Haven't traveled since Covid - help me get my act together

I’m unclear- what is your question? What to do with 5 days each in this two cities?

On the WW2 history interest: How about a day trip to Manchester by train to see the Imperial War Museum, very doable by public transport. I assume you've the IWM in London at Lambeth North already.

I definitely felt that my travel skills were rusty after a few years at home during Covid. I suggest:
- start planning early, as you are
- doublecheck your reservations, both because you forget how you do things, and because your hotels, etc may still be dealing w/staffing issues
- the week before you go, talk through your itinerary with your travel partner. They may spot things you missed
- schedule yourself less than you might have in the "before times." We spent more time than normal sitting on a bench, watching the world go by and saying "I can't believe we're finally here"
- plan to be resilient. After waiting so long, we wanted everything to be perfect, and it never is
Have a great time!

With your interests, it seems like you could have a really rich trip with 4-5 days in London and 4-4 days elsewhere in England.

First of all, do not worry! It'll all be OK, and your learned travel skills are like learned bike-riding skills: they're not forgotten, and things have not changed that much. Glad to hear your health issues are in the rear view mirror, you'll enjoy being on the road again.

You can do a lot of the UK (England and beyond) by public transportation (though a car can be handy in some regions, and once you make the mental leap to "the other side" it's not that hard, so maybe keep an open mind about that if it'll enable you to get somewhere you really want to go). Based on your list of interests, there's plenty of things to see and do around the UK or even just southern England if you want to stay close to London.

Take a looks at Rick's suggest itineraries (and the itineraries that they use on their tours) to see if any of those places check your boxes, it can be a great starting point for planning your own independent trip (be careful not to expect to keep up wit the same rapid pace as a fully supported tour allows).

Amsterdam is certainly worth seeing, and there's also plenty to see nearby in "the low countries" too. Be careful not to plan too many places for your trip length...8-10 days is a pretty short trip (it's a long way to go). Best option would be to see if you can stretch that by adding more days. If not, consider picking one base (London or Amsterdam, not both) and avoid having to switch locations. Finally, be careful (and be honest with yourself) about how many full, usable (non-travel) days you have on your trip (don't count your arrival day, nor your departure day as usable, no matter what time the flights are).

You will do fine. Have fun!

Karen, I’m glad you are able to travel again. I highly recommend a visit in London to the Churchill War Museum. You will enter the area where Churchill and his staff hunkered down and made many important decisions during WWII. It is close to Westminster Abbey, one of my favorite places to visit each time I am in London.
We have combined London and Amsterdam and they work well together. You just need to take one short flight between them.

Welcome back! While in London, it’s worth taking the short train ride north to St Albans to see Roman Verulamium - ruins and museum. And for the Tudors, don’t miss Hampton Court Palace, also an easy train ride south west of London for a day trip. If it’s summer, then a lazy return to London by boat on the Thames is also fun.

Why Amsterdam on this short trip? Stay in England, split time between London and, given your interest in Roman sites, maybe Bath?

Given your interests and timeframe, you could easily stay in England for the entire trip. Even stay in London, with some interesting day trips (Bath, Windsor, Leeds, Cotswalds).

If you decide to split your time, look into flying into London and home from Amsterdam, or vice versa, so you don’t have to backtrack to London wasting valuable time.

The Roman Baths in Bath is an easy day trip from London’s Paddington station (1h 45m): https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ldb.aspx. Instead of going to Amsterdam stay in England and spend time in York and visit York Minster. To get to York take a direct train from London’s King Cross station (2h).
I like London’s hop on hop off bus tour because the top sights are nearby but traffic is heavy taking all day to complete one revolution without getting off.

On the WW2 history interest: How about a day trip to Manchester by train to see the Imperial War Museum, very doable by public transport.

I think Fred meant WWI not WWII. From London's Euston station to Manchester takes 2h 15m. From Manchester’s Victoria station to York takes 1h 30m.

