Seeking advice on the best base location for a trip to England

Harry Potter World

It’s the WB Harry Potter Studio and you need to book it yesterday.

Not sure I can think of an unsafe village but “quaint” isn’t confined to The Cotswolds. There are plenty of nicer less crowded places.

Will you hire a car? Without one there is unlikely to be a single location from where it will be easy to visit those 3 disparate spots on day trips.

"beautiful old university campus settings"

Cambridge is nor a campus university, it's a college-based university that's set in the city, but I understand what you mean...

For travel connections, you're best off staying in London, which while safe, doesn't meet your "quaint" requirement. Thinking it through, I'd be inclined to suggest (depending on how much time you have) that you spend some time in London, and then choose a smaller city or town outside London to stay for a few nights. Perhaps Oxford or Cambridge itself? Or if you want somewhere absolutely beautiful, I would recommend Rye.

And London is of no interest?

London to WB Harry Potter 1hr or so. Train from Euston…then a bus…directions here: https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/

London to Salisbury 1hr on a SWR train from Waterloo. Then a 1/2 bus ride from Salisbury to Stonehenge

London to the Cotswolds ( Morton in Marsh )
1hr GWT train ride from Paddington

Lots a parks to enjoy in London. Alexandra Park, Richmond Park, Waterford Wetlands, Regents Park, Hampstead Heath. Or you could just walk along the lengthy Thames path.

Plenty of trails like the Parkland trail. Most enjoyable walk.

London has numerous neighborhoods. When you say quaint what is your concept of the adjective?

Thank you all so much. Yes, London is also of interest and we will spend a few days there at the end of the trip before flying home.

Johnew52,

Yes, we will rent a car.

Claudia,

Thanks for such a detailed response!

OP happy to share intel.

Simon:

Rye looks lovely. Thank you.

Rye is indeed lovely, but remote, Trips to Watford for the studios would be inconvenient, the Cotswolds and Stonehenge are completely across the country. Cambridge and Oxford, very inconvenient. Good for the nearby coast though.

Your 3 objectives are too spread out for a single base. Accord to Google maps:
- Salisbury to Oxford is hour and a half
- Oxford to Watford is hour and 20
- Salisbury to stow on the Wold is 2 hours

And you should add up to 25% for a realistic time. A number of those routes will require narrow twisty roads.

Harry Potter is easy to do as a day trip from London. Base near Salisbury for 2 nights. Shift near eastern side of Cotswolds for the rest. Stow on the Wold is. Nice village and very well located for seeing the Cotswolds and easy access to Oxford (more of a Harry Potter connection then Cambridge) and Blenheim Palace. It is also an hour to Bletchley Park.

"Rye is indeed lovely, but remote"

I'm not sure I'd call a bit over an hour from London as "remote" - we recently did a very nice day trip there. Nor would I say Oxford is "inconvenient", BUT I do agree the OP has a list of fairly disparate places they want to visit, hence my suggestion of basing in London with day trips, or perhaps a couple of nights away. Of course how much time they have may be a factor as well.

Not sure how long you will stay, but I don't recommend staying in one place unless you only stay a week.

We rented a car at Heathrow in 2017 and spent 4 weeks exploring (not London) South Wales and England. We visited the area that you mention, staying in Bath 3 nights and The Costwolds (Chipping Campden) 6 nights.

We stayed at the Volunteer Inn at Chipping Campden and I recommend it. Has the best pub in town and a great Indian restaurant.
We used it as a base to explore the Cotswolds for two days and for three days did day trips to Oxford, Blenheim Palace and Stratford Upon Avon.
In Bath, we stayed at the Brooks Guesthouse for three nights and did one day trip to Wells and Glastonbury.

We have been to Cambridge, it is on the other side of London, and wouldn't work so well with doing places west of London.

All such helpful advice! Thank you all.

Oxford is much more convenient for these locations than Cambridge except for HPW (tickets sell out months in advance). HPW is probably easiest to do as a day trip from London. A car is an inconvenience in central Oxford (and Cambridge), so would suggest leaving at hotels etc to the Wes or SW of Oxford (right side for the other places) and then do a day trip to Oxford leaving the car in one of the Park and Ride car parks on the outskirts of town.

In principle, all the places you list could be done as day trips by public transport from London.

It would really help if you would give more specifics. For example, when are you traveling (month and year) and how long will your trip be?

If it were me, I would stay in London. There are plenty of apartments available in some lovely neighborhoods. You don't mention how old your daughter is but I would imagine she would enjoy all the sights that London has. And I'm sure it would be fun for her taking the train to some of the quaint villages outside of London. There are plenty of lovely places nearby. Here is one thread that gives you some village info: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/eight-chocolate-box-villages-near-london

I recently spent 10 nights in London with my grandson and granddaughter and they loved the vibrancy and fun of London. Their favorite thing to do was ride the double decker buses (on top, of course) so they could see everything around. We visited 2 optical illusion museums, which they loved, ate a lot of fun and different meals, and overall, had an incredible time. I do second the recommendation to book your ticket to Warner Bros. Harry Potter tour as soon as it becomes available. The tickets are expensive, but the experience will last forever. My grandkids loved it and I enjoyed it as well. I think your daughter would also enjoy Hampton Court Palace, which is an easy train ride from London. There is a maze there, beautiful gardens, and a huge castle where Henry VIII lived. It's a wonderful place to visit.

If you were to stay in some outlying village, most of your time would be spent trying to figure out how to get to other villages and places, and in many cases, you would have to detour through London anyway. One suggestion above might work, which would be to base in London but at some point in your trip, visit the Cotswolds and stay there for a few days. You could always rent a car and pick it up on the outskirts of London, then travel to the Cotswolds. That would also give you a chance to visit Oxford, which is an incredible place.

Ok, I’m convinced it would be better to stay in London, see the sights, and day trip to a few other locations. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, I think I have enough feedback now to make a good decision. Wonderful forum with lots of helpful people. I would expect no less from something created by Rick Steves!

There are no unsafe villages? Oh my, many years of watching British mysteries on PBS has taught me that no place on earth is less safe than an English village, and that the quainter it is, the more likely that someone has poisoned the cream cakes at the vicar’s tea party, that a body will turn up floating in the mill pond, and that up at the manor house, the butler did it … or did he? Only someone with nine lives and great sleuthing skills can survive there.
(Just joking of course, folks).

Slate, yes, particularly stay out of the Midsomer area.....so many murders there.

mregan3811, I would recommend Bath as a 2nd place besides London. It is smaller, but not a village (probably around 95K in population.) I took a one day tour from there that included Stonehenge, Avebury, and a couple Cotswold areas (take a look at Mad Max Tours.) It was an easy, relaxing way to see a lot in one day. They use vans, not buses. It is easy to get there from Heathrow by train &/or bus I took the train from London to Cambridge for the day and enjoyed it so much. One thing my daughter enjoyed was the ride home when many students in their uniforms were taking the train back to their home towns/villages.
About your food needs: Bath has a farmer's market on Saturday. It's also got much to see and enjoy. I like to just sit in the park down by the river and have an ice cream (maybe a fruit sorbet.)

Slate, when Inspector Morse was running on UK TV someone worked out that the rate of TV murders was about 7 times the real rate for Oxford