Thanks again to everyone who recommended so many wonderful ideas. I think we have narrowed it down to either Chester or Cheltenham.

Which airport would be best to fly into, Gatwick, Heathrow, or maybe is worth the extra money to fly into Manchester for those two cities?

Chester is very close to Manchester. If you choose Chester, it would definitely be worth a little extra to fly into MAN.

Cheltenham is more convenient to LHR than LGW - but really just go w/ whichever one gets you the best airfare. Don't know where you are flying from - but there are flights from Newark to Bristol which would be very convenient for Cheltenham.

Coming over from Utah. LGW and LHW are cheaper for sure than Manchester by a couple hundred dollars. Just didn't know if it was really worth it. I think we would like to take the train to either city first and then rent a car once we are there.

Do you mean $200 total or $200 per person. if just $100± per person - then Manchester could make s a lot of sense for Chester. The train fares up from London would eat up quite a bit of that $200 savings and save you a lot of time.

There is no train from LHR to anywhere but London - but there are combos of trains or buses/trains that would get you to Cheltenham fairly easily. But for Cheltenham - if it was me - I'd pick up my car at LHR, and stay one night in Windsor so there'd be less than 10 miles driving that first day. Then drive on to Cheltenham the next morning.

If you want to visit National Trust properties they are making a big effort to explain the non car routes for accessing their properties. However, a lot of them don't open in the first half of March. You may find this true of other country houses except for the really big visitor attractions.

You can look at their website it has lots of useful information. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Stratford on Avon might fit your bill. It is quite central in England. It does have a rail station and is fairly close to motorways. There is a lot of castles and other historical sites nearby. You could do day trips or 2 day trips out to Oxford, Wales and the Lake District from there. It is situated in some beautiful countryside if you want to do walking as well.

Stratford is also close by train to fabulous Warwick Castle, considered Britain's finest castle experience by some experts i've read

and Stratford is a very pleasant base town

the Cotswolds are just below it but think public transport there is poor from Stratford (you can get there from here type thing) but not sure

The OP has moved on - they have decided they like the idea of staying in either Cheltenham or Chester. . . . . . .

I'd take Chester for sure - better town better base from which to more easily hop to lots of neat places - esp north Wales and the Great Orme &Llandudno, Beaumarais Castle, Conwy and Conwy Castle, Mount Snowdon, etc.

Cheltenham Spa would be fine for the Cotswolds as i once used it for

Chester is one of the cutest towns in England

"Stratford is also close by train to fabulous Warwick Castle, considered Britain's finest castle experience by some experts i've read"

I am not an expert which may explain why I found Warwick to be one of the most overblown, touristy experiences that I've ever encountered.

The castle itself is spectacular, but it is hideously expensive to get into, and full of "Madam Tassauds" like figures in a variety of "Historical experiences".

Maybe I am being overly picky, but If far prefer somewhere like Dover Castle.

and full of "Madam Tassauds" like figures <<<<<

Ill have you know one of those dummies is my great uncle george!

It doesnt look very like him.

I know that we said we were narrowing our choice to Cheltenham, however, now that Stratford-upon-avon has been mentioned, that is appealing to us as well. Any opinions on which would be better as a base? Still going in late February to early March. We still are wanting to do day trips to the Cotswolds, Oxford, Blenheim, etc.

Thank you.

Though Stratford in right near the Cotswold i think it has been discussed here than public transportation between the two is very poor. No direct trains and few buses it seems and once in the Cotswolds unless walking buses seem to be much poorer than in most areas of England

I could be wrong and someone will corrrect me if so as i am basically rehashing what i believe others have said.

Oxford could be a fine base as well - it does have trains into the Cotswolds (which you can connect with from Stratford however as well)

In your original post, you said: "I don't think we will rent a car." That seemed a bit tentative, so if there is any possibility that you would rent a vehicle, I'd strongly suggest it for the Cotswolds and encourage you to stay either in or near Stratford.

We stayed at Wilmcote, a few miles to the north (there is a regular train from there to Stratford, as well as numerous buses), for two months and loved it. We rented a self catering cottage at Pear Tree Cottage -http://www.peartreecot.co.uk/.

I wouldn't recommend Stratford anytime from May-Oct. because that's when it will be quite busy with tourists. But I think March would be a great time to enjoy it (we were there Nov. & Dec.).

When we stayed at Wilmcote we were probably in or through Stratford almost every day and it has great shopping, banks, restaurants, etc., the Shakespeare properties, a lovely little public library that will give you a temporary library card and you can use their internet resources for free, etc.

Our trip report is at http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34961337.

Leamington Spa is another possible neat base - old spa town on main rail line from London to Birmingham - easy trains to Oxford, Warwick, Stratford and many other places

Flanneruk,

Why do you say London is the best place to do day trips from? We will be going and will be able to stay in London. We did that the last time, but we did London and only did a few day trips.

Can you do the Cotswolds? Stratford upon Avon? Stonehenge? day tripping from London?

Since we will be on a budget, that may be our best bet.

Yes those are all, with the exception of the Cotswolds, are easy day trips from London - and i have done them all several times by train.

Cotswolds are harder because, unless you rent a car, it's hard to get around on public transportation IME - but if you want to take a train to one of the towns with rail service (Stow-in-the-Wold would be my choice) then you can see a Cotswoldian town but not really the Cotswolds themselves.

And by all means if doing those day trips investigate the Days Out of London railpass - good on just about any train anytime and also gives you two vouchers to use on either the Heathrow or Gatwick Expresses - details on these and English trains i always point out two sites with lots of objective info as well as the usual pass prices - www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com and the official BritRail site britrail.com. Passes not sold at British train stations as Brits cannot use them. these passes are esp good for folks with kids and parties of more than two - kids under 16 get a free pass to match what the adults buy and the 3rd thru 9th person on a Party Pass pays just 50% of what the first two adults pay. Nov-Feb all passes are discounted about another 20% in BritRail's off-peak special. www.nationalrail.co.uk has all the fares to compare with the pass - but again the pass provides total flexibility - cheaper day return fares may require leaving after 9:30am and other restrictions on what rail line you can take and what trains you can take.

In my completely biased opinion, definitely come to Shrewsbury. I live very near the town centre, having moved here from Chicago six years ago, and its a fabulous town. It is, in fact, THE finest Tudor town in England.

My folks visited us for a week last month and now my step-mom wants to retire here.

There is a relatively new direct train service from London Marylebone (Wrexham & Shropshire) which I've taken several times and is very reliable.

There is loads to see in the town itself so you wouldn't need a car straight away, if you decided you wanted to rent one while you are here there is an Enterprise in Shrewsbury (and probably others, but I've driven past the Enterprise offices). While you are here, there are trains to pretty much anywhere you'd like to go. Chester and Ludlow are the two places I'd recommend, both easily reached by train. And you will have a local expat nearby for any questions (and if you are very nice, we'd even drive you around places!).

Sorry, I should add that if you don't plan on spending a lot of time in London, then please don't fly into LHR. It will cost more to fly someplace like Manchester, but the cost of transport from London will be expensive as well and will just eat into your vacation time. If you can get to Chicago, BMI do direct flights from O'Hare to Manchester. It's what I fly every time I go back to the States. They are a fantastic airline, never lost our luggage, great food, etc. BMI are in the Star Alliance with United so if you flew them from SLC to O'Hare you'd get mileage for both airlines which you could combine for future flights. There are trains from Manchester Airport to Manchester Piccadilly and from there, trains to Shrewsbury or Chester.

What a wonderful predicament you're in, having all this choice!

bookmarking for future reference.