London Day Trips

Taking a train is going to be faster than being driven on a tour bus - Bletchley Park and Hampton Court are both easy day trips from central London. Bletchley Park for example is about an hour by train from London, compared with more like an hour and 45 minutes driving. Not to mention a train is more comfortable.

Bath can be done as a day trip but personally I'd recommend at least staying overnight. By train it's about 1.5hrs, by road more like 3hrs.

If you wanted save time, you could take a taxi from the hotel to the station, rather than taking the tube.

Bletchley Park is a great day trip by train. Just allow yourself plenty of time - there are lots of exhibits across all the different buildings. You can easily spend the entire day there, including lunch at an onsite restaurant.

Agree with others here that the train is the best/fastest way to get to these places. If you want something a little more scenic, you can take a boat to or from Hampton Court Palace- either from Richmond or as far up as Westminster- more info here: https://www.thamesriverboats.co.uk/index.asp

It's certainly not the fastest way but if the weather's good I think it's the most enjoyable.

Edited to add: The sailings look to be starting a bit later in the season this year (14 April) so not sure if that will be too late for you.

Thank you

I've done daytrips to Bath, York and Oxford via train. Easy peasy, just ask the Man in Seat 61 how to do it (hint, you need some sort of discount card to save money).

And that is the way I would order them as well.

There's a number of other easy day trips from London that haven't been mentioned: Cambridge, Canterbury, Brighton (for the Pavilion as well as the pier).

You've mentioned Bletchley Park - are you interested in WW2 in general or the code-breaking aspects particularly? If the former, you have the Imperial War Museum (perhaps more focused on WW!) and HMS Belfast both in central London and the RAF Battle of Britain bunker at Uxbridge (end of the Piccadilly line plus a walk or taxi ride). All are worth a visit.

Apologies for glomming onto this post, but I was about to post a question about day trips from London, and then I saw this, so I thought it would be better to comment here rather than starting a whole new post.

Is there consensus that visiting Bath by train is the top option for a day trip? If you were going to do one day trip from London, would that be it?

Bath is a beautiful city, bt it’s a long way to do in a day. Allowing time to get to Paddington etc, you’re likely to be traveling for 4+ hours.

My top place would be Hampton Court. Easy to get to, loads to see and with lovely grounds. Try to go on a nice day.

I’ve done day trips to Bath, Hampton Court Palace and Bletchley Park. These were done over 2 different trips to London and I enjoyed all of those places. Obviously Bath takes longer and if you want to go there you should try to get there as early as possible. Since the day trip to Bath we have returned there to stay 4 nights. Each of these places took up a full day. I think you just need to decide which appeals to you the most.

This year is a big anniversary for Jane Austen, expect special events and festivities all year in Bath. Your Bath day out may take longer than you planned.

Just to be clear I just looked, the train is about 1.5 hours. Which isn't that much.

BTW Bath Spa station is right in the centre of Bath so will be quick to get stuck into the sights and shopping!

Have done day trips to Bath a few times with groups. If you catch an early train can see the Roman Baths (need 1-1.5 hours), get some lunch, walk around and explore. Can get Tea at the Jane Austen Center. There is a nice walk along the canal as well. We go in the summer and have taken a van to Stonehenge in the late afternoon and then to Salisbury for dinner (there is a great pub by the river maybe a 10 minute walk from the train station) and catch the train back to London. It's a long day, but doable.

Dover and the white cliffs is also an easy trip. About an hour by train, catch a taxi to the cliffs (5-10 pounds) spend a few hours and get some lunch. Then have the taxi pick you back up and drop at Dover Castle (5 pounds or so). Need an hour two to explore and then walk down the hill to town for dinner and back to train station.

Following your input and the RS guidebooks, we plan a day trip to Bath. Another day will start with a cruise to Hampton Court, then cab back to Richmond and Kew Gardens; returning by train. We also plan a day visiting Bletchley, although I have found little information beyond the park itself.
Thanks to all.

Hampton Court Palace is a wonderful place to visit. Lots of history, helpful guides dressed in period clothes and the grounds are lovely including a terrific maze of tall shrubs.
I did long day tour out of London to visit Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and Bath. All were wonderful, of course. Yes, that’s a lot to include in one day but I got “ the essence” of each place and learned a lot from the guide on the bus. There are probably other similar tours with less stops so might be worth a look especially if you are short on time.

what do you want to know about Bletchley?

Hi Nigel,
Bletchley Park: Should a trip from London be limited to the Park, or are there other worthy attractions/activities? If only the Park, should I review what to see in the Park, or simply go with the flow when I arrive? Are on-site tours and/or audioguides available?
By the way did you see the PBS program on Gordon Welchman? Interesting on many dimensions including how of today's monster companies may have got there.

Bletchley Park is very interesting. I went solo and spent over 4 hours there including a very pleasant lunch.

Easy hour train ride from Euston station in London and yes you can join guided tours there.

I used Bletchley Park's good audio guide during my visit, which was pre-COVID.

Bletchley Park has a lot to see and understand. The National Museum of Computing is on the same site and so is an Amateur Radio hut.

Food is good at the canteen.

As far as other things to do in Bletchley, Bletchley is a working class suburb of Milton Keynes now. You could find the canal and have a walk along the canal I suppose. A pleasant canal, reachable on the other side of the tracks and then a train ride on the Marston Vale Line (about hourly when it is running, one stop) or a fair walk. You will probably have walked enough at Bletchley Park - it is quite large.

In all the years we have been posting on the Forum and before, I think that yours is the first question about what is actually in Bletchley. Answer - not much.

There is the former Bletchley TMD (Traction Maintenance Depot) on the tracks north of the station which won the Golden Spanner as the best TMD in the land (proud of my teammates) but it is gone and the site is not open to the public.

sorry to say that PBS isn't here in the UK except in a thin shell of itself. I've never heard of Gordon.

Should train tickets to Bletchley be reserved, or can you simply "walk-on" for short runs, just like a local bus?

Gordon Welchman's role at Bletchley and later is an interesting read.

you can see if there is a cheap Advance ticket Euston to Bletchley but if there is you will be locked into a particular train. An Off-Peak Day Return will let you take any off-peak train each way, so you can decide at the time. That is a walk up ticket. Get the app and you can see platform numbers and up to date info.