South East England Itinerary

If you don't already have your reservations for Canterbury, I can highly recommend the Canterbury Cathedral Lodge.

I would need more time at Portsmouth if going to the Historic Dockyard. Plan at least 3 hours.

I would have thought you would be taking a bus from Heathrow to Windsor. Are you sure about the train?

Carol now retired: Thanks for the Canterbury recommendation, do not have that yet. Was holding off on booking too many places until I ran this through the forum. 3-hours for Portsmouth is exactly what I allocated, glad to see I am OK. Going to Windsor was a recommendation from my previous post, but did not map out how that would occur. Guess I now know it will be by bus....thanks.

I don't recall your previous thread, but I expect you were discouraged from driving the day after an overnight flight. If not, let me do that now. Instead, for day 1, how about the bus from LHR to Windsor, spend whatever time that arrival day allows visiting the castle and town, spending the night there, and next morning taking a train (via Slough) to Oxford, where you can see what you want there, pick up the car, and drive on to Stow. The downside of that plan is a possible extra charge for dropping the car at LHR instead of returning it where you got it.

That means that on day 8, after a long drive from Canterbury to LHR, you can have a more leisurely dinner at or near the airport, without the bus to Windsor and back.

Don't bother with Portland.

Re the comment above about day 1. You are going to Windsor on the last day. But as you shouldn't be driving straight off the flight take the bus to Oxford. Hire the car next day at Oxford and start the day from there.

There is no reason at all not to do the Isle of Portland. If that interests you do it, never mind some contributors personal prejudices.

EDITED- The last bus back from Windsor to Heathrow is as late as 2300 so you can have dinner there easily, and first next morning is at 0330 then 1/2 hourly. So depending on how early the flight was next day you could potentially off rent the car at LHR on 8 June then stay in Windsor the last night, and bus/taxi/train (bus or taxi are most sensible) on Day 9 morning.

Day 3 covers places I know pretty well and doesn’t seem doable in 1 day.

Stourhead is more worth seeing than Longleat. It’s a National Trust property. The house is not that interesting but the gardens are what it’s all about. Longleat is still lived in and the family need to make money off the house so there are a multitude of attractions there including a safari park. The public rooms of the house are hired out for events and I’m not sure how often you can tour the house.

Bruton is a pretty very small town. Don’t miss the Hauser and Werth modern art gallery. It also has a really wonderful garden if you have any interest in gardening.

Avebury is also very pretty and the Neolithic monuments there are fascinating.

However I think you’d need a few hours at each destination. Stourhead especially will be at least 2 hours I’d say just to get around the site without really looking at anything properly.

Day 3 covers places I know pretty well and doesn’t seem doable in 1 day.

That is my concern too along with Day 4 . Are you just intending to see as you drive past or are you wanting to stop, get out of the car and see/visit these places. Don't underestimate driving times, or how long it can take to park, get out of the car and then to the attraction... Roads are slow and it will take a lot longer to cover distances than you might expect.

What is it you intend to see in Portsmouth? You state you've allocated three hours for the city but what have you allocated it to? If your sole intention is to visit the Historic Dockyard then three hours is too short in my opinion even if you only hit the three big attractions of HMS Warrior, HMS Nelson and the Mary Rose.

Don't underestimate driving times, or how long it can take to park, get out of the car and then to the attraction... Roads are slow and it will take a lot longer to cover distances than you might expect.

Wasleys; Thanks for the caution. I used Google Maps to provide estimated driving times. For the most part it is surprisingly accurate where I live. Is it not as good an estimating tool there?

BobZ, when you use Google Maps, make sure you are using the correct approximate time of your journey in the right timezone. I’m not wording that very well, but hopefully you get what I mean.

Also: finding a parking space, paying for parking and then walking from the car park to where you want to go can add extra time, as Wasleys says. For eg: Portsmouth Dockyard, you might need to park at the Gunwharf shopping centre which has several layers and escalators and can take time.