I'm sure you all know by now that zwho and I are going to london in October with two other women. We are stuck on where to go outside of London for a 2 day- 1 night trip.
We definitely want to go to the Cotswolds and explore that area but we aren't sure wheather to go to Straford or Oxford or Bath or anywhere else that is within a reasonable
distance. We were thinking of taking the train to the Cotswolds and possibly renting a car. Any great ideas would be appreciated.
I'd even fly somewhere if it were not much money.
Any ideas??

hope to hear from any of you soon.
P.S Zwho has got me hooked on Travel Talk.
Thanks alot Zwho ( I should be reading
more and surfing this website less but I just can't help it-- It's so much fun.!)

What do you and Zwho & the ladies WANT TO SEE outside of London. If want to see cathedrals, roman baths, shops, etc, then head to Bath or Oxford, but if you want peace & quiet, and great scenery, then head for the Cotswolds.
I always rent a car from National Car Hire in Pentville Road, near Islington. They are situated on the road that "leads" out London, ie. Marylebone Road, then straight onto A40(M) out to the Orbital Motorway (M25), then straight across staying on the M40, then just before Oxford, take A40 (SP OXford)go around Oxford on the A40, this will probably be signposted Cheltenham, then when you see the signpost for Burford, you almost on the edge of Cotswolds.
The following villages & towns are worth seeing:
1. Upper & Lower Slaughters.
2. Bilbury
3. Stow on Wold
4. Stanton & Snowshill
5. Minster Lovell.
6. Broadway.
Seeing you only have 2 days (1 night), then I think you could certainly do a round trip in the Cotswolds, and be quite satisfied, and still have time to return to London (late afternoon)
Bath is a nice city, and worth visiting, however, if you were to decide between Oxford & the Cotswolds, I would take the Cotswolds every time. The latter has post card villages, great village Inns for an ale or dinner, pretty farming country, where Oxford is a bustling city, with universities and churches. Ah, give me the Cotswolds any day.

Bibury, not Bilbury (no "l&quot.

Do I understand things - you want to go to the Costwolds PLUS one of the cities you mentioned?
I think, given your limited time, tropo's suggestion is a good one. Just go to the Cotswolds for the 2 days. You don't really have enough time to explore much at all if you add in another city. If you had another day, then I'd say go to Bath, or maybe Oxford.
Another option is to stay in London and take "day excursions" to any of the places you've mentioned, with London Walks. They run guided train trips - check them out at www.walks.com

The one drawback of tropo's excellent suggestion (though if you're looking for it, the National office is in Pentonville Road) is that between the car hire place and the westbound Euston Road is a huge mass of ever-changing construction works around what, even in peacetime, is one of London's perennial traffic choke points. If you're not used to British driving, this might not be the easiest introduction.

An alternative might be to get the train to Oxford. Budget is slap next to the station car park: Avis, Europcar, target and Thrifty all have operations within a few minutes' painless walk of the station.
The station is on the western edge of the city centre: it's an easy first mile out to the ring road, whence your choice of a bit of divided highway to get you used tothings, or to start hitting the back lanes.

I would definitely go to the Cotswolds. I am quite fond of the market town Chipping Campden (it's at the beginning of the Cotswold Way walk). I think it is a great base for seeing the surrounding countryside. The problem with the other towns you mention is that they are all 30mins to an hour's drive from the Cotswolds. In CC you can get a double room for £50 per night in a lovely B&B.

Brighton on the south coast of England is fun - a mixture of traditional British seaside resort blended with a more contemporary attitude/style. It only takes about an hour by train from Victoria station in London.

Can you organise a trip that takes in the New Forrest, and Brighton?

If you can hire a car, it would be much much easier. I'd take in Hampshire, and end up at some seaside town. Or perhaps better still, try Kent - they have marked "scenic routes" which avoid motorways and take in various interesting sights enroute. Whitstable is a fabulous little seaside town that is becoming increasingly popular!

Stratford in my opinion is boring, it's very much a town of American tourists cooing "oh his that Shakespeare's?". Don't be a sheep and see something different.

If this is your first trip to England, I think I'd pick some small towns (like the Cotswolds or Kent) vs. smaller citiies like Oxford or Bath. You can train (or bus) somewhere and then rent a car if you're worried about driving out of London. I'll let others help you make that decision. I'll just mention my husband just got back from England where he took advantage of the bus line called <i>the Tube</i> out of Oxford.

(http://www.stagecoach-oxford.co.uk/o...ube/index.html)

They have very frequent service between Oxford and London and Oxford and the airports. It's evidently much cheaper than the train too. The website will show where the stops are.

In your shoes, I'd think about making this trip at the end of your stay. Pick up the rental car wherever you decide and return it to the airport on your way home thereby also saving yourselves travel to the airport from London. That's what I did on my first overnight trip outside London years ago and it worked out well.

