London + Countryside with kids: Hiking + Castles :)

Castles/palaces:

From London: you could visit Hampton Court and Windsor. Both are in excellent shape and could be done as day trips by train out of London.

From Gatwick: take a look at Bodiam. It's very castle-like but is not in very good shape. It is about 40 miles from Gatwick.

For your nights in the countryside I would choose the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are just over 100 miles from Gatwick. There are lots of cute little towns, hiking trails and beautiful scenery.

@emma Thank you- Wales definitely sounds appealing! What train station in Wales would be the one I should look up train schedules and rental cars? We don't know how to drive a manual so I was worried about finding an automatic outside of Gatwick. I also worry about missing the train if our flight from Iceland is delayed which was why I was thinking about getting the car at Gatwick and driving. How bad of a drive is it? Is it that the roads are not good or that there will be traffic?

Trinitony thanks for the tip on the Cotswolds! If we drive to Wales, we can spend a night in the Cotswolds on the way; do you happen to have a rec for a place to stay or a town we should focus on? Thanks!!

Two years ago we stayed in an AirBnB located in Cold Aston. It was near Bourton-on-the-Water which is one of the prettier villages in the Cotswolds. Also near our AirBnB was the Plough Inn, a pub which served good food. Ten years earlier we stayed in a B&B near Winchcombe. I am not sure whether either one of these places is still available but there seem to be quite a few places offered on AirBnB.

Personally, unless you want to get stuck in traffic, I would avoid the Cotswolds in August.

Although Wales has plenty of castles, it's too far a drive just for 2/4 nights IMO. I would suggest if flying into Gatwick, that you head south east of there and spend your time in the Rye/Lewes/Tenterden area. You will spend less time getting there and more time actually seeing places, which is always good with children in tow.

Places you could see:

Bodiam Castle - one of the best in the country - nationaltrust.org.uk/bodiam-castle . The Kent & East Sussex railway runs old steam trains from here to Tenterden - kids love this and adults too - great countryside.

Rye - once on the coast - a fortified hilltop town with a great beach and nature reserve.

Battle - site of the Battle of Hastings

Lewes - another castle plus Anne of Cleves house - given to her by Henry VIII, although she didn't live here.

Brighton - a cosmopolitan seaside resort

The Enchanted Forest at Groombridge neat Tunbridge Wells - popular with children

Hever Castle

Leeds Castle

Canterbury

The Historic Dockyard at Chatham - try making rope and go aboard a submarine and a warship

Plus plenty of other National Trust treasures such as Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens, Smallhythe, Bateman's (former home of Rudyard Kipling) and Sheffield Park Gardens (with another steam rail line nearby).

You did say you had 14 days for this, didn't you?!

That totally makes sense; would you suggest taking this train after our flight from Iceland or staying the 3 nights in London first and then taking the train? I don't want to be too far away from Gatwick the day of our flight home which leaves at 1:10 so that was why we had thought of doing the countryside first and ending our vacation in London.

I looked at Llandudno Junction on AutoEurope and they have an automatic at "Llandudno City Office - Old Aberconwy Filling Station."
Is that the same place as "Llandudno Junction"?

Since you don't seem adverse to driving, there are few few castles in that part of the country. Ightham Mote is a nice maner house more than a cast!e, but interesting. For actual castles there are Leeds, Bodium, Dover and Pevensy, that I've visited. Pevensy is more a ruin and not a must. You could use Canterbury as a base and do day trips from there.

I think that driving Gatwick to Llandudno in 4.5 hours is the official estimate, but is unrealistic unless you are driving at 2am! I drive from London to the north west regularly and hit traffic delays more often than not. It is unlikely to take less than 5 hours plus whatever stops you need to make. It's a boring motorway journey.

You stand a better chance of getting an automatic at Gatwick than at Llandudno.

Taking the train from Gatwick to Llandudno involves a train into London, change to the Victoria line on the tube, then a train from Euston. You will have to change once or twice further, depending on the time of day to get to Llandudno as there are no direct trains. Fastest journey time is c 4.5 hours, assuming all 3/4 connections work smoothly. So many changes makes for a fraught journey.

