Am in the early planning stages of a trip to England with my daughter, very limited time because of her schedule. Arrival would be morning of June 23rd at Heathrow; departure either July 2nd or July 3rd. Have been to London; we can skip that.

We like cathedrals, history, libraries, art and nature. We have briefly visited Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and Bath once before (all on the same day with a tour). We do not drive; we're hoping to get around by trains and then take some day tours from Bath.

We want to visit Winchester, Salisbury Cathedral, Bath, Wells Cathedral and Oxford definitely. Also on the list is Avebury, Glastonbury, Exeter Cathedral, and a day in Wales but I'm not sure all of those will be practical. Tentative idea is to go directly to Bath, stay 4 nights, do a day tour that will take us to some combination of Wells/Avebury/Glastonbury. We may also see Salisbury with a day tour or go there directly by train (and same could be true of Wells).

I have not looked closely at train lines and schedules yet. I am willing to spend one night in Salisbury or another spot if that seems more practical, subtracting one night from Bath, but think having a "home base" would be more practical. Managing luggage on train is not something I look forward to.

One night at Winchester, 3 nights at Oxford. Would probably try to do a day tour to Blenheim from Oxford but otherwise time spent exploring Oxford. I had originally wanted to visit Cambridge instead but logistically, Oxford seems to work much better. Open to spending extra night in Oxford or last night in an airport hotel if Wales does not work out as an add on.

I would like to get into Wales & see its countryside. There are day tours that look good from Cardiff but it looks like we would need to stay the night in Cardiff for that to be practical. And Cardiff seems like a very large, modern city, is there any other place that would be a good one or two night base? At my age, though, I am not sure that getting back to visit Wales on its own trip will ever happen.

I know this is very vague right now but appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

I'd play around with seat61.com, rome2rio.com (but don't trust the details), the https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ and https://www.traveline.info/

Going that far out the plans may not be in place but the present timetables will work pretty well for planning purposes.

You may like https://www.universityrooms.com/en-GB/city/oxford this, while not the full University experience the undergraduates will be "down" ie not in residence for some of your period and while they hold summer schools you may well get a really good deal in a nice college for a reasonable price compared to a B&B up the Cowley road.

Just quick notes since I'm leaving for the morning.

BUT some of the places on your wish list are either difficult or almost impossible by either public transport or commercial tours especially when your overall time is limited. Mad Max is good for tours out of Bath. No need for a day tour to Blenheim since is an easy bus ride from central Oxford. In your case I'd probably look at hiring driver/guides for a couple of different days to hit places not easily done by other means (or change the wish list for more convenient connections/transport)

I'll try to post more detailed advice later . . .

I have done a day trip to Wells by bus from Bath, and to Salisbury by train. No need for a tour for them. I would look at a tour for the Cotswolds. Exeter cathedral is not one of my favorites, and you have an abundance of impressive chapels in Oxford. I don't think you have time for Wales.

I second the use of universityrooms.com, and recommend Keble college.

Thanks, everybody! A bus would be good option for Wells. Still trying to figure out how many places are practical, probably a couple will have to go and Exeter is most likely. Only Bath, Winchester and Oxford are on our "safe" list.

We are thinking along the same lines -- I had already taken a very quick look at universityrooms.com. I worked for 40 years on a college campus & so would love to stay at Oxford. Several years ago I spent 3 nights in a dorm room at Dublin's Trinity University dorm room and was well pleased. The problem with Oxford seems to be that they do not "release" the rooms until much closer to the summer; I cannot check for availability now, much less make a reservation.

Unfortunately, it'll be high season for the trip and lodging may be more difficult. In the past, I've made plane reservations 6 months ahead of time, lodging 3-4 months ahead of time. Does that sound reasonable? I've never made train reservations so I don't have any ideas about that but surely a couple of months ahead of time would be fine. Maybe when making lodging reservations.

Right now I am reading English Cathedrals: A History so they all are sounding interesting. Also have a book titled England's Cathedrals By Train,then Town Walks in Britain waiting on me. A practical guidebook is on order, too.

All you need to know about train travel in Britain is here: https://www.seat61.com/UK-train-travel.htm

You can't buy train tickets more than 2-3 months ahead. You will save money buying ahead, but it doesn't have to be all that long ahead.

PBS has a series on UK cathedrals that's on my station right now, and there's also a Nova series. Secrets of Britain?s Great Cathedrals

thursdaysd - sounds like a great show but when I click on that link it makes me sign in and says it's restricted to users working in the broadcast industry. When I google nova it says no series with that name. How are you watching it?

We left Brighton by car and reached Stonehenge in the afternoon, stopping on our way to pay a short visit to Arundel. We slept in Amesbury, then the next morning we left very late (11.30) and drove all the way to Hayle, Cornwall. It was quite a long drive, but not that bad, not much traffic as well. We arrived in Hayle at about 6.30 pm, having stopped a while for lunch. We were in Hayle for 4 days and that was a good base to visit all the touristy places in West Cornwall (St Ives, Lands End, Marazion, Mousehole, Lizard Point, etc). The day we left Hayle, we drove to Tintagel Castle, then we followed the coast for a while and then headed to Glastonbury, where we slept 1 night. The next day we visited Glastonbury and Wells and reached Swindon, which has been our (cheap!) base for the next day's tour of the Cotswolds. At the end, we reached London from Swindon, which is a couple of hour's drive on the motorway. It has been a very nice trip, helped by very nice weather as well.

Not 100% sure what your info has to do with the OP's questions, but >>drove all the way to Hayle, Cornwall. It was quite a long drive, but not that bad, not much traffic as well.<< . . . Do you mean now since it sounds like you are currently on the trip??? In summer when the OP's trip is, there would be a lot of traffic and take probably close to 5 hours.

(Maybe I mis-interpreted your post and you're really doing a trip report - if so, great. It would be better to start your own thread though)

If you fancy something in Wales, based from Cardiff I'd recommend St Fagans National Museum of History - you can get there on the bus, it's free to enter and is easily a day full of stuff to see and gives you a great background to Welsh history and the lives of the Welsh. Fantastic open air museum.