Can I plan a UK trip in two weeks?

The kids are back in school in September (hopefully) so hotel bookings should be more readily available. I’d suggest looking at the east side of the country - Suffolk, Norfolk, and up the east coast up to Northumberland. Beautiful countryside, lovely old Wool towns, lots of history and off the main tourist route.

If you have a through BA ticket to Switzerland, are you proposing to rebook or just use the first leg of the journey? You need to ensure that by only using part of the ticket that your return leg won’t be cancelled automatically.

Ian’s ideas are sound - avoid tourist hotspots such as Bath and the Cotswolds where you will have to pay a premium for late booking. At least booking so close to the trip you have more clarity on the Covid situation.

Northumberland is one of my favourite parts of the country.

Pat, were you going to be hiking in Switzerland? If so, I can suggest a way to do some great walking in the UK countryside. A cooperative named HF Holidays owns country houses all over, in England, Scotland and Wales, situated near beautiful walking areas. We have been to several of these and plan more for our next UK trip. They book 3- or 4-night holidays at the houses, all-inclusive (meals, room, and guided walking all included). We enjoy the camaraderie on the trail and at meals (and pub time before and after). You need not be a member to go, but there is a small surcharge.

I looked and there are lots of options with availability in your time frame. We have been to this one on the so-called Jurassic Coast, with great coastal walking:

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/guided-walking-lulworth-cove-3

Easy to get to from London by train to Poole, short taxi from there. They have vacancy Sept. 3-6. Other locations that have vacancy Sept. 3-6 or 4-7 are Exmoor (home of the wild ponies), Lake District, Northumberland, South Downs, Scottish Highlands, and others. Snowdonia has vacancies Sept. 10-13, as do Lake District and Northumberland.

You can see the whole list of options here:

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours#/holidays?dfrom=2021-08-30&dto=2021-09-17&FC.Holiday%20Types=Guided%2BWalking&sort=ordering%7CASC&page=1

Filter for dates that fit your travel plans. Maybe pick two, and mix with 2-3 night stays in other places of interest—-York? Salisbury? Cornwall? I would spend 4-5 nights in London—-September is our favorite time there. There is a month-long “totally Thames” festival celebrating the culture and history of the river. You can view the planned events here:

https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/

I love the HF holidays suggestion.
https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/

I would also think about Cornwall. Premier Inns make it easy to get reservations all over the country without a great deal of worry about what type of accommodation you will be getting and reasonable prices.

Incredible suggestions- mighty interesting. Suggestions for a trip that needs to happen sometime.
We will try one last attempt to rebook for Switzerland. You should see our notepad of pages of notes for each time a flight has gotten canceled.
It's our flights into/out of Heathrow that are now getting canceled, so we would ask BA to just forget about those legs. I know one can't abandon a flight itinerary.
I really don't know what will end up happening here.
Thanks so much.

Hi Pat. I sure understand the frustration of constantly changing itineraries! We finally decided to abandon BA thru LHR to GVA and Alaska kindly booked us on Condor to FRA from where we will take the train into Switzerland. Might that be an option for you?

I fully expect that our return the end of October will change…

For London, I like the Lime Tree Hotel, I had a very pleasant stay there in 2017 and I understand they have undergone some renovations.

A friend of mine stayed in Cornwall, which she enjoyed very much. Also, you might check out towns like Torquay of Agatha Christie fame.
I think you could rather quickly plan a lovely vacation in England.

I know the folks on the forum will have great suggestions. Enjoy!

Absolutely! I once planned a 2 week trip for 2 in just a couple of weeks. You could stick to the south of England and have a fabulous time! London, Dover, walk along the cliffs of Beachy Head, Lyme Regis, and lots of day trips available from Bath. Do the stuff in Bath but also head to Wells, Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Avebury, Salisbury, West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill, Farleigh Hungerford Castle, you could head to the Cheddar Gorge and of course Penzance and the Cornish Coast.

Laurel, were you using points or money to be bale to change flights? How were you able to change? We used money, and the problem is Business Class flights now are outrageous on the other airlines.

We just discovered another leg of out trip hasn't flown for 15 months, so that will be canceled soon.

Safe travels.

We used points plus cash as BA has a huge fuel surcharge. I guess changing with points was easier this time as those seats were not sold out.

Another UK resource, which we are using in October, is On Foot Holidays.

Pat, Laurel’s strategy might work for you. Given that BA keeps canceling the flights to Switzerland that are your original plan, won’t they just refund your whole amount if you ask?

I just priced flights on Condor to Frankfurt for a trip starting around 2 weeks from now. They would put you on Alaska from San Diego to Seattle, then Condor direct to Frankfurt. The fare in Business on Condor (regular cabin on the Alaska flights) is as low as $3400 roundtrip, depending on the days you choose to fly. Other days are higher, but not a lot.

The train trip from Frankfurt to Switzerland is quick and easy. We actually did this a few years back, when we ran out of BA miles to fly business class both ways with them. We flew to Switzerland with BA, but returned with Condor, spending a couple of nights in Colmar on our way between Geneva and Frankfurt. The Condor plane did not have lie-flat seats in business class like the BA planes, but it was nevertheless very comfortable, especially for a daytime flight. So if you really want to get to Switzerland, this might be an option.

But two weeks in the UK would be lovely too, if you don’t want to entirely give up on BA business class. I assume they would refund the portion of the fare for the canceled flights between Heathrow and Switzerland?

Lola,
Thanks. We actually purchased the the Business Class seats for $2500 each less the 10% for having the BA Visa. However, in some years the $3400 is a decent price. My husband will be contacting BA early tomorrow morning for options. It's turning into a comedy of errors. Not sure why we keep going at it, honestly ??? i guess because Switzerland is so beautiful this time of year.
Safe travels!