With only 4-5 days in England, you are going to have to be very focused in what you can achieve in that time.

For Roman remains - there are quite a few Roman sites in London itself. Have a look here for some ideas.
https://freetoursbyfoot.com/roman-london-ruins/

Alternatively do a day trip by train to Bath for the Roman baths. They are probably the most complete set of Roman baths to survive anywhere. Allow a couple of hours to visit. Bath is also an interesting town to walk round with its abbey, Pultney Bridge and Sally Lunn’s tea rooms.

In London, the Tower of London is an absolute must. Plan to arrive when it opens and head immediately to the crown jewels. Queues get very long later in the day. Do one of the Beefeater tours.

Also think about getting the train out to Hampton Court Palace for its Henry VIII connections. The gardens are lovely and you could easily spend a full day here. Don’t get lost in the maze!

Westminster Abbey should also be on the list . It is a superb building and many kings and queens are buried there. The present building was built during the reign of Henry III putting it nicely in the Plantagenet era. Think about joining one of the verger tours.

The other historic church you might want to visit is the Temple Church between Fleet Street and the River Thames. It was built art the end of the C12th by the Knights Templar as their English head quarters. It is one of the few round churches to be built.

Linked in with the Churchill War rooms that has probably more than filled the time available.

So glad that you are now well enough to travel and that COVID is being managed.

I like to take one cruise a year and my last cruise before COVID was the Baltic in 2019 but I took an Alaskan cruise last September 2022.

I found that travel is still not up to pre COVID somewhat because of staff and supply chain shortages. Pack your patience and go with the flow.

I am going to London October 2023 to take my next cruise from Southampton. With the help of this forum, I have been able to get a handle on London, Lisbon where my cruise ends and some of my ports.

I do. not have a healthy budget unlike yourself.

You might do your research on booking.com. You can then go to the hotel's website or book through booking. There are some truly magnificent hotels in London which I am unable to afford.

Check out the Marriott at County Hall, London.

I suggest some guide books including Rick Steves. YouTube videos are wonderful.

I am not well traveled and do not know London. I am posting a link where I asked about attractions and sights. The responses to my post might help you.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/must-see-attractions-in-london

Happy for you that you’re well and able to travel again. In October, I took my first trip since 2018, to France (first time there). Mostly went great, but had a couple of freakouts in Paris train stations, possibly because I was subconsciously expecting them to be like Italian train stations, which they definitely aren’t - much more complicated. So, my suggestion is that, when possible, you scope out the relevant train stations online, and also on-site a day or two before you need to use them, if possible. I also agree with those who say stick with England. If you stay in London for a longer amount of time, there are all sorts of great day trips you can take. With your interest in Cathedrals, I’d for sure suggest going to Ely (https://www.visitely.org.uk/). You can tour the Cathedral, and hike in the Fens.

Pleased to hear that you will travel again.

Forget the hop on and off bus. Traffic is abysmal.

Been visiting London since Nixon was in office.

London sites based on your expressed interests:

Churchill War Rooms ( prebook ).

Imperial War Museum. https://www.iwm.org.uk/

Day trip to Bath

Tower Hill Roman Wall or the Amphitheatre in the Guild Hall.

London Walks ( www.walks.com ) for Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s.

Definitely see the Tower of London. Beefeater Tour or on your own. Go early and head straight to the Crown Jewels then meander about. I love the room where you see all the armor the Kings wore.

Interesting Museums:
Water and Steam
Natural History
Grant Museum of Zoology
Sir John Sloane Museum

Meander about Shoreditch to see the wall murals. Great coffee and atmosphere at OAT. Visit Brick Lane.

Spitalfields a must.

Enjoy the Thames River Path. Visiting and walking in Richmond Park. Nice atmosphere at the White Cross pub in Richmond. Coffee at Butter Beans adjacent to the Quadrant ( tube and train station).

If wanting to do an afternoon tea head to the cafe in the V & A. Check on line to be certain if reservations needed.

