I have 10 days. SUGGESTIONS???

Whitsable or Eastbourne, Cambridge, Oxford, Rye, Plymouth or Mousehole

Well you could take your 10 days and head to the southwest, visiting Cornwall and Devon. Both are wonderful, although it does help to have a car, and you did not mention if you were going to have one.

That said, it would help to know what your interest are. If you just like sightseeing and quaint villages and want to see some coastal towns, then definitely Cornwall and Devon are good bets. But if you like hiking, I would suggest the Peak District, which was one of my favorite places in England.

I also love Yorkshire, both the Dales and North Yorkshire moors. Are you planning to see anything outside of York when you’re up there?

Really, you can’t go wrong going any place. And quite frankly, even if you’ve seen the major sites in London, you can never go wrong going back there, in my opinion. Or you could take some trips out of town. You could even base yourself on the outskirts of London, and take day trips to places like Oxford and Cambridge, Bletchley Park and so on. There are so many ideas.

You might want to pick up a guidebook and leaf through it and see what peaks your interest, too.

I would go to Cornwall.

There was a trip report recently by a woman who traveled anround England solo for several weeks. She linked several different HF Holidays 3- or 4- day programs, with independent travel in between, and that worked really well. She had everything planned and a social experience with HF Holidays, and then some time on her own.

This is a member-owned cooperative that owns or leases “country house” hotels around the UK, with all-inclusive programs focused mainly on walking and exploring the countryside and small villages. They offer walks on 3 different levels each day, from easy to moderate to more strenuous. Take your pick. The guides are trained volunteers and well-versed in the history and culture of the area they cover. And the camaraderie of the other guests at meals and on the walks is a huge bonus. We have always felt warmly welcomed.

Their Cornwall location is in St. Ives, and their “walking and sightseeing” dates in September ( Sept. 3-7) align perfectly with your dates, with time before and after to travel there from Bath and then back to London.

Here is the brochure for this particular holiday:

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/4-night-cornwall-walking-with-sightseeing-holiday?format=pdf&vid=803

On the way back to London you could spend a night or two in Salisbury.

There are other options in country houses around Southern England—-Cotswolds, Exmoor, Isle of Wight, South Downs, Peak District—-but I didn’t check dates for those. I will if you are interested.; I just thought Cornwall might be a good fit.. All can be reached by public transport with no need for a rental car; usually by train to the nearest station and pre-booked taxi from there to the hotel. At least that is how we have always done it.

Claudia has a lot of good ideas in different directions (why she used "or" instead of "and"). With the time you have, though, I'd go for Devon and Cornwall, especially if you can drive. I have no experience with the hiking program described above but it seems wonderful if you're focused on hikes. It's hard to get all the way out to Cornwall from London, and it takes time to get around out there, even by car. So with a head start in Bath and up to ten days, it seems like a good opportunity.

Salisbury is also a good idea, and so is Oxford. Or both, but the rail connection between them takes awhile. You could work in Cornwall, Devon, and either Oxford or Salisbury on your way back to London. Bonus -- from Oxford there's a direct bus service to LHR.

Salisbury to Oxford takes 1 hour 51 minutes. The trick is to not go through London, but rather to change at Basingstoke.

If you haven't already done them, I'd add to Claudia's list a few places which can be easily got to by public transport from London - Hampton Court Palace, Brighton, Hatfield House, Cambridge.

Slightly less easy to get to - probably best to get a taxi from the nearest station which is 4 miles away - is Chartwell which was Winston's Churchill's home. This is a large house, but not a mansion, in beautiful countryside and contains a lot of Churchill personal mementos.

Devon and Cornwall are quite difficult without a car.

After Bath by public transport you could visit places in Somerset quite easily such as Wells, Bradford on Avon or Frome. You could also come across to Bristol or head to Cardiff. One of my favourite places to visit in Somerset is Bruton which is a very pretty little town with an interesting modern art gallery that’s always worth a look. There’s a train station.

If you haven’t been to Hampton Court then I would highly recommended that.

The Newt Gardens a few miles from Bruton are absolutely incredible but you need to pay for an expensive annual membership to enter or stay at the luxury hotel. It’s quite hard to explain just how much stuff they have built there and the scope of the gardens. It’s very un-English the way they have so blatantly splashed huge amounts of cash on it all.

A lot depends on whether you have a car...

Cornwall and Devon have already been mentioned.

Another alternative is Dorset - much ignored by many tourists but definitley woth visiting. There is the Jurassic coast for starters with places like Corfe, Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door (that one is touristy and busy...) There is Chesil Beach and Abbotsbury swannery. Towns include Lyme Regis, Bridport or the larger Weymouth. Dorchester isn't far from the coast either. Inland, there are some wonderful place names - Blanford Forum, Puddletown, Piddletrenthide, Bere Regis. Alton Pancras and the list goes on. Get a map or road atlas, explore and get lost!

The New Forest isn't far and is a lovely place to explore. You could even catch the ferry across to the Isle of Wight for a few days before heading back to London.