sandrajoyce

WE ARE GOING TO BE ENDING A MONTH TRIP, AFTER 2 WKS IN ITALY, 1 WK IN FRANCE,WE NEED INPUT FOR THE LAST WEEK. eNGLAND OR WALES, WE USE RCI AND A BEAUTIFUL RESORT IN WALES HAS BEEN OFFERED, BUT THIS IS OUR FIRST TIME TO EUROPE, SO NOT SURE IF BASE IN WALES IS OK TO DO SIDE TRIPS TO LONDON AND POSSIBLE SCOTLAND, BY TRAIN. ANY HELP WITH THIS.
THANKS
SANDRA

Cimbrone

It is not practical to base out of Wales and do "side trips" to London. Definitely not to Scotland. The British Isles are small by American standards, but not that small.

By the way, all-caps is hard to read.

sandrajoyce

o.k. sorry for the caps. question is wales or england? forgetting side trips, what about tseeing the sights, which do you recommend?

janisj

Which RCI properties are your choices?? Some in Wales are not that well located but some are fine - and there are MANY options for RCI in Scotland and England

janisj

For a week it really doesn't matter - Wales is great, Scotland is great, England is great. But they are BIG places and w/ just a week you will only see a tiny bit of any of them.

So -- which property(s) can you use??

sandrajoyce

RCI has offered the Mcdonald Plas Talgarth resort in Pennal Wales. Has anyone stayed here?

janisj

I haven't stayed there - but do know it. It is one of the best located properties in Wales. it is just outside of Machynlleth. It would be a great base for all of North/mid Wales. It is in a beautiful area, close to the coast, convenient to LOTS of castles. I'd take it. . . .

sandrajoyce

Thanks Jansij. this is our first time to europe,guess we have lucked out using RCI. What is best way to get to Plas Talgarth Resort from London?

janisj

You really willl need a car to tour around Wales. But you don't need/want one in London - so you have a few choices.

If you want to see some of the country between London and N Wales, you cou;d rent a car out at Heathrow and drive - but I'd take 2 days/1 night minimum to do the drive.

or you can take the train from London most of the way - Like to Cardiff, Shrewsbury, Gloucester or even Birmingham - then pick up a car and take a pretty much full day to drive to Plas Talgarth.

Or you can take the train to Welshpool or Machynlleth and rent a car there. However your choice of rentals will be limited mainly to local companies.

You can get some places by train/bus, but to tour around that part of wales you really do need a car.

janisj

Meant to also add - unless you are staying in London there are ways to get there w/o going through the city.

If you are travelling straight from France - you can fly from CDG to Cardiff and pick up a rental car there.

But w/o knowing your full itinerary inc. where you are flying home from it is hard to give useful advice . . . .

sandrajoyce

Janisj,
we will be spending one month in europe,
arriving into southampton england. going first to italy by train, spend one week in asissi,then one week on our own,2 nts florence, 2 nts venice, 2 nts sorrento ( not in that order) then train to france for a week, waiting on rci to see what they offer, then train to wales for the last week. we depart out of southampton to return home to the states. this is our first trip to europe, so i need a lot of help.
thanks,
sandra

janisj

Train from France to Wales?? Not very easily for sure. And train from Southampton to Assisi?? also not easy - there is this thing called the English Channel (plus all of France) in between. I would DEFINITELY consider low cost flights for some of your journeys. It is pretty unlikely your resort will be in/near Paris (which has the Eurostar to London) getting to Wales by trains/ferries could take the best part of two full days just for transit.

Since you don't yet know where, or if, you will get a trade in France, you should hold off on making specific transport plans. "France" is a VERY big place and how to get to Wales from which ever property will depend on which French resort you end up getting.

Any particular reason you want to use trains for these VERY long journeys?

And you will want a car probably in more than one of your locations - since many of the French resorts are not convenient to rail touring. And you will want a car in Wales.

Many of the resorts in Italy/France/the UK are out in the country and not in cities or near train stations.