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England Rough Itinerary

Hi, I am sure some of this is on the forum but searching through all the postings is difficult. I apologize if I am being repetitive. I am just looking for some ideas - and in other cases, confirmation of my plans to date. We arrive early on 9/30. We have a hotel booked in London for 5 nights. This is not our first visit to London so we are seeing things there that we either missed or felt there was much more to see. High on the agenda is the V&A and British Museums. We also plan on seeing the War Rooms once more. A day is scheduled for Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio tour (we are in our 70's but big HP fans). We also plan another day to Bletchley Park. That should easily fill our time in London.

On to Salisbury. We will be using rail for our transportation. On the advice of several folks on the forum, we've booked 4 nights in Salisbury. 3 full days and a partial day before we head to Oxford. I definitely want to see the Cathedral and absorb the atmosphere of the town. We are planning a trip to Stonehenge and dedicating at least 1 other day to Bath. There is plenty of time in this schedule for either multiple days in Bath (is that worth it?) or perhaps a tour of Avebury/Cotswolds. Or something else? This is why I am putting this out there.

On the 4th day after moving to Salisbury, we move to Oxford. Is there any reason for us to prolong our stay in the Salisbury area or should we move quickly that morning to Oxford. We have no specific plans right now in Oxford but I definitely would like to book tours of the university, Christ Church cathedral and anything else. We are in Oxford only a full day and the partial day we traveled from Salisbury (which is a 2+ hour train ride). We leave for Heathrow the following day taking the bus from Oxford directly to Heathrow.

I explored getting a rail pass for 15 days but was astounded at the $2,000+ cost. When I use the National Rail website to guestimate the cost of the train rides we will be taking, we are looking at roughly $500 even if we don't get the cheapest fare. Am I missing something?

I welcome any suggestions or recommendations this experienced group can pass on. This is our first real venture outside of London and we are very excited to see a bit of the English countryside. Thanks in advance.

Posted by
5355 posts

We loved Salisbury. We had a car which made our trip to Stonehenge easier and were able to do the sunrise tour that allows you to stand within the stones and not in the roped off area further back. Unfortunately, we were there just a few days after the Queen had passed away and weren't able to view the cathedral because it was closed for tourists. Very disappointing because we had tickets for the tower tour where you get to climb to the top. It didn't help our disappointment when we replaced the tour with a town tour, and that guide told us he thought the tower tour was one of the best tours in England.

On another trip we spent 3 nights in Bath and enjoyed it. We thought the Roman Baths were outstanding.

Posted by
43 posts

Yes, we are booked for the Warner Brothers Tour as well as Parliament tour. It didn't appear as if we had to book Bletchley Park but if there is any other attraction that require pre-booking, please let me know. I have booked my bus from Oxford to Heathrow but have not done any other bookings related to transportation.

Posted by
6631 posts

Regarding train costs: were you looking at the price of advance or off peak tickets or anytime tickets? There can be a big difference in the price for tickets on the same train. You might look at getting either a seniors (if you qualify) or a two together rail card to help reduce the cost of train tickets.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/railcards/

As for advance bookings, you will want that for the Churchill War Rooms.

Posted by
16094 posts

Regarding your Salisbury days, here is how I would divide up your time:

Arrival day: Depends on what time you get there. You might be able to do Evensong this evening. Sunday Evensong might be earlier so check on the cathedral website

Day 1: Head either to the City Centre or Rail station to catch the Stonehenge tour bus (I might have given you the link in your other thread?). Pay the driver and get the combo ticket for the ride and the admission. Pick up one of the maps of the site. Perhaps take the land train out to the stones, then walk back via the barrows and the cursus. Wow, have just had a difficult time finding the information on this walk which I have done. Here is a link to the Stonehenge Landscape on the National Trust website. I've usually gone to the stones first and then walked back. This would be starting at #7 and working back to #1 on this particular map.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/stonehenge-landscape/secrets-of-the-stonehenge-landscape-walk

IF you have lots of time, I have also walked to Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. I was with a Road Scholar group and actually the bus dropped us at Woodhenge/Durrington Walls and we walked to Stonehenge. The landscape is easy terrain but the grass might be long and wet if you go in the AM.

https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/binaries/content/assets/website/national/regions/wiltshire/places/stonehenge-landscape/pdf/stonehenge-landscape-map.pdf

On the Shuttle bus back to Salisbury, get off at the Old Sarum stop and walk over to visit this site. The driver will give you a timing of when the next bus will come by. FROM Old Sarum, you can also walk back to Salisbury. It, too, is a fairly easy walk.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/old-sarum/things-to-do/
https://www.slow-travel.uk/post/salisbury-cathedral-to-old-sarum-walk

Day 2: Spend this day in Salisbury. See the Cathedral, the Salisbury Museum, Mompesson House. IF the TI office offers a walking tour, do that as well. Walk thru the Water Meadows to see the views Constable saw of the cathedral.

https://www.salisburywatermeadows.org.uk/history/

Day 3: Head to Bath for the day if you don't want to change hotels again. See the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey, Royal Crescent. Go in to Number 1 Royal Crescent Museum. See the Pultney Bridge. If there is an exhibition of interest at The Holburne Museum do that. I've not been to the Herschel Astronomy Museum in the home of the folks that discovered Uranus. Skip the Jane Austen Centre. If you want afternoon tea there is the classic Pump Room experience.

https://herschelmuseum.org.uk

Day 4: Head to Oxford.

