London countryside
 

Hello, We are planning a springtime trip to London and the English countryside. We've beent o London before and love it, but have never travelled elsewhere.. I'm interested in Surrey but don't know where to stay.. also the Cotswalds.. Cambridge (?) .. We like more upscare areas and upscale places to stay, areas with activity etc .. Not sure what areas we should spend a few days in ... and what areas might be good for day trips from London. Thanks for your suggestions

CotswOlds.

What exactly do you mean by 'upscale'?

You can look at Bath, Cambridge, Oxford, day trip to Stonehenge/stay a night there if you like, Dover, Brighton. All of these have 'activity' though again I'm not to sure what you mean by that...

too* sure.

Also, will you be renting a car?

I have absolutely NO idea what you mean by an 'upscale area' in the countryside. "Upscale" to me indicates expensive residential areas -- and those may or may not be where the scenic bits are.

Or - does that mean expensive hotels?

Surrey, no idea why one would visit Surrey. Unless, it was to visit a posh hotel.

My own view would be head north or west. Now what interests you, horsy things, hunting, shooting, fishing, museums, shops, quiet country lanes, tea rooms, etc etc?

Try the New Forest.

If you've got the money there are some wonderful country house hotels.

It beautiful. Really lovely.

It's also about an hour and a half from central London by train (about the same in a car).

Sorry to add to the moans, but you really DO need both to be a great deal clearer about what you want and to express it in English.

- Do you really mean countryside? If so, why do you mention Cambridge, which is a small city? If you mean you want to see things outside London: what things?
- Surrey? Essentially a wodge of mean commuter suburbs. Some (like Dorking) surrounded by pretty countryide, some towns in Surrey (like Richmond) with a lot more to them than just a few chainshops, and some commuter suburbs (like Virginia Water) quite pretty and stocked with substantialish commuter houses. But very little to attract a visitor, unless they've got relatives living in them. Obviously something attracted you: what?
- This "upscale" stuff. Close to meaningless here. My bit of the Cotswolds has just about Britain's lowest unemployment and highest average income. A Duke as my neighbour on one side, and our prime minister's house close by on the other side. But we've got some of the worst social deprivation in the country - and most of the Duke's acres can be walked over by all of us oiks.

You can have posh hotels. You can engage in upmarket activities. You can gawp at upmarket things. Or, if you've got any sense, you can forget about social cachet and just tell us what it is you actually want to see and do.

What you can't do is find a ghettoised "luxury resort" that excludes people. Anywhere nice will be visited by everyone: the only kind of posh hotel that can exclude us all from all its grounds is likely to be tiny.

Hampton Court, Richmond, Richmond Park, Kew Gardens are all in Surrey. Send is a particularly pretty village in Surrey and attracts tourists. There are several villages like this. There are areas of natural beauty such as North Downs and upscale towns such as Esher where alot of footballers live. There are lots of stately homes and National Trust places. Surrey is a great place to live but maybe not top of the list as a tourist destination, except perhaps as a day trip from central London.

"<i>Hampton Court, Richmond, Richmond Park, Kew Gardens are all in Surrey.</i>"

And are all essentially IN London -- or at least w/i London transport zones.

Hampton Court, Richmond, Richmond Park, Kew Gardens are all in Surrey>>>>>

LB Richmond would disagree.

Hampton Court used to be in Middlesex, not Surrey, and is now London.

There are some lovely places in Surrey. RHS Wisley is in Surrey. Polesdon Lacey, Losely Park, West Clandon, Winkworth Arboretum, Runnymede, Box Hill, Brooklands. All Surrey.
There are some grotty places too of course.

Hampton Court is not in London. It is in East Molesey, Surrey.

Oh come on! To anyone not resident in these areas, Hampton Court/Kew/Richmond & Park will appear on any map as if they are part of London, even if they are actually in Surrey. However, I would recommend The Cotswolds for a few days, and you can catch a train from Paddington Station in London to many of the towns there. Full of honey-coloured cottages, the villages & towns are lovely. And upmarket. (=upscale?) Stow-on-the-Wold is my favourite, followed by Broadway, Chipping Campden, & Moreton-in-Marsh. Stow & Broadway aren't on the railway line but maybe you could get a bus from the other places?
Cambridge is also accessible by train from London King's Cross station. You could do a day trip or, if for instance you wanted to look round some of the colleges of Cambridge University (depending on whether you are visiting while the students are there), an overnight stay.
Oxford is similar of course, trains also run there from London Paddington. So you could combine a trip to Oxford with a stay in the Cotswolds. Hope this helps.

How about Rye? They had some lovely little B&B's in the old town, historic churches,etc. You could also visit the town of Battle and the Abbey on the site of the Battle of 1066.

"<i>Hampton Court is not in London</i>" Tell that to TFL . . . .

Perhaps we could allow the original poster to explain what she meant by upscale places. Presumably she meant upscale hotels. Lots of them in lots of places.

The Cotswolds, Oxford, Bath and surrounding areas would be my suggestion.

I think she fled in terror.

Two country-house hotels, not all that far from London, that we really liked are Tylney Hall and Great Fosters. The latter was once a hunting lodge of Henry VIII, and the period rooms are large (one is really huge, with an enormous bathroom) and comfortable. Tylney Hall is from a later period and has lush gardens with lovely displays of rhododendron in season. So either of these would give you an upscale hotel in the country.

There are similarly fine hotels all over Britain.

How about Rye? >>>

IMHO it's good for a day.

It's very "Disney" (think Carcasonne), but nice.