Nov. 3 or 4: Day Trip from London (& Renting a Car)
Oct 20th, 2004, 09:19 PM
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Nov. 3 or 4: Day Trip from London (& Renting a Car)
On either November 3rd or 4th my friend and I will be taking a day trip from London to Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle. We're going on our own (no tour) by train.
On the OTHER day (Nov. 3 or 4) that we have open for a day trip out of London, we would like to take the train out of London and rent a car somewhere that would allow us to visit any/all of the following (in a hurry):
Salisbury
Avebury
Stonehenge
Bath
Cotswolds
Oxford
Warwick Castle
Please don't laugh!
Okay, doing all that in a day is probably not even possible, even if all we want is to drive by Warwick. We don't have to tour everything, we just like to drive a lot!
If we got an EARLY start (at rental car place when it opens) would it be possible to do the at least the first 5, leaving out Oxford and Warwick Castle?
What are YOUR favorites from that list?
Also, has anyone rented a car from towns near any of these places? I did a quick check on Avis and renting and returning from the same location is SO much cheaper than dropping off at a different location. I was thinking we could see more if we didn't have to get the car back to the same place. Does anyone know if the car has to be returned by the time the office closes or can you frop it off later and drop the keys in a lockbox?
Thanks for any help!!
On the OTHER day (Nov. 3 or 4) that we have open for a day trip out of London, we would like to take the train out of London and rent a car somewhere that would allow us to visit any/all of the following (in a hurry):
Salisbury
Avebury
Stonehenge
Bath
Cotswolds
Oxford
Warwick Castle
Please don't laugh!
Okay, doing all that in a day is probably not even possible, even if all we want is to drive by Warwick. We don't have to tour everything, we just like to drive a lot!
If we got an EARLY start (at rental car place when it opens) would it be possible to do the at least the first 5, leaving out Oxford and Warwick Castle?
What are YOUR favorites from that list?
Also, has anyone rented a car from towns near any of these places? I did a quick check on Avis and renting and returning from the same location is SO much cheaper than dropping off at a different location. I was thinking we could see more if we didn't have to get the car back to the same place. Does anyone know if the car has to be returned by the time the office closes or can you frop it off later and drop the keys in a lockbox?
Thanks for any help!!
Oct 20th, 2004, 10:31 PM
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You can hire a car virtually anywhere, and detailed dropoff arrangements will vary by operator by location. They're the trivial issues.
You can't do what you want to do for two important reasons.
1.It'll be light by about 0630. But it'll be dark by 1715 (that's quarter past 5). You'll just be driving in the dark for much of your plan.
2. You can't just drive through Bath or Salisbury. They aren't beautiful Italian cities on a hill or Paris-style triumphalist monuments. They're nondescript towns with sprawling suburbs you have to inch (often VERY SLOWLY) through before finding - with immense difficulty - somewhere to park so you can get out and walk to the pretty (in Salisbury's case, stunning) medieval, Georgian or Roman bits. You'll use up more than half your daylight hours just getting into and rushing briefly through these two towns alone - apart from the time spent getting there.
This isn't the advice of some Slow Travel fundamentalist. The problem isn't how long it takes to savour the glories of a place: it's the sheer impossibility of getting in and out of ANY English ancient city in much less than an average lifetime. And don't delude yourself with fantasies about it being out of season. These are real towns, whose traffic never stops being a severe pain.
To do as much of this as you can requires fast driving, which means using the M3 and M4. As exotic to most Americans as taking the interstate from NY to Boston: you won't see a single thatched cottage.
One option that might work is to get an early train to Salisbury, hire a car after looking at the cathedral, do Stonehenge and Avebury and see how much of the SW bit of the Cotswolds you can pooter through while it's still light. You'd then have a slightly tricky cross-country trip in the dark to return your car to Salisbury.
In reality, though, it'd be getting dark by the time you'd done Avebury. So you'd happily go and have tea in a nearby market town like Marlborough or Pewsey and take your car back without wasting time on the Cotswolds.
An alternative that might just work is train to Salisbury, cab to and from Stonehenge and train to Bath. It's almost certainly cheaper, BTW, to erturn to London via Salisbury.
You can't do what you want to do for two important reasons.
1.It'll be light by about 0630. But it'll be dark by 1715 (that's quarter past 5). You'll just be driving in the dark for much of your plan.
2. You can't just drive through Bath or Salisbury. They aren't beautiful Italian cities on a hill or Paris-style triumphalist monuments. They're nondescript towns with sprawling suburbs you have to inch (often VERY SLOWLY) through before finding - with immense difficulty - somewhere to park so you can get out and walk to the pretty (in Salisbury's case, stunning) medieval, Georgian or Roman bits. You'll use up more than half your daylight hours just getting into and rushing briefly through these two towns alone - apart from the time spent getting there.
This isn't the advice of some Slow Travel fundamentalist. The problem isn't how long it takes to savour the glories of a place: it's the sheer impossibility of getting in and out of ANY English ancient city in much less than an average lifetime. And don't delude yourself with fantasies about it being out of season. These are real towns, whose traffic never stops being a severe pain.
