Itinerary Review - Suggestions of Things to See South Central England

IMHO moving around far too much over a 2 week period. Even with a car most of your travel will be spent in it and not experiencing anything. Lots of sites don’t open till 10am and close by 4pm.

I agree with Claudia. All of your destinations are worthy, but you will need to be more selective, with time to get out of the car. Start studying your routes to see how much actually time of travel is involved and allow for late starts and good breakfast with 2 kids. Carry a traveling picnic in the car. Shop at the deli section of the local grocery store. Most villages have public restrooms. Museums have the best restrooms. Look into National Trust Family Passes for access many of the sites you'd want to see. Bon Voyage!

number 11.3. High Green? Former local, don't recognize it?

Day 3 - Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace - Are you planning these for the same day? To me that's too much. You can do day trips from London for each of them but to me Windsor Castle takes a long half a day and Hampton Court Palace takes 3/4 of a day.

Are you going to stay in Bath and do day trips to some of those places? If so, Bath deserves a full day on it's own. I usually spend several nights there just for Bath but I'm a more immersive traveler than you may be with 2 kiddos along.

Were you thinking to do Bristol and Bath the same day? A no to that as well.

I suspect you will need to do some modifications for your wish list. Which nights are your Cotswold overnights? Days 7-12?

Phew! I'm exhausted just reading your plans. Seriously, way to much, in my opinion, for the time you have available. I would not try to do that much, especially with a 10 & 12 year old. Consider staying in not more than three places and doing day trips. And try to do at least one thing the kids want to do each day. That'll make for a much nicer trip for mom and dad. Don't mean to be critical, just offering something to think about.

Given all the places you want to see, I think you've allotted way too much time to the Cotswolds. You don't mention doing a lot of hiking, which is the only reason I'd want to spend six nights in that area, pretty though it is. I can't imagine the villages you see on Days 3-6 will seem as interesting to you as the ones you saw on Days 1-2. In other words, after a while they'll seem pretty similar. I'm also not sure the children will remain interested in pretty scenery and thatched-roof cottages for that many days.

Discounting the London days I make it that you have 30 different places in 11 days, so almost 3 a day. You can probably get away with that in the Cotswolds except that everything will seem very same after a couple of days

You say that you have all your accommodation booked. Are you moving most days until the Cotswolds?

I might be inclined to strip down the Cotswolds and have a couple of day trips from there to Bristol and Bath, which both need a bare minimum of a day each. If you tell us where the cottage is we can probably suggest routes to get in either using park and ride or trains - both are both difficult and expensive to navigate

To answer a few questions -

• High Green has Croome Court/Park and is about 12 miles north of Tewkesbury
• We are staying in the Cotswolds days 7-13 and all the towns will be day trips. The ones listed are ones that caught our attention with photos and we may not visit all. Most of those towns will be a "play it by ear" type visit. I would love gems in the towns to help narrow them down.
  • We were planning Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace in one day - if this is too much, which one should we choose? We are also interested in Kew Gardens, could this be visited for a short time in addition to just one of the others?
  • We will definitely be doing some hiking in the Cotswolds. We also plan to visit Sudeley Castle, Sezincote House, maybe Morgan Motors. The Cotswolds time will be our more relaxed time of the trip without much of a schedule.
  • We are planning a full day in Bath, probably not really visiting Bristol except my kids want to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This can be cut if necessary.
  • My kids are very fit and well-traveled. They fare much better than your average kid with busy schedules and usually are the driving force to doing more.
  • We are moving most nights. London nights 1&2, Dorking 3, Portsmouth 4, Bournemouth 5, Winscombe 6, Cottage 1 nights 7-9 in Batheaston, Cottage 2 nights 10-12 in Winchcombe, Oxford 13, London 14&15.

Can anyone tell me more about Cheddar Gorge? Is this a full day thing? If so, we can push Bath back another day.

For our days in London, what do kids enjoy? We are doing the Harry Potter Studio tour on the day back from Oxford. We have tickets to see Matilda the Musical another day. We are staying in Mayfair all 4 nights and have never been to London but also don't expect to see all it has to offer in this trip so a suggestion of a couple more things would be great. We will probably not do things you can do in any major city like zoos, science museums, etc. How about Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park - which of these are best for kids?

Thanks for all the replies so far!

