travel times and lodging in England question
 

I can't remember how I found it, but can anyone tell me if they've used this website on travel times between locations and found it to be fairly accurate?
http://www.travelinesw.com/nbindex.htm

I'm looking at it to be able to plan my day trips in England. I was planning on staying part of the time in London and part of the time in Andover, but London seems so expensive lodgingwise and there isn't really too much we were interested in seeing there. Or I should say, "planning" to see. So we may just stay in Andover.

I want to do a day trip to Oxford to see if I can see Christchurch - the Potter filming locations within, that is. Can this be seen without paying for an expensive tour with a guide? I just want to take a few photos and not stay long so I'll skip it if it's only available by hiring a tour guide.

We want to do a Stonehenge/Avebury/Silbury Hill tour, and I found one on the astral tours site recommended elsewhere on Fodor's. We can probably join the tour when they get to Salisbury instead of going in to London for that.

We want to see the Iron Age stuff in Andover, and some other things there, and we also want to go to Warwick Castle.
Is it reasonable to expect that Warwick Castle, Oxford, and Winchester would be day trips from Andover by train based on the timetables using the website above? We will go to London for a day or maybe two, too, but as I said, we'll just plan to see a couple of things and then enjoy whatever else we stumble on there. I'd rather have time to stop and see whatever we point at than try to cram too much in. No matter where we look we'll find something interesting, I'm sure.

I wanted to go to Cheddar Gorge, too, but that looks like it takes half a day to get there by train so I guess I'll leave it off unless someone has better advice for me.

It just seems odd to me that the whole of England is not much bigger than the state I live in, but it takes more time to get everywhere by train due to the schedules. I'm starting to not hate our 8-lanes-each-way freeways, evil though they are!

Thanks so much for any advice or wisdom.

Yes, I've tried the site. It throws up VERY weird solutions, and seems to have a programming weakness that prevents it from recognising direct bus links between towns if there's the slightest possibility you might take a train.

For instance, if I use it to check the buses that every hour rattle the foundations of the house where I'm typing this, it tells me to walk to the nearest railway station, get a train to the nearest large town, then get a totally different bus: a 90 minute, 25 mile detour to get somewhere 7 miles and 15 minutes away.

I suspect this can be avoided if you devote half your life to understanding the site's little quirks. You'd do better, though, to use www.transportdirect.info for bus/train combos. This site's problem, though, is that it tries to be too clever, and the first place to check train times is www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Be aware, though, that the bus timetables on transportdirect are only as accurate as several hundred independent, often web-averse, and always underwhelmed at investing energy to prop up some Government boondoggle, bus companies make it be. They won't go bankrupt or get thrown into jail if they can't be bothered telling the system they don't operate on Tuesdays any more because Jimmy takes the day off - and their regular customers all know that anyway.

If you want to go gallivanting round Britain, you've got three choice:

1. Stay somewhere with decent public transport links to lots of places. That means London
2. Hire a car
3. Stay outside London, but limit yourself to going to places with direct public transport links to wherever you're staying. Unless you've a passion for seeing Basingstoke, that pretty well rules Andover out. It's 2.5 hours each way by public transport from Andover to Oxford, but less than an hour if you drive (or if you get the train from London to Oxford). It's not 8-lane highways you need: the A34 works perfectly satisfactorily most of the time

For instant understanding of where in Britain is directly linked to where by train (and, with a handful of exceptions, intercity buses just aren't an option for daytrips) go to http://nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/maps/ and download one of the national maps.

Simply turn up at Christ Church. Do so while there's a service on and you can get in for free, though the college servants gently discourage you from going anywhere other than the cathedral. Otherwise, just pay the entrance fee, remembering it takes visitors only during visiting time: www.chch.ox.ac.uk

As Flanner has said, don't just rely on trains. There is a page of downloadable bus timetables at http://www.wdbus.co.uk/htm/ttNorthern/index-n.asp

which appear to indicate that Andover to Salisbury and Winchester are not difficult by bus.

With a car, Stonehenge/Avebury/Silbury, Bath, Oxford are all easily reachable along with Salisbury, Winchester, Portsmouth , the New Forest etc.

Andover to Winchester is a doddle by bus.

Can I ask why you're staying in Andover - it's a bit of a dump. It's a London overspill town so full of 1950s concrete buildings.

Yes, I was wondering why Andover? Are you staying with relatives or something? Otherwise, don't pay to stay there.

Me four -- why on Earth stay in Andover? Unless you have friends living there - and then presumably thet'd drive you around.

But for a base to tour around. Andover would not be it -- even if it was a lovely town.

It sounds like you want to do all of this trip by public transport. If so, you need to pick bases w/ good transport options.

If you were to rent a car (for the time outside of London of course) you could stay just about anywhere . . . .

Well, yes, I did want to either do all public transport OR rent a car, but not both. And as none of us feel comfortable driving on the other side of the road to what we're used to, we thought the britrail pass was the way to go. Should we open a can of suck it up and rent a car instead?