Have a great time!

Posted by
10564 posts

The rail ticket price isn't right. If you got a rail pass it would be a Brit Rail London plus pass.
But to Watford and Bletchley I expect you'd be paying by contactless card.

I can't access that price from the UK, but don't think it would be worth it.

If you don't pay for those two by contactless I get the maximum possible price for these journeys as £200 each, but you would have to try very, very hard to pay that much.
If you buy a Two Together Railcard for £35 you save 1/3 off all off peak fares. That brings you down to a very top figure of £140 + £35 railcard= £175 or around $400 total.
The benefit of buying tickets to Bletchley versus contactless is you benefit from the two for one National Rail offer.

Posted by
372 posts

London plus Britrail pass (which would cover the places you mention) for 2 seniors for 8 days of train travel in 1 month is $512. There is not a London plus 15 day pass. I'm not sure how many days you will be in the UK (looks like about 10-15?) but I think the 8 days in one month would cover your train trips.

You say the $500 is not the most expensive (Anytime day single). If it is off peak and you want to travel before 9am or after 430pm you will be paying more and if you get advanced singles and then miss the train for some reason you will be paying more. It could add up to more than quite a bit more than $500. The pass would be worth it for me because I often travel during peak times and I like the flexibility of the choosing when to take the train at the last minute.

Hope this is helpful

Posted by
10290 posts

On the 4th day after moving to Salisbury, we move to Oxford. Is there any reason for us to prolong our stay in the Salisbury area or should we move quickly that morning to Oxford. ... We are in Oxford only a full day and the partial day we traveled from Salisbury (which is a 2+ hour train ride).

Since you only have a full day in Oxford, and Oxford is worth much more, I would suggest heading there from Salisbury as early in the day as possible. That will give you enough time to see the city and all the sights (don't miss the Ashmolean Museum, which is absolutely wonderful!). Also, if you are going to book tours of Christ Church, make sure you stay on top of that, as the tickets are released at specific times and go very quickly.

Posted by
43 posts

Hello again,

First of all, thank you so much for the advice on the rail cards as well as the recommendations for Salisbury & Oxford & Bath.

Second of all, I apologize profusely. Back when I first got my airline tickets & started looking for lodging I spent a fair amount of time on trip planning...then life got in the way and it wasn't until I realized we were less than a month from my trip that I went back to see where I had left off...and I saw, embarrassingly, that I had posted very close versions of this post earlier. Thank you for being patient and not pointing this out...I am old but not THAT old! hahaha...

I'm going to look at the rail card link again and figure what works best for me and I look forward to checking out all of the new to us places outside of London. Thanks again. What a wonderful resource you all are!

Posted by
10564 posts

You can achieve far more flexibility with Old Sarum, Woodhenge/Durrington and Stonehenge by using ordinary service buses, which is also far cheaper than the tourist shuttle, and run much longer hours.
Woodhenge is served 3 times an hour on the X4 and X5 bus routes from very early to very late.
Old Sarum has 7 or 8 buses an hour- the above X4 and X5, also the 8 and the 11.
Stonehenge also has 4 ordinary service buses a day on the X2 route.

The sensible way to do this by public bus is to take the least frequent bus first, the X2 to Stonehenge, walk to Woodhenge for the more frequent, and end at Old Sarum for the most frequent service.

All the above buses are £3 a time, or a day ticket for £11 which is for all buses in Wiltshire.

You could even do Old Sarum on the service buses on arrival day by adding a Plus Bus ticket to your train ticket for £3.80 or £2.50 with a railcard.

Avebury you can do on the way to Oxford - with the half hourly #49 bus from Swindon, which runs from before 6am to 11pm.

Another interesting side trip from Salisbury is to Fovant to see the regimental badges carved into the chalk hillside by soldiers waiting to be posted to France in WW1.

Posted by
9294 posts

Both Salisbury and Oxford were great.
I have read all of Ken Follett's books. His book about the building of the Cathedral. It was great to see the Cathedral.

Other great places to see in this area of England are as follows:
The Cotswolds
Stratford Upon Avon (if you love Shakespeare is a must)
Winchester, the cathedral, round table and more
Avebury -you can touch the stones
Stonehenge- still a great visit
Warwick- The Castle is a great place to take kids
Bath is great.