London and Vicinity - 8 days in April 2020

I hate to say it, but is this a plan based on Rick Steves? Herding 7 people across 3 generations is going to be a lot of work, you’ll only move as fast as the slowest person.

I’d base myself in London once you find the Air BNB that can sleep 7. If day one in London is arrival day, you can almost throw that out as a sightseeing day. Windsor Castle is an easy day trip. Bath, Stonehenge, and Oxford can also be done as day trips. But, that would be a lot of day trips for a short stay. Also, take an honest look at your family members, is it likely that someone is going to get cranky with the day trips? Getting up early, going to a train station, traveling, seeing a place that they may not have much interest in, and then traveling back. Of course, you do have enough adults to split things up on any given day.

I’d throw away the Cotswolds idea. April isn’t ideal anyway and messing with public transit is just going to be a pain.

I would base in London the whole time and do day trips. Every place you mention is 'doable' as a day trip from London. In fact, I am planning 2 weeks in London the second half of March and that's my plan. I've been to London many times (and in fact all those day trips) so my priorities will be a bit different but my plan to base in London and do day trips is based on flexibility. At that time of year you can't depend on getting nice weather every day (well, actually, you never can in England). If you base in London and plan to take day trips then you can do those on the days the weather is cooperating. If it's raining stay in London and go to museums and churches or shopping, the nicer days do a day trip. Also don't have to change hotels. Yes there will be some back tracking but I think what you get in return is worth it.

Especially with a group of 7 people this plan is good because if some people decide they would rather not go somewhere they have flexibility to do something else that day.

The cotswolds are difficult without a car or a group tour so you might want to consider a tour for that. Everything else can easily be done by public transportation.

I completely agree with the above comments, especially Isabel. Eight days is a pretty short time for an overseas trip. It's enough time to see much of what London has to offer, and if you want to do day trips to the other destinations you can, but consider that your first and last days are going to be mostly taken up by jet lag and unpacking (first day) and packing and last-minute errands (last day).

I would definitely stay in one lodging the whole time and remain flexible so that if someone doesn't have the energy for a certain day trip, or gets unbearably cranky, they can stay behind and take it easy that day.

It sounds from your original post as if you may have 8 full, non-jetlagged days in England. That's certainly better than "8 days" that turn out to be 6 real days. I agree that it would be more relaxing and flexible to spend every night in the same lodgings, and 3 days is very short for all that London has to offer. In addition, one could argue that there's more to do (certainly a great deal more variety) on Days 4 - 5 - 6 in London than on Day 1 at your other locations.

On the other hand, it's kind of miserable to find yourself on a day-trip with the rain pouring down on you (precipitation's hard to predict accurately) and no way to make a quick trip back to your hotel to change clothes/socks/shoes. Another issue with multiple day-trips from London--planned at the last minute due to perfectly reasonable spring-weather concerns--is the cost. If tickets are puchased on the travel day or even the day before, there may be limited opportunity to snag bargain-basement Advance tickets, and the round-trip Anytime fares can be quite high: up to £67.40 for Oxford, £203 for Bath, and £77 Moreton-in-Marsh/Cotswolds. By fiddling with departure times you could probably avoid paying the absolute highest prices, but as you can see, this could be big bucks for your group. You can take a look at fares on the NationalRail website.

Because of the logistical challenges, I don't think an independent day-trip to the Cotswolds is a good idea from London. I know there are bus tours, but there would be a lot of time riding a bus as well as a lot of time loading and unloading if a full-size bus is used. I make no comment on the advisability of visiting the Cotswolds in April because I have never been to the UK outside the period of very late May to mid-September.

If you are absolutely wedded to the idea of seeing Oxford, Bath and the Cotswolds and don't intend to bail if the weather is not optimal, I would spend some nights out in that area rather than making 3 probably-costly round-trips from London. There are one-day van trips to the Cotswolds offered from both Bath (MadMax) and Moreton-in-Marsh (GoCotswolds and Secret Cottage). Moreton-in-Marsh is a short train ride from Oxford; I spent several nights in Oxford and easily took the train to Moreton in time for the GoCotswolds tour.

I don't know whether there's a central base for Bath-Cotswolds-Oxford that would work if you plan to depend on public transportation, and you'd probably need two cars if you chose to drive. Folks on this forum have pointed out that it's difficult to find a vehicle that will contain 7 people and their luggage, and in some countries the driver of a suitable vehicle might need a commercial license rather than a regular driver's license.

As others have said Windsor and Oxford are easy day trips from London.

I, however, would consider spending two or three nights in Bath. It has a totally different feel than London and we were glad to be staying in a smaller town after five nights in London. We did an afternoon tour of Stonehenge which was basically just transportation that worked well for us. There also are small van tours of the Cotswolds if you really want to do that. We used one as transportation to the Cotswolds where we stayed and hiked for a couple days between towns.