Where to fit Bath and Stonehenge into England trip?
 

We are spending 4 days in London before heading to Barnesdale Country Club near Oakham where we'll be for 5 days. We want to join a tour of Stonehenge and also spend a day in Bath and go to Cambridge. This is our 1st visit to England, so the logistics are a bit baffling. Does it make sense to do any of this on our way from London to the timeshare, while we are staying in London or make day trips from Barnedale? Last question....my husband is reading the book "Longitude" and would like to check out Greenwich. Where can that fit into the scheme of things? Thanks for any help you can give me.

I cannot answer all your questions, but I do live near to Barnsdale.

From my point of view, Bath and Stonehenge are a very long way for a day trip from the Barnsdale area, perhaps this may be best done from when you are in London and Greenwich is in London so it makes sense to do that when you are there.

Cambridge is on the same railway line as Oakham with no changes, so do that when you are at Barnsdale.

You can easily spend a day in Greenwich, most of it at the Maritime Museum http://www.nmm.ac.uk as the Observatory tour is fairly brief, and I believe starts every half-hour at the Prime Meridian.

The original observatory (Flamsteed House) is under renovation; John Harrison's clocks (of <u>Longitude</u> fame) are on display at the Maritime for the duration.

There is a shuttle tram from the Maritime up the hill to the obs to save you a climb of twenty stories or so.

I highly recommend taking a Thames cruise at least downstream to Greenwich; the historical knowledge of the pilots is exceeded only by their loquaciousness. DH might be interested in seeing the Thames Barrier, which is accessible either by river or city bus.

I would travel out to Salisbury on the afternoon of your 4th day in London, see Stonehenge by taking a Wilts &amp; Dorset Bus from Salisbury station, and bed down in Bath. Tour the town the next day, then take an evening train to Melton Mowbray and thence by cab to Oakham.

Thanks very much. I didn't add that we will be picking up a car when leaving London to get to our timeshare. That makes us a bit more flexible.

Go and see Greenwich as part of your 4 days in London. It is well worth seeing, and absolutely fascinating, especially if you have read Longitude.

It's and easy tube ride, but you can also go by boat on the river, I think from Westminster - surely someone else can advise on this?

I didn't go to see the Naval Museum when I was there, but did go to see the Cutty Sark (very interesting)and Gipsy Moth IV - how on earth did someone sail round the world in such a tiny little boat? Lunch in Greenwich Market was great - we bought bread and cheese and olives in the market, and red wine in the pub and ate outside under the heatlamps!

Without the naval museum and lunch, Greenwich Observatory only took a morning of our time....

A rental car will make life much easier as Barnsdale is not exactly with easy walking distance of anything.

Driving to Cambridge is easy, but parking can be tough at times.

I was in London over Thanksgiving, and I visited Greenwich for a few hours. From Bank tube station, you get on the Docklands Light Rail and get off at Greenwich Cutty Sark station (the trip is 30 minutes or so). From Cutty Sark station, its a 10-minute walk through the park to the Observatory. You can see most of Greenwich, including the Naval Museum, in a few hours.

You can also visit Bath and Stonehenge in the same one day trip from London. In the morning, take an early train from London to Bath, and on your return, stop at Salisbury and take taxi to Stonehenge, and then take late train back to London.

My best tip, though, is don't eat the eels with liquor at Goddard's, the pie shop near Cutty Sark Station. I tried them, and its very much an &quot;acquired taste.&quot;

Oh. Never mind.

I'd use public transport until I got to Bath (via Salisbury). Rent your car on the 5th day and drive to Oakham. Return the car at Cambridge and take the train back to London. Avoids parking and driving in cities, which is insane.

I've stayed at Barnsdale and there is lots to see/do in the area. What are the rest of your logisitics? Meaning, do you have to return to London to fly out, or are you going elsewhere in the UK? Makes a big difference about where to visit from where.

Bath, Stonehenge, Greenwich and Cambridge are all easy day trips from London - but you have barely enough time to see anything in London w/o leaving for 2 or 3 day trips. Cambridge is an easy day trip from Rutland Water/Barnsdale whether you drive or take the train. But it also would make a good stop off enroute back to London if that is where you are going.

So before we can give you the best advice we need to know what your full itinerary is. Is it just 4 days London, and 5 days Barnsdale, and then fly home? Or something else?

Thanks Janis. We are 4 days in London, which I know we can fill up and then we pick up the car to Barnsdale. After the 5 days there, we fly to Venice. Not sure what airport we're using yet. I want to book on Ryan Air. Our thought was to pick up the car outside of London (Cambridge perhaps?) and drop off at the airport on our way out since it will be one of the small airports. I'll take any tips you have.

