We are planning a trip to England. The beginning point is Bath, then to Cornwall, Salisbury, The Cotswolds, Oxford, London, Dover and back to London in that order. For a portion of his trip we have located drivers but would also like to travel some by train. Does anyone know of a map that shows the different rail system routes on one map?
I would most appreciate any help.
Posted by
Yorkshire
1212 posts
nationalrail ,is the place to start will have a network map
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6510 posts
Here are some maps from the nationalrail.co.uk website. One or more might be useful for you.
I'd suggest driving if possible in Cornwall and the Cotswolds, where scenery is especially important and most of the best destinations don't have rail service. Bath, Salisbury, Oxford, Dover and of course London have very good connections. The National Rail website makes it easy to plan your train travel, and links you to the different rail companies if you want to buy tickets online. You'll save by buying in advance, but that commits you to particular dates or even particular trains, and might not be worthwhile for you.
Our UK friends are going to bed now but I'm sure they'll have more useful advice tomorrow. Even though there are many different operators, the schedules mesh pretty well and the stations are well-signed. We had no trouble with train changes (like between Oxford and Salisbury) last fall.
Posted by
2413 posts
You may like to consider landing at Heathrow - Railair bus link to Woking station for train to Salisbury (2 nights - include visit by bus to Stonehenge). Train to Plymouth or maybe Truro (in mid Cornwall). Best to pick up a hire car for getting around Cornwall.
Train (or keep hire car - but Bath is congested with difficult parking) back to Bath - (2 nights)? Hire car & drive to Cotswolds. Turn in car in Oxford (be sure to visit this city on foot); the train back to London. Dover can be done as a day trip by train from London.
Please read this:>https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/how-to-save-money-on-railfares-not-pre-book
Posted by
Nashville, TN, USA
3761 posts
Your list of destinations for your trip reminded me that Rick Steves' Southern England Tour hits most of these destinations.
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/england-scotland/southern-england
I would consider this as an alternative to doing all of it yourself by train and hiring drivers. The tour is sort of in reverse order of the way you named your destinations. But it is an easy way, stress-free, to get to some of the areas you want.
This tour may or may not be something you want to do, but for me, it would be a perfect way to get to (and around) areas such as Cornwall.
You could arrive in London, then take the train from London to Canterbury, where the tour begins. Then the tour moves on to Dover and Dover Castle.
The tour ends in Bath. You could stay there some extra days if you wish. There is a terrific tour company in Bath that does tours through the Cotswolds; Mad Max Tours. If you want more than one day in the Cotswolds, you could take the train from Bath to Moreton-in-Marsh and meet up with this driver. CJP Cotswold Tours. He will drive you in a car and give you a personalized tour. Then drop you at your hotel for the night. If you wanted to spend two nights at one Cotswold village and then move to another village for two nights, he can provide transportation.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g186421-d1847158-Reviews-CJP_Cotswold_Tours-Broadway_Cotswolds_England.html
You can catch the train back to London from Moreton-In-Marsh station.
Not sure if this rail map is different from the ones Dick gave you, but it is a large scale one I had saved on my computer several months ago:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/OfficialNationalRailmaplarge.pdf
I hope some of this info is helpful to you.