Side trips from London, suggestions
 

I have about five full days in London and would like to take at least two day trips.
I plan on going to Bath for one day. Any other suggestions for interesting cultural day trips?

Why don't you wait until you are there?

Once in London, you'll soon realize that you need more than a week just to hit some of the highlights of London. Bath is lovely for one day. Go ahead if you are set on it.

Even one day trip for a 5 day trip to London is too many, IMO. Two day trips from your 5 days is unreasonable.

You could easily spend 5 full days - or 10 or 15 - in London alone. If you have no specific desire to see anything other than Bath I would spend the other 4 days in London.

If you specify interests people can help you pick out the best values.

Depending on the time year, you could visit Windsor, Kew Gardens, Stonehenge, Cambridge. If you haven't been to London before, 2 days out of 5 there leaves you only 3 days to see London and that doesn't seem like a lot of time to me.

On our first trip to London we spent 5 days. In that time we went to Bath which was wonderful and to Hampton Court. We took the train. Easy to do and fun! Bath is a great choice but Hampton Court is another nice piece of History.

How you split your time is entirely up to you. Two days out of town seems pretty sensible: so does staying in London for several months.

But you'll get much more useful answers if you tell us why you want two days away. There are a pretty finite number of things available outside London you can't find in London. Culture, however, isn't one of them.

You might think about taking the DLR to Greenwich for half a day. You are still close to London and on public transport, but it offers a chance to get out of Central London. Greenwich has a great Maritime Museum, the Mean Time Line, a nice little market, and more.

Salisbury Cathedral! 2.5 hours from london and a brilliant day trip.

Check my review at

http://www.mcdougalladventures.com/e...bury-cathedral

We have been to Windsor, Hampton Court, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick Castle, Oxford, Hever Castle, and Rye as day trips; but we only do one each time we go to London. The more times I go, the longer my London to-do list gets.

Paris. Take the Eurostar.

I've been to London so many times I can't count. And every time I find more to do, more to see, more to experience/taste/touch. So you can fill your entire 5-days there.

Bath will take plenty of time away from this wonderful city. You'll be back ( you will--wait and see) and you'll pick another day trip.

Is this your first time to London? If so, the farthest I'd venture is Hampton Court Palace or possibly Windsor.

W/ just 5 days you will barely have time to get aclimated to London let alone traipsing all over the country.

But - if you have been to London several times - then good day trips might include Bath, Oxford, Canterbury, Cambridge, Dover, Salisbury/Stonehenge or any number of other places.

Earlier, 7 full days for us went like the wind. One day trip -- Salisbury and Stonehenge.

This year, 4 days total in London.
Went like a fast wind.

The main limit is physical endurance.

Time and money melt away rapidly in London.

Cambridge. If it's sunny.

If you're relying on public transport some of the places mentioned can be buggers to get to.

One I would add that is simple is my home town - Winchester. It's an hour from Waterloo on the train and there's loads to see.

Winchester Cathedral best, and biggest, in England. Burial place of the Saxon kings and Jane Austen.

The Westgate museum - quite ghoulish small museum in the old city gate

Winchester College - Britain's oldest, and best, public school (and with, if I may say so the best old boys!)

St Cross - Old monastery.

Water Meadows and the river itchen (very beautiful)

The Great Hall - part of the royal palace that never got finished. Home of King Arthur's Round Table (yes of course it's authentic - it is bloody old anyway!)

City museum showing the development from iron age hill fort to roman city, to englands capital and onwards.

Lots of great pubs and restaurants.

Hi
You could take a train from Kings Cross and be in York in a couple of hours. Walk across the road from York Railway Station and you are within the medieval city walls. York Minster is a must see. York Railway Museum (free entry) is 5 minutes walk from the Station. Numerous museums. Enjoy some good Yorkshire food and hospitality. If you make an early start and get to York early you could make your way (taxi?) to Fountains Abbey (World Heritage Site).
Plenty of info about York on here, or just fire questions at me (I live up there).
M

Nowhere in your posting, hotticket, do I see a question whether it's a good idea to take 2 or more daytrips from London out of your 5 days. You ask for suggestions and I wonder why posters think it necessary to question your reasons for such an itinerary instead of just giving suggestions.

David_west suggests one of my favorite excursions, Winchester. It's about one hour by train, a very compact city with everything within walking distance for a healthy individual. In addition to the highliights David gives I'd also mention that Isaak Walton and St Swithun are buried in the cathedral. There is also a wonderful story of how the cathedral was saved from collapse in the early 1900s by a single individual - stuff of legends.

I'd add Brighton, Norwich and Oxford (Including Blenheim Palace/Woodstock but you'd probably run out of time for these).

One of my companions when visiting London is Earl Steinbicker's book "Daytrips London" (ISBN 0-8038-9367-1). I've been using the 1995 edition then.

Just to add another Winchester Cathedral fact, it saw the marriage of Mary Tudor to Philip of Spain in 1554.