No, I've no burning desire to see Basingstoke, lol, but I do want to see Andover, Winchester, the science center @Bristol, Christchurch in Oxford, and a few places in London. And Cheddar Gorge if I can manage it.

Someone sent me a link to coach schedules which confused me further. What are those and what are they primarily used for?

Thanks so much for the links everyone; I'm off to check those out now. I appreciate your help so much, because overcoming the transit situation is almost enough to make me give up on the trip altogether.

Given that you want to travel by train, and given that you want to Visit Bristol, Salisbury, Oxford, Winchester and Andover, and given that you do not want to stay in London, you need to find a place to stay that has good train connexions to these locations. And, I believe, the only place that meets that requirement is Reading.

Now, it's hard to find people that say good things about Reading as a tourist destination, but as a train transport hub it is excellent. And I have stayed there. I found the town centre pleasant, I found decent accommodations and reasonable dining. The walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal tow path is quite pleasant, with a few canal-side pubs.

can we ask WHY Andover? Family connections perhaps??

Anyway - you probably don't want BritRail passes. You are visiting cities/town/sites all over the place and not linked by useful transport options. So you need to do something like 1) rent a car, or 2) stay someplace better located, or 3) modify your list of "musts" or 4) all of the above . . . . .

Well, I did want to see a show in Andover but it was cancelled and now I'll see it in London. No family there although I know someone who grew up there; he lives in the states now. I have lots of photos of Andover, both old and new ones. Anyway, I'll likely be staying in London for at least part of my trip as it turns out. I was just getting frustrated with my research last night.

You're right about having to narrow down our list of to do-s!

Flanneruk, my sister and I laughed and laughed at your first post about the rail websites, but we certainly appreciate the good information.

I'll check out Reading too, thanks. 'Nuther night of nosing around online!

Elizabeth,
It sounds like most of your interests are outside London, so I agree that Reading would be a good base for Oxford, Winchester, Warwick. Do not drive to Oxford! There is no place to park in the city and you'll have to park way outside the town and take a bus in. If you take the train, you'll be within a few blocks of downtown. I urge you to see more in Oxford than just Christ Church. Oxford has wonderful architecture built in a gorgeous honey-colored stone. You can take a two hour walking tour from High Street that will show you many of the famous sites and colleges. If you like theater, there are open air performances every evening in the parks and on some of the campuses. St. Mary's is right on High Street and was the place where the Protestant martyrs were tried. Also, if you are into Elizabethan history, it is the site of the funeral for the Earl of Leicester's wife, Amy Dudley, who was supposedly murdered so that he could marry the queen. You can climb the tower for a magnificent view of the city. There are some great pubs and very nice places for high tea. My students tell me that there is great nightlife, too, but I'm in bed long before that gets started.
By the way, if you are interested in Potter filming locations, you probably would also enjoy Gloucester Cathedral. Most of the hallway scenes were filmed there. You can get to Gloucester easily from Reading.

Have a wonderful time in England. Enjoy what you are able to see and don't mourn what you can't get to.

So if I don't want a Britrail pass, what do I want to do about train passes then? For four days outside of London and four in? (whether we stay in Reading, Andover, wherever, haven't gotten to that yet)
Do I want to pay per trip or is there something else besides britrail to consider? I am so thankful to have you all offering advice.

To add to my above question, it looks like a London plus britrail pass would be great for us. As the west boundary is Salisbury, if we want to go to Bristol and /or Cheddar, we'd just buy single passes from there out, right? Looks like the rest of the plus covers Winchester, Oxford, Reading, and the airports, and assuming we pay for the tour to Stonehenge, I'm otherwise covered. Or so it appears from my ungainly attempts at transit research.

So now I'm seeing the "tube" is underground, the trains are above, and coaches are buses, have I got that right? Are the tubes part of the britrail pass system, or just the trains?

&quot;<i>So if I don't want a Britrail pass, what do I want to do about train passes then?</i>&quot;

You likely don't need a train pass of any kind - you just need tickets.

And if it were me, I really REALLY wouldn't stay in Reading.

Is it possible to &quot;do&quot; the Cheddar Gorge by public transport at all?

I don't know the answer to this, because I've never tried doing it. But where I've seen bus stops, there are just rather tacky shops: the nice stuff (well, niceish. Let's be realistic about this: the Cheddar Gorge is no Grand Canyon, and isn't ever going to be one when it's grown up even if it eats all its greens and never so much as smokes a single fag behind the bike sheds) seems accessible only by car or by a pretty longish walk.

Maybe I'm wrong. But going by public transport makes it v difficult to see Wells or the adorable lunacies of Glastonbury - which are prety well on your way if you drive.

Well, personally I have no interest in seeing the Grand Canyon, and it's a whole lot closer.

I do have reasons for choosing the places of interest (to me or a member of my family) that I mention, even if I don't say what the reasons are. Whatever the choices, I'm still a dumb tourist with big holes in my understanding of being one there.

And I do thank you for your knowledgeable and witty assistance.