First draft itinerary - York, Cotswolds, London

Yeah, I’d leave out York for this trip and focus on the south for the sake of convenience. York is better suited when paired with other destinations in the north of the country.

I've been to Canterbury-was not impressed. I vote York. I think Avebury is a good choice since you can touch the stones. I'm not a big fan of the Cotswolds-I've been twice on tours. To me, a one day visit would be sufficient. I think London Walks does a day tour to Cotswolds from London. I loved Salisbury.

Much as I loved York, I'd agree that it would be better to leave it off the itinerary for this trip. You have a lot to see in Southern England, and York's just too far North to try to fold into the itinerary.

I found it worked well to fly into Glasgow, then explore Edinburgh, then York. (It was a two week trip, and I traveled from North to South, flying home from London.) Flying into or home from Manchester would also work well with an itinerary that includes York.

You will be visiting during school holidays, so places will be busy. York is the geographical outlier, but personally, I would prefer to visit here than the Cotswolds or Stonehenge, but it’s your trip, not mine.

If you drop York, please don’t hire a car from Heathrow with jet lag. Spend at least your first night without a car.

9 April is OK for one day

10 April is far too much. Hever Castle is a 5+ hour visit plus it will take between 1.5-2 hours to get there from Chawton and then another 2.5+ hours to drop the car and get into London plus time at Chawton itself.

If you don’t cover York, have additional time in London or stay somewhere such as the New Forest for a couple of nights.

Right, skip York this time. Too much time wasted in transit.

Suggest you consider renting a "Cottage" in the Cotswolds for a week. That's what we did. Look at homeaway.com. Having a home base in the Cotswolds is awesome. B&B stays, while often very nice tend to overfeed us for breakfast (hard to say no) and, because of breakfast timing often cause a later start than we want. We had a cute one bedroom cottage (a former gatehouse) with a private garden. There was a good gastropub across the road. We made our own breakfasts and sometimes light dinners in the garden or at the pub. We tended to get out early to beat some of the crowds although April should be better than July. The gardens should just be coming into bloom (with luck).

Driving distances are not great in the Cotswolds and traffic is not bad but a GPS (and a good map) is pretty essential as the country roads snake all over the place. Driving is pretty scenic anywhere you go. We visited Avebury and Blenheim Palace on day trips and there were lots of things to see enroute. Suggest you consider a night in Bath and then hit Salisbury and Jane Austin place on the way to London. Avebury is awesome as you can simply wander around the stones. Stonehenge is tightly controlled. You are bused from the welcome center to the site which can be viewed only from outside. There are stone circles all over the place which. with a good map, you can find and visit essentially on your own. Not as spectacular as Stonehenge but accessible.

I also suggest you don't commit the American tourist sin of trying to see too much in one trip. Allow some flex time for things that develop as you talk to people and get to know the area. Allow yourself to linger over lunch or an interesting discovery not on your agenda. A note about the pub - first time there we were met by the proprietor who introduced us to his beer, cider and wine offering and shown to the dining area. Thereafter we were recognized upon entry as temporary locals by him and his staff. Very warm welcome. And, of course, a pub is a great place to gather local knowledge and recommendations.

Whatever you end up doing enjoy your trip.

I’d too suggest leaving York for another visit. I’d do London first, then picking up rental at LHR and then heading to Lyme Regis for two nights. From there off to the Cotswolds. Return rental at LHR and flight home.

As noted AirBnB’s and apartments are a good option for your stays. PM me for the AirBnB where I stayed in Lyme Regis. Good location, price and hosts. Parking for your rental. I’m suggesting Lyme Regis because it offers an option for experiencing a nice seaside town something few posters seem to ask recommendations for. Read up on it and see if it would be someplace you’d like to explore.

I also used the less touristy but convenient town of Winchcombe as a base for my time in the Cotswolds. Easy 2 hour drive from Heathrow.

Before I give up on York entirely, I have had another idea...What if we added another night to York and instead of spending time in the Cotswolds, we based in Bradford-on-Avon and visited Lacock and Castle Combe? That way we could have a taste of the village/countryside area without cramming the Cotswolds and saving that area for another trip?

April 4, 5, 6: York

April 7: pick up rental car, drive to Bradford-on-Avon, maybe stopping at a Cotswold village

April 8: Lacock and Castle Combe

April 9: Stonehenge, Avebury, and Salisbury Cathedral

April 10: Hever Castle, drop rental car and arrive London

April 11, 12, 13: London (no day-trips)

Jennifer, thanks for the tip on Hever Castle. I had read in another post that 2-3 hours was enough so I was thinking we might be able to get an early start and visit both the museum and Hever in a day but it sounds like that would be just too much. I also wonder if we would be better off dropping the car in Bath and then visiting Hever via London daytrip instead of driving there? It’s hard to pick a castle out of all the choices but the history of Anne Boleyn is very intriguing to me.

Robbie, yes, we like to try to balance between downtime and staying busy. It’s a hard thing to do but I find that the older we get the more we’ve slowed down. My husband doesn’t complain about pub time. :)

I’ll do some more research on just staying south, too. I find this part the hardest part of the planning process...picking priorities and eliminating great options! Argh.

Julie

Are you planning to travel all the way to York on your arrival day - arriving Heathrow if all is well at 11:00?

I'm not sure that you are on a winner there. Even 30 year olds get jet lag - the vast majority of people do - although your Italy trip report only obliquely refers to it so maybe neither of you suffer. Even so, a flight from Kansas over night, then arriving at 11:00, don't count on walking through the frosted glass doors until 12:30 or 13:00. Then an hour into London Kings Cross by Tube or Heathrow Express and Taxi or Heathrow Express and Tube, unless your plane is late. Then an hour for lunch and fudge time. So it is now 15:00 and you can get a train to York. 2 hours to York, arrive 16:51. Just in time to collapse at check-in.