Kew Gardens is huge. It's not a place for a quick visit. It's also a bit of a trek from central London. I love Kew, but with the limited time you have in London, I'd be inclined to seek my gardens elsewhere. I'm sure there are lots of options in the places you'll be visiting outside the city.

That's way too many things for just two weeks. And with kids in tow and the inevitable delays that will cause? You will be exhausted.

You have got too much stuff in here. Eg day 6 drive from Bournemouth to Winscombe which is minimum 2 hrs. You also want to see Cheddar, Glastonbury and Amesbury on this day. It’s just not doable. All tourist attractions and small shops are closed by 5-6pm here. It’s not like hot countries where you can carry on into the evening.

You could pop into Kew, but it would be a waste of time and money. Standard entrance is £24 per adult and £5.50 per child. You could reduce that a bit by advance booking but if you did it with either Windsor or Hampton Court it would be a fleeting visit. You need the best part of a day to see it properly.

Between Windsor and Hampton Court I would choose the latter but I’m sure you could find plenty of others to give you the opposite view. Both can be done as day trips from London but you don’t have time for that.

In London I would do the Tower of London and wouldn’t do Buckingham Palace or Hyde Park. The latter is on the same principle that you won’t visit the Science Museum - it’s a park.

The one place I would encourage you to visit, especially with young boys, is Greenwich. Get there one way by boat down the Thames and back on the DLR on a driverless trains where the boys can sit at the front and imagine themselves driving. It’s fun for kids of all ages. In Greenwich youhave the Cutty Sark, the Royal Observatory with the Greenwich Meridian, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Naval Museum with the incomparable Painted Hall and the food and craft markets.

As hotels are already booked, I can’t see much point in offering advice. It would be far better if people came on here and said what they are thinking of doing before any bookings are made.

Driving and out of Bristol is slow going.. Consider seeing the SS Great Britain (historic ship in Bristol old docks if in the area).

Southampton is not worth a visit in my opinion. Winchester just to the north is worth a visit as is Salisbury with its medieval cathedral.

Bradford-upon-Avon - although old is jammed with through traffic. Not worth it. Consider Longleat House (west of Warminster) as an alternative = sari park and Elizabethan House.

When you say Woodstock I presume this means a visit to Blenheim Palace?

The big question is- when you say that hotels are booked- are they booked non-reserveable? (never a good idea for an international visitor, and I try not to do it domestically unless I get an offer I can't refuse).

If the hotels can be changed then this itinerary needs to be sorted out, and hotels amended accordingly.

I would never be as bold as others to say that a town or city is not worth visiting, but this itinerary leaves me, as a UK resident used to fast domestic travelling, breathless (internationally I travel much slower!!). I don't actually know how to sort it out short of adding days in to the schedule.

I don't want to be unkind but it reads like the old joke about American travellers- "if it's Tuesday today, it must be x place".

Hi Kristen -

I’m puzzled by the inclusion of Amesbury. You may have a perfectly valid reason for going there, but it wouldn’t be on my list of ‘must sees’ in the area. Granted it’s handy for Stonehenge, but I couldn’t help but wonder if you’ve confused it with Avebury. Now that is worth a stop!

Ian

Amesbury

IHG does have a hotel there with a name referencing Stonehenge. That could be a reason

Skip Southampton, there's nothing of any real interest there. Winchester is far more interesting and you could incorporate Salisbury rather than going to Bournemouth unless you're intending to have some beach time.

A few recommendations for attractions along the Arundel to Portsmouth route:

https://www.wealddown.co.uk/ The Weald and Downland musuem is a rural living museum with 50 historical buildings, farms and reconstructions of rural life over a 1000 year period.

https://sussexpast.co.uk/attraction/fishbourne-roman-palace/ Fishbourne Roman Palace, the largest Roman home in Britain.

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/ Butser Ancient Farm. A very interesting archealogical museum covering over 10,000 years of history.

It’s a whiz by itinerary but only you know what kind of trip your family likes best. So I will make some observations.