I rented a car in London and drove toward Bibury, stopping in a few places along the way. In Bibury we stayed at the charming Swan Hotel. (There is one other inn there too.) From there we were able to see many of the Cotswold villages. But Bibury has no shops or restaurants. You must eat at the hotel (which was very good and fun)or drive elsewhere. It was very relaxing. The following day we headed toward Heathrow, stopping at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock.

Many people like staying in Woodstock where there <i>are</i> many shops, pubs, restos etc. Stow on Wold and Burford are also good places to stay and are towns with lots of options.

FYI, in addition to Oxford, there's train service to Stratford (I agree it's touristy but worth a stop if you go to the theater), Moreton-in-Marsh and Charlbury.

But MK2 may have a point. There are other places to go besides the Cotswolds. It just depends on your interests. I spent a wonderful weekend in the town of Rye which is incredibly charming and has train service from London I believe. It's got lots of history and is very near many other interesting places. Here's some info

http://www.picturesofengland.com/Rye

All of you have some really wonderful ideas. We are definitely going to the Cotswolds- we just need to decide on how much time to spend there and what we can fit in.

We are arriving on a Tuesday and want to leave for the country on a Wednesday and spend Wed. and Thursday doing this out of London trip. back in london late Thursday. One of the girls can drive in England and we could rent a car in the Cotswolds. What do you think is better- Bath or Stratford or anywhere that is not a repeat of the Cotswolds. Some of us have been to London before but no one has been to the country.

OK - you simply must clarify what you are asking. Do you mean should you include Oxford or Bath or Stratford during your 1 night/2 day trip to the Cotswolds? OR are you asking about a completely separate day trip to one of these places?

It sounds to me like you are asking which of these town to visit during your Cotswold jaunt. If so -- NONE OF THEM. When you add in the train trips and picking up/dropping off the car, you'll have barely 1.5 days to tour around the Cotswolds. You will not have time to go to Stratford or Bath too. Even if you take the train to Oxford - you really won't have time to see much of the town/colleges if you also intend to see any Cotswold villages.

Just be happy that you have the chance to visit the Cotswolds - don't try to cram in anything else.

You say
&quot;we just need to decide on how much time to spend there and what we can fit in.&quot;

But then you say
&quot;want to leave for the country on a Wednesday and spend Wed. and Thursday doing this out of London trip. back in london late Thursday.&quot;

So you <i>have</i> already decided how much time to spend. I personally think leaving for an overnight the day after you arrive is not a good idea. Have you read the current thread on &quot;mistakes I've made when planning previous trips to Europe&quot;? Not spending enought time in one place is at the top of the list. Here's the link

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34520818

But maybe you have theater tickets or other commitments on the other days.

Like Janis, I'm confused about what advice you're seeking. If you want a bit of country and you have to do it the day after you arrive, I think you should consider doing a day trip. Both Astral and Evan Evans are tour companies that have day trips that cover the Cotswolds. (They both also do day trips of Bath and/or Stonehenge which is near Bath.) They take you on a bus. Do a text search here for pros and cons of each.

If you're determined to do it on your own, I'd avoid both a train AND car rental for such a short time. Do one or the other. If you decide on a train, that limits where you go obviously. If you want to go to Bath, there are also day trips available from Bath to some Cotswold towns.

You still haven't told us your interests (antiques, churches, history, Jane Austen etc.) so it's hard to judge what to suggest.

Two suggestions but they are in the opposite direction from Bath, Oxford, etc. Think about Edinburgh or York. Both are wonderfully enchanting and well worth a visit. Both towns are easily reached by train. Though Edinburgh is quite a journey by car, it's very accessible by train.

Good luck!

natgc, like the others I am getting a bit confused, of what days you intend to travel outside of London.
Sorry, Taggie,I know its Bibury, I just didn't do a spell check.
Flanneruk, its been just over 12 months, since we were in LOndon, and rented a car from National. We didn't have any problem driving in or out of London. Have the roadworks been implemented since our last visit.

Mclaurie,

Do you think we will be too jet lagged to enjoy the Cotswolds?

We wanted to be back in London to enjoy the flea markets on Portobello Road and Petticoat Lane and they are open only on the weekends.

We want to go to the Cotswolds but we would enjoy anything- small towns to small cities. I hope I have answered your questions

Hey tropo sorry if I sounded snotty - didn't mean to... I just bet there is also a Bilbury in the UK and wanted to avoid confusion.

Hi natjgc - janis is right on as usual.... you will not have much time to even get a glance at the Cotswolds. Go there, OR Bath OR Oxford in the limited time you have.