So one day in York? I strongly vote for York, but not for just one day. York is a true medieval city, perhaps more generally even than Canterbury, and with so much more to see. A fabulous place. Such a shame to only give it one day, and then pull the anchor up.

Could you consider spending the first night in London and then up to York the next morning when you may be a bit fresher? And you could count on using Advance tickets which will be much cheaper than the walk up tickets you may want on the 4th, not knowing if you will be late and miss the train.

I think think you will do better to take a train to Cheltenham from York (via Birmingham) than to drive the long way to the Cotswolds.

Agree with Jennifer that Hever Castle doesn't work with a visit to Chawton. It is a shame that you are going to Chawton so early in the year because one of the highlights of Chawton in general and Jane Austen's house in particular is the gardens, and the gardens will be barren at that time of year leave a few early daffodils perhaps.

Hi Nigel, yes, so far we have survived jet lag on our travels. Our trick is to stay up until around 10 at night the first night, local time. No naps. We always get a good night’s sleep and our clocks seem to adjust quickly. We’ve used this method on all of our trips and have done ok. I figured we wouldn’t get to York until at least around 5pm, if things go well. While that’s late, it wasn’t so different than other trips, such as arriving Madrid and training to Sevilla or arriving Shannon after a stressful connection in LHR and driving to Doolin. We’re familiar with losing time on arrival to get to a destination, typically the furthest away and working our way back.

Let me know what you think the adjusted itinerary. I feel like it could be a nice compromise of seeing things we’re very interested in, and not cutting York short either? On the drive down, we could stay one night Chipping Campden and two nights Bradford-on-Avon. It seems like such a mixed bag - some people day trip to the Cotswolds and then some people spend two weeks. I’d love to have endless time but we just don’t at this point and have to pick and it’s so darn difficult.

I did not know about the gardens of Chawton being such a highlight. Due to my husband’s work schedule, he preferred earlier in April rather than later so that is what we booked. But, we may give it a pass this time in lieu of Hever so maybe we can time it better for the gardens on a future trip.

York is not to be missed. Its ancient wall, amazing Munster (Cathedral) and Railway Museum are great.

We stayed in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds and did day trips to see the Cotswolds as well as Stratford Upon Avon, Oxford and Blenheim Palace.

Jane Austen's tomb is at Winchester Cathedral not that far from Salisbury.

Here is my detailed review of our 4 week drive tour of Wales and England, which includes the Cotswolds, York and much more.
28 days in Britain and Celebrity Eclipse home
https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=599139

Has anyone spent time in Winchester? It sounds like it could be a good, closer alternative to York to consider.

We spent two nights in Winchester and very much enjoyed our visit. The Cathedral as well as city center has other sights to visit as well.

We're just finishing up a two week trip in England tomorrow, and your plan is pretty similar to ours. We flew into LHR around 9am, picked up a car there, then spent a couple days in Bath, couple days in Cotswolds, then drove back to LHR and dropped the car off and went into the city. After a week in London, we've spent 2 nights in York, and head back tomorrow to stay at the airport for our morning flight back to the states on Wed.

Although many argue against it, I liked heading west immediately and wasn't too affected by jet lag (although kids were uncooperative overnight and I didn't sleep at all). We were able to then stop at Avebury on the way to Bath and stretch legs and get some energy to make it to bedtime the first night.

If you just cut a couple nights in London out (which would be ok IMO, we had to be less aggressive with multiple kids with us), you could do something similar, and Bath is well worth a visit. Something like:
2 nights Bath (or base in Salisbury instead)
1 night Cotswolds
3 nights London
2 nights York
1 night LHR

Or axe Bath, but keep London in the middle.

Bath and York are both great cities, and you can get a fine taste of each with 2 nights. For me, unless you were doing a lot of hiking around, 3 nights in the Cotswolds is a lot to dedicate to a 9 day trip. While each town is different, as a friend advised me while planning my trip, you really don't need to see more than 2-3 to experience the area.

Since you're a JA fan, I assume you know she is buried in Winchester Cathedral?

If you do decide to spend time in Bath, skip the JA Centre there. It's a total waste of money and time....nothing original of hers there and she did not live at that address.

We have decided to stay in Winchester for the first two nights and then move on to the Cotswolds. We will save York for another trip, which I think will work well because there is a lot to see and do in Yorkshire. Lots of great things to see and do around Winchester, more than we have time for. In case anyone might find it useful, I ran across these that we won’t have time for: Butser Ancient Farm, Little Woodham Living History Museum, and Portchester Castle. They do look fabulous though!

Thank you all for the advice - I think it’s really going to be a great trip.

Jeremy, it sounds like you are having a great trip! I hope you’ll write a trip report so I can read all your details. :)

Pam, I did learn that about Jane Austen but I didn’t realize it until I started planning the trip. We are skipping Bath this trip. The city of Winchester is more intriguing to me than Bath. It’s too bad to hear that about the center. We’re planning on visiting her museum and Chawton House from Winchester while we’re there.

Nigel, I emailed the Jane Austen Museum folks and this is the response I got from the gardener:

Thank you for your enquiry about next April. You are right in that whether things are flowering and so on is so weather dependant! But the gardens are worth looking around regardless as we have lovely features such as the walled garden, Arts and Crafts terraces, a sunken Fernery, a shrubbery walk, Wilderness with meandering paths through woodland etc etc. April should be a good month to see our swathes of Daffodils of various types and hopefully other things will be looking good too.
Do feel free to contact me again nearer the time and I can let you know what to look out for outside the house!

Thanks again!