1. Make sure you have parking for each stop (with a back up option) already selected before you head out. Finding parking can eat valuable time when on a tight schedule.
2. (ignore - formatting is giving me fits)
3. Be mentally prepared to ditch stops as you go - you probably want the flexibility to stay longer somewhere if it catches your kids’ attention, even if that puts you behind.
4. Have plenty of snacks on hand - so you don’t have to prioritize food stops. 🤣
5. You have long daylight hours so that’s a plus - driving after dark is a really bad idea. But you WILL need food, which also takes time.
6. Pam is right - not much way to see Windsor Palace and Hampton Court Palace on the same day. With kids, I would vote Hampton Court Palace. But it might depend on how you work your schedule - maybe Windsor fits in as a half day trip during one of your London days and you can work around your London sights for late afternoon or evening. But it looks like maybe you plan to get your car this day? If so, definitely HCP.
7. I hope you are planning the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth. Well worth half a day. Prioritize over Arundel. If you pick up your car on this morning, that will further delay your start. Heading straight to Portsmouth will save at least an hour of driving time and give you a full afternoon here (in case you don’t get headed out of London till 10 or 10:30 with the car).
8. Day 6 - I might prioritize Avebury (probably you meant this - if not, you should) and maybe Cheddar Gorge? I haven’t been. But Glastonbury, while interesting, could be skipped.
9. Day 7. Possibly doable (this day gives me pause) but I would prioritize what your kids are interested in. Be ready to skip Bath if their priority is the bridge in Bristol. You don’t have “a day in Bath”. Maybe an afternoon. If Bath is important, consider taking a Cotswolds night and spend one here. You could still get up early and have much of a day to see villages on the way to your next night, so you wouldn’t lose any “sights”.
10. Put Avebury on the day with Lacock.
11. Random thought toss out: consider Warwick Castle instead of Oxford. It’s a bit out of the way, but I absolutely hated Oxford on my visit when I was short on time (had half a day like you). It was crowded and hard to see anything. When I went back with several days, I loved it.

Quite a trip!

Kristen, there's "visiting" a place which is basically a drive-by or a brief look at the highlights, and then there's slower visiting with the goal of getting to know and understand a bit about a place. I'm an advocate of the slower, more in-depth type of travel. Particularly with children, I like to plan options in case something on the main itinerary turns out to be a bust, but I'd keep the "must sees" to a minimum so there's plenty of extra time and energy to explore and enjoy something that captures your interest. I recently took my 7-year old granddaughter to a local museum with the assumption that she would be bored with it after an hour and then we'd go on to other sites. She wanted to see EVERYTHING in the museum and we only left after 4-1/2 hours because we were hungry. She still talks about the exhibits and wants to return.

Amesbury or Avebury? 1 is a village and the other giant stone circle.

I have seen many of the places on your list and you cannot actually visit more than 1 of these in a single day particularly with the driving time between them. Don't think the driving is easy or that google times are accurate. When planning, increase all google times by at lease 50% and if mostly small roads, double the time.

The Cotswolds are very pretty, but agree with the above poster they tend to look alike after a few towns. Possibly consider a few more days in and around Oxford and visit Blenheim Palace, this way the kids will remember something from the trip. Bath needs more time, it could be two full two days. My husband would go crazy roaming around villages in the Cotswolds for days.

We did four weeks renting a car and driving around the countryside of England and S. Wales in 2017 and loved it.

We spent six nights in Chipping Campden at the Volunteer Inn. Great B&B with the best pub in town and an Indian restaurant. Rooms are large, clean and inexpensive. From there, we visiting the Cotswolds for two days, Oxford, Blenheim Palace and Stratford Upon Avon.

I recommend strongly visiting Stratford Upon Avon and Oxford. Blenheim Palace was good.

Also, we stayed in Bath, visiting that city one day and a second day visited Glastonbury and Wells. Also, driving through Cheddar Gorge. Wells is great. Glastonbury was good, but a little disappointing.

Winchester was wonderful, spent two full days there.

Windsor Castle is a must do, also Stonehenge is near. Salisbury is a must to see the great Cathedral.

South Wales is wonderful, with all its castles. There are many in Wales. Loved the Museum of Welsh Live just west of Cardiff as well as St. Davids and Tenby.

Farther north, Warwick Castle is great.

Clifton Suspension Bridge you could do on Day 7 as you transfer from Winscombe to Batheaston- use the M5 to junction 19 (Gordano) then the A369 towards Bristol.

I'm adding a reply for this part of the original post.

'My family likes things like farms ...'