To do as much of this as you can requires fast driving, which means using the M3 and M4. As exotic to most Americans as taking the interstate from NY to Boston: you won't see a single thatched cottage.
One option that might work is to get an early train to Salisbury, hire a car after looking at the cathedral, do Stonehenge and Avebury and see how much of the SW bit of the Cotswolds you can pooter through while it's still light. You'd then have a slightly tricky cross-country trip in the dark to return your car to Salisbury.
In reality, though, it'd be getting dark by the time you'd done Avebury. So you'd happily go and have tea in a nearby market town like Marlborough or Pewsey and take your car back without wasting time on the Cotswolds.
An alternative that might just work is train to Salisbury, cab to and from Stonehenge and train to Bath. It's almost certainly cheaper, BTW, to erturn to London via Salisbury.
Oct 20th, 2004, 10:58 PM
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Thank you so much, flanneruk. You have given me some things to think about. Would you recommend the places you mentioned over Oxford and Warwick Castle? The reason I bring up Warwick Castle, is that some elderly relatives who live in the UK told us we should go there. But I don't think there's anything ELSE around that area that would interest us. (We're not interested in Stratford-upon-Avon.) We'd like to see some different things on this day trip...and a few thatched roofs and a few cool towns. Btw, does Stonehenge live up to its billing?
One other thing I forgot to mention is that we have a BritRail Pass, so we're not concerned with rail ticket prices. We'll go where we need to go by train and rent a car wherever we can. I'm assuming you brought up the cab to save travel time?? That would be something for us to consider.
Your post was very helpful, but I probably need to read it again in the morning when I'm thinking clearly. It's 2am in the morning here, and I'm up waaaay past my bedtime trying to work out the details of this somewhat last-minute trip. I'm not having fun.
I REALLY appreciate the help!
Off to dreamland...
One other thing I forgot to mention is that we have a BritRail Pass, so we're not concerned with rail ticket prices. We'll go where we need to go by train and rent a car wherever we can. I'm assuming you brought up the cab to save travel time?? That would be something for us to consider.
Your post was very helpful, but I probably need to read it again in the morning when I'm thinking clearly. It's 2am in the morning here, and I'm up waaaay past my bedtime trying to work out the details of this somewhat last-minute trip. I'm not having fun.
I REALLY appreciate the help! Off to dreamland...
Oct 22nd, 2004, 11:28 AM
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flanneruk has described things perfectly.
Car travel into/out of ANY UK town of any size can be a real problem.
A cab to Stonehenge was mentioned because the only way to get there w/o a car is by cab or a local bus. Well you could walk but it is about 9 miles from Salisbury.
What you need to do is decide which 2 (at most) things you want to see and limit yourself to those. Even on a clear June day what it is daylight until after 10pm you could not possibly see all those places in 2 days, let alone 1 day in Nov.
Bath can easily fill a day and there is no need for a car.
Warwick doesn't really need anything else nearby since the Castle and town would easily fill most of a day. But Stratford Upon Avon is only 7 miles away so you could combine a visit to Warwick and the castle w/ a drive over to Stratford.
Same thing for Oxford - driving in Oxford for the uninitiated is pretty difficult. But you could take the train to Oxford, take a walking tour and wander around the city. Then you could pick up a rental car and drive through a couple of Cotswold villages.
In one day from London, these would be your best options.
Car travel into/out of ANY UK town of any size can be a real problem.
A cab to Stonehenge was mentioned because the only way to get there w/o a car is by cab or a local bus. Well you could walk but it is about 9 miles from Salisbury.
What you need to do is decide which 2 (at most) things you want to see and limit yourself to those. Even on a clear June day what it is daylight until after 10pm you could not possibly see all those places in 2 days, let alone 1 day in Nov.
Bath can easily fill a day and there is no need for a car.
Warwick doesn't really need anything else nearby since the Castle and town would easily fill most of a day. But Stratford Upon Avon is only 7 miles away so you could combine a visit to Warwick and the castle w/ a drive over to Stratford.
Same thing for Oxford - driving in Oxford for the uninitiated is pretty difficult. But you could take the train to Oxford, take a walking tour and wander around the city. Then you could pick up a rental car and drive through a couple of Cotswold villages.
In one day from London, these would be your best options.
Oct 22nd, 2004, 11:42 AM
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If you have a BritRail pass, you don't need to rent a car - all the places on your list are easily reachable by train, which you have already paid for by buying the BritRail pass. Renting a car would be a waste of your time and money. My advice would be, pick one of the places from your list, go there by train and enjoy it rather than rushing to try to catch a glimpse of several from a rental car. Salisbury, Bath, Oxford and Warwick are each about an hour from London by train with no changing. To include Stonehenge is an easy & inexpensive bus trip from Salisbury. Bath, Oxford & Warwick are also all worth a day in themselves, esp. if you want to vst Blenheim Palace which is in Woodstock outside of Oxford. So I'd rethink the car rental plan if I were you.
