Make me love London: Flights, day trips, etc
 

Heading over to London in October for 10 days. Love castles, outdoorsy type events, music/art festivals, etc. - interested in a day trip to Wales or Scotland- if so where? <BR>Two 25 year olds....will be staying with a friend working over there. Please provide any advice you can...and where should we look for cheap flights from DC or NYC. THANKS

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Suggest you do a search on this web. There have been a "gazillion" postings on things to do in London. Also, day trips to Scotland and Wales and unfeasible, due to the distance involved. There are many, many day trips you can take from London that will more than satisfy your curiousity. Again, the London To Do search will turn up a lot of them. <BR>Have a great time in London, one of my favorite cities.

There is more than enough to fill your time in London. If you really want to go to Scotland or Wales though, I'd suggest an overnight to Edinburgh. The fast train gets there from London in about 4 1/2 hours. So take an early train from Kings Cross getting you to Edinburgh by mid morning. Then you could have a 1.5 days in Edinburgh and be back in London by early evening the second day.

<BR> <BR>The best place to find out what will be going on in London during your stay is: <BR>www.timeout.com/london/index.html <BR> <BR>For theater info - plays, musicals, summaries, prices, seating plans and tickets - you can't beat: <BR>http://www.theatertheater.com/london/ldhome.htm <BR> <BR>Hope this helps. Have fun. Don't drive over there, though! It's lethal! <BR> <BR>

I took one daytrip to Bath, Salisbury and Stonehenge that I really enjoyed (especially Bath). I also highly recommend a daytrip to Cambridge which is a lovely university town -- nice architecture, punting on the river Cam, etc.

Would have to agree with previous posters advice re: daytrips. As far as flights, I believe there are some specials still on British Air to London but the deadline is July 12th (yikes). Also might want to try Virgin Air. Some people are having luck with the new travel site www.orbitz.com. But as with anything, I would check via internet and by phone just to make sure you're getting the best deal. Final advice - would book ASAP.

London is great. Avoid LIKE THE PLAGUE Oxford Street and Leicester Square which are dumps. go to Chelsea, Notting Hill, Westminster, Tower Hill <BR> <BR>If you have 10 days worth Edinburgh - can be done by plane on day trip or go overnight and say - can you get an open jaw ticket in/out and do Edinburgh on way home? <BR> <BR>Nothing to do and little to see in Wales exept pretty hills. Better to spend a day in oxford, 40 mins away by bus or train from Paddington station. For music festivals etc try ticketmaster.co.uk and buy a copy of Timeout when you get here

Have done daytrip to Edinburgh from London, via overnight train. A few times. Arrive in Edinburgh early in the morning - around 7am. Then have time to visit the castle, Holyrood palace (but they don't open until later in the morning), walk the Royal Mile, Do alittle shopping on Princes street & catch a train back to London at about 4pm or 5pm & get back to London about 9pm - 10pm. <BR> <BR>Have also taken a daytrip to Wales from London, a couple of times. Cardiff is about 2 hrs away from London by fast train. Leave London about 7am - 8am & get to Cardiff about 9am - 10am. Went to the Castle in Cardiff & toured that. Then catch a train from Cardiff & go to Caerphilly (about 15 min train ride from Cardiff). They have a magnificent castle there - some of it in ruins, some of it not. This is the 2nd largest castle in Britain, after Windsor. There is a pub/restaurant on the lake, next to the castle, which has a view that overlooks the castle. I think the pub is named The Court House - not sure on that, but the view & the food is really good. Back to Cardiff by about 3 or 4pm. & then catch the train back to London - & arrive 2 hrs later. I have used the book - 'Britain by Britrail' for all sorts of examples of daytrips. <BR>Other daytrips, some have been mentioned by others, that I have gone on - Portsmouth (ships), Warrick (castle), Windsor(castle & river ride), Bath (Roman History & river ride), Salisbury/Stonehenge, Cantebury (Cathedral), Dover (castle), Nottingham, Oxford.

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Other nice day trips outings from London are Stratford and Oxford, usually combinable with trips to places like Stonehenge, Bath or Warwick Castle - which, IMO, are not worth a whole day on their own. <BR> <BR>Lily

I disagree that there is little to see and nothing to do in Wales. Do a search and find several recent postings describing many traveler's wonderful experiences in Wales. However, I don't feel that Wales is a day trip from London. We chose to see Wales and part of the UK on one trip and leave the rest of the UK, Scotland and Ireland for another time. We were not sorry.

With only 10 days in London area I can't imagine it would be a good use of time to travel to far when that time can be spent in so many close places to London. We spent 6 days in London alone last year and didn't see everything London has to offer. We also took trips to Bath, Windsor, Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon and the Costwolds which would be nearby day trips that are fabulous. If you are willing to rent a car you could see the main highlights of Stratford and Warwick Castle on one day then spend the night in the Costwolds and explore there the entire next day. It makes for very busy enjoyable full two days.

You can also do Stratford and Warwick in one day using the train. We took an early morning train to Warwick. There were no changes, and it got us there at 9:30 am. You can see the castle, then catch the express bus (about a 10 minute walk from the castle) to Stratford. It takes about 15 minutes and runs about every 40 minutes. Just make sure you get the express bus to Stratford and not the one that makes stops all along the way (which takes almost an hour). You can then catch the bus back to Warwick and take the train back to London. There are early trains and trains that go back quite late, so you can get in a very full day. Overnight would probably be nice, but if you are strapped for time, you can do it this way.