My 12 Day Itinerary To The UK - June 2019

You only plan one full day in London? Many people would flinch at that idea...

You are failing to take into account that every time you pick up and move, you consume most of a day. You only have one place where you have a whole day without traveling (York).

With all your "one night stands" I think this pace is going to kill you.

Sorry, this looks brutal, not fun. You will be too exhausted to enjoy anything. This is way too much territory to cover in 12 days. It is much easier on a tour when someone else is driving and handling all the logistics and you can sleep on the bus between stops.

I have to agree with the other comments that you've planned a fairly exhausting itinerary. I haven't closely examined the Best of England tour that was your model, but it's important to realize that an organized tour can whisk you from one place to the next more quickly and easily than you can do on your own.

If you had 20-24 days instead of 12, thus allowing two nights instead of one in each place, this list of destinations would make sense.

If it were my decision, given just 12 days, I'd skip the Lake District and York, allowing more time in the southwest of England and Wales, along with at least one more day in London. Either that or focus on the Lake District and York, forsaking the southwest.

Where is Land’s End Farm? Is it an attraction accommodation or what? Glastonbury is a waste of time.

You don't need to stay in Bath. Consider going straight from Heathrow to Thornbury Castle Hotel and adding additional nights. From here, it is quite easy to drive to Bath in around 35 minutes - well at least to the Lansdown Park & Ride - where you dump the car and take a shuttle bus into the centre = much easier than driving downtown.

From Thornbury, you also easily do a day trip to the most attractive Cotswold villages = Bourton-on-the -Water, Stow, Chipping Campden, (Hidcote Manor Gardens), Broadway, Stanway. These are all no more than about an hour to the NE. At a push, you could also reach Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle.

From Thornbury, you could also easily do another day trip west, over the Severn Bridge to the Cardiff area - which has 4 castles = Caerphilly, Castell Coch, St.Fagans Castle & Museum (leave M4 at Junction 33 - then sharp left 1 mile south off A4232), Cardiff Bay (waterfront - not a beach) and Cardiff Castle itself in the heart of the city.

Immediately across the M48 Severn Bridge from Thornbury you have Chepstow Castle and about 20 minutes further up the Wye Valley is Tintern Abbey (ruin).

When the time comes to leave Thornbury for North Wales - if that is what you do, you could travel up through the scenic heart of Wales on the A470 for much of the way or use the route mainly in England via Hereford and Ludlow - well worth a look along with Stokesay Castle.. This will take all day - though you might like to consider not going to Conwy but consider other places further south such as Porthmadog or Bettws-y-Coed. Google the places mentioned.

PS. If you wish to travel from Heathrow to Thornbury by train - Bristol Parkway is the nearest station on the main line. It is also possible to drive to Stonehenge from Thornbury but the roads are busy and winding.

Also see my response here:>https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/betwixt-bath-and-conwy-ideas

As others have said, this is far too much time in transit. Don’t underestimate how long it will take you to travel between places - add a third to google estimates, particularly in rush hour. Last week, I got stuck in a traffic jam, as someone had thrown herself off a bridge onto the road and it took me 2 hours to travel 15 miles. There are often delays and roadworks that will delay your journey.

Wells and Glastonbury can be seen from Bath. Personally, Glastonbury isn’t my thing with all the new age crystal wotnot. I presume you have children with you if you are going to the children’s farm? This will slow you down as you will travel at the pace of the slowest in your group.

Does Stonehenge interest you or do you feel that you ought to see it because others have seen it? It’s not in my top 100 things to see in the UK, as there are examples of stone circles that you can visit and get close to the stones such as Avebury which are more intimate, without the crowds and the traffic.

Day 5 - Warwick to Conwy is a 4 hour drive if you don’t get stuck in traffic around Birmingham (so don’t drive this stretch between 7 and 9.30 am), so you aren’t going to have the entire day in Conwy.

Presuming you cannot double the length of your stay, you need to halve the number of destinations that you plan on visiting. You need to prioritise what interests you, rather than just following a tour itinerary.

I'm going to add in here the added stress of driving on the other side of the road. We drove in Ireland and it was so stressful. This was when I was a very freewheeling "wheee let's do ittttttt" 25-year old, and it was nerve-wracking. I can't imagine doing it now as a 41-year old with children in tow, esp. if it's your first time in Europe. Also kids love trains - they aren't strapped in, they can walk around, there are bathrooms, the trains sell food, it's a novelty as compared to the US, etc.

