Hi,
We would like to stay in a small town just south of London so that one day we could drive to Greenwich, one day to Dover Castle, one day to Stonehenge, and a day to Windsor. Looking for a town halfway between Greenwich and Windsor.
As well as the town, any suggestions for Bed and Breakfasts to stay in?
Thanks,
Virginia
That's a tough ask, Virginia.
Windsor and Greenwich are only 32 miles apart, one basically due east of central London and the other basically due west.
The only route basically equidistant to the south is the A23, the Brighton Road. I spent many years as a child in that area and there are few villages or small towns in the A23 corridor before the M25.
Banstead is a small town west of the A23 somewhat near the M25 junction 9 and maybe you can find a B&B near there. But it is somewhat closer to Windsor and correspondingly further from Greenwich, and Greenwich will in no way be an easy drive from there. In fact, driving south of the river can be really quite challenging at most times.
All the places you listed are easy to get to by train from most places in the greater London area, and by car much more difficult:
Windsor Castle is a very short walk from either of the Windsor stations. Parking is very very difficult there. I once spend an hour trying to park to show my brother and his daughter over from the US the place and gave up.
Greenwich has several stations and is also on the DLR, so very easy from anywhere in London, but has awful parking. Greenwich is also hard to get to by car, there is no easy route from most places.
Dover could be reached by car from Surrey by M25, to M26, to M20. Traffic can be challenging. Dover is easily reached by trains from London, including the high speed Javelin trains.
Stonehenge can be a decent, if long, drive from Surrey, and you can get reasonably close in the car park. Trains from London Waterloo go to Winchester from which local transport is available.
What sort of villages or town did you have in mind for where you wanted to stay?
In my opinion, the best location for easily getting to all your choices is LONDON. All the destinations you mention are easy day trip train rides from London (well, for Stonehenge you go to Bath and then take the bus or a Mad Maxx tour).
If you really want to drive, why not start in Dover, then Windsor, then Greenwich, then either Amesbury or Bath as a base for Stonehenge. You could spend one or two nights in each place Not certain that would work, but you could check it out.
Virginia,
I have 3 towns to suggest. (Chislehurst, Mottingham, and Eltham) Bob Hope was born in Eltham. These towns are located SE of London. You need to google a map of Greater London, find the M20, make the map greater about 3 (4?) times with the + button, and look W of Sidcup for Chislehurst. The road that runs through Chislehurst (A208?) becomes Mottingham Rd. Mottingham Rd makes a right to intersect with Eltham Rd. These were my stomping grounds the 1st time I went to England. The second time Mottingham was my base.
I cannot help you with B&B. When I was there I stayed with relatives.
I would suggest taking the train into town & back out to Windsor. The streets are narrow. You have me yearning to go back again. I have not been to Greenwich, Stonehenge, or Dover Castle (although I did see the white cliffs of Dover).
I will write again tomorrow.
Chislehurst, Mottingham, and Eltham are not outside London, they are part of London. Everything inside the M25 (with very few exceptions) is part of the sprawl of London.
"halfway between Greenwich and Windsor" = central London
As the previous posts say, Greenwich is an inner suburb, and the same "do not use a car in a city" advice applies there. The rest are just as easily reached by train from central London. If you try and visit these places from a base outside London you will end up going round the M25 because some places are the "wrong side " of London.
But, if you want to stay outside of London and restrict yourself to places south and east of London, I would recommend a place like Canterbury, Lewes, Rye and many more.
For Stonehenge from London, you should take the train from London (Waterloo) to Salisbury and then the shuttle bus. On returning to Salisbury, go and see the medieval cathedral.
You would probably be better off travelling about by train rather than hiring a car to travel on congested roads and end up in places with limited parking. Look at the road network on Google Earth
Why not land at Heathrow, take a shuttle bus to Woking & then train to Salisbury & stay 2 or 3 nights? From this base, you could do Bath as a day trip by train as well as having a trip to Stonehenge (on another day). Another day could be spent by taking a bus to Winchester - or going there packed for 1 night. Then relocate to somewhere else - perhaps Oxford (by train). From Oxford, you could visit Blenheim Palace but if you wanted to go to the Cotswolds, hire a car for a day. (Cars are banned from the centre of Oxford).
Greenwich is best visited from central London - take a cruise down the river and see the sights on the way.
