I've done some research on things we want to do. We've been to London before, but there are things I want to do that I have not yet done. I am afraid, we are doing too many day trips. We will be there around the 22nd of May for 16 nights in country. The flat is near the Waterloo station.

I need help to decide what we should do when. We will be arriving in London on a Friday morning. We will leave the following Friday for the countryside.

Things to do while in London:
The War Rooms
Oxford
Hampton Court
Kew Gardens
Windsor
Jewish Museum
Canterbury
And of course a play one evening and walking the city which we love to do too.

Are there things we should do in one day?

Then we are off to the countryside for 4 nights.
Bath
Cotswolds
Stratford-upon-avon
Is there some of the London stuff we should do while we are in the country? We will rent a car at Heathrow.

Where should we stay in the countryside? 2nights in Bath? 2 nights in the Cotswolds? Where in the Cotswolds?
Chipping Campden?

Then up to the Lake district for 2 nights? suggestions on where to stay? and up to Edinburgh for 3 nights. And sadly home from Edinburgh.

Hampton Court and Kew are easily done in one day as they are very near each other.

Thanks so much. I thought that might be the case, but I'm glad to know for sure.

Hi, Teach~

I'd take the train to Bath, see the town, spend the night, then pick up your rental car from Bath the following day. Less hassle, despite the fact that driving in/around Bath can be quite confusing.

Chipping Campden or Burford are good bases for the Cotswolds. I'd stay there 3 nights, and keep Bath to one night.

I'd also somehow try to squeeze more time in for the Lake District, which is wonderful, I think.

As much as I love Edinburgh, you may want to shorten that visit to 2 nights, so you can add another night to the Lake District.

It sounds like a lovely trip, I'm envious! Have a great time.

So many of your sights are outside London that I wonder if you want a whole week in the city? The English countryside is beautiful in May, like one big coast-to-coast golf course sprinkled with blooming trees. Hampton Court, Kew Gardens, and Windsor are all near Heathrow, and Oxford is a little farther west on the southern edge of the Cotswolds.

As for what to do when, I'd let the weather determine that. (May can be sunny and pleasant or rainy and cold. You'll probably get both.) Museums for bad weather, Kew Gardens and Hampton Court for good weather.

Have you been on any of the London walks? (www.walks.com) We've really enjoyed them, in particular, the one to Richmond and Hampton Court. You take a boat from Richmond up the Thames and arrive at Hampton Court like Henry VIII on his barge -- kinda. Loved that boat trip past houses and pubs and parks.

If you do go to Oxford from London, you can take the train or the bus, the Oxford Tube (www.oxfordtube.com).

Chipping Campden is a good location in the Cotswolds, not far from Stratford. And it's a nice town, feels more real, less like a theme park than some of the other Cotswolds towns.

Well, that's a start. I'm sure you'll have many more replies -- and more questions.

just a quick comment - if you are going to Bath/the Cotswolds/Stratford -- why would you do Oxford as a day trip out of LOndon?

If you are staying a couple of days in the Cotswolds - Oxford/Blenheim etc are a short drive away. Instead of taking a full day out of London, you could easily do Oxford from Chipping Campden or Burford or anywhere in the Cotswolds. You'd drive to one of the park-and-ride lots that circle Oxford and then take a bus into the city center.

xxx

Check out Leeds Castle (actually in Kent, south of London). Rochester isn't bad (on way to Canterbury).

Cambridge and nearby Duxford aircraft museum.

Be aware that if you don't take the car back to where you picked it up, there could be a hefty fee. You can get a cheap Ryanair fare (book online) from Stansted (near London) to Glasgow, then a coach or train to Edinburgh.

I don't live in the UK now but would your car be charged the Mon-Sat heavy congestion charge fee? If so, check on times to avoid it. Coach and train is a good way of getting around, with coach being noticeably cheaper.

Cyberia: There is seldom a hire car drop off fee in the UK -- especially if they book through autoEurope or one of the other brokers.

They would not be driving in London so the congestion charge isn't an issue.

teach905: Windsor is about a full day's trip. If you left Waterloo in the AM you could be back in London by late afternoon. You can fit in a play after your HCP/Kew or your Windsor day trips.

Canterbury is also a full day's trip. (If you do go to Canterbury I'd recommend adding time in Dover - the castle can easily take most of a full day by itself though.)

Even w/o the Oxford day out, you have 3 full day trips out of the city - adding day one as a down day for jetlag recovery leaves just 3 days for London.

I honestly don't understand staying in London (and paying London prices) but spending all that time out of the city.

janisj,
How would you better split up the time? I was spending the time in London, because we had access to a flat. But if we are able to cut down on travel time by being more centrally located for the day trips, where would you suggest we stay? What if we spend 4 nights in London and 3 somewhere else before the Cotswolds? Where should that be?

We'd then just do Canterbury as a day trip from London since it's in a different direction from the rest. We've been to Dover and Leeds on a previous trip. Then we'd just do the War Rooms and the Jewish Museum as musts in London. Those shouldn't take all day so we'll have some time to see some plays while we are there.

The only comment I have is the use of UK. To me, it looks like you are going to England.

So sorry,

We are planning to go to Edinburgh, Scotland. I just haven't gotten to planning that part of the trip yet.

Scotland is good. To do the UK you need to add Wales and Northern Ireland otherwise you are in parts of Britain.

So Sorry,

I didn't mean to insult anyone.

Roger, teach905 plans to visit England and Scotland....does "UK help with itinerary" not apply and, if not, why not? If I say I'm going to Europe, I don't think anyone expects that I am visiting every one of the countries that make up Europe.

Hi,

How about staying somewhere near Marlow, or even in Marlow itself. It is a nice small town, close to the M4, next to the Thames, so you can do boat rides, and from Maidenhead it is about 35-45 minutes to London Paddington. You can catch train from Marlow, takes 1hr 10 minutes or so - but you need to change at Maidenhead. Also it is very close to Windsor and Heathrow.

It is perfectly feasible to catch train into London for the day, we live in Southampton & do that a lot.

Having worked in Marlow, there are some nice resturants and in the summer the river will be full of live.

Places like Oxford are not that far away (about 30 miles) from Marlow.

Hope that helps.

Mark

It appears to me that this is a very itinerant itinerary i.e. moving around too much.

I suggest consolidating; I'd edit the Lake District and Edinburgh for this trip.

You can find many beautiful and interesting places to visit within a relatively small radius for your week 'in the countryside' just to the west of London. There's no need to run off to more distant locales...

Tuck,
Poster is flying home from Edinburgh.

Hey, I don't have a problem with the use of UK. The OP's name suggest that perhaps he/she was a teacher and I was simply bringing notice to the use. Certainly not a problem for me.

I'm flying home from Edinburgh because it is supposed to be gorgeous and with the expense of travel these days, I 'm not sure when we'll get back to the area.

Should we skip the lake district and just head up to Edinburgh for a few days at the end? Does that make more sense? I also felt we were trying to do too much. I just heard how beautiful the English countryside is I wanted to see it all.