England itinerary help please

Hi Linda,
Your itinerary looks great! I have been to Upper/Lower Slaughter, Chipping Campden, Burton, Burford and Stow-on-the Wold, all lovely. I'd say Stow-on-the-Wold is the most "touristy" (I believe tour buses stop there). Chipping Campden is a favorite of mine, with walking trails, a nice church to visit, shops and restaurants.

You can do Bath in a day, or even a few hours - see the Roman Baths, walk the neighborhoods for the architecture, there are several other interesting museums. I think October will be beautiful there.

Wells is worth a visit, Salisbury is wonderful with an amazing cathedral. I prefer Avebury over Stonehenge, as you can wander through the stones. When I was there a few years ago, there were sheep grazing among the stones.

Canterbury is very well worth visiting, it's less than an hour from London. Another place is Dover, not far from London and if you enjoy walking/hiking it's a nice place to go.

Enjoy your trip - England's fantastic - whatever you choose, you'll enjoy it!

Sounds like you are keeping the car the whole time you are in London. You may want to be more specific about location of the house. Hopefully you will get some good advice from the locals here on avoiding traffic, etc.

HI Sue and Lola, thank you both. Yes, we are parking the car while we tour London (good weekly rate), got lots of advice on another posting and are buying train / tube tickets there. Think we will skip Stow on the Wold if it's touristy. Is Salisbury worth a visit beyond the cathedral? If you had to choose Canterbury or Cambridge, which one? Thought of Dover, but looks like we may get the same view in South Downs Natl. Park / 7 Sisters Cliffs, plus close to Brighton. Thanks!

You could see Blenheim Palace on your way from Oxford to the Cotswolds. One day in the Cotswolds doesn't seem long enough to stop and visit any of the sites. The Main sites in Bath are doable in a day. If you like well preserved villages Lacock is great. It was used as a location in Harry Potter and many other films. Avebury and Salisbury are worth a visit and can be seen in the same day; you can drive by Stonehenge. Cambridge and Canterbury and the Cliffs of Dover would be a good choice after London. If you like hiking and beaches the Jurassic Coast could be what you are looking for. I would also consider Portsmouth with the HMS Victory and the Mary Rose and the New Forest as a great destination. Check the National Trust UK web site for the Touring Pass to save on admissions: 7 days 55 pounds for 2, 14 days 66 pounds for 2. You order online and pick at first place you visit. This covers many historic properties in Metropolitan London, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Or you can get a membership which would cover you for a year. Preview the area and places you are visiting on their site to check open days.

Thanks, LOTS of ideas!!! Will look into them!
Linda

If you plan to rent a car at Heathrow and drive to Oxford, forget it. Parking is a royal pain in Oxford. Take the train to Oxford and rent a car from Oxford to drive to the Cotswolds.

We stayed in Chipping Campden for six nights and used it as a base to see the Cotswolds as well as Stratford Upon Avon, Blenheim Palace and Oxford.
Also, Rick Steves guide to Great Britain has a great plan to see the Cotswolds in a day. Your itinerary doesn't include Cirencester, which is very good to see.

The one day to see the Northern Cotswolds is possible, but it would be a bit too much if you spend much time in each place.

Bath, we spent three nights there giving us 2 days to tour the city and one day to go to Wells and Glastonbery. Driving to Wells and Glastonbery will take up most of your day after you have seen those two places.

Do Cambridge or Canterbury on a day trip from London. Don't try to drive near London or on the M-25.

Here is my review of our 28 day drive tour of Wales and England:
https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=599139

Thanks for the tips!

If Day 1 is the day you land after an overnight flight, I have serious doubts that you will be up to picking up a rental car at the airport, driving to Oxford, seeing the city (it's worth more than a full day if you have any interest in its two great museums, the Ashmolean and the Pitt-Rivers) and driving on to your lodgings in the Cotswolds. Under those conditions, I would have little memory of having been in Oxford (assuming I didn't wipe out on the road on the way).

I found Oxford much more attractive than Bath (whose Georgian architecture I thought very repetitive), but it does have the Roman Baths and at least two good museums.

I enjoyed Wells on a day-trip. There weren't many tourists about on the day of my visit (August 2017).

