Day trips from London

London Walks do day trips to places like Salisbury / Stonehenge, Windsor, Cambridge. You travel by train, have a couple of guided walks and some free time (itinerary changes depending on where you go). Worth checking out. walks.com
Windsor is an easy day trip - explore the castle / great park and village. Hampton Court could be another option. Enjoy!! :-)

I suggest picking up a comprehensive guidebook to England ASAP and putting everyone to work. You can get to lots of great destinations by rail. It depends on what sort of sights you're interested in: historical sites, palaces, museums, gardens, countryside, etc. You can check out rail schedules and fares at nationalrail.co.uk.

It's important to understand that--though some routes may be exceptions--in many cases you will pay an extremely heavy financial penalty for buying rail tickets at the last minute. Commiting early by buying non-refundable/non-changeable tickets can sometimes save a huge percentage of the cost (possibly way over 50%). Last-minute decisions can make some trips ludicrously expensive. You can see which destinations most benefit from pre-planning by looking at fares for the current date vs. fares for your projected travel date, realizing that fares for future dstes will close that gap as time goes on.

Another consideration is the exact location where you will be staying. How practical day-trips via public transportation will be, depends on how easily you can get from your temporary home to a useful rail or bus station.

On my trop to England last year, I especially enjoyed time in Oxford, which is just a bit over an hour from London by rail.

I bought a paperback from Amazon before I went.
The title was something like
" 10 day trips from London" (I loaned it to someone and didn't get it back - so not exact on the title)
But it had lots of trips, how to get there (we used trains and buses) - it was great. One of my favorite was Leeds, another was taking the boat from London to Greenwich.
Also went to Cambridge, Windsor and a few other things.
It was nice to have the book to tell how to get there, hours of operation, costs etc.

What part of London will the house be in? With a bit of work you can do all sorts of day events in and around London without going too far.

What sort of things are you and the girls interested in?

It sounds like you have loads of time but after settling in and then helf a week in France and time in the Cotswolds you will less time than you think....

When I went on vacation when we lived west of Boston we used to go down to the Cape, Falmouth and further around.

Nigel's point is a good one. London has many magnificent and very large museums. You could easily fill all your time in London. I didn't even get started on the Churchill War Rooms or the British Museum in 10 days last year, partly because I took three walking tours and went to four plays. Don't forget the theatre! So for me, side-trips would be to see a different side of England (countryside, small town, etc.), rather than because I thought the sights would be somehow better than what is readily available in London.

As always agree with Nigel.

I will add that Hampton Court is an easy train ride
(Can use your Oyster card) and very interesting. You can also train the Brighton.

As noted so much to do and see in London.
Any of the larger markets, Bourough, Camden Lock
Brick Lane and Portobello Road will provide interest.

Might consider a graffiti tour of Brick Lane.

Take a river cruise to Greenwich.

Countless free museums. I always suggest the Museum of London as it provides a historical background of the great city you have chosen to visit.

Theatre. Look online here https://officiallondontheatre.com/tkts
See what’s on when you are there.

London Walks are outstanding. Have the teens choose.

The glass covered Leadenhall Market adjacent to the furturistic Lloyd’s of London. If Harry Porter fans Leadenhall Market is a must so they can find the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.

Tower Bridge Experience if no one is afraid of heights.

And if you watch the wedding ( Prince Harry to Meghan Markle) I suspect the teens might want to see St George’s chapel at Windsor Castle.

Does anyone watch Call The Mid Wife? You can search online for a tour of the Chatham Docklands where much of it is filmed. Nice train ride.

I’ve been to London many times. Never fail to find something new and fun each visit. So much there to enjoy.

Take the teens Selridges shoe department. Trust me they’ll not have seen anything like it.

Have fun.

