Hello,
Going to be in London from Dec 13th - 19th. Our family is wanting to do 1 or 2 day trips from London.
Hoping to “feel the Christmas season “. Don’t want to be more than 90 minutes - 2 hours.
I know there’s Bath and Canterbury.
Any other ideas???
Thank you in advance!
Windsor and or Hampton court will be wonderful during the holidays.
Oxford University Museums: Ashmolean which currently has a Pompeii exhibit, and the History of Science Museum, Bodleian Libraries, Museum of Natural History, Oxford Botanical Gardens and Arboretum and Pitt Rivers Museum offer quite the choice of World class museums and most are free. Oxford also has a Christmas Market from Dec 5-21, Thurs-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun-Wed 10am-6:30pm.
Winchester for the Christmas market and cathedral.
Winchester for the Christmas market and cathedral.
And The Great Hall with King Arthur's Round Table (the medieval one!). The OP doesn't mention ages of children but you can meet Father Christmas at the hall. There's also the pantomime Dick Whittington at The Theatre Royal with afternoon matinee's if you don't intend staying over.
In addition to those already mentioned, we did a day trip to York last December. Its Christmas market was going on. Great way to spend the day.
We've enjoyed the Christmas Markets in the following places (all easily reached by train)
Canterbury, Bath (large and quality vendors), York, Windsor (also my favorite castle), Cardiff Wales (lots of local crafts people).
I’ll echo Bath and Winchester for Christmas markets and holiday atmosphere.
Hiya, Windsor is lovely in all year but especially at Christmas time. My mum used this company for a trip to the Cotswolds last year. They do a Windsor trip as well (lots of others too I think). https://www.blacktaxitourlondon.com/day-tours/royal-windsor-tour
Canterbury, Oxford, Cambridge, Winchester, Bath, Stratford Upon Avon, Blenheim Palace, Salisbury.
One thing to bear in mind is that SouthWest Trains are threatening strikes for pretty much the whole of December. If it goes ahead this will affect services out of Waterloo affecting train travel to places like Winchester, Salisbury, Hampton Court and Kew.
Don't overlook Paris, a little over two hours via the Eurostar. City center to city center. Check ticket prices which rise considerably closer to your travel date.
Salisbury for Stonehenge. Unfortunately you're just a few days too early for the solstice, but still cool.
IF the train strikes don't occur on the rail line to Salisbury and that turns out to be an option, I've been looking at the events pages for Salisbury and the Cathedral so I can figure out a trip for next year.
https://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/salisbury/ideas-and-inspiration/christmas-in-salisbury
There also are plenty of ways to feel Christmas in London during your time. I realized this is a commercial event so just throwing it out there for you in case you haven't seen it.
