emmagus

I have to be in Weybridge England for several days and am wondering is there ANYTHING to do? I have a full afternoon free and it seems to be a bit of a wasteland. Any good food? High Tea? Short train ride somewhere interesting? Thank you!

MmePerdu

You'll be close to both Windsor and Hampton Court Palace. Not exactly wasteland. Possibly no direct trains but likely buses or taxis in a pinch.

Odin

You can take the bus to Hampton Court or to Kingston upon Thames if you want shopping and eating. There are plenty of restaurants in Kingston along the River Thames. There are also lots of good restaurants close to Hampton Court Palace, along Bridge Road (Mezzet, Le Petit Nantais, Henry's Kitchen etc). You can take the bus to Brooklands Museum if you are interested in aviation. There are a number of old aircraft on display including Concorde. There is the London Bus Museum also in Brooklands.
If you want afternoon tea, the Sir Christopher Wren hotel in Windsor is recommended. You can easily take the train from Weybridge to London Waterloo or get off at Wimbledon, Clapham etc.
Weybridge is not a wasteland, it is an expensive residential area with many famous residents.

tower

Odin and MmePerdu:
Now this supposedly is what Fodors Forum is all about. OP asks for specific help and gets it. Now, why can't we all pay heed to this simple assignment? I sometime get off track on this issue so I'm more or less reminding myself what our goals are....or should be.

flanneruk

Far from being a wasteland, this part of SW London has sky-high property prices because it's on the pretty river Wey, just before it joins the Thames and is surrounded by an extraordinarily dense and photogenic network of small rivers and lakes - which in England inevitably means lots of footpaths. They're close to everywhere if you look, and one network is now a National Trust site (http://goo.gl/KPWqA3) Loads of others (just google "Weybridge footpaths")

One downside of all this is that the area has a wholly disproportionate number of celebrity trash among its residents - but that still means 99% of locals are normal and sane-ish. There is a small local bus network (http://goo.gl/KPWqA3 ), but most inhabitants rely on a mix of train and cars.

If you don't want a car, changing trains is often the easiest way of getting around, and the line to London and SE to Guildford and Basingstoke takes you to places with denser bus networks. The journey planner for the area around is http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk Further afield: http://www.traveline.info/

High Tea is a meal a few local 60s pop stars will remember from their Liverpool childhood, and is otherwise almost unheard of in London's suburbs - though it's occasionally served in private houses as a precursor to an evening at the theatre, usually to be followed by a proper post-theatre supper in town before catching the last train back.

The absurdly overpriced tourist ripoff, Downton-inspired, "afternoon tea" (utterly unlike High Tea) generally hasn't made it to the suburbs - but most high streets still have (always independent) cafes serving tea and cakes for about a tenth of the price. Weybridge, unfortunately, hasn't looked after its high st as well as many similar suburbs (comes of letting the popocracy in), and it DOES look a bit of a chain-infested disaster. Those of my friends who regard this stuff as real food claim they've always managed to find a proper cafe in or just off practically every high st in SE England. Good luck.

Hooameye

Are you sure that you want "high tea", probably afternoon tea I expect:
http://britishfood.about.com/od/faq/...teavafttea.htm

emmagus

Thank you this is all very interesting and I am excited to slip in a trip to Hampton Court. By any Roman ruins in that area? Any food recommendations (I live in Brooklyn NY so I am used to good ethnic food)? I really appreciate all this insight.

Odin

I already mentioned some restaurant recommendations in the Hampton Court area:-

http://www.mezzet.co.uk/ Lebanese restaurant
http://www.lepetitnantais.co.uk/#!/splash French bistro
There are alot of restaurants on Bridge Road, there is also an Indian, Thai and couple of Italian restaurants.

Notable pub:-
Cardinal Wolsey on Hampton Court Road, has a recently renovated restaurant which is very popular

No Roman ruins in this area, for that you will need to go to St Albans and ancient Verulamium.

MmePerdu

Or here:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chedworth-roman-villa/