I plan to visit these and nearby attractions in early May. At the moment, I'm considering hiring a car and spending one night in the area. I've done a lot of research and have most things covered but am still pondering.

A) Where to pick up and drop off the hire car for maximum convenience and maximum time 'on the road'. I've read that Gatwick is a good location but maybe there are alternatives. I'll be coming from London and may have luggage with me if I can't arrange for my London hotel to hold it for me. How much time should I allow to get there from a Regents Park hotel? We won't need to check out.

B) Where to stay. At this stage it will be a Tuesday and Wednesday and to fit in with opening times, will have to do Sissinghurst on the first day, Tuesday, as it's not open Wednesday and Knole and Chartwell are not open on Tuesdays!

Thanks in anticipation

You could easily get the car at Gatwick. It is very easy to get in/out of. One other option would be to pick up the car in Dover and drop it at Gatwick. Sissinghurst/Great Dixter are closer to Dover and Hever/Chartwell are closer to Gatwick.

So you could do Sissinghirst, Great Dixter and possibly Scotney Castle on day one and Hever/Chartwell/Penshurst Place on day two.

In/near Cranbrook is as good a place to stay as any.

Thanks Janis. It was your trip report that gave me the idea of getting the car at Gatwick. An advantage is no need to worry about office hours.

I've got a couple of places in Cranbook bookmarked, will see if they have availability.

Unfortunately, Scotney Castle is not open on the Tuesday but I assume Sissinghurst, Bodiam and Great Dixter will be a busy day anyway. I thought of trying to get there first thing on the Wednesday but it doesn't open until 11. That would make Hever, Knole and Chartwell a bit rushed. Scotney Castle sounds lovely but is it worth the time allocation, rather than Chartwell or Knole? This is towards the end of my trip I may have castle/stately home fatigue by then!

If it was me - while scotney is lovely, I would not do it instead of Chartwell -- especially since you are seeing some other great gardens.

Knole is huge and very interesting. But is can take 1/2 a day by itself. For time reasons I'd consider Hever/Chartwell/Penshurst Place on your second day and drop Knole. That grounds at Hever are massive. Penshurst's gardens are just lovely plus the house is interesting but won't be a time hog like Knole is. (or -- you could add another day )

I find it difficult to argue with janisj on this, but I'm going to try [well, a little bit], but only to suggest somewhere else to stay ie in Chiddingstone at the Castle Inn:

http://www.edenbridgetown.com/busine...stle_inn.shtml

you may recognise Chiddingstone if you go/stay there - it is frequently used by film-makers as the architypal Eglish village as it lacks street lights and other modern "amenities". look out for the typical oast-houses in this area too -

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...&q=oast+houses

we had some friends who lived in one - very quaint but it's not so easy to get round furniture!

i agree with janisj that your days look very full. all the places you have chosen are quite different so it is difficult to advise on which you could "lose" - for me, Dixter would be a "must", along with sissinghutst - and that is probably as much as you could do the first day, allowing for traffic, crowds, parking, eating, etc.etc.

the 2nd day, Hever and Penshurst are more similar to each other than either is to Chartwell - which I used to be able to walk to when we lived in Kent so it is a special place for me. the countryside round there is simply stunning too - if you have time go and look at the view from the top of Toys Hill. Ide Hill is lovely too.

I would definitely get the train to as near to Sissinghurst as you can get - say Maidstone or Ashford, rather than Gatwick, and then you could return the car to Sevenoaks or Tonbridge.

annig: Your "argument" is good -- except it is just a bit late The OP's trip was in May 2009 (the thread was topped by someone advertising their B&B)

For details of what I actually did (in case others are comtemplating something similar) check out my trip report.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...at-belated.cfm

In the end, we caught a train to Tonbridge where we collected the hire car and were at Sissinghurst before it opened. From there we went to Bodiam Castle and then to Bateman's. We spent the night at a B&B in Cranbrook - a bit of a comedy of errors there.

The following day we visited Tunbridge Wells to fill in time before Hever Castle and then to Chartwell.

I was disappointed to miss Great Dixter but really enjoyed the gardens at Hever and Chartwell as much as the buildings.

As I was with a friend I don't see often, we spent a lot of time just sitting and chatting, catching up etc, so I didn't cover as much ground as I normally would. Only at Hever did we come across crowds of any size (a largish school group).

What i didn't really plan for was the fact that many places don't open till 11.00. I like to get going early and often found myself cooling my heels waiting for things to open.

well, it wasn't me what topped this, honest guv! it must have been the author of the comment that the moderators have kindly removed, and of course it never occurred to me to look at the date of the original post.

thanks anyway for taking the trouble to post your feedback, suki.

on a wider note, quite a few old threads seem to be cropping up - i wonder if there is a phantom poster going round reviving old threads???

"<i>on a wider note, quite a few old threads seem to be cropping up - i wonder if there is a phantom poster going round reviving old threads???</i>"

I think the difference is -- previously when the moderators deleted a post, the thread returned to its old place in the queue. If a spammer topped a 3 yo thread and the post was nuked, the thread fell back to 3 years ago w/ no evidence of the deletion.

But for the last week or so, when a post is removed >><i>Comment has been removed by Fodor's moderators</i><< is posted and retains the time/day of the removed post.

Does that make sense? I think I prefer the old way --

Having >>Comment has been removed by Fodor's moderators<< is a good idea -- but I think the thread should be allowed to sink back where it was in the first place. Just my 2¢