I think that your children will be bored by the journey for both road and train options.

You do need to be in London or close to for your last night, as you will need to be at the airport at 11am.

Thank you all so much for the realistic travel times! Maybe we shouldn't attempt Wales on this trip. We could also break up the drive halfway on the way north for a night, spend 3 nights somewhere and then take a train back to downtown London. Would the Lake District be equally difficult to get to?

Thank you Emma!! What station in Wales do I search for that has the shorter, more direct train from London? Is it Holyhead?

Thanks all!! There is a lot to think about! I am being stubborn I guess about wanting to go north rather than south :) I'm going to call Iceland Air today to see if I can switch one of our London flights to Manchester or Glasgow.

We're flying into Dublin, crossing by ferry and renting a car in Holyhead to start our vacation in Wales and England. That might be another option if you want to visit northern Wales without backtracking.

Lia Unfortunately IcelandAir is not letting me change the airport without a $250 change fee PER PERSON. So in/out of London it must remain.

Here's where we are at:

Day 1
Arrive London Gatwick from Iceland at 11am
Pick up rental car and drive to the Cotswolds and spend the night, thinking of Bourton on the Water?

Day 2, 3 and 4
Drive to either Snowdonia or the Lake District.
We will spend 3 nights in whichever location.

Day 5, 6 and 7
Drive to a train station to return rental car and take train back to London
We will spend 3 nights in London

Day 8
Fly home from London at 1pm

That seems a good plan. It's a fairly ambitious first day of driving but the flight from Iceland is only about 3 hours and one? time zone change, so you should not suffer much from jet lag.

Be prepared for narrow roads in the Cotswolds and the Lake District. Many of the two-way country roads are (in my mind) not much wider than one car. In some places you may have to reverse to a "wide spot" for an oncoming car to pass.

Just be careful and enjoy your trip!

Thank you all for your input! We will save the cotswolds and lake district for a time when we are flying into London and out of Scotland so we can take a leisurely pace going north and not need to backtrack. This time around, we can't change our flights without a high penalty so it is what it is. I've paired things down to hopefully a manageable plan. We have done a lot of driving in Europe and I think after driving in Sardinia, Corsica and the south of France, we hope to be in good shape for navigating the roads in the UK.

Day 1
Arrive London Gatwick from Iceland at 11am
Pick up rental car and drive to Shrewsbury and spend the night

Day 2, 3 and 4
Drive to Snowdonia region and spend 3 nights here

Day 5, 6 and 7
Drive to a Chester (or Manchester?) train station to return rental car and take train back to London
We will spend 3 nights in London

Day 8
Fly home from London at 1pm

Thanks Emma- good to know that Chester/Manchester would be the same train line. I hadn't looked up train schedules yet. So that same train line also stops at Llandudno? It will be a Monday in August that we are making the journey to London so do you think we need to pre-purchase the train tickets?

I checked AutoEurope and it would be $419 for us to rent the car returning at Llandudno (with Avis) and $257 to return it to Chester (with EuropCar).

Thank you so much Emma!! I just sent you a PM; that rail map is super helpful!!!

Throwing in a different option- York and Yorkshire. York is a lovely walled city with a great cathedral and a Vikings Musuem and Railway museum. Then you could rent a car and travel to Pickering - Small castle and a steam railway . We took the steam railway to the stop where they filmed harry potter, and hiked from there to the last stop. If we had a car, we could have gone to several other castles or to the seashore.
My son was 8 and he loved it.
I also liked the option outlined to go south- that is a lovely area as well. You do not have much time and so i would stay as close to London as possible. London is amazing and you will have a lot to enjoy there. My son and Is pent the entire day at the Tower of London taking advantage of all the things they have going on there- we had planned 3 hours.

We stayed at the Sudeley Castle Cottages last year and our young kids loved it, they are located on the grounds and include admission every day to the castle and surrounding grounds including a huge play structure with zip lines etc. We went for a walk every night and had a great time visiting the surround villages. there is a shop about a 5 min walk where you can buy eggs, bacon etc for making breakfast etc.

Our prices were good considering what a B&B would cost.