For the Cotswolds, I'd get a map, mark the interesting-sounding places, and plot a route that hits the highest-priority spots first. Then let the day play out. You don't know how long a lunch break you'll want, whether you'll have decent weather, how much you'll like each individual village, etc. I opted for a one-day van tour run out of Moreton-in-Marsh (I was staying in Oxford) and was very happy with that experience. Those are little places where I just wanted to walk around, appreciating the atmosphere. The tour stops were long enough for me, given that I didn't plan to do any village-to-village walking. The latter would have required more time in the area. I don't see any reason to try to rush through so many places in one day. If it happens, it happens. Otherwise, just enjoy as much time as you like in each one you get to.

I liked both Canterbury and Cambridge. Cambridge needs more walking-around time, I'd say. The stained-glass museum at Canterbury Cathedral is interesting. It's great to be able to see the glass down at eye level. The Cambridge tourist office offers a good walking tour. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is excellent, and again there are walking-tour opportunities. The tourist-office-led tours sometimes have better access to the colleges than the "free" tours.

You mention driving down to "Bristol and South Downs Nat'l Park". I assume you mean Brighton.

You are probably right about being tired the 1st day, we may just skip Oxford and go straight to our lodging in the Cotswolds first day (Chipping Norton). We can hit Oxford later from our London week. And yes, I meant Brighton, not Bristol, I keep getting the 2 names mixed up. (I mean the one on the beach!) Thanks for tips!!!

I am sitting in a vacation rental near Reading as I make this reply. This is our second trip from the US to the UK.
I will make some observations on visiting the UK that are not related to your personal plans. It's merely to add a few things to your "pot" for consideration

1- I will respectfully suggest that if you do not do York, and perhaps the train to Witby, you will have missed a very nice site seeing adventure.

2- There are two castles very much worth visiting. One would be in Edinburgh and the other is Windsor castle.

3- Two days in London to see the "tourist" attractions is all that is needed unless you wish to explore the inside of every building. If anyone in the group has an interest in WWII history then the Churchill museum is fanatic.

4- Bath is a half day if HOHO bus is used. Make sure that you see the Crescent.

5- The seaport town of Portsmouth can be an all day trip if you plan the many things that are available to see there. It is well worth the time.

6- If you are driving to all of your destinations, then I would highly suggest that you do a rental car with GPS!! I would also suggest not taking cross country roads to your destinations unless the driver(s) have the courage to drive on curvy, band-aid wide roads, with lots of round abouts. It takes nerves of steal.

Have a good trip.

Thank you!!! I would love to see the York area, unfortunately we don't have time. Will have to catch that area and Lake District next visit. We won't spend all of our 8 nights in the London area actually IN London, we have some day trips. (Oxford, Bristol, South Downs National Park, Windsor Castle). It's really the last 2 days we don't have planned yet, maybe Portsmouth as you suggested? Thanks!

Avebury is a wise choice also nearby is the West Kennett Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.
We were based at a friend's in Wiltshire. Some lovely places around. Castle Combe and Lacock are beautiful. We found them uncrowded. The huge Tithe Barn and the charming village of Great Coxwell. Uffington White Horse, it is along the historic Ridgeway. There are lots of "unknown" small communities as you drive around with fantastic buildings.
What I saw of the Cotswolds was crowds of tourists so only seiously visited Burford. Drove on past a number of the other Cotswold villages, they looked nice but the crowds...
By October things probably will be a bit quieter.
Have fun.

If I read this correctly, the seems a little crazy on the front end. Get off an overseas flight and directly into a rental car. Not clear how many nights you are sleeping where. Chipping Campden is a very nice town in the Cotwswalds. Bath is worth two full days. I have not been to Canterbury but my research says it's well worth a visit. Glastonbury near Bath is a great stop. Salisbury Cathedral is spectacular, one of my three favorites in all of Europe (and I've seen a lot), also the city museum. Avebury is nice too.

Thanks everyone, more great ideas!

I love to go straight from Heathrow to next-door Windsor until my jet lag wears off. You can often see the castle when you fly in, and it's VERY close by, served by buses, even taxis are cheap, and their Travelodge is good, right in the middle of good shopping, restaurants, and just a short walk up the hill to the castle. Otherwise going to Windsor from London can be a 45 min bus ride from Victoria Station, or a train ride from Paddington Station. It's much closer to LHR than anything else. After one flight we had with turbulence, and we did not sleep at all, I make the landing-day (or two) as easy as possible, in case I feel like I'm going to klunk. :) It's nearly happened a couple of times.
I hope you have great fun!
-Alison