Best Day trips from London first week of December

Both of those are good options. Bath has a really good, large Christmas market. Canterbury has a smaller one, but lots of good artisanal foods, and crafts. Both are easy train rides from London. Windsor is a good 1/2 to whole day and VERY VERY VERY easy by train. It usually has a smaller French style (as opposed to the more well know German style) Christmas market. York is also a nice day trip via train. Cardiff Wales is another excellent choice, and it has a small, local Christmas market with plenty of local crafts people represented.

Winchester is about an hour from London by train from Waterloo station. The cathedral is beautiful, with an excellent gift shop cum cafe in a separate small building. Lots of shops on the High Street and a small museum near the cathedral. The tourist office near King Alfred's statue is staffed with friendly volunteers, pleased to help you enjoy the city.

Its always nice to get out of the city for a day or two if you are going to be there for a bit.

The nice thing about England is that London is sort of "the" rail hub of the country. York is gorgeous, as is Cambridge. If you do Canterbury, go on and do Dover as well to get the castle in. Ely and Bury St. Edmunds are also easily done, as is Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon (if you are in to Shakespeare)...the list is quite large. There are literally books that talk of nothing but daytrips from London.

Do you have an idea as to the types of things you want to see/experience?

Hubby and I were trying to figure out a day trip as well for our upcoming trip to London. This website is extremely helpful...

http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/londondaytrips.html

Goes from short journey time to longer (up to 2 hrs away by public transport). Tells you what is interesting to see and how to get to each point of interest. 26 different ideas! I have a hard time picking one!

Nicole, that is a great website, but the only problem is ~everything~ sounds wonderful, doesn't it! There were some suggestions on there that I had not known about that sound terrific. Never enough time.

I love Bath and would go there. The Roman Baths are more or less indoors in case it is a not-so-good morning, but otherwise I would want to go on a fairly pretty day to walk around and see the Royal Crescent, the Circus, the weir by Pulteney Bridge and all the Georgian architecture.

Pam - I'm hoping to chisel away at that list whenever we end up in London - which is every trip over as we generally fly thru Heathrow. Having been there 4 times, we are looking to expand our horizons a little as we're starting to repeat our London stuff. Maybe I'll just start at the top ;)

We always find it helpful to look at various tour operator sites. We look at say Trafalgar, TAUCK, etc. to see where they take their clients. If the separate tours only have 7 days, then they must find it advisable to visit the most important sites. We also look at day bus trips to see where they take their customers. Then we know what is worthwhile visiting, while in particular cities. I figure if a large number of people visit certain sites, we should consider those locations also. We have visited Bath twice, for the day. Once we did it with Evans Evans and once on our own. We would like to visit Canterbury also. You could also call random travel agents and ask which one they would recommend.

Don't overlook Paris via the Eurostar, tickets are on sale 6 months prior to departure date and they get more pricey as the date looms. Take an early train over, around 2.5 hours, take a taxi to Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower, around 20 Euros, and if weather permits stroll down the famous boulevards. If weather is an issue, taking in the famous museums. Lingering in a bistro or cafe, is a great way to spend a bit of the day. A late train back to London, where snoozing is acceptable, is an end to an easy day trip.

Don't overlook Paris via the Eurostar, tickets are on sale 6 months prior to departure date and they get more pricey as the date looms. Take an early train over, around 2.5 hours, take a taxi to Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower, around 20 Euros, and if weather permits stroll down the famous boulevards. If weather is an issue, taking in the famous museums. Lingering in a bistro or cafe, is a great way to spend a bit of the day. A late train back to London, where snoozing is acceptable, is an end to an easy day trip.