Your Itinerary Help..Please!
 

<BR>Two couples arriving at Gatwick. Rough itinerary..Reading, Bath, Cardiff, Stratford-on-Avon, Coventry, Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Dover…then to Paris. <BR>We plan on renting a car and driving this circular route in England over 7 day period. <BR> <BR>Questions: Rent a car at Gatwick or train to Reading & then rent a car? Is this route too ambitious for 7 days? Would we be better off to rent a car at Gatwick..shorten the trip…and return to Gatwick from Oxford..then take a train to Paris? Can we connect with the Eurostar at Gatwick? <BR> <BR>Obviously there are a thousand options…but we would appreciate any comments. <BR> <BR>

I don't know anything about the car rental, so I can't help you with that. I think you would not have much to see in Reading and Coventry, but others seem to be nice. I think if you arrange your trip by the region, you should be able to do so within 7 days, eg. Bath- Cardiff, Oxford-Stratford, Cambridge, Canterbury then Dover. You have to go to London Waterloo station to get to Paris by Eurostar, you can check time schedule for train from Gatwick to Paris from "www.rail.co.uk", it includes other routes without eurostar too. There is a coach service around the clock from Oxford to Gatwick, it departs Oxford every two hour (even number). It will cost you about 17-19GBP.

My husband & I kind of did a similar trip, but we had to fly into Paris (business) and chose to leave from Gatwick. We rented a car in CDG Airport, spent 8 days around Paris and Normandy. We drove to Calais, dropped the car at the Ferry Terminal (you can also rent a car there) and rented a car at Dover. I am not sure it is the best way to do it, but we had other considerations that you may not have to take into account. The fare in the Hydrofoil was $50/pp. They have a website where they provide details on how much is for 4 people and a car (all inclusive price). My experience is that renting from an airport terminal is the best proposition for the customer. <BR> <BR>Your itinerary in England sounds reasonable to me. If your destination in France is Paris, I would drop the car at Dover, take the ferry to Calais, and bus/train into Paris. There was a thread a couple of months ago about hotels in Calais for transit travelers on their way to Paris. Please let us know how is your planning going. It will probably be worthwhile to e-mail/call the Ferry terminal in Calais to firm up your plans. We found them to be extremely helpful, courteous, and they all spoke English.

Reg, <BR> You have 9 cities in 7 days --are you planning to get out of hte car to visit the bathroom? :-) <BR> At least cut back to one city per day so you have memories of each place. Checking into rooms, meals, and all that will consume more of your day than you seem to have planned for. <BR> Think about hopping on the bus or train from Gatwick to BAth, seeing Bath, then picking up your car from Bath and continuing onward. Skip Reading, unless you have something there you specifically want to see. <BR> Good luck!

We have rented at Gatwick several times, a few of the times they have picked us up at the terminal and driven us out to their car rental office...seems like about ten miles and it was out in the country, a good place to start driving on the "wrong" side of the road using the "wrong" side of the car. We have done your itinerary, but over a three week period. Not such bad advice to take the train to Bath and then work your way back over to Dover. Coventry...what a nightmare to get in and out of that town!!!! Twice I have had to be led in and then, out, of Coventry. That said, it was wonderful to see the church. which I assume you are going to see. You may run short of time and if you do, you could always drop your car off at the car rental around Gatwick and take the train from Gatwick to Dover and hydrofoil over to Calais and get your car. You can look up Eurostar on the internet to find out how to get there from Gatwick. There is plenty to see between Bath and Gatwick so just pick the highlights and do them well. I would skip Cardiff...keep it for another trip.

Thank you so much for all your help. I'll let you know how the trip went and perhaps provide additional input to others.