Cotswolds and Cornwall

RS Villages of South England tour listed elsewhere on this web site and has its itinerary available which might be helpful to you in your planning. We will be taking that tour in June - our 17th RS tour - yes, we are hooked on RS travel.

Driving around Cornwall is fairly slow. Where you should stay will be dependent to a considerable degree on what towns you want to visit and how many nights you plan to spend in the area.

What time of year will the trip be, and how many total nights do you plan to spend in England? Will you be flying in from the US or Canada?

We did a road trip of Wales and England in 2017 and spent three nights in Bath before going into Wales, then 6 nights in Chipping Campden (used as a base) at the Volunteer Inn. We did the Cotswolds, Stratford Upon Avon, Oxford and Blenheim Palace. It was a great choice.

We are planning another trip in the future to see Cornwall, thinking about a guided tour this time.

On the 2017 trip we loved the North of England (York, Durham, Hadrian's Wall and Lake District). The Lake District is very scenic and many go there for the out of doors things like hiking. We stayed in Keswick, which was nice. One thing, it was late October and started raining. We did our touring in our car. Did the Rick Steves day trip circle. spectacular scenery. Still, I recommend doing the Lake District when it is warmer.

Cotswalds is a lovely place. I stayed in Chippenham which was kind of right in the middle, as well as Bath (which isn't too far if you plan on driving about). Cornwall takes a bit of time to get there from Chippenham - but they could be done together if you don't mind driving and staying in various towns along the coast - like Newquay, St.Ives, Marazion, or around Dartmoor, but I wouldn't expect you'd be able to blow through it all in a day or even two days - it is like other parts of England, slow with narrow windy roads. It would probably take around 5 to visit just the very tip/south part if you plan on seeing any beaches or historical sites.

The lake district is in an entirely different area. If you plan on trying to do all three you'd want to fly into Heathrow and take a 2nd plane to Manchester then drive from Manchester into the Lake district for about 3 days. To me, it was my favorite place in all of England (so far- and I've been there 2x/ almost a month at this point). The south area near Windermere is absolutely gorgeous and you can't go wrong with visiting or staying in Ambleside- Beatrix Potter's home and museum is about a short 30 minute stunning and beautiful drive away.
They also have meat pies that you must try at Hiddleston's butcher shop in Windermere (i still think about these meat pies 3 years later).... You can take boats out for rental onto the lake for an hourly fee, there are numerous hikes you can go on in the area (although with an infant that might be not possible).. but there is still a lot to do .. If you like to take photos this is it. To me it was the area most representative of how I'd imagine England would look many years ago - slow, sheepy, and stunning. They also have super good food. You could do this then drive south from the Lakes to the Cotswalds (about a 3- 4 hour drive if you floor it). Then you can spend another 4 days in that region (see Stonehenge, Bath, Oxford) and then drive another 5 hours to get down to Penzance or thereabouts, then tour about the peninsula and take a plane from Newquay back to London. You could train-- but I do not recommend it unless you are really buff and can rapidly load a bunch of heavy bags about 3 feet higher than where you are standing. I made the mistake of taking the train with luggage from Bath to London and wanted to about die.

They have no bell boys or assistance so you are kind of hosed and you only get about 4 minutes to shove your luggage up, and getting it down is also an amusement- flying in Britain is really cheap and worth it. For instance going from Newquay to London is an overnight or extremely long train (or a 7 hour drive), but a plane is only about an hour. Just to put it into perspective. Cost wise it is pretty cheap to get a one direction flight.

In Cornwall the geography doesn't really lend itself to a base; to see a lot of the peninsula you'd have to either relocate every night or two, or else do a lot of (slow) driving each day. That said, it's a beautiful place. My favorite destination in Cornwall is St. Michael's Mount, near Penzance and not too terribly far from St. Ives.