Basecamp for a month

I think Moreton-in-Marsh is the only Cotswold town with a train station. And I think a month would be a long time in one of those little villages.

Cambridge gets a lot of tourists but does have some good side-trips to little towns, and I think maybe Bletchley Park would wok.

I was rather taken with Norwich, which seems to get few foreign tourists. Whether there's enough going on there for a month, I don't know.

When I was researching a short stay in NE England this year, I discovered there's a lot of interest up there besides the very touristy York: Durham, Newcastle, Leeds, the Moors, the Dales and a number of charming-sounding small towns (the latter not necessarily rail-accessible), but you'd have to hit the NationalRail website to see what is actually within day-tripping distance from each place.

Bristol, Cardiff, Bath (touristy!) and Wells make a nice cluster.

I confess that where England is concerned, I'd have a hard time settling somewhere other than London if my time period was a month.

Keep in mind how very expensive UK rail fares can be if you can't plan you trips far enough ahead to buy Advance tickets--though Day Return fares are sometime pretty reasonable. I don't know whether those day returns are just for certain destinations, though. That's something I'd want to check carefully before planning to stay in a place light on its own attractions and make a lot of day-trips.

The Cotswolds are one of the most touristy areas in England and have poor access by train, so I would strike them off the list. Ditto Bath. The coast will still be very busy in September.

Sevenoaks in Kent fits the bill - a National Trust (NT) house Knole right in the centre, some great cafes and restaurants plus a fast rail link into London in less than 30 minutes. Take the train in the opposite direction to Canterbury, Hastings or Dover. Many other NT properties are within easy reach including Bodiam Castle, Igtham Mote and Sissinghurst garden.

Alternatively, St Albans north of London also has good rail links and it’s cathedral is impressive. I used to live near there and Sevenoaks has the slight edge for me.

Rye is nearer the coast and is more touristy, but is charming. It’s further from London and therefore it’s longer on the train.

Stamford in Lincolnshire is a chocolate box town of old Georgian stone properties- a bit like the Cotswolds, but a proper town rather than being full of second homes and tourists. Middlemarch was filmed there several years ago. Burghley House lies on the edge of the town, famous for its horse trials. Trains head to London via Stansted airport, Cambridge, Leicester, Birmingham and the delightful smaller towns of Oakham and Melton Mowbray.

Bath and Cambridge will serve you well. Bath will have plenty of tourists but is still very much a living city. As a left field destination check out Kings Lyn. Well connected by train to London and Cambridge charming historical town.

You might split your time and do two places.

We stayed in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. The train doesn't go there, but we enjoyed staying at the Volunteer Inn.

We loved York, if you are interested in going north. Lots to see in that wonderful city.

Bath was nice, but wouldn't stay a month there. Also, enjoyed Winchester.

What about the Isle of Wight? Perhaps Ventnor? Gorgeous little town in a microclimate (only place in the UK where bananas grow apparently.) You'd have the rest of the island to explore (Shanklin is especially pretty) and mainland UK is pretty easy to get to using the bus and regular ferry combo.

In the fall Lyme Regis would meet your needs. 3.5 hour train ride from London then 45 minute bus to Lyme Regis or if you went with an AirBnB rental might have hosts arrange to pick you up.

Fossils, beach, the Cobb, lawn bowling, pug and puffin pet shop, Roly’s fudge, the Sanctuary bookshop, rock Point Inn Pub, the Lyme Regis museum, watching huge busses negotiate the turn into Lyme Regis while sipping coffee at the Aroma cafe, the Nags Head Pub.

Enjoyable coastal town. I stayed at an AirBnB apartment above a garage. Good stroll into town and with the elevation good workout for the hamstrings walking back each evening.

Bus system could take you to where Broadchurch filmed. I had a rental car so I drove. Liked the whole area.

@Emma. Missed that detail. Editing. Thank you.

“I confess that where England is concerned, I'd have a hard time settling somewhere other than London if my time period was a month”

Agree.
It would make things easier to be so connected to London.
I was based in Greenwich for 5 months. While pretty connected to London, it still has a smaller town feel & I could get to central London quickly. I loved it.

wherever you look at check the 4g and wifi carefully. I have found that astonishingly some smaller places have better 4g than some parts of London and other big places.

Given your telecommuting you will want seamless interweb. Make sure you are not in a not-spot.

personal recent experience - I use O2 - Stamford excellent 4g, pretty much anywhere north of Norwich in Norfolk - awful but slight E signal, Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk (so nice), simply zero service, not even phone, Cambridge pretty much uniformly excellent, Cotswolds near Stow on the Wold and across to Chipping Campden and back to Oxford or Stratford upon Avon good 4g with occasional 3g but strong, Nottingham - Loughborough - Leicester good consistent 4g. London mostly decent 4g but plenty of not-spots or drop out probably due to volume. Even at Silicon Roundabout, Old Street.