Trains > www.nationalrail.co.uk
Looking above I'd have to say, having lived in south-east London and worked in Greenwich for years (before I moved to the Chilterns), I'd've sooner staple my bits to a brick than stay in Eltham... It's not exactly what you'd call a salubrious area and definitely not a tourist sort of place... Woolwich is OK if a bit soulless since the brass foundry was torn down to build flats. Blackheath is excellent though a tad hipster now but the pubs around the heath are pretty cool. Greenwich itself is nice enough but lacks much charm by night. Those 3 all have the advantage of being on the rail out to Dartford, where you can change to Dover. Easy for a day trip. And if you're in Blackheath, a stroll through the park to the ROG then down to the NMM and Cutty Sark is a nice day out. Don't get mugged by the squirrels though - they're cheeky little sods because tourists feed them, & they can bite. And run up your trousers. Do not ask.
If you then book into a place in Eton or Windsor for a couple of nights, get the train from Blackheath to London Bridge and change through to Heathrow where you can pick up a hire-car, drive out to Windsor to check in and look around, then next day drive out to Wiltshire. This way, you don't have to deal with SE london traffic or the M2 and save a couple of days hire costs but still see those places. Of course there are advantages to having a car in Kent (a stop in Canterbury, for example), but for the sake of your sanity don't drive into Greenwich - parking is scarce and fills up early, traffic is slow and even with the improvements in Woolwich it's still slow. Instead, park in Dartford (earlier the better) and take the train to Maze Hill or Greenwich both of which are 5 mins walk from the museum Neptune Court entrance.
Your best bet is to stay in London and take the train to Windsor, and the tube/DLR to Greenwich. Driving in England is rather stressful (the motorways are fine, but the surface streets are miserable with cyclists pedestrians and giant buses leaping out in all directions, speed cameras, red light cameras, bus lane cameras, and other hazards waiting to trap you.)
However, if you do have a car, you might want to consider staying in Royal Tunbridge Wells. http://www.visittunbridgewells.com/
From there you're well positioned to access some really lovely places in the south/southeast - Chartwell, Hever Castle, Ightam Mote, Leeds Castle as well as being able to drive to Dover (although if you're looking for white cliffs, go to Eastbourne instead), Hastings, Arundel, Lewes, for example.
For Stonehenge, you could either coach it out there from London, or drive from Tunbridge Wells. If you drove, it would take about 2.5-3 hours and maybe consider staying overnight in the area or going on somewhere else? Bath? Bristol?
Virginiahyde0,
Mottingham, Chislehusrt, & Eltham are what we Americans call "suburbs" of Central London, or part of the London Metropolitan Area. Click on the name of the village for information on each.
Mottingham, Chislehurst, & Eltham which is close to Greenwich.
I am not able to recommend B&B's to you. Here are some links.
http://www.ukexpo.com/bnb/lmb001.htm
http://www.whatbedandbreakfast.co.uk/london/mottingham/
Others who use B&B may know of a website exclusive to England.
This is my last post on this thread. I wish you a good trip.
Cheers!
http://www.walks.com/Standalone/Stonehenge__Salisbury_Tour/default.aspx
5. Dover-Take any number of tour buses to there:
http://www.londontoolkit.com/tours/premium_leeds_canterbury_greenwich.htm
or see Gray Line Tours out of London, or take the train to Dover.
Driving by car to Greenwich and Windsor will be difficult. Also driving to Dover, as Nigel said, can be difficult. Public transportation to these places will be the easy way to go. Afterwards, you could take a train out to anywhere near Stonehenge and pick up a car, drive around in the countryside out there. Stay in a B&B in Bath, Salisbury, Avebury, Winchester, or any small town not far from Stonehenge.
"As well as the town, any suggestions for Bed and Breakfasts to stay in?"
You may want to determine what town you will be staying in, and then ask this question.
Do you want us to make suggestions for London? Or Royal Tunbridge Wells? Bath? Salisbury? Avebury? Winchester? Or...where? Have our posts helped you to decide where you want to stay?
Have you started reading the Rick Steves Great Britain guidebook to get a sense of some of the B&B's he suggests near Stonehenge? Also good, if you go to a bookstore or library, are the Rough Guides. They are more thorough in covering entire sections of the English countryside than other guidebooks. Do you have a good map of England so you can look at this area in order to plan your trip?
Virginia,
are you still there?
Elvis...er, Virginia...has left the building.
