Day trip from London

Oxford is any easy train ride from London. Buy a day return ticket to save money. The parking is limited in Oxford so it is better to be auto free. The Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum are a good reason to visit. I believe that one of them was featured in a Inspector Morse. I saw a Shakespeare play at one of the Colleges when I was there. Maybe you can see a matinee. Bath and the Cotswolds should be an overnight. Woodstock which is 45 minutes by bus from Oxford is the home of Blenhiem Palace....allow a half day for the visit.

I had a day stop in Stratford on a guided tour. My friends and I thought is was just okay, not a lot of Shakespeare either. Bath is a long way, and if it isn't sunny, it's not so pretty, and if it's raining, it isn't pretty at all. If you can be spontaneous (March weather is perhaps even more iffy than other months), a day in the countryside might be nice. I'd be more inclined to choose a day trip that would be satisfying on a grey, rainy day and not so weather-dependent.

I was leaning toward Oxford on my last trip because of the Ashmolean Museum there. Cambridge is said to be better if you want the university atmosphere. In the end, I couldn't tear myself away from London, so I still haven't been to either! Both seem to be easy to do on your own.

Have you looked at London Walks? Their tours are consistently well reviewed. I took several short London walks and all were excellent or better.

We did a day trip to Isle of Wight which was great fun. Took the bus from Ryde out to a little walk to Carisbrook Castle where Charles the First was held. Portsmouth harbor is right there so you can explore that as well.

We also enjoyed a day trip we took to Canterbury.

Look at a good map, pick a place and go. It will all be different.

We did a day trip to Cambridge and it was quite easy on our own. It was a nice break from London. Easy walk from the train station to the main part of town, great youthful atmosphere. We were there on some sort of graduation day and it was teeming with caps and gowns. We haven't done Oxford as a day trip yet.

Thanks for all the tips so far! It never fails to ask for advice on this forum. We are going to do some London walking tours and I think the consensus is no need for a tour to any of these places. I'll definitely check out the other suggested towns and the Shakespeare link. Sounds like there's no real need to book ahead so I think we'll just see how we feel and hope foe good weather! If the weather's terrible then we can just spend more time in London or go to Oxford and try some of the museums there. Thanks for the help!

If you decided to do this on your own (and I think you should), then Bath is one place where you'd want to purchase your train tickets in advance. Day- of tickets to Bath from London are VERY expensive. There are LOTS of great day trips you can do from London. You've though of several, but might want to consider a few others.... Windsor (good 1/2 or full day trip and trains run from Paddington about every 20-30 min.), Winchester, Canterbury, Dover, Cardiff Wales (also buy tickets in advance), Brighton, York, etc. If you are interested, I wrote an article several years ago for AAA Carolina's "Go!" magazine about our favorite areas of London and or favorite day trips by train. Send me a message with your email and I'll be glad to share the article.