I myself would stay in London and see plays and go to museums and department stores ! If your are looking for something outside very unusual you could take the train from London to Brighton about 1 hr 15 minutes hours on the south coast and visit the Brighton pavilion. It is 5-10 min walk from the Brighton train station. Google it — The interior rooms as well as the exterior are Magnificently decorated—The enormous onion turrets are unforgettable.

A few good day trips might be:
Dover for its castle, if you like castles this is a great one.
Rye, a quaint small city, good for half a day.
Canterbury (cathedral, plus just walking the town)
Brighton (Royal Pavilion, maybe the pier)
Salisbury (for its spectacular cathedral, not the rest of the city so much) *
Bath *

(I have visited all of the above except Canterbury and only passed through Brighton, but have researched them all).

All within and hour or so by train. Bath and Salisbury are a little longer (*). Go to rometorio.com to see where the trains leave from. You can spend the better part of an hour getting to the train station for your day trip, so it matters a lot where you are staying as other have noted. Trains can be very expensive in the U.K., you should look into booking in advance for any day trips. Another option would be bus tours, but I'm not a big fans of those. Rick Steves London would be a really great resource for you, definitely worth the investment.

There are LOTS of great days trips you can do by train from London. Windsor is great- and you can buy the ticket the day of without worry- it costs the same all the time. The castle is one of my favorites and the town is great for walking/shopping. You can even do a short boat cruise along the Thames that lets you see the back of the castle, and some of the countryside.

Bath is also a good day trip- but buy your tickets in advance (unless you decide to get a BritRail pass- we usually did that because we liked the flexibility). Great sightseeing- Roman and Georgian architecture, and again a cruise down the river. You can also get a guided trip to Stonehenge in Bath with Madd Maxx tours.

York can be done as a day trip, too. It is a fun place. The Shambles and the market are really great. The Minster is awesome, and the Jorvik 'museum' is really fun- a sort of Disney-esque ride through history.

Canterbury and Dover are also good choices, as are Winchester, Brighton, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford-upon-Avon and others.

Finally, I'd suggest Cardiff Wales. It is a city with a funky vibe. Really good small market in a converted church, decent shopping, fun, one-off stores in Victorian shopping 'malls'/alleys.

Please, please, please spend a full day in Windsor/Eton. Wonderful castle and terrific small town to explore. The castle in Dover is worth the trip, as is Canterbury with my favorite Cathedral.

Suggestions that are easy to do by train and not already mentioned:

• York is always popular, but need at least 1 night there.
• Rochester is easily accessible by train. Interesting cathedral with a discussion on the bridge that was originally built by the Romans in 43AD. Also a Normal mote and bailey castle that you can go in (roof missing but the stairs to go up and down floors is the original stone stairs in a corner tower). Also a Charles Dickens connection
• Harry Potter studio tour takes a good part of a day and is amazing for all ages who like the films

As mentioned earlier, London Walks offer day trips. On this page, you can click to open the complete summer calendar of day trips. I have taken the Salisbury/Stonehenge trip, and plan to take more when possible.

http://www.walks.com/other-tours/day-trips-from-london

Some day trips I have taken and enjoyed include: Bath (you can get there from the Cotswold area); Stonehenge; Hampton Court; Windsor Castle or how about a day or two in London? There you can see Westminister Abbey, the Tate museums (Britian and New), the Victoria and Albert museum, some shows, SoHo, Piccadilly, Covent Gardens, etc.

Whatever you do and wherever you go, you will have a lot of fun!

Spend the day in Winchester, the capital of Roman Britain before London.

If the girls are Harry Potter fans, you must go to Harry Potter in Leavesden, if tickets are still available. Cardiff has a very enjoyable folk museum, St. Fagan's, an easy bus ride away. It was one of my favorite places I've been in the UK.

I just downloaded the book suggested in this stream for my kindle: Ten Best Day Trips from London Kindle Edition
by Mike Gerrard (Author), Donna Dailey (Author). Cost only 99 cents and I don't have to carry a guidebook. Love my Kindle!