The Virginias of this world usually leave the building without a fare thee well or a thank you. But whatchagonnado?
Hi all,
I apologize for my lack of response......Several issues came up in my personal life which kept me away. Anyway, thank you so much for all of your comments and suggestions!!
I didn't realize before reading your thoughts how unwise it might be to try driving to all of these places. I'm afraid I have the American mind-set that you HAVE to have a car to do anything!! Anyway, based on your comments I have revised our plans so that we will fly into Heathrow, and immediately take a train out to Salisbury. Here we will spend two nights where we plan to get over jet lag and see the famous cathedral in the town and check out Avebury and Stonehenge. After that we will pick up a car ( I am still American), and drive to Bletchley and spend 3 nights. From there we hope to catch a bus or train for a day trip to Windsor hopefully. We plan to drive to Keswick (long drive I know but we want to see the country). After 4 days there we will drive to York -- I am interested in driving through the Yorkshire Dales. In York we will turn in the car, and end up taking a train from York into London. I can't figure out where to stay around London still, though. We hope to take a bus or train out to Dover Castle for a day, and possibly take a boat to Greenwich for a day.
Any thoughts of reasonable places to stay around London?
Regards.
Aiken, thanks for your suggestion of Blackheath as a place to stay close to London. I will investigate that. We hope to stay in a town such as this for 3 nights....One night after having taken the train into the area from York. One day hopefully for the Dover Castle and its exhibit about Dunkirk. Maybe one half day to take train into London, catch a boat down the Thames to Greenwich, and then train from Greenwich back into London.
Thanks again, Virginia
If you do decide on Blackheath, the boat trip day could be the other way around - that is, walk down the hill through the park to Greenwich jetty, hop the boat to town (perhaps the Tower stop, or Westminister), do your in-town thing, then tube to London Bridge to catch the train back out to Blackheath. If you're going in summer and you get lucky with a hot sunny day, you could take the boat all the way down to Kew (change at Embankment) and go to the botanical gardens, and/or hit Hampton Court - that's all the way from the east to the west of London by river. The river service map is here: https://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/river-bus-tours-map.pdf. A word to the wise: being on the water on a cold or wet day is not that much fun but in the heat it's great as the river is the best A/C in town! If you have time and go west early, I'd always recommend a stroll through Richmond Park - I'm always amazed it doesn't get more mentions on sites like this because how many city parks have big semi-wild herds of deer running about? Of course, remember to keep dogs under control... http://youtu.be/bmpONxJ7JSw
Hi,
Thank you so much for your suggestion!!
Your idea of reversing my trip sounds like a great idea.
It looks like Blackheath is VERY close to Greenwich. Perhaps we could get to Greenwich in a very short period of time.
Regards,
Virginia
Interesting...I havenever heard of Richmond Park before. I'll check it out on web.
Regards,
Virginia
Do be sure to watch that video. I expect (not having clicked on it) that it may be the one with the infamous Fenton....
I just watched it.
It is hilarious!!
Thanks for the suggestions!!
De nada. I hope you have fantastic trip in May :)
Virginia, did you decide on a town and B&B?
Hi Sharon,
I am thinking about Blackheath, but I haven't made any arrangements yet.
Best Regards,
Virginia
Virginia, I'm typing this on my husband's computer (since mine has crashed AGAIN). If I'm able to gain access to it soon, I'll send you some information on where we stayed in the south. It might not be the right location for you so don't wait to hear from me - I'll send you something if I can.
I just looked up Blackheath, and that sounds fantastic!! That's way better than my suggestion. I'll have to consider that myself for a future trip.
Hi Sharon,
I would be interested in hearing about where you stayed, even though it sounds like Blackheath might be a better choice.
My husband and I have never stayed in this part of London, so we are 'all ears'; i.e. trying to learn everything about the area.
BTW, my husband and I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for 25 years. We have very good memories of visiting the 'North Bay Area'. My husband did some work in the Santa Rosa area for Hewlett Packard for a few years also.
Many thanks for any and all information you would like to share!
Regards, Virginia
When I went back and read your question, I was really off base in the suggestion I was going to give you. We stayed in West Malling at the Little Quintain B&B. It was a very good area for us to stay because we were going to Leeds, Rochester, and other sites in the area. Little Quintain is a wonderful B&B. By the way, my husband and I both worked for Hewlett-Packard.
