7 - 10 days in England itinerary advice please!

Oxford, Windsor and HAMPTON Court palace can be done as day trips from London.

I suggest you take a look at London Walks. Besides tours in London, they also do daytrips to the above locations as well as the Cotswolds.

From Bath, you can do a day trip into the Cotswolds with Mad Max Tours.

Both of the tour companies I mentioned are popular on this forum.

I would split the trip between Bath and London.

Bath is lovely in its own right but also a good base for day trips to the Cotswolds (Mad Max tours are often recommended).

I do not get the appeal of Glastonbury one little bit. If you’re interested in crystals and tarot cards and witchy stuff then I guess it’s interesting but I would put it way below everything else on this list.

You can travel from Bath to London easily by train.

London is an excellent base for a day trip to Oxford (easily done by train or bus, and pick up a guided walking tour once there). Hampton Court Palace (note spelling) and Windsor Castle are simple three-quarter of a day trips from central London.

Seven days feels too short for what you want to do.

Say, arrive at Heathrow (?), go straight to Bath by bus. At least one day to explore Bath plus a Cotswolds day trip. Plus, if you’re sure it’s what you want, another day trip to Glastonbury. So that’s three days plus your arrival day.

Then get the train to London and explore London a bit. Three day trips plus more time in London - that’s another four or five days. Already we’re really up to about eight or nine days now.

That’s the simple no-car approach.

In terms of doing things “on the way” this is tricky without driving. I don’t know of any Cotswolds tour that would pick up in Bath and drop off in Oxford. I guess someone might know of a private driver who might offer this? I guess that would be the only conceivable way otherwise you’re lugging cases on and off buses. The Cotswolds is not easy to do via public transport.

I hope that’s helpful. I think you need to drop a couple of locations or give yourselves a couple of weeks.

Considering you want to see the countryside, you are planning on a lot of time in cities... About the only real countryside will be the Cotswolds which isn't easy to do by public transport. The Mad Max tour as already suggested, seems the ideal solution. I don't understand the attraction of Glastonbury either or is it a prioriy for neice and older sister? There are much more attractive places to visit - Wells for example.

Oxford, Windsor and Hampton Court are best done as day trips from London.

Oxford, Windsor and Hampton Court are best done as day trips from London.

I will suggest that Oxford is better done by staying in Oxford. And one way to get out into the countryside is to take the easy bus ride from Oxford to Blenheim Palace. Oxford is also an easy train ride from Bath - one could argue that it's a stopover on your way back to London.

I agree that you should add as many days as possible to extend your stay. And one thing to consider regarding day trips is the amount of time eaten away by transportation - so choose carefully.

I would do Oxford on the way to London. Train to Reading, switch trains to Oxford (each train runs half hourly). The advice used to be change at Didcot Parkway (before Reading) but not all Oxford bound trains stop there now, so Reading is the easier interchange. it just avoids getting caught up in giving complicated instructions, which someone else then pedantically questions.

I would deposit my luggage that day at a 'Stasher' location in Bath (Diana's Cafe and the Bath Luggage Storage Centre are the closest to the Railway station) then transfer to Oxford directly when Mad Max gets back from the Costwolds. It's a short and easy transfer.

In similar fashion you could do Windsor on your way from Oxford to London (switching trains at Reading and Slough), then at the end of the day taking the express bus #702 direct from Windsor to London Victoria (journey time 75 minutes).

Then Hampton Court as a day trip from London.

A 7 day trip with 6 places listed (one of which is a large rural area with precious little public transport) followed by 3 days in London. It just simply doesn’t fit - something has to give.

Day 1- Heathrow to Bath;
Day 2- Bath and Glastonbury (train to Bristol Temple Meads, then bus #376 from Temple Meads Station to Glastonbury via Wells, 70 minutes to Wells, 90 minutes to Glastonbury; from Wells #173 and #174 run to Bath, every half hour, 90 minute journey time);
Day 3-Cotswolds Tour then to Oxford;
Days 4 and 5- Oxford;
Day 6- Windsor;
Days 7 to 9- London (one of those days to Hampton Court Palace;
Day 10- flight home

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies! I've taken your suggestions and have decided to axe the trip down to: Hampden Court Palace, Cotswolds, and London. Does this Mad Max Tour of the Cotswolds leave from London? I will check them out. Thank you!

Hampton Court Palace, not Hampden.

The Mad Max leaves from Bath but there are others from London.

The well-regarded London Walks offers Cotswolds tours: https://www.walks.com/our-walks/the-cotswolds-excursion/

Rabbies does a Cotswolds and Oxford tour from London: https://www.rabbies.com/en/england-tours/from-london/day-tours/oxford-traditional-cotswold-villages-day-tour

Hi -

Having visited both, I’d have to say I much prefer the nearby Wells to Glastonbury. I understand wanting to go to Glastonbury for the sights and it’s ‘alternative lifestyle strangeness’ but after not too much time it does, in my view, become a bit one note.

True story: I was once in the Glastonbury TIC when a guy with a northern accent not dissimilar to my own, came in and asked where the nearest place to buy climbing gear was (I suspect he was planning to explore Cheddar Gorge and the like, also not too far away). The people behind the desk more used to fielding queries about crystal healing, alternative therapies, literature on pagan beliefs, ley lines and the like looked at him like he was an alien, poor guy! Feeling sorry for him, I had a chat with my fellow northerner suggesting the big cities of Bath and Bristol might be better equipped for ropes, harnesses, carabiners etc. I left the TIC with the staff looking at me like I was an alien too!

Ian

You know, there is a ruined abbey to visit in Glastonbury. My husband and I combined a visit there with a visit to Wells Cathedral as a day trip when we were staying in Bath in 2011. No crystals or alternative lifestyles involved. ;-)

I would do Oxford on the way to London. Train to Reading, switch trains to Oxford (each train runs half hourly). The advice used to be change at Didcot Parkway (before Reading) but not all Oxford bound trains stop there now, so Reading is the easier interchange. it just avoids getting caught up in giving complicated instructions, which someone else then pedantically questions.

Although this has been taken over by a change of mind by the OP just a pointer for others considering this that the cheaper Bath Spa to Oxford non Advance rail tickets are not in general valid via Reading as there is a whopping doubling back involved in this routing as you go through Didcot twice about half an hour apart. Not via London tickets which can be used are also available but cost up to nearly double depending on time of day.

Advance tickets though are often sold with that routing but tied to specific services.