My husband and I will be in London for 5 nights, in just under a month (pre-cruise stopover). We have both been to London previously and are considering taking some day trips outside of the city proper while we are there for those few days.

So far, we are undecided between the following:

1. To take guided coach tours on several days to areas of particular interest. Plusses: hotel pickup/dropoff, paid admissions. Minuses: minimal time at each site...

2. To buy a London Plus rail pass for 2 or 4 days (within an 8 day period) and visit cities such as Oxford, Bath, Brighton, Salisbury, etc. (yes, I know they are nowhere near each other - I mean on different days). This would probably mean more walking (this may be an issue) and likely more expensive, but would give us maximum flexibility.

In both cases, money is important but not the deciding factor. Currently we are leaning towards the first option. So... can anyone recommend a good and reliable coach/tour company that we can use for those day trips?

Thanks,
Linda

Personally I wouldn't do either of these things, I'd probably travel independently and wait until the time and buy train tickets on the morning of departure. You may pay more but you aren't locked in to using a train pass. We like to do our own thing and spend as much or as little time in a place as we want and with coach tours you have zero flexibility but it does involve a fair bit of walking which you mention might be an issue. If you do go on your own, you can always sit in a cafe for an hour or two, watching the world go by and have a rest before going on.

Another option mentioned on this forum a lot is the Explorer Days with London Walks
http://www.walks.com/London_Walks_Ho...n/default.aspx
You don't need to prebook so can wait for a fine day or whatever and the group travels by train at a group discount. Once you reach the town you do a guided walk. We've done lots of their walks in London and would really recommend them. The walking might be an issue for you though.

Sorry I don't know any coach tours for day trips, you could try looking on www.londontown.com which has a lot of good info.

Kay

Hi, why not do a mixture of both coach tours and train trips.
A good coach tour company is www.viator.com .I have never done a tour in England with them as i live in UK but recently did a tour of Milan with them which was excellent.They are not the cheapest but they are good. You can read reviews on line,they do tours to Stonehenge ,Bath,Oxford etc. I would include Cambridge in my list of place to see.Take the train from Kings Cross, one every half hour. and then a bus from the station to the town centre as it is a long walk. The best place to find train times and prices is www.thetrainline.com.
Also visit a town called St. Albans, it has an amazing cathedral and Roman ruins.It is about 30 mins from London and you will get to travel from the newly renovated St. Pancras station which is worth a visit in itself.Weds and Sat are market days and the whole main street is full of stalls.Let me know if you need any more info !

Why would not using tour mean walking more? Because you won't be sitting on a bus just looking out the windows? Maybe, but as KayF says, on your own you can rest when you want.

You can reach Oxford really simply by two bus companies which have pick-up points at several London locations (and you just pay on the bus). One is the OxfordTube (but it's a BUS) and the other is OxfordEspress. The bus station is more centrally located than the train station and would save some steps. Oxford is a spectacularly wonderful day trip!!! And the bus tickets will be less, I'm almost positive, than a day-of-travel train ticket and with some planning Oxford can be enjoyed without a coach tour. There are great inexpensive walking tours run often from the Tourist Info center, too. Sign up ahead, though, to ensure a spot.

http://www.oxfordcity.co.uk/info/tours.html

Also if you go to Salisbury, you can, if you want, include a trip to Stonehenge; there's a tour company that runs a bus from and back to the train station. This is another lovely day trip--train to Salisbury, bus to and from Stonehenge, time in Salisbury, train "home." We had BritRailFlex passes when we did this so can't advise on cost of travel other ways.

I don't know anything about the LondonPlus thing but these passes can get pretty pricey I've read. You might do well to follow KayF's advice. Then you aren't locked into anything if you change your mind.

Other than London Walks day trips ( http://www.walks.com/London_Walks_Ho...ault.aspxuided ) guided tours out of London tend to be very expensive. But then you are talking a fair amount of walking.

Some cities/town like Bath have H-o-H-o buses that would cut down the amount of walking.

I'd definitely do it independently and just take trains (or buses for Oxford)

If you buy train tickets that are off-peak, same-day return, they are usually quite affordable. You can buy them on the day of travel.

All the places you're interested in, are quite compact for walking. The tourism office of the towns offer guided walking tours.

Hi carmonli,
I don't know if you two have an interest, but Kew Gardens is a gorgeous place to visit and they have a hop-on/hop-off "Kew Explorer" that circles around this huge garden. If you read a little of the amazing "plant finders" and bio-piracy (of rubber plants) in the 19th century, you'll gain an appreciation of Kew's incredible history. It's also a UNESCO world heritage site. This was a highlight of my last trip.
Have a wonderful time!
http://www.kew.org/

Thanks everyone for the answers so far. On rethinking, we probably will not plan ahead too much, but decide the evening before how much walking we are capable of for the following day, and to purchase tickets only for those days.

We have done a number of day trips by train on our own: Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, Oxford, Stratford on Avon, Hever Castle, Rye, Canterbury, Cambridge. In some of those places, we got a local guided tour through the Tourist Information Center. I have found it really easy to take day trips from London. Hever did involve walking from an unmanned station to the castle, maybe about a mile.

Carmonli, for added suggestions you might check out “been there, done that” site about off-the-beaten-path suggestions for independent day trips from London. Disclaimer – I have not done these trips myself but they do look interesting for those who are seeking variety.

LondonWalks has a day out that sounded very appealing to me and my friend when we went to London about a month ago: meet at Paddington, train to Oxford where a bus would pick us up for a tour of two Cotswold villages, back to Oxford for a walking tour, then train back to London. It was on a Wednesday, so since we were traveling to London on Tuesday, we thought that would be perfect for our first day. Only on the plane in the middle of the night did we realize that the group would be gathering at Paddington at about the same time that we landed at Heathrow! The following Wednesday we were no longer in London.

Well, you might want to look into that tour. Look up LondonWalks on line and you will find many interesting possibilities. You can take the train to Hampton Court, Oxford, Cambridge or other nearby destinations on your own. If you don't have a tour group to keep up with, you can sit and rest when you need to. We found that even 10 minutes of sitting gave our legs strength to walk a ways more. We returned to our hotel very weary each night, usually having been out 10 to 12 hours. The longer days were the ones when we went to a play (four in one week).

Have been on the one day Cotswold tour with London Walks and can highly recommend. Impossible to have got round all that by myself. Gentle, mostly downhill walks.

Also dont forget Winchester for a day trip.