Our family just returned from our first trip to England this past July. We spent the bulk of our time in London but ventured out to go to Windsor, Hampton Court Palace and the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Beyond that, we did most of our sightseeing in London and had an absolutely spectacular time! We had such a great time that we are considering going back to England next summer but this time, we'd like to explore more of the countryside - places like Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, the Cotwolds and maybe even venture into Wales or Scotland. We'd like to find one place, however, where we can stay centrally and then use the train to travel to our destinations rather than move from hotel to hotel. I know we could rent a car but neither my husband or I are sure we'd be comfortable with the driving situation in England. Where would the most central place be for us to stay and would a vacation like I'm describing be doable?
Posted by
SF Bay Area
648 posts
How long do you have for the trip? If it's two weeks, you could try two bases. We did a trip years ago with teen daughters and MIL, and we used Bath as a base for one week, Stirling Scotland as a base for one week, and London as a base for one week. It was great, but we did have a car for the Bath and Stirling weeks. Others will give you suggestions for using trains but it would help to know length of your trip.
Posted by
Washington DC
27063 posts
I think the places you have mentioned are way too far apart for a single base to work. You can check rail travel times on the nationalrail.co.uk website. Note also that UK rail fares can be shockingly high per mile for last-minute ticket purchases. A flexible itinerary could be very costly for a family of four if your day-trips were long ones. More bases would keep your day-trips within a smaller radius and might sometimes allow you to use buses, which can be much less expensive when tickets aren't purchased well in advance.
You can see the Cotswolds on a day-trip (van tour) from Bath or from Moreton-in-Marsh, which is a short train ride from Oxford. If you want more than a quick, one-day, overview of the Cotswolds and will not have a car, I think you need to stay in the Cotswolds. Moreton-in-Marsh has the only rail station and seems to be the bus hub. It would be the most convenient place for a multi-night stay without a car. Really, though, a car would be very advantageous if you want to spend more than a day in that area.
I haven't checked to see whether it would be practical to stay in Oxford (which I thought had more than one day's worth of sights) and day-trip to Bath (which I thought did not).
I am a slow traveler; I hate one-night and even two-night stays. But finding places with enough reasonable side-trips by public transportation to justify a full week's stay is not so easy if you exclude the largest cities, which often have nearly a week's worth of sights of their own (or more if you're talking about London). Your options increase if you are willing to spend multiple days visiting what I call "cute small towns", but I don't think too many tourists are interested in doing that day after day.
It helps if you have a variety of interests: one day for a stately home and garden, a couple of days for hiking (but weather can be iffy), a day to a picturesque coastal town, a day for a museum or two in the city--that's already enough for a six-night stay.
Edinburgh could work for a week if you're interested in the museums and want to take side-trips to places like Stirling and Rosslyn Chapel. Rural Scotland is a lot better with a car.
Posted by
2399 posts
Regarding the train fares: - when making short (say up around an hour) day return trips, it is generally OK to buy on the day. The big price hikes can come with longer one way journeys when pay on the day is expensive but pre-booking specific trains can work out much cheaper with the ‘Advance Single Fares’. These are usually loaded around 11 weeks ahead and gradually rise in time depending on demand.
Here is a diagrammatic map of the rail system:>https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/nationalrailnetworkmap16.pdf
Posted by
London, UK
451 posts
Another point to consider is flying open jaw. So, maybe fly into Edinburgh and fly home from London. Or vice versa. Or maybe fly to/from Manchester. You don't say where you are from, so not sure what mix of flight options would be possible/sensible
As you don't want to drive, you could look at some of the small van tours - eg Mad Max Tours, or Rabbies. www.madmaxtours.co.uk or www.rabbies.com. Not tried either but they get good reviews. There are also a bunch of other tours that I have seen recommended.
My suggestion would be to look at using three bases, eg say Bath, York and Edinburgh or vice versa. You would book the train tickets between these in advance to lock in the savings.
Katy
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Barbara N, thank you for your suggestions! And, as to the length of our trip, maybe about 10 days.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6508 posts
Numerous towns, but none that I’d want use use as a base and stay at for the entire time. I’d split the time between 2-3 places. I’d also pick a specific part of the country (south of London, Cornwall, lake district, eastern Wales, etc.) to visit and see as much of it as possible. Others’ have made some nice suggestions.
Other than a train station and store, there’s nothing in Llanfair...gogogoch, but Llandudno is nice. We spent three nights in Caernarfon earlier this year and it’s close to the town with the long name (if you wanted to visit it just to say you were there), Llandudno, and Conwy.