I would stick to the trains, personally, and base myself in York and London. You can daytrip easily to Bath/Stonehenge from London (did it on a bus tour, great experience) and there are plentiful trains from York to London. You can also daytrip to Cotswolds/Warwick from London. Check out things like https://www.viator.com/tours/London/Oxford-Cotswolds-Stratford-on-Avon-and-Warwick-Castle-Day-Trip-from-London/d737-3858EE023 or https://www.viator.com/tours/London/Stonehenge-and-Jane-Austens-Bath-Day-Trip-from-London/d737-3858EE018_S

Do you really like the countryside as opposed to cities? London is amazing. I find that I don't always like Rick's "out of the way countryside locations" as much as I do his city recommendations. Especially if you have kids in tow, will they appreciate the "local charm of a rural hamlet with little to do except talk to locals and look at scenery" the way you might?

You plan to go to Bath and spend one night there. You plan to see the city from 2pm (after a Transatlantic flight!) until noon the next day. That probably will not be enough time. We spend an entire day there, doing the Free Walking tour, then going back and visiting places of interest, including the Cathedral and especially the Roman Bath Museum (that is the highlight)

We also visited wells and Glastonbury. Wells Cathedral was well worth the visit. Glastonbury was OK, but it is a small town, if you plan to spend the night there, not sure what you can come up with for lodging.

Are you renting a car or going by rail? Not sure about rail connections to Wells and Glastonbury, or from Glastonbury to Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is well worth the visit, not sure why so many Brits think it is worthless.

Warwick Castle is north of Oxford and we enjoyed spending our day there including walking around the city.

Stow-on-the-Wold is going back south to the Cotswolds, do you plan to spend some time seeing the Cotswolds. Rick Steves has a planned self tour by car that will take you a full day and perhaps a bit more. We stayed in Chipping Campden and loved it.

Heading up to Conwy will take several hours, not sure how you plan to get there. I liked Conwy, but there are some amazing Castles in South Wales that are more convenient to Bath. Tintern Abby is not so far from Bath.
Snowdonia seemed to run south taking you away from the Lake District. Still, Snowdonia is amazing.
Jest getting from Conwy to th eLake District and Keswick will take several hours if you drive since you have Manchester and Liverpool to contend with. Not sure how much time you allowed for the Lake District, but most people go hiking there. You can take Rick Steves self drive around the lake near Keswick, we did that and it was nice.

Heading to York will take up some time. York is wonderful. The Munster is a must as are the National Rail Museum and walking the walls. Further, there are a couple of other museums in the city that are nice.

Thank you all for taking the time to provide your advice! I can see where many of you are coming from, and agree, the last thing I want is to not have enough time in an area to enjoy it to the fullest or be too tired by traveling the long distances from The Cotswolds to Conwy, and Conwy to the Lake District. I am adventurous and don't mind not being able to see everything an area has to offer, rather the best of each area -- though again, don't want to compromise the enjoy ability factor if in fact it is just not possible or too much traveling in a short period of time.

I have no kids, this will be just a friend and I doing this voyage. Lands End Farm is the Cider Farm of Mr. Roger Wilkins. I will be renting a car in Bath and planned to drop it off in York. I have been calculating average drive times using Google Maps, and obviously am a bit concerned about the drive from The Cotswolds to Conwy and from Conwy to the Lake District.

Are the average driving times given on Google's platform accurate? ... or are they unrealistic? If unrealistic due to normal driving conditions and events Google doesn't pick up on, that would be greatly concerning to me -- as the drives between those 2 destinations are already a length, but do-able.

Again, much appreciate the advice! Thank you!

I've never driven in Europe so am certainly no expert on driving times. Quite a few posters have commented that ViaMichelin's driving times tend to be a bit more accurate than Google's, but no internet driving time is going to take into account stops (for food, rest break, picture-taking), getting lost, the search for parking or time spent walking from the inconvenient parking place to what you actually want to see. And then there are possible traffic delays.

Try doing Google Maps with the correct start times in GMT or British Summer Time for your route maps. That way you’ll get closer to actual times. But I would always add 30% to allow time for getting in & out of towns, finding parking, paying for parking etc.

Also roads may be much more congested than you’re used to & delays happen easily. Today I got held up for 15 minutes on the M40 near Oxford because a lorry broke down on the slip road. That sort of thing happens a lot.

I think Glastonbury is a horrid place, full of new age shops selling crystals and tarot cards. Waste of half a day in my opinion. Wells is lovely, I have no idea who or what this farm is or why you want to go there but you are definitely short-changing Bath.

We drove 28 days around Wales and England doing the places you did and more.

We found the estimated travel times from Google and elsewhere to be a bit optimistic. If it says two hours, plan on three. If you go anywhere near London, Birmingham, Manchester or Liverpool, add even more time.

I've always found the AA route planner to be more accurate than Google Maps etc:
http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp