martintimmerman

We have been to England a couple of times, and decided we would like to visit Cornwall and Lake District on our visit in Spring 2019. We live in Canada and are a couple in our early 60s.

Open to other ideas for getting around, but thinking of flying to London, train to Cornwall, rent car, stay a week, drive up to Lake District, stay a week, drop off car and train to London for flight home. We would spend a day or so in London either at start or end, but have been to London in the past. Sound reasonable? Other better ideas for getting around?

Spring to us means April or May. Which is better in terms of weather and/or busy travel time? We do like somewhat off-season travel, but still decent weather for being outside.

Then ideas for base towns in both Cornwall and Lake District. A maximum of 2 towns per area, since we do like to stay put for a few days at a time.

We like scenery, churches and castles, short walks (max 2 hours), museums. We are not into shopping or entertainment (concerts/sports).

And ideas would be welcome.

janisj

There are absolutely no guarantees re weather. April could be lovely and May gawd awful - or - vice versa - or - a mixture of lovely and gawd awful. Same with the Lakes vs. Cornwall - at any time it can be great in one and awful in the other. But in general, May would usually be better than April. Unfortunately there are two Bank Holidays in May - the first and last weekends of the month when both areas will be crowded and pretty expensive.

SO - if you visit in May - make it between say the 7th and 24th . The middle of May is off season, and wonderful because nothing is crowded. London is not much affected by the Bank Holidays so if your trip overlaps either of those two weekends -- base in London at that time.

So something like fly in to LHR around the first weekend in May, stay in London a few days, take the train to Cornwall, drive to the Lakes, drive to Manchester, drop car and fly home from MAN.

Dukey1

Will you be paying a drop charge for the car hire? You can also fly to Cornwall from London if necessary and you can fly from Cornwall up to Manchester, too

martintimmerman

I expect that most car rentals would have a drop charge. Alternative is perhaps as you suggest - fly (or train) to Lake District and pick up a different car.

janisj

There can be drop off fees - but they are not that common. Booking through autoeurope you will see all your variables re agencies, locations, car classes, insurance options, and drop off fees.

And even if there are drop off fees they will almost certainly be less than airfares.

Rubicund

As far as the Lake District is concerned, I'd recommend staying in Windermere or Ambleside, Bowness at a pinch. All are well placed for car travel around the Lakes but equally importantly have a good choice of restaurants and shopping, as well as boat trips on Windermere. I wouldn't worry too much about being central in the area, as a day trip can let you see an awful lot of scenery and if you're there for 3 or 4 days you'll see most of the Lakes.

BritishCaicos

Firstly, look at Airtransat, they currently have very, very good deals from Canada to the UK for next year.

We have used them in the past and well they haven’t got service levels quite up to Singapore Airlines but they will get you from Canada to the UK.

Why London?

I’m surprised Janis hasn’t had her say about your itinerary, she is usually pretty sharp on these things.

i don’t see how it works over two weeks. Internal rail and road travel can be very tiresome in the UK. The road system is creaking and the rail system can be more straight forward but can be very expensive.

Of the two weeks you are going to be left with just over 3 days in each of Cornwall and The Lakes.

From the things you like doing, with Janis, you could give you an itinary flying day into Glasgow, down the Clyde, through the Scottish Borders and into The Lakes, the back to Glasgow to fly home.

We could give you a long, long list of hidden gems that most of those local to the areas haven’t experienced.

Castlerigg Stone circle
Thornthwaite Church
The Burne
Burne-Jones stained glass at Brampton church : stunning.
Caerlaverock Castle
Threave Castle
Culzean Castle (not a castle, I hate it, Janis loves it but still impressive)
Drumlanrig Castle : very impressive art collection
Tullie House museum : huge collection of Roman artefacts.
Hadrain’s Wall
Ruined Lowther Castle
Wordsworth House
Rydal House
Blackwell : archetypical house arts and craft movement
Dumfries House
Pollock House
Gondola rides round Derwentwater
Edward I momument overlooking the Solway Firth, for its poignancy derived from being the point where Edward amassed his huge army to destoy we Scots. Fell off his house at it started to cross the border, had a heart attack and died on the spot in 1307. Leaving Scotland unconquerable.

Just buy a copy of Steel Bonnets by George MacDonald Fraser, reading it whilst sitting by the haunting Hermitage Castle and learn how the Scottish Borders were ungovernable for 200 years. Just family against family with no rules.

I’ve spent a lifetime living between Glasgow and Manchester and cover most of the grass. Still find things which fascinate.

janisj

I agree w/ BritishCaicos that it is overly ambitious in the short time you have. My comments were how you could squeeze it in - not that it is a great plan (and open jaw LHR/MAN would help a lot)

With two weeks I'd really do Dumfries/Galloway, a bit of Northumberland and the Lake District . . . OR . . . Cornwall, a bit of Dorset/Somerset and a couple of 2 or 3 days in London.

martintimmerman

We are not limited to 2 weeks. Thought we would spend a week in each of Cornwall and Lake District, and add how ever many days are required to get there and between.

Why London? Air Canada has a daytime flight from Toronto to London. We've taken it to get to England and other parts of Europe, and it sure beats overnight.
Also the first thought was only Cornwall and now we are adding Lake District. So we do want to get to the far southwest. No flights booked yet, so we could fly in one airport and home from another.

Given the suggestion to avoid the first and last weekend of May in either area, this might be a potential itinerary:

Tue May 7 - daytime flight on Air Canada from YYZ to LHR, overnight near Paddington Station
Wed May 8 - Train out to Cornwall, get rental car, stay 7 nights
Wed May 15 - Drive north to Lake District, staying one night along the way
Fri May 17 - Arrive in Lake District, stay 7 nights
Fri May 24 - Drop off rental car, train back to London, stay 3 nights
Mon May 27 - Flight back to Canada

RM67

That itinerary is absolutely fine - do it.

I suggest Falmouth as one base and perhaps Ambleside as the other.

Two of my favourite parts of the UK - I have trip reports for both if you click on my ID.