Since you have an interest in the Tudors then Hampton Court Palace is a must. I go back and forth between it and the Tower of London as my favourite site in the London area.

For Roman ruins, we were at Fishbourne Palace in September, but we had a car. I'm not sure how accessible it is by public transit.

Canterbury would make a good day trip for the cathedral and it also has a small Roman Museum. The museum is a nice 1 hour add-on to a visit but not worthy of a trip just for it. If you were to stay overnight in Canterbury, the Hampton by Hilton has a small glass panel in the floor displaying some ruins underneath the hotel.

WWI history (Churchhill museum maybe)

Do you mean the Churchill War Rooms ( https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms ) of WWll or are you looking for something related to WWl ?

Since you’ve gotten a ton of info on sights the only thing I’ll add to that is to suggest you look at a London Walks tour. There is a great one on WWII in the Westminster area given weekly that might be of interest.

www.walks.com

I’ll also suggest you do some trial packing. I found this was the hardest thing to get back into the swing with when I returned to travel after Covid. I finally set a target of having my bag completely packed 2 days before departure to get it done!

You’ll have a wonderful time!

"How about a day trip to Manchester by train to see the Imperial War Museum, very doable by public transport."

If one is in Manc or going to be there anyway I would say its worth a visit - but, if it is the sole purposes of one visit, I would say its not worth a day trip.

@ MaryPat....Given the OP's interest in WW2 listed above, I am suggesting the Imperial War Museum in Manchester during her 5 day stay in London, very doable by train. The OP can also do a day trip to Portsmouth not only to see the city but also the D-Day Museum as well..

If one is interested in WW2 history there are far better day trips out of London, than schlepping all the way up to Manc to the IWM there (which I find distinctly underwhelming and like that sort of thing). Such as Hendon, Duxford and Bletchley Park.

Fred, the OP said:

WWI history (Churchhill museum maybe)

Karen, that must have been difficult to go through bc treatment during the pandemic. I am so glad to hear you are OK and cleared for travel—-a nice trip is how we celebrated too.

I recommend you schedule your London visit so it falls in September rather than October. There is a month-long festival from September 1-30 each year, celebrating the Thames with all kinds of cultural and history-related events and activities.

https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/

I was going to suggest the Museum of London for its wonderful exhibits on Roman London. I was surprised and saddened to learn that the museum closed its London Wall location in December, to re-locate. The new location at West Smithfield will not open until 2026.

https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/west-smithfield/relocation-west-smithfield

@ MaryPat....oops, sorry......I stand corrected.

If the OP is primarily interested in WW1 history, then I would heartily suggest the Imperial War Museum in London, unless she is already familiar with it after 2014. In 2014 the previous section on WW1 was greatly expanded because of the centennial, ie the WW 1 exhibit is almost a museum in and of itself.

That in Manchester might also include coverage on WW 1....don't know, since I've not seen the place.

Get a book like the one below and then have lots of fun winnowing down your options for day trips. Most of those in the book can be reached by train in one or two hours.

London Escapes: Over 70 Captivating Day Trips from London Paperback – July 7, 2020
by David Hampshire (Author), Jim Watson (Illustrator)

Thanks everyone

Exactly what I wanted. Some if your thoughts anc opinions and things to do. We love off the beaten path days where we wander around.

Thank you all and happy travels

For wandering around, with an interest in history, I highly recommend this informative guide on the Thames Path along the river in London, with illustrations and notes on many of the buildings. We have walked the length from St. George’s Wharf to Greenwich on the south side (not all at once), always enjoying the sights, sounds, and stories. The section between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge is especially rich in these.

https://www.amazon.com/London-Thames-Path-David-Fathers/dp/0711276269/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2ULBI1QOCMT23&keywords=The+Thames+Path&qid=1672933379&s=books&sprefix=the+thames+path%2Cstripbooks%2C143&sr=1-5