UK itinerary advice (family of 4)
 

We are spending 3 days in Iceland and then will have 7 nights to spend in the UK this summer and will be flying in and out of London Gatwick. Our kids are 9 and 11 years old.

Day 1
Arrive London Gatwick from Iceland at 11am
Pick up rental car and drive to the Cotswolds and spend the night, thinking of Bourton on the Water?

Day 2, 3 and 4
We are debating between driving to either Snowdonia in Wales or the Lake District.
We will spend 3 nights in whichever location.

Day 5, 6 and 7
Drive to a train station to return rental car and take train back to London
We will spend 3 nights in London

Day 8
Fly home from London at 1pm

I'd love any tips or suggestions on where we should pick to stay; we love hiking and great scenery and road trips!

By the time you got to the Cotswolds it would be 3 PM at the earliest and then you are leaving the next morning for a long distance drive. Seems the Cotswolds is just a throw away? I'd skip that stop unless you can stay 2 nights. And few train stations in the areas you are going will have rental agencies. So I'd juggle things a bit.

Since you won't have any time for the Cotswolds anyway and won't be jet lagged you could drive a good deal farther the first day. Say to Shrewsbury which would take between 4 and 5 hours depending on traffic. Then it is a much more doable drive to either North Wales or the Lakes. Then drop the car at whichever bigger town depending on where you end up (Chester, Manchester, Liverpool, etc.) If you check on autoeurope.com you can see which towns/cities are possibilities.

OR -- you can take a train from Gatwick (you would have to connect through London) to the north and not get a car until you are in Chester, Manchester, Liverpool, etc. - spend the night and head out the next morning.

OR -- you can pick a destination more convenient to Gatwick - the southwest coast, East Anglia, Kent/East Sussex, wherever.

Thank you janisj! Yes I checked autoeurope and would be able to return the car to Chester, Manchester, Leeds, etc. Maybe we could do 2 nights in the Cotswolds and 2 nights in either Snowdonia or the Lakes. I was thinking that since it will be summer and the days are longer, that just having the afternoon and evening in a town like Bourton on the Water would be enough before making our way north.

If flanner comes along he does Cotswolds very well. My experience of the area is that it has some fine walking which you can access by taking a car out of town and walking back on miles of back lanes or even a bus. Just visiting a town in the Cotswolds is, well, missing the point.

I have to admit to some fear that a jet lagged person is going to get off a plane and drive down roads (on the wrong side of the road) where I or my family might live. I hope you discuss that.

Like Janisj says I'd do one or the other not both. If you do the Cotswolds you can do Oxford as well.

Day 2, 3 and 4
We are debating between driving to either Snowdonia in Wales or the Lake District.
We will spend 3 nights in whichever location.>

Been to both a few times and a tough one - loved both but especially North Wales - in part because folks were speaking Gaelic as the everyday language - mixed in with English of course- Conwy is your proverbial dream walled castle town on the sea for a lovely base - easy drives to Mt Snowdon (for train up to summit) - Caernarferon and its Castle - and Beaumarais - lovely shell of a medieval castle on the coast - plus the Great Orme - drive to the top for views miles around. Llandudno is the classic fading but coming back seaside resort - lively on weekends when folks flock here to shop and at night when younger folk come for clubs as so it seemed when I based there for several nights. (Most will prefer Conwy more but it's fairly small and quiet - I prefer old Victorian seaside resorts!

Lake District seemed pretty much all the same - lovely nature and lakes and famous houses of writers but really nice all in all.

Chester itself is a lovely town - return car there and look around town for a spell - www.nationalrail.co.uk for train times and fares - book early to get nifty discounted tickets.

Gosh if they were speaking Gaelic you must have been a wee way off P.

"a Celtic language spoken mainly in the highlands and islands of western Scotland. It was brought from Ireland in the 5th and 6th centuries AD and is now spoken by about 58,000 people."

I think you mean Welsh or Cymraeg. ;-)

honestly, there is loads to see and do in Surrey, Kent and Sussex that the kids [and you] would enjoy - castles, beaches, a light railway, gardens, quaint villages - all within 100 miles of Gatwick.

if that doesn't interest you, and it has to be mountains, then I would suggest flying from LGW to Liverpool, then seeing Snowdonia, the Welsh Marches or the Cotswolds and London.

even that may be too much for the time you've got.

bilboburgler luckily we won't be jet lagged as we will be spending 3 nights in Iceland prior to arriving in London.

@PalenQ Thanks for the suggestion about returning the car to Chester! Looks like that won't be a problem with AutoEurope!

I actually think there is MORE for kids in Kent/East Sussex than in either Snowdonia or the Lake District. Not the dramatic scenery but things like Dover Castle, steam railways, Bodiam Castle, Port Lympne wild animal park etc . . . And it is right on gatwick's doorstep.

But if you are set on the north, I'd also consider flying up.

Me personally - I would not try to squeeze the Cotswolds, and either Snowdonia or the Lakes and back to London into 4 days.

janis I think you are underselling North Wales. For narrow gauge steam railways there is the Ffestiniog Railway running for Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog. The Welsh Highland runs between Porthmadog and Caernarfon. Both knocks spots off any of the preserved steam railways in the south east. There is also the Snowdon Mountain Railway and the Llyn Padarn railway. There is the Victorian tramway up the Great Orme in LLandudno (and then get the cable car down). A bit further to drive and there is the Bala Lake railway, Talyllyn and the Fairbourne railway...

The Edwardian castle of North Wales are pretty good too - think Conwy, the lovely moated Beaumaris and Caernarfon where the Prince of Wales was invested. Ten there is the magnificent Neo-Gothic Penrhyn Castle built with money from Jamaican sugar and North Wales slate...

For high energy activities there is Zip World with three different locations in North Wales. These is serious stuff.

There is the Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay or Chester Zoo.

Portmeirion is a fantastic place and great fun for kids of all ages to explore.

There are some great beaches.

I am not underselling North Wales -- I love it there. BUT it is a very looooong way from Gatwick and a long way from London and they really only have two free days.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to talk me through this! I am ok with doing a road trip (we routinely drive 5 hours to Cape Cod just to spend 2 nights) and we have traveled a lot by car in Europe (Sardinia, Corsica, all over France etc).

But maybe this is too ambitious. If we cut out the Cotswolds and drive from Gatwick to Shrewsbury for the night, then we'd have 3 nights in Wales and can return the car to Chester for a train back to London.

I did notice on AutoEurope that the only place to drop the car off in Chester is in town about 2 miles from the train station on Bumpers Lane so I'm guessing there will be taxi's available.

Either a taxi -- or, often the car rental will drop you off at the station.

>>(we routinely drive 5 hours to Cape Cod just to spend 2 nights) <<

Driving in the UK isn't really comparable to driving in the states -- even to conditions in the congested New York/Mass area.