Oct 24th, 2004, 11:52 PM
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You guys have helped so much! Okay, the rental car is out. This is what we're thinking of doing:
Train from London (Waterloo) at 7:10am arriving Salisbury at 8:31am. Cab or bus (or hitchhike!) to Stonehenge and back to train station.
Train from Salisbury to Bath (takes anywhere from 50-60 minutes with no changes). See Bath and enjoy dinner there before heading back late to London.
Now I have these questions:
How much time will it take to view Stonehenge once there?
Do we have to time to view the castle? We won't go inside (if that's even possible.) Just want a picture.
Is the Bath website correct in saying it takes 90 minutes to view the main sites there?
Would you do this plan or would you skip something? Bath is looking more interesting to me the more I read about it, but I'd really like to stop in Salisbury too. I'm wondering how much time the Salisbury stop is going to eat up.
So, what do y'all think?
P.S. Thanks again everybody!
Train from London (Waterloo) at 7:10am arriving Salisbury at 8:31am. Cab or bus (or hitchhike!) to Stonehenge and back to train station.
Train from Salisbury to Bath (takes anywhere from 50-60 minutes with no changes). See Bath and enjoy dinner there before heading back late to London.
Now I have these questions:
How much time will it take to view Stonehenge once there?
Do we have to time to view the castle? We won't go inside (if that's even possible.) Just want a picture.
Is the Bath website correct in saying it takes 90 minutes to view the main sites there?
Would you do this plan or would you skip something? Bath is looking more interesting to me the more I read about it, but I'd really like to stop in Salisbury too. I'm wondering how much time the Salisbury stop is going to eat up.
So, what do y'all think?
P.S. Thanks again everybody!
Oct 25th, 2004, 12:05 AM
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Oops, I meant to say CATHEDRAL, not castle. I just saw that it opens at 7:15am! Plus it's only a 10-minute walk from the train station. Obviously do-able if we go to Salisbury before heading to Bath.
Oct 25th, 2004, 09:36 AM
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Viewing Stonehenge itself doesn't take long. Allow about an hour total only IF you want to prowl through the gift shop -- which does have some neat stuff. If you are on a tight schedule you can really see and walk all around Stonehenge and listen to the personal audio tour in about 30 minutes.
Salisbury Cathedral is wonderful -- it will take more time than Stonehenge (not counting the bus to and back)
Salisbury Cathedral is wonderful -- it will take more time than Stonehenge (not counting the bus to and back)
Dec 10th, 2004, 06:12 AM
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We're considering a May trip to London and wanted to include Stonehenge and Avebury, Bath and Cardiff. Does it make sense to take one of those one-day tour bus trip from London to Stonehenge and Avebury (as I recall, they leave from the Marble Arch area), then another day take a train to Bath then by train to Cardiff (taking at least two days for leisurely travel), then by train back to London - instead of renting a car and driving to all of the sites?
Between the city traffic and getting used to driving on the other side of the road, I understand driving may not be the most relaxing way to travel, but don't want to miss seeing interesting places not easily accessible by train.
Thanks for any input.
Between the city traffic and getting used to driving on the other side of the road, I understand driving may not be the most relaxing way to travel, but don't want to miss seeing interesting places not easily accessible by train.
Thanks for any input.
Dec 10th, 2004, 04:43 PM
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To flsd, it is not necessary to take tour for Stonehenge, from London Waterloo, frequent train (almost every 30-40 minutes) takes about 1 1/2 hours to Salisbury, from the bus stop outside train station, frequent bus takes about 20 minutes to Stonehenge. Afterwards, you could take bus back to bus terminal in town Centre,Change another bus to Avebury. It is quite easy.
From Salibury, frequent and direct train takes about 70 minutes to Bath, it is not necessary to go boack to London.
If you don't mind: with limited time,is there any reason for visiting Cardiff? To me, Sailsbury is one of the most delightful cities in U.K. The Cathedral,the walk along River Avon and well-kept medieval town Centre make the city much more interesting,worth an overnight stay. I spent 4 days in Salisbury this past Spring, really enjoyed the visit.
From Salibury, frequent and direct train takes about 70 minutes to Bath, it is not necessary to go boack to London.
If you don't mind: with limited time,is there any reason for visiting Cardiff? To me, Sailsbury is one of the most delightful cities in U.K. The Cathedral,the walk along River Avon and well-kept medieval town Centre make the city much more interesting,worth an overnight stay. I spent 4 days in Salisbury this past Spring, really enjoyed the visit.
Dec 11th, 2004, 06:44 AM
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>...with limited time,is there any reason for visiting Cardiff?<
There is an excellent pastie shop across the street from the entrance to Cardiff Castle.
It's a short trip to the ruins of Caerphilly Castle.
You can say you were in Wales.
There is an excellent pastie shop across the street from the entrance to Cardiff Castle.
It's a short trip to the ruins of Caerphilly Castle.
You can say you were in Wales.
Dec 24th, 2004, 01:11 PM
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Other fodorites have indicated Cardiff is a delightful place to visit, but other than just wanting to see someplace new, no, I have no particular reason for thinking of including Cardiff in my travels. A pastie shop, no matter how excellent, does not suffice.
