorant of what I was missing.

janisj

That is very common - many tour dscriptions say &quot;see Dover Castle&quot; or &quot;see Stonehenge&quot; and that is <u>exactly</u> what it means - you will see the site but not actually visit/tour it. In fact it often means you'll see it from the moving bus.

The tour description must say &quot;visit&quot; if it includes entrance . . . . .

historytraveler

Janis...

Thanks for reiterating an important point regarding tour comanpanies and their use of the phrase... seeing a certain site rather than visiting it.I posted a similar comment several weeks ago.Someone responded that they didn't think reputable tour companies would do such a thing. Sorry, but they do.

For novice travellers, it's important that they know about such discrepancies. Perhaps your comment will carry more clout.

PatrickLondon

Perhaps the relevant tourist authorities should establish an official grading scheme:

&quot;visit&quot; = opportunity to enter for at least X minutes
&quot;view&quot; = stop to view exterior and photo-opportunity of at least 10 minutes
&quot;glimpse&quot; = drive-by
&quot;see&quot; = not to be used!

Neopolitan

Oh, Patrick, obviously you never grew up in the states surrounded by barn roofs and birdhouses proudly proclaiming &quot;See Rock City&quot;.