Take a train to Oxford, have lunch and a very very VERY quick look around, then head to the Cotswolds.

Okay, I'm getting in on this! The consensus seems to be we should spend all our time out of London (which amounts to all of Wed. &amp; Thur.) in the Cotswolds. The best way to get there is to take a train from London to Oxford and rent a car there. Have I got it so far? We are interested in all sorts of things including scenery, landscaping, historical buildings, shopping, people watching, food. We're tourists!! And the reason we are leaving London 1 day after arriving there is because I thought it was a good idea. There are many things we want to do in London on Sat.&amp; Sun. that we can't do any other time. We go home Wed. morning and I don't want to get back to London Tues. evening and realize I forgot to see something and ran out of time. Spending our last day in London assures that won't happen. Afew months ago my husband and I went to Madrid, spent 1 day, then left for smaller towns, came back the last 2 days of our trip and it worked out beautifully. The jet lag wasn't worse. C'mon, I'm in Europe for only a few days, I'm not spending 1 of them lounging around a budget hotel trying to beat jet lag. I'll rest when I'm dead! Speaking of rest, we are going to check on the Olive Branch (thanks Taggie) What are our chances of getting single beds? Last question. Assuming we just do the Cotswolds, is there somewhere besides Oxford, we should arrive at thats better for renting a car and getting to the &quot;Main Attraction&quot;? As always, thanks in advance. And Natalie, I know you were just hoping someone would say, why don't you take the Eurostar or a plane to Belguim? Ya know, Sheila and Aleta don't care. They'll do whatever we want. We could, but then all the wonderful people who have given us really good solid advice will realize how flaky we are! Good nite!

Hello, I would highly recommend a driver/guide I used for my last trip to the Cotswolds. Genny at Tourgems.com. I did a 2 day tour with her and it was wonderful. I am using her again for my friend and I for a 2 day, 1 night trip again this October.
She is picking us up from Heathrow since we are coming from Paris. She gives excellent service and I saw so much more than if I had to figure it out on my own. Jetlag is no problem, leave the driving and sorting to her! She has lived in the Cotswolds all of her life and takes you on wonderful back roads scenery getting from one place to another. I did a set tour for one day and customized the next. Her prices are very reasonable especially since you have several to share the cost. It was certainly no more than renting a car would have been.

She was recommended to me here on this board and I heartily agree. The website is www.tourgems.com. You can google tourgems and Cotswolds and get hits also. It is easy to take the train from Paddington to Moreton-in Marsh. I stayed at Honeysuckle cottage in Stow on the wold. Loved it but I think they only have one room to rent now. We are staying at the Mews in Stow this trip.

I love antiques and we stopped at a couple of malls she knew and wandered into places I saw and wanted to stop.
We did a great cream tea one day and I visited 2 castles Warwick and Sudeley and went to several of the main Cotswolds towns mentioned above and Stratford upon Avon.

Have a wonderful trip.

gg

I wasn't worrying so much about jet lag as about the packing, unpacking and schlepping required in 2 &quot;one nighters&quot; (one night London, one night Cotwolds). Also, the idea of training and then picking up a car and driving sounds like too much trouble for such a short visit. That's why I was suggesting if you want to do this on the day mentioned, to consider one of the day trip tours to avoid the packing thing and the multiple transportation. The idea of a personal guide sounds even better and splitting the cost of that by 4 may make it an even better value than doing the set day trips which are quite expensive.

Another option is to do this on your arrival. Instead of going into London, pick up a car at the airport and head out. The Cotswolds are not far from Heathrow (or Gatwick for that matter). Return the car either at the airport and train into London or drive it back to London.

If you're worried about driving after an overnight flight,you could go straight to Windsor if you've never seen it. It's quite close to Heathrow. Spend your first day seeing Windsor, stay over night there and then get a car (or train) to the Cotswolds.

And to answer some of your last questions zwho, the best way for you gals to get to the Cotswolds IMO is <i>driving</i>. The towns you really want to see don't have train service and in such a short time, you're wasting time IMO going into Oxford unless you specifically want to see Oxford. I like Oxford, but it's another city and the towns and villages of the Cotswolds provide more of a contrast to London.

The next best option to driving in your situation, is, (from London), training to Stratford which you seem to want to see anyway. You could get a car rental there.

Don't forget my mention of the Tube coach (bus) service. If you don't do the whole thing by car, you may find the train prices a bit much. This bus service is much better value. They also go between the airports and Oxford FYI.

Or Genny could pick you up at the airport on your day of arrival and you could train back to London and do it last and all in a row. We will arrive Heathrow at 10:15am and tour for the day and she return us to our Hotel in Stow. She will pick us up from our hotel for another day's tour at 9:30am and return us to the train in Moreton-in-Marsh for our 6pm return to London.