Good luck

Love this community! Thanks for all of the opinions and advice! Lots to research.

Yes the Cotswolds towns are too small. Stamford looks beautiful, Staith outside York was written up in Timeout, and someone suggested Canterbury— tourist towns are touristy because they have a lot to offer! ;) But I want to avoid tourist gimmicks and shops like we saw on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile (although outside of that was much more authentic feeling and slower - Dean Village and Stockbridge). And. crowds will be better everywhere in September.

We have some great towns in California like Carmel, St. Helena, Sonoma, Mendocino, even Mill Valley or Santa Barbara that I would recommend if someone wanted to come here for a month.

Back to researching all of your suggestions! Thank you!

Born in SoCal and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, college in central CA and during the last years of parents lives they lived where they met in grade school, Yreka. Last city before Oregon. So know my home state pretty darn well.

I’ll add areas like Half Moon Bay, Petaluma, Ferndale, Carpinteria, Pacific Grove, Morro Bay, Jenner, Ft Bragg, Trinidad, Crescent City, Chico, Woodland, Jackson, Placerville, Angel’s Camp, Mariposa, Two Rivers, Visalia, Julian, Escondido, Long Beach, Temecula, Anza Borrego, and Redlands. Imagine WiFi iffy in a few of the mountain areas but.....

Big state. Lots of diversity.

Nigel is absolutely on point:

wherever you look at check the 4g and wifi carefully. I have found that astonishingly some smaller places have better 4g than some parts of London and other big places.
Given your telecommuting you will want seamless interweb. Make sure you are not in a not-spot.

Experience with the Yorkshire Dales has them not connected for days often and it is not strong sometimes when it is. (Not techie here so put your technical words where they belong.)

I live 9 miles from Tunbridge Wells, 40 miles from London and haven’t found any mobile network that gives me a signal at home unless I walk a few hundred feet up the road. I have had a better signal in rural Gambia! My broadband speed is decent enough. There are maps available online that denote coverage.

Hi CaliMom,

We used Bath as a base camp for 2 weeks last year and we were reluctant to leave, having felt there was much more to experience in the region. We rented a beautiful apartment with the Royal Crescent at our front door and Royal Victoria Park at our back. It turned out to cost about $94 per night with the per week discount. Our goal was to live like locals, go to the local grocery store, take public transportation or hire a car/driver, and take our time exploring. For example, we spent one whole day in Lacock, strolling through the Abbey and the grounds, studying the items in the Fox Talbot museum, wandering around the little town, and taking a hike on one of the trails near the village. Apart from the big tourist sites such as Bath Abbey, the Pulteney Bridge, and the Roman Baths, Bath and the surrounding towns have lots more to offer as far as countryside walks, biking opportunities, beautiful gardens, beautiful villages, churches, and pubs, and stately, historic homes with acres of gardens to explore, etc. The railway station will get you to numerous day trip destinations within an hour to hour and a half - Salisbury, Cardiff, etc. We used Russells of Bath taxis for a drop off and pick up in places not as accessible by bus or train. For example, we were dropped off in Tetbury and enjoyed exploring the church and village. Don't miss the award winning, "Britain's Most Beautiful" toilet near the visitor's center, ha, ha. We then had a very beautiful country walk from the town to Chavenage House, where Poldark was filmed. That was one full day for the village, lunch, Chavenage tour led by a family member, and then tea in their ballroom. Highly recommended is the Kennet and Avon Canal. We walked it, we biked it, and we did a cruise on The Lady Lena, a beautiful old wooden Victorian era electric narrowboat. One of the loveliest, traffic free bike rides I've ever done was from Bath to Bradford on Avon and back along the Kennet and Avon. If you are the type of traveler who likes to slow down, walk, and soak in the local culture, Bath has more than enough to do. On rainy days, there are museums, pubs, and the Theater Royal Bath. We saw the wonderful Jonathan Pryce in "The Height of the Storm" before it hit London and now Broadway. Now for the negatives....Tourists and students. The tourists, hordes of them, seem to be near the Roman Baths, the Abbey, Parade Grounds, Pulteney Bridge, and connecting streets. Once away from there, you can avoid most of them. Try to visit the big sites early in the morning and you'll be fine. At the end of September, school starts and the University of Bath students come pouring in. The local grocery stores were wall to wall students, for example. The local population seemed to double. More traffic, more people, more noise... It's a good time to get the hell out of there - unless you like that "city vibe", of course. Last thing: we've read up on Chester and that looks like a great base as well, as one poster recommended. We hope to check it out one of these days. Best of luck to you.

Thanks Lalford for your post. Yes, we want to live like locals, grocery shop, cook, find a local pub, explore coffee shops and bakeries in the morning. Bath seems to offer a lot and we can probably avoid the tourists. Was the part of town that you stayed in crowded with tourists? Were you in an apartment in the Royal Crescent?

