GBLover

I posted in this forum about a month ago with a completely crazy itinerary. I have now revised it quite a bit-so what do you think of this?We will be there 9 days (not including flights)

Day 1: We get into Gatwick airport at 6 am.We would then take the Gatwick express into London and take a train into Durham. We then spend the afternoon unpacking and walking round a bit. We have relatives there so we would stay with them.

Day 2- Durham and Environs- Spend most of the day in Durham-Durham Castle an Cathedral-possibly Lumley Castle or Beamish museum

Day 3- Drive up to Crookham (our base)- see Alnwick Castle on the way up

Day 4- Drive into Edinburgh from Crookham and spend the day there. I would also like to see something like Stirling or St.Andrews if possible, but I don't really know-any tips?

Day 5-Leave from Crookham in late morning. Possibly see Lindisfarne and Hadrians Wall on the way down to Whitley Bay, where I'll have dinner with some relatives.

Day 6- Yorkshire Moors/Coast- We would drive down to Whitby, Helmsley and Rievaulx Abbey

Day 7- We have a few options here. Should we spend most of this day in either:
-York
-Haworth
-Stratford
-Lincoln
-Oxford
-Cambridge
-or we could go down to London early
We would then take a train from wherever we were to London for early evening

Day 8- London- Either:
Spend morning in Hampton Court Palace
Spend morning in Kew Gardens
Spend morning at V& A museum
Spend morning at Greenwich...you get the idea
...before spending the aft' in Knightsbridge- Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Kensington Palace + Hyde Park- not to mention possible Afternoon Tea

Day 9- Day trip
a few considered day trips include:
1) Bath, Salisbury + Stonehenge
2) Bath, Windsor + Stonehenge
3) Cotswolds- Tetbury, Chipping Campden, Bibury, and Stow-on-the Wold, as well as Stratford
4) Oxford, Warwick Castle, and Stratford
5) Leeds Castle, Greenwich, Canterbury and Dover
or we could do our own by ourselves: places include cambridge, oxford/stratford, bath, brighton (one or the other, obviously)...ok wyyy to much about day trps

Day 10- one last day in London= spend day at Westminster Area, Tower of London, St.Pauls _ Covent Garden
We leave the next day
Any suggestions for day trip? or what to do on day 7/8? or hotel options for london? thanks

jent103

I can't help much with the rest of the country, but some comments on your London pieces:

The Gatwick Express goes to Victoria station. The train to Durham leaves from King's Cross, per nationalrail.co.uk, so you'd have to get yourselves and your luggage across central London. A better option from Gatwick is to take the "regular" train (First Capital Connect, I believe) from Gatwick to St. Pancras station, then walk across the street to King's Cross.

Unless you want to pay for a fully flexible ticket to Durham, you'll need to leave plenty of time between when your flight arrives and your train to Durham. If your flight is substantially delayed or you run into any other issues (long lines at immigration, train delays), you could miss your train otherwise.

You barely have any time IN London - you're sleeping there a few nights, but planning day trips (or at least half-day trips) every last day but one. Have you been to London before, or does it simply not interest you? Your last day is extremely full. Do you want to actually tour Westminster Abbey? The Tower and St. Paul's alone would be a very full day.

Your list of day trips from London - all of those are a lot to do in one day. Oxford is worth a day itself. Unless you're just plain not interested in London much, I'd skip the day trip and add some time in London.

Also, one day in Edinburgh is a good amount of time - I don't know that you could go much shorter if you want to walk the Royal Mile, tour the castle, etc. I wouldn't try to add Stirling or St Andrews in with it. Someone here just posted a week or two ago about how horrendous driving in central Edinburgh is right now; you might find that thread for more information, and think about taking the train in if that's an option.

janisj

Well this is a bit better than your original plans. Not 100% terrif - but at least something to work with.

jamikins has explained how to get to Durham from Gatwick - don't use the Gatwick Express for sure.

Some of your days border on 'insane' (for those who are always ready to jump on me [PQ]-- that is taken from the OP's original thread's title . . .)

Crookham to Edinburgh is easily a 2 hour drive each way, leaving very little time for the city let alone any of the other places you want to see. Plus a car is a TOTAL liability in Edinburgh. You'd do better to take the train from Berwick-on-Tweed instead of driving.

Hampton Court Palace is a full half-day and it doesn't open until 10AM so you wouldn't be back in central London until at least 2 or 3PM at the earliest.

Where are you staying days 5 & 6 -- in Whitley Bay? If so that presents other problems . . .

You are very seriously underestimating how long things take. All in all --this is only nutty --not 'insane'

sheila

Explain this to me, please?

"Day 4- Drive into Edinburgh from Crookham and spend the day there. I would also like to see something like Stirling or St.Andrews if possible, but I don't really know-any tips?

Day 5-Leave from Crookham in late morning. Possibly see Lindisfarne and Hadrians Wall on the way down to Whitley Bay, where I'll have dinner with some relatives."

janisj

I <i>think</i> GBLover means they are basing in Crookham, taking a day trip to Edinburgh and returning back in Crookham that night. Then leaving late morning to Whitley Bay via Holy Island and Hadrian's wall.