June England Itinerary

Can you fly into London and out of Edinburgh?

Look at www.nationaltrust.org.uk for some great ideas. Inquire about Overseas Tourist Passes. There is so much to see in the English areas you are planning to visit that I would skip Edinburgh this time, with a longer visit in Scotland the next trip.

For the Seven Sisters you need to spend a couple of nights in Eastbourne, Brighton or Seaford. Eastbourne is my favourite, it’s quieter than Brighton, has a nice seafront and a good selection of accommodation. It is the town nearest the cliffs. I get the impression you will be traveling by train, so look at getting from Eastbourne to Canterbury, it may involve making a change en route. Whitstable is a short journey from Canterbury so could be done as a day trip from there. Count the number of nights you will be in England, especially if you want to add in Edinburgh. You need to allow a day to get from, say Canterbury, to London, then train to Edinburgh, find accommodation and get settled in. If you choose Edinburgh link into to multi-city flights, into London out of Edinburgh., otherwise you lose an extra day getting back to London. Southeast England has so many interesting places to visit, I would be tempted to stay put in that area.

Thank you! I too am tempted to spend the rest of our time in Southeast England but wanted to see what others thought. We do plan to travel by train.

Some of our group really want to see Stonehenge. It does seem difficult/expensive for a family to do. Any tips on the best way for a group to see Stonehenge? Would it be worth it to add Salisbury to our final week in England?

You might want to check out getting Rail Card as this will give a third off the fares - BUT note that some versions do not give the discount before 9.30am on weekdays. https://www.railcard.co.uk

If you want to add Edinburgh note that you could go from Oxford by train and change at Birmingham New Street for Avanti West Coast Trains. However, you could stay in southern Britain as there is plenty to see. Doing London (Paddington) > Oxford > Bath > Salisbury (Shuttle Bus to Stonehenge) is relatively easy using trains. The London station for Salisbury is Waterloo.

Note that if going to Edinburgh, it will take the best part of a day each way. Kings Cross is the London station that serves trains to Edinburgh using the direct route via York - which is worth a look.

On some routes, splitting the ticket saves money. Also note that for longer journeys, cheaper ‘Advance fares for specific trains (no refunds) get loaded around 10 weeks ahead. See:>
www.traintickets.com
https://trainsplit.com

Also check out Britrail Pass (likely not to be worth it for shorter journeys).

Stonehenge is well worth a visit, IMO. The visitor centre has lots of beautiful and informative exhibits indoors and out. The cafeteria is very good, and the book shop-gift shop is huge. There's a free shuttle between the visitor centre and the stones, with a stop about halfway so you can walk part of the way (and farther out toward Woodhenge).
https://howbeautifullifeis.com/guide-to-visiting-stonehenge-and-old-sarum-is-it-worth-visiting/

If you spend the night before in Salisbury you'll have time to use the circulator bus to go to Stonehenge and to Old Sarum.

I would say Edinburgh is impractical given that you only have 14 days and all your other places of interest are in southern England. It would be possible to take a train to Edinburgh and then fly home from there, but you'd have to weigh that against your other priorities.

I think we will save Scotland for another trip and possibly add Salisbury/Stonehenge to our trip. Taking longer to walk into Stonehenge, see the Old Sarum, etc is quite appealing.

As I put everything on paper, it looks like we may need to nix Canterbury if we go to Salisbury/Stonehenge. So we'd go to London for 6 nights with a full day in Oxford, 3 nights in Salisbury and 3 nights in the Eastbourne/ Beachy head area.
Thoughts? Would another location be better?

I like Salisbury but I'd think two nights there would be enough, with one full day and a partial day to see Stonehenge and also the city's amazing cathedral.

You could split your "out of London" week into two locations. Head down to the seven sisters area for the first part. From that location you could easily visit Hastings, Battle Abbey, Canterbury, Bodiam Castle, Hever Castle, Ightham Mote, and many other castles and abbeys. You would need to pick and choose, not visit all of them.
After the seven sisters area, head to Salisbury with a lunch stop to explore a bit of Jane Austen's Winchester. From Salisbury you could easily visit Wells, Glastonbury Abbey, Avebury, and many other nearby locations. Stonehenge is fascinating - don't miss it.
We always rent a car when we visit the UK, so I can't advise on trains. If you do decide to rent a car you might see if you could pick it up at Gatwick and return it at Heathrow.

If you just do a day trip from London to Oxford, I don’t think that you could do nearby Blenheim Palace - which is at Woodstock about 7 miles NW - and it is massive. Also note that some fine Cotswold villages are about a 40 minute drive NW of Oxford - not sure about public transport. Car (or tour bus) is best for getting around these villages. Click the next link & you will a map of the area. See A40 going WNW - BURFORD is the first of these villages. Also check out BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER, LOWER SLAUGHTER, BROADWAY, CHIPPING CAMPDEN. Also note that STRATFORD-UPON-AVON is not too far to the north. I suggest you go on the map to other areas you are thinking of visiting and check them out on Streetview to see what you think is right for you.

Someone suggested Winchester. Yes, that it worth a visit but if you are taking a train from the Brighton area to Salisbury / Bath, Winchester is off that route. You could do it by changing at Southampton & if you then wish to proceed to Salisbury/Bath or are doing route in reverse, consider taking a bus from Winchester to Romsey to pick up the train rather than double backing into Southampton.

https://www.traveline.info is good for finding the buses.
Map:> https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8501573,-1.4239198,39360m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e1

I like the idea of splitting our last week into two locations, Cynthia, but am not sure about backtracking to Canterbury. Would it be better to do 2 nights in Canterbury ( and can we pick up rental car there?) 2 nights in Eastbourne or East Dean for the Seven Sisters, and then Salisbury/Stonehenge for 2 nights on the way back, or 4 nights in Eastbourne area and 2 in Salisbury?

I'm hoping we could drop the car off at Heathrow.

Hello. =) For what it's worth, when me and my husband (we're from CA) went for 16 days in 2019, we did it it like this:

8 days in London which included some day trips to Windsor, Cambridge/Grantchester (we rode bikes from Cambridge to Grantchester where they filmed the show "Grantchester"), Salisbury/Stonehenge/Old Sarum, and Corefe Castle/Swanage (this is on the southern coast- there was a Pirate Festival that day LOL).

Then we moved on to Moreton-On-Marsh where we stayed one night and went down to Stowe-In-The-Wold and Bourton-On-Water (two nights would've been better); then we went to York for two days with a day trip to Rippon/Fountains Abbey (ruins) and day trip to Retford for a Pilgrim/ancestor tour. Finally we went up to Edinburgh for 3 nights. We flew from Edinburgh to Heathrow and spent our last night in London before flying back to LA.

We did our trip by sections including London to maximize our time and we didn't rent a car so we used the Tube and trains and walked. I'd say all we did was totally worth it as it was our first trip to the UK. We had a FANTASTIC time and had no bad meals, I'd like to add (did research on where to eat ahead of time for options).

We definitely want to divide our trip into sections. I'd love to bike from Cambridge to Grantchester as we are huge fans of the show, but for now will enjoy Morse locations in Oxford as our daughter just finished a semester there and we want her to show us around! We definitely will need to return.