In August, I visited Cogges Manor Farm in Witney, northwest of Oxford. It was listed in the Domesday Book so it has historic heritage. I found it very accessible, with many farm animals. It also has a Downton Abbey connection in that this served as the filming location for Yew Tree Farm (home of the Drewe family and later Mr. Mason). The DA production team created a video that is played which shows the transformation done to film the 'kitchen' of the Drewe family. Our tour guides talked more about the DA filming however I don't know if that was specially arranged for our PBS-connected tour or is a regular part of the tour.

This might fit better in the item 13. Woodstock, Oxford part of the trip than the other historic farm recommendation (The Weald and Downland musuem) for the Arundel to Portsmouth route.

Tower of London was great for our family - the girls were 8-10 at the time, but we also had a toddler boy and 2 little girls (cousins) with us and everyone enjoyed it, including the adults.

After some advice, here is a more updated itinerary. This would be a general timeline but we are going to leave things flexible. We live in a beautiful waterfront boating town in an area with lots of maritime history, boatyards, museums, etc. so I have left that out of this trip.

1. Arrive 8am London Heathrow, Tower of London Sleep: London
2. Walk around Westminster area, London Eye, Matilda the Musical Sleep: London
3. Pick up car, Hampton Court Palace Sleep: Dorking
4. Arundel Castle or Weald & Downland Museum, Portsmouth waterfront Sleep: Portsmouth
5. Hiking-Old Harry Rocks, Corfe Castle Sleep: Bournemouth
6. Salisbury, Stonehenge, Nunney Castle Sleep: Winscombe
7. Cheddar Gorge – Gough’s Cave, hiking Sleep: Batheaston
8. Bath – Roman Baths, Theatre Royal Bath? Sleep: Batheaston
9. Possible 2nd Bath day or Avebury, Castle Combe, Lacock Sleep: Batheaston
10. Cotswolds villages – ?Shipton Moyne, Tetbury, Cirencester? Sleep: Winchcombe
11. Sudeley Castle, maybe Croome Park or Morgan Motors Sleep: Winchcombe
12. Cotswolds villages, walking – ?Moreton-in-Marsh, Broadway, Stow-On-The-Wold? Sleep: Winchcombe
13. Crocodiles of the World?, Blenheim Palace Sleep: Wendover
14. Harry Potter Studio Tour, return car Sleep: London
15. Free day – more London sights? Greenwich? Kew Gardens? Will leave open for now Sleep: London
16. Train to Paris

Please feel free to comment.

It’s still ultra-busy and I’m not sure you’re allowing time to get to places and find parking - but if you’re happy to be flexible then I guess you know your own travel style.

We live in a beautiful waterfront boating town in an area with lots of maritime history, boatyards, museums, etc. so I have left that out of this trip.

One thing: if you’re not interested in seeing maritime heritage on this trip, there’s absolutely no point going to Portsmouth because that’s what it’s all about. And I speak as a person who loves Portsmouth. The seafront isn’t all that, not if you’ve also got the likes of Bournemouth on the list. So there’s really no point driving into and out of what is an extremely busy and densely-populated city (that isn’t even on the way to anywhere - it’s an island city), so if you don’t want to see naval heritage and museums, cut it out. That day is already looking incredibly busy. Get yourself further towards Dorset ready for your busy day of hiking and Corfe Castle instead.

This looks more doable. I agree with Golden Girl that it is still very busy but if you go into it with the mindset that you can mostly do or not do, see or not see, as you feel like it - well, then, it’s good to have a plan for if all goes well. You don’t have a lot that will require strictly scheduled reserved entrance times and that’s a plus.

I wonder if switching around walk around Westminster and Tower of London between Days 1 and 2 might work better, in terms of jet lag.

Some unusual places for hotels which is refreshingly different.

I think you might prefer Poole to Bournemouth for nights 4 and 5, or even Swanage (using the Sandbanks to Shell Bay chain ferry).

I was just going to post the same thing as Stuart for Day 1 until I got to his post, lol. Tower of London is fabulous but probably not the best for a jet lag day. As he suggests, I’d walk Westminster and do the Eye on day 1 and pick up the Tower on Day 2. That might give you time to get back to your hotel for a rest in case anyone is flagging.

Day 5 of your revised itinerary. I would look for accommodation in either Swanage or Wareham, instead of Bournemouth.

Number 13:
Crocodiles of the World???

That's a new one......never mentioned before on this forum and never heard of it before.