Twelve days in the UK. First time there.

When we went when our daughter was 16, we also went to Bath, the Cotswolds, and Brighton.

Thank you, sawyerrn. The Cotswolds look like the “village” area we may like.

The Fashion Museum in Bath is excellent.

Bath was a possibility. Wasn’t sure whether she would be interested, but the museum may do it.

I wouldn't include Ireland on this trip as to me if would be half a day to get there even though the flight is short you have to get to airport, customs etc j would consider four days in Edinburgh by train which is a great experience in my opinion.

I too agree that you don’t have time for Ireland. Your first day and maybe more is likely to be lost to jet lag, assuming you are arriving transatlantic rather than from Europe. Take one of the London Walks to keep you awake and outdoors the first day. The last thing you are going to want on your first day is an evening ghost walk.

Three nights means only two days, so you will have to be very selective about what you see in London, unless you add a few days at the end. It sounds like you are flying out of London, so you would need to spend your last night there. London is the best place for fashion fixes.

You are arriving during the Platinum Jubilee weekend, so there maybe changes to travel etc.

There is an extensive rail network, but it’s not great for rural areas and many routes are London-centric, making circular trips more challenging. I would try to plan a route that minimises the time spent in travel, unless you have a burning desire to see a particular place. Bath and The Cotswolds (which really need a car or tour to see properly) are easy to get to from London by a direct train, but if you are heading north (Lake District for Beatrix Potter), it will take about 6 hours door to door and involve getting 4 different trains with the stress that is involved in making all the connections.

I would take the train to York and stay for 3 nights. Visit the Minster, the Railway Museum, walk the old walls and take a tour one day. Look at Mountain Goat for suggestions - they are long established. Their North York Moors and Whitby tour would give you stunning scenery, villages, coast, history and fantastic fish and chips all in a day!

Take the train to Oxenhope (for the Lake District) and stay 3 nights in Keswick or the Windermere area. Mountain Goat trips would be a great way to get around here too if you don’t want to hire a car.

Head back to London for your final 3 nights.

Hey Jennifer, you made the