I love London and will stay for a weekend on either end of our month. I actually thought about basing us in Hampstead but my husband would like a little more English countryside or a village along the North Sea. The Cotswolds were his idea. Is there a miniature York?

Rick Steves seems to love Cambridge. I will give that a closer look!

Hi CaliMom
If you’re looking for a miniature York i’m sure that Emma will suggest Chester but for somewhere smaller and off the beaten track you may want to check out Beverley. It has a fantastic minster, common land that has been freely grazed on for centuries and although very little if any walls remain it does still have a medieval bar., Georgian buildings, cobbled streets and little alleyways. There are lots of restaurants, pubs, food shops and twice weekly market. It has a train station and bus station which although not major hubs should be able to get you to enough places easily for days out. The added bonus is that I doubt you will meet any of your fellow countrymen and women in the month that you are there and i’m sure would give you the ‘living like a local’ experience. Just don’t tell anyone about it!

Hi CaliMom,

Our apartment was in the Marlborough Buildings. Wifi was excellent throughout our stay and, since one of us works remotely, we told each other we could envision ourselves living and working there during a longer stay. We were that comfortable. There is a nice pub at the end of the block, the Marlborough Tavern. Sainsbury's is about a 15 minute walk as is the city center and railway station. Victoria Park is just behind and it's a beautiful place for strolling around, bench sitting, and coffee drinking. The Royal Crescent area, just outside the building did attract sightseers, but it never appeared crowded. The largest crowd we ever saw was on the first day of the Jane Austen Festival and, in that case, it was very delightful seeing many people in Regency dress. To get to the city center, you walk on a wide graveled path through a lovely park full of mature trees.The majestic Royal Crescent is on your left. There were more people out and about on the weekends, but it was quiet during the week. September is probably a less crowded month. For example, we took the Hop On/Off bus for the Bath environs tour. Hardly anyone was on it. We hopped off at Prior Park Gardens (highly recommended). There is a pretty lake there and a Palladian bridge. The Bath skyline trail is just there and walking on it for a bit will lead you to a great view of the city. On the return trip, we were the only people on the bus. The narration by the local gentleman was informative and we loved his wry sense of humor. If you base out of Bath, be sure to visit Wells for a day trip. We hitched a ride from Russell's of Bath since the bus ride was way too long (time-wise). Somerset is a beautiful county and the ride down was so pleasant. Wells is much more than the spectacular cathedral. The Vicars' Close, the Bishop's Palace with adjacent moat, stone wall that you walk on, and gardens, the town of Wells, and countryside walks all make for a great day trip. Wherever you decide upon, wishing you a great trip.

Sorry Emma didn’t mean to offend you as a proud Chestonian! Just thought it sounded a lot like York but without as many tourists for that ‘live like a local’ experience, although i’m sure it gets a fair number.
I don’t quite get the ‘live like a local’ as that entails, usually, getting up, going to work, coming home, cooking, cleaning, watching a bit of telly and going to bed. Repeated the next day!

I suggest that you take a look at the rail map:>https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/nationalrailnetworkmap16.pdf

It is best to select a base town that is a rail hub - but also a pleasant place. So, for example, Salisbury is a rail hub from which you could reach interesting places and also a pleasant small city. Swindon is also a rail hub but the town is a dump - as is Crewe.

Kings’ Lynn has been suggested and I have been to this place & it is quite nice and near to Sandringham - which you can visit at certain times of the year. However, note that it is up a dead end rail line so not so handy for getting about.

Day return tickets are available on most routes and some areas have Rover tickets. It is the longer one way journeys where buying in advance can save big bucks.

Thanks Amanda and Emma. I found this lovely little video on Chester https://youtu.be/5DniDm9epIY and will look at the other links you provided. I really appreciate it! Amanda, yes, that live/work like a local is what we will do. Work, cook, walk after dinner. But since we work from our home in Californian, we figured we can work from anywhere so why not see the world a bit and experience life elsewhere. We hope this "month abroad" is the first of many... until grandchildren come along. ;)

Lalford, thank you for so many details! It sounds like you all did what we are trying to do :) I found a lot of travel videos of Bath so am going to get a coffee after church and settle in to watch!

If it were just me, I would go to a less touristy neighborhood in London for the month -- something outside the city center, but we are in the thick of watching Outlander and my husband is looking for something smaller, quainter, and some countryside easy access walks. We loved the outskirts of Edinburgh, the Water of Leith Walkway from Dean Village, St. Andrews along the North Sea when we visited in July 2019. (Yes, I know Outlander is filmed in Scotland and while a suburb of Edinburgh might be a nice balance, I just don't trust the weather there to commit for a month -- even in September. California has us very spoiled and we just aren't used to going out in the rain. Lame... I know!)

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions! :)