Do plan on going to both Bath and Stonhenge. I did it after visiting London several years ago. Make sure you take in a high tea in Bath.

When we stayed in London we did a bus tour I believe with Gray Lines (it was in 96) The tour included Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath. It was all day long but enjoyed it very much. No matter how much time you have on vacation there are always compromises with how much you can see and enjoy.
Note about Ryan Air, read the fine print about fees for overweight baggage. We ended up paying more than my ticket price for my baggage. I booked the flight from Ireland to Scotland because it seemed like such a great deal. Ha! Please post when you get back. I was thinking of using our timeshare in England too. Have a wonderful trip.

Ok - maybe you'll be flying out of Luton or Stansted or somewhere else. (I didn't check to see which budget airlines fly to Venice from which UK airports)

In that case - probably what I'd do is take the train to Cambridge early in the morning and spend about 1/2 a day there. Then pick up your car and drive up to Barnsdale. Then after your 5 days, drive to your departure airport.

As for day trips out of London -- Greenwich is no problem at all since it is in London and you can get there by tube, bus, light rail or boat. You can visit Greenwich in the morning, have lunch there, and still be back in the center of town w/ plenty of time for other sites in the afternoon.

Bath/Stonehenge are another matter. They would take an entire day - and you really wouldn't have much time to wander around in Bath. First let me say I <b>LOVE</b> Bath, and Stonehenge too (have been to Stonehenge more than 20 times). But unless Stonehenge is a &quot;must&quot; for you, it might be better to just take the train to Bath and spend the day there and head back to London in the early evening.

If Stonehenge is the more important to you - then take the train to Salisbury (a really lovely town/cathedral) and a local bus to Stonehenge. Then back to Salisbury and to London in the late afternoon.

If you had 7 or 8 full days in London I'd say go for all of them - but London takes some getting used to. When you add in jet lag recovery, airport transfer, and just the vastness of London - your 4 days will only net between 2.5 and 3 days for seeing the sites. I honestly don't think you'll have enough time to see Greenwich, Bath and Stonehenge - or at least enough time to see them and anything in London.

Are you likely to make it back to the UK? If so, I'd leave Bath/Stonehenge for another trip. You simply can't see and do everything in such a short visit.

When you visit Stonehenge make time for a stop to see the wonderful cathedral in Salisbury. It is beautiful and also has a copy of the Magna Carta

EasyJet also fly to Venice from Nottingham East Midlands airport which is a very easy drive to get to.

Astral Tours has a day trip to Bath/Stonehenge from London - we took Astral tours for a different Stonehenge tour and absolutely loved them - they have a great website. we spent 4 days in London and used one for Stonehenge and felt we still had a lot of time for London in the three days.

If you are not likely to return to the U.K. for a while then I agree with Radiofanatic. Take a tour from London, look at www.astraltravels.co.uk and you'll find the Culture Vulture tour could be what you are looking for. It also includes a visit to the village of Lacock. The time allowed at Stonehenge is about an hour. The same amount of time I would suggest spending there if you chose to go independently, the compromise would be Bath where one could easily spend a whole day or more. On an organised day trip you'll get about 3 hours but that will include a guided tour and admission to the Roman Baths Museum.
If you just want to see Bath then, as others have said, foget the tour and take the train.

We went to Stonehenge last August, and I've been to Bath before as well. We took a 'among the stones' dusk tour of Stonehenge, that allowed us to go in around the stones (rather than kept out by a rope). It was rather magical, especially as we shared the evening with a Wiccan group doing a ceremony.

We had a day trip to Salisbury, Old Sarum and stonehenge using Vic's Taxi (www.vicstaxi.com). He's a great retiree who knew LOTS of good info about the area. He will custom make a trip for you, including Bath, Salisbury, whatever you want to see. We visited West kennet Longbarrow, Stonehenge, Avebury, Old Sarum and Salisbury with him, and it cost us $100 (for two) total. We didn't have a car, so we just took the train out to Salisbury station, and he picked us up/dropped us off. I highly recommend him!

Thanks all for the great responses. GreenDragon: Vic's taxi sounds like something I will check out. On our last day in London, which is a Sunday, I am thinking that a good option. We could do the &quot;Vic's tour&quot; (Stonehenge and Bath at least) and just be dropped off somewhere (yet to be decided) to pick up our rental car and head to Barnesdale. We could drop off the car in Cambridge, take a look around before flying off to Venice. Does anyone see a flaw to this plan? Is doing the tour on a Sunday a problem?