New Adventure in England

Can you provide some more information?

Will you have a car?
Do you like museums?
Do you like castles?
Where have you been previously and would you go back?
About how many towns/cities would you be looking to visit?
Is there any place you have no desire to visit?
Are there any must do’s or non negotiables?
Are you looking for lodging recommendations, is so, what budget?

It will be easier to provide suggestions if we know some of the above.

Just England or any other UK country?

We spent 2 weeks in England in 2023 and didn't even get north of London... or Londn either. Here's my Trip Report for some suggestions. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-the-south-of-england

When you are figuring your nights ....and to me 2 nights = 1 full day for touring.....I'd do 6 or 7 nights in London, perhaps divided by time in the rest of the country.

My favorites might not be yours. Here's what I like:

• Salisbury for 2 nights so I can do Stonehenge using the public shuttle out to the stones and catch Evensong at Salisbury Cathedral.

• Bath for 3 nights but I really like Roman Britain AND the Georgian era

• York for 3 nights - Viking Britain, Medieval Britain and so much more!

You could also consider doing Rick's Best of England tour for 14 days, adding time before and after in London, Salisbury and Bath, lol.

What is drawing you to England?

Can you provide some more information?

Will you have a car? NO
Do you like museums? Yes
Do you like castles? Yes
Where have you been previously and would you go back? Never been to England
About how many towns/cities would you be looking to visit? 10 - 15
Is there any place you have no desire to visit? Not really
Are there any must do’s or non negotiables? I don't know since I haven't been in England before
Are you looking for lodging recommendations, is so, what budget? Budget...$200 per night

It will be easier to provide suggestions if we know some of the above.

You could also consider doing Rick's Best of England tour for 14 days, adding time before and after in London, Salisbury and Bath, lol.

What is drawing you to England?

Considering Best of England but would like 21 days. I don't see that offered. What is drawing me....My ancestral family is from Torquay. I would love to do some research on our heritage.

You could join the Best of England in 14 days tour, with additional time in Devon before and London after the tour.

Even f you don't join the tour, you could replicate it yourself. And/or look at the RS guidebooks. They have an itinerary for 14 or 21 days (I forget which) and I have a cat sleeping on my lap, otherwise I would go look it up. But these would be the first stage of planning, then you can add/subtract places that are important to you, like Torquay in Devon. Feel free to ask more questions as your research progresses.

Welcome to the forum!

There is a lot to see. :) And we all have different likes and different travel speeds. I think that perhaps it will help to begin with a bit more reading about what there is and then let us help you fine tune it. There is a LOT of good information on the England forum that may help.

And there are no “must sees” in my opinion - there are only what “you want to see”. I went to England at least 3 times before I spent any time in London (finally stayed a week and would stay again). Three weeks may feel like a long time, but you will still have to make choices.

Here's a good place to start.
See what appeals to you.
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/england

Good to have a plan starting up, you have a good amount of time. Watch RS but also on You Tube there are good London videos, Suitcase Monkey and Joolz Guides, some of the Love and London ones are OK too. As you watch, add to a wish list and encourage anyone else you're traveling with to make a list too. After a while you can compare the two, look at a map to make a reasonable plan, and see where you'd definitely like to go.
I strongly suggest that anyone flying into Heathrow go to Windsor to rest up, tour that castle, have some small-town walking around. It's only like a 15-20 minute taxi ride from Heathrow, often the castle can be seen from the plane while you're landing.
The RS guidebooks are great too of course, I have found that choosing some dependable, known hotels have been better for me. You'll have loads of experienced people here to help each step of the way. Maybe decide your preferred towns and cities first, always leave at least a week for London, you'll be good.
Happy planning :)
-Alison

“Considering Best of England but would like 21 days. I don't see that offered. What is drawing me....My ancestral family is from Torquay”

Many of us who do tours also do independent time before and after. With Rick’s tours you get yourself to the starting point anyway, and for this tour it’s Bath.

If a tour for part of your time sounds interesting, you could do a few days in London, take the train to Torquay for a few nights then take the train to Bath to meet up with the tour. There is also a Rick Steves tour that does Southern England. It spends time in Devon but not specifically in Torquay.

Or if you want to do it on your own, you could hit some of the Southern Coast of England including Portsmouth, the Torquay area for a few nights, work back to Bath, Salisbury and Winchester if they look interesting to you with days in London on the front and back ends.

If wanting to investigate family history in the Torquay area do as much as you can at home.
You may well need to visit the Devon Heritage Centre (Devon Archives) in Exeter. They are only open on Tuesday to Thursday and pre booking is essential.
Torquay is about 45 minutes by half hourly train from Exeter, with the odd long distance train to London and even Edinburgh via York (once a day).
You could of course stay on the Riviera Coast but I suggest Totnes or even Exeter.
Exeter also has Roman history and another of Britain's great Medieval Cathedrals - one of the Cathedral's great glories is one of the biggest collections of misericord seats in Europe. And like all Cathedrals it has daily Evensong, as well as the other Daily offices.

Everyone is different and we all like different places, so it's important that you pay attention to what you want to see. Last year I spent 5 1/2 weeks in England, and went to places that I really wanted to see. I'm putting my itinerary below (and here is a link to my trip report) but again, this was based on my interests. I don't like crowds (although I do love London). :-) I love the country, old churches, beautiful scenery, walking, museums (in moderation), ruins and history.

• London: 5 nights
• Cornwall: 4 nights
• Devon: 5 nights
• Liverpool: 3 nights
• The Peak District: 5 nights
• Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire: 7 nights
• Northumberland/Hadrian's Wall: 6 nights
• Oxford: 1 night

So if you have 21+ days, first figure out what your interests are and where they lay. Then look at various itineraries. Rick Steves' 21 day itinerary is a good start. It doesn't really appeal to me but it might to you. https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/england/itinerary

Since Torquay in Devon is high on your list, you could easily spend some time in Cornwall and Devon. I absolutely loved Devon, especially Dartmoor National Park, but Torquay is a lovely somewhat touristed beach town, and if you're an Agatha Christie fan, you can visit her home in Devon.

Then from Torquay, branch out a bit and look at the surrounding areas. An area that is not far from there is Salisbury, where you can find the incredible Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and not too far from there is the Cotswolds, which are an iconic sight in England. Bath is also in the vicinity, as is Bristol, a charming town, and one of my favorite places, Oxford, with nearby Blenheim Palace, home to Winston Churchill.

Depending on what you like, after that you could either head north to the Lake District, or head northeast to York and North Yorkshire, one of my favorite places in the world. Whitby is a beautiful coastal town with lots of history and scenery, and York is the home of York Minster, one of the most gorgeous cathedrals I've ever seen.

Then after that, head back to London and enjoy some time in one of the coolest cities in the world. I love London and could easily spend every vacation there is I'd let myself. :-) Of course you could always start off with London, then travel to the other places. Either one would work.

We did a drive tour of England and S. Wales in 2017 for 28 days and didn't even do larger cities like London.

We didn't do Cornwall or Devon or east of London.

Places that we enjoyed:
Bath, Salisbury (did that a few years prior), Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, The Cotswolds for a couple of days (Chipping Campden), Oxford, Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon (a must if you love Shakespeare), Blenheim Palace, Whitby, the Yorkshire Moors, York, Durham, Hadrian's Wall, the Lake District and Winchester.

East and Southeast of London: Canterbury and Cambridge.

We did Liverpool some years earlier and don't recommend it unless you are huge Beatles Fans.