I will be in London at the end of March and early April. Are there UK school holidays around that time? If any fodorites know the dates of the UK school holidays please let me know.

Thank you.

The majority of schools will be off from 1st - 20th April 2010. Private schools look like they finish on 19th March and go back mid April.

AFAIK for state schools, the Easter holidays this year are from 2nd to 18th April inclusive. Some private schools customarily close about a week earlier. Away from the main tourist sights, London is often quieter than normal during the Easter holiday period as many locals use the opportunity to escape London on holiday. However all the usual tourist attractions and the transport systems will be very busy, especially if the weather is good over the Easter weekend.

rats! we're just starting to plan April 6th to 16th - 3 days in London, the rest wandering Bath to Cotswolds - will we hit over-crowded situation, do you think? Our daughter is doing study-abroad for college, and feels we must come visit - although she will be tied up most of the time away from us, of course! (so glad this question came up!)

jo_ann
Probably not too bad. Only children get time off that long, parents have to work! Busiest will be from Good Friday to Easter Monday (Easter weekend finishing on Apr 5) but by the time you come over it shouldn't be too bad. There will be family groups at all the tourist sights, esp amusement parks etc, and you should book your accommodation in good time.

The only things that get busy during school holidays are things parents take children to.

If you're travelling round the Cotswolds, that means two things:
- families going out into the country at weekends
- Individual Cotswold parents taking their (and often: neighbours') children to London during the week. Midmorning trains INTO London are full of the little uns: midafternoon trains FROM London ditto. But no-one takes their children to Bath or the Cotswolds as a holiday treat.

Contrary to the myth that seems to be impossible to kill, the Cotswolds scarcely ever get crowded. Since there's next to no accommodation in the area, a few honeypots, from Mother's Day (fourth Sunday in Lent) to early Sept get crowdded at weekends from 1100 to 1700, then practically all the tourists go home. Except for the Japanese coach parties, who go back to London.

Outside those few honeypots, and from 1700 to 1100 the next day, and during the week, the area's practically deserted

Unfortunately for you I imagine your daughter will be mostly free at the weekends.
During the week will be much less busy and you're arriving after Easter so you won't hit the peak time.

If you arrive on the 6th, stay 3 days in London (week days are less busy but London is hardly ever deserted!) then travel west on Friday (avoiding peak travel times.. early morning and afternoon/early evening if possible).
Spend the weekend with your DD... expect more people to be out and about especially if the weather is nice.
The rest of the time you shouldn't notice any crowds unless you're attending some event.

Or if your DD is based in London and not traveling west with you then I imagine you'd need to spend the weekend in London.. ?

1st of all: golly day, I love Fodorites! Exceptional information - and so quickly! Bless you all!
2ndly: the ironic part is that our daughter insists that all the parents do come over for a visit and we must also (and she worries that we're bored and lonely being empty-nesters.....ha!) So, we'll see her flat that she'll be sharing, and she figures we can have dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday but her university takes 39 students each semester over there (2 days/week of classes, 2 days/week of internship with a British firm) leaving every Friday free and they all try to scoot around Europe using RyanAir and EasyJet. note: this is NOT her parents' college experience!! she plans to be rather busy! ha! so, we're being obligated to an extra trip to Europe this year (not a hardship, and she's our only child and yes, we'll want to see her face during the semester) but will probably see very little of her. I'm thinking of setting up a day trip that Friday in case she's in town - maybe Hampton Court since I doubt the various students will have allotted money to it and yet it's on her to-do list, and may even try to figure out a weekend destination that she and a couple of friends might want to wander to with us.
So: we'll arrive Tuesday, the 6th, and probably leave town Friday or Saturday headed someplace (as mentioned, Bath/Stonehenge, Cotswolds, and then Oxford areas are all on my radar) and maybe catch her for dinner before we fly home again. So again: thank you all for the great info, and I'll start lining up my hotels immediately! You may see me here again asking for detailed questions - I've been to London twice but never had time to wander the countryside!
Let's all stay warm - what a winter this world is having!
Jo Ann