Cotswold Walk to Bath to ?? to London

Oxford?? Couple of days there plus day trips to Blenheim and Stratford on Avon?

Thanks, BillS719 … guess I should have mentioned that we did Oxford on another trip. We also did York, although I was sick for a day so missed a bit of it. Still, I think we saw what we needed to see.

I’m not averse to a train trip that is as much as 3 hours if the destination is worth the time!

Bradford on Avon, Exeter, Cheltenham, Winchester.

Chichester.? Attractive, if small, Cathedral Town but near Arundel, Portsmouth historic dockyard and the remains of a Roman Villa at nearby Fishbourne. Plus Goodwood House, too, I think. All doable by train except Goodwood which might be a bus ride.

I would go to Cardiff so I could go to St. Fagan's Museum of Folk Life. It's one of my favorite places I've been.

I was going to suggest heading north to the Malvern Hills but it looks like that might take a while on the train (tho it's a very lovely area). I would also think about heading down to the coast- you could head down to Weymouth in Dorset on a direct train and have a very nice time on the Jurassic Coast (Durdle Door etc).

Many thanks for all the suggestions! Still pondering … it’s a tough call for me, to be honest. We could go south and do Portsmouth and head over to Dover maybe, then back to London. OR we could head up through Worcester, Shrewsbury, and then Chester (i’ve just read little snippets about those spots). Honestly I’m rather torn.

And yes, we could also go the Cardiff route.

Argh! I want a simple and easy answer, but with all the good suggestions … well … we shall see!

Others are more expert on UK trains but I think the only way to Dover from Portsmouth by train is via London. The route across the south coast comes to an end a few miles to the east of Brighton (whose Pavilion is well worth visiting).

If you do want to go to the Dover area, I wonder if Canterbury would be a better base.

Where does a Cotswolds walk come into this?

I would head north via the welsh borders to Chester and Liverpool (right next to each other) with maybe a day in North Wales from there.

From Portsmouth to Dover you can go along the coast- Portsmouth to Brighton, change, Brighton to Eastbourne, change, Eastbourne to Ashford International, change, Ashford to Dover Priory.

It's likely to be slower than going from Portsmouth to Waterloo, going upstairs to Waterloo East for the train to Dover, or Portsmouth to Victoria, change for train to Dover.

Another not London route is Portsmouth to Guildford, Guildford to Redhill, Redhill to Tonbridge, Tonbridge to Dover.

More helpful replies. Thank you!

Since Johnew52 asked: the Cotwolds walk is the week before our stay in Bath. Prior to that we are in Scotland and a bit of Ireland, in case anyone needs or wants to know that as well.

I’ve put together three options and my husband is having a look-see, but I’m still open to even more suggestions as we figure this all out.

We went from Bath to Cardiff in 2024 and found a lot to do there. I’d recommend it.

How about a trip to the north West. 3 nights in either Chester or Liverpool. Stay in one and travel to the other by train in 30 mins or so. Two very different cities with plenty to see

Well, final decisions were made, and it wasn't what I had expected. We will go from Bath to Shrewsbury (short stay), Liverpool (3 nights), and, finally, York (2 nights). Yes, we were in York before, but as my husband reminded me, I was ill while we were there and spent a lot of time in bed!

So there we go. Done. All lodging but London, our final stop, has now been taken care of. (But oh, dear London ... the expense!)