Advice on our upcoming trip itinerary to London/SE England

I’m sorry you haven’t had any replies. I think your post must have got lost for some reason as posters are usually very helpful here.

Re your luggage. Look at a site called Stasher. You can pay a few pounds to leave your luggage in the left luggage area at a lot of hotels in London. I only discovered this existed when I was retrieving my luggage at the Premier Inn and came across a couple using the service.

To me your schedule seems very doable and well balanced. Personally, I’d ditch the Cotswolds trip and go somewhere with more to see. Maybe Blenheim or somewhere like that. I just feel that otherwise it’s a lot of time from your vacation to do a fairly mundane country walk.

Thank you Helen. You are right, my post was deleted somehow when I first posted, but the wonderful moderators fixed it fairly quickly when I notified them about it. I appreciate the feedback on the Cotswolds and possible other destinations as other options. We are big on the outdoors, but it would be nice to couple a site with a walk. A friend of mine who just recently returned from visiting the Cotswolds cautioned me about the potential swarm of summer visitors there, so that is another reason I am looking for an alternative- for this trip at least. Any other ideas like yours are very welcomed!

I’d bump day 2 Tower to later, cut a day trip. Let yourself ease into day 2 without that early pressure. also- After a time so many “and get on train spend hours going out and back” gets old for a moderate trip length.

I would ask the owner of the flat. When I rented in London the owner was nice enough to have an early check in for us that we could stow our luggage and then go out. Unless they had a full week of renters, owners are usually open to this.

I don't know if London Walks has pub walks but I think your kids and you would have fun. It' usually walking in a historic neighborhood like Kensington or Highgate and hearing the history of the place and then going into two pubs. You see some lovely old pubs and there is no pressure to drink-but it's a good way for a bathroom break. My favorite pubs were Along the Thames Pubwalk and Hampstead.

Beachy Head is underrated and I'm surprised it doesn't get more attention on this forum. Depending on your enthusiasm for hiking you could walk from Eastbourne and then take the bus back or visa versa. There's a restaurant/pub called The Beachy Head that's worth a stop for a break. I notice you plan on visiting the Churchill War Rooms. If you have an interest in WW2, across the road from The Beachy Head is a small monument dedicated to the pilots who passed over the cliffs on their way to France, and to the many who never made it back. It's a small monument and not noticed by many on the walk, but the pilots who gave their lives deserve the recognition.

Lots of London advise on this forum! If you go to the top of the page and click on the 5 bar menu, you can type London itineraries into the search function and see what others have done. It also goes without saying to have a copy of the RS London guidebook.
Also, be sure to buy your Tower entrance tkts in advance, same with Westminster.

Allan, we will be sure to see that memorial, thank you. My daughter traveled to Dover and walked the White Cliffs. She is so looking forward to returning to the coast and we thought this walk/area would allow us all to see something new.

Aka Tammy, you should see my bookcase lol. I think I’ve got four- five variations of RS England related books- different years, different books, London, England, etc! I enjoy reading them all. I didn’t know about the list of itineraries- that’s a great suggestion.

Thank you all again for taking time to share your expertise with me!

Re your arrival day. If you could give us a better idea of where you are staying - Hyde Park is an enormous area - we may be able to help with something more specific you could do, if you are stuck with your luggage.

If you're big on the outdoors, I think you may want to take the boat from Westminster Pier to Kew Gardens.

Hello, We are planning a trip in December and renting a flat through Ivy Lettings. Were you happy with the company and your flat? Thank you.

KCtravelfan - Mustlovedogs isn't coming until June.

I'll be interested to know what to find on Beachy Head because there are supposed to be 5 war memorials up there, not one. All I think are new since I was last there, eons ago.

Hi KC, I will be sure to let you know what we thought of Ivy Lettings after we return. So far, they have been great to work with in terms of correspondence and patience with my questions. We’ve had reservations since last summer and when I was trying to find a good flat to meet our needs, the representatives were all super in giving advice, compared properties, etc. I hope they continue to be a good company to deal with!

Isn31c, I am ready to head down that way! Got my OS explorer map OL25 delivery yesterday 😊 There’s even a YouTube video of the bus that goes along the coast that we watched. Now fingers crossed for good weather the day we go!

If you're inclined to remove the day in the Cotswolds, I wholeheartedly endorse moving that day to Eastbourne and staying overnight.
I thoroughly enjoyed the overnight and part of a day I spent there on my last visit to England.

I also liked Birling Gap and Beachy Head. My daughter and son-in-law live in London, so we drove to the south coast and were also able to spend time among the Seven Sisters.

Maybe with two days together you can do those and spend some time on the beach at Eastbourne (but don't expect a sandy beach. More like large pebbles)

Ribaholic, I’ve changed this itinerary some since first posting based on some great feedback from kind and knowledgeable RS forum friends. We’re still going to the South Downs/Beachy Head area, but I’m going to leave it flexible in terms of which day in hopes of getting a nice one weather wise. I hope we can get an early start out of London and make a long day, this time probably not be able to spend the night.

We aren’t doing the Cotswolds as a day trip, substituting it for York, which is where my daughter studied back in grad school. We cut out Cambridge and are sticking closer in on our last day to maybe head to Richmond, but I also could see us using that day just to see any of London proper we missed or wanted to see again. I was so excited to get decently priced tickets to Le Mis, can’t wait for that either!

I’m sure the more of England I see, the more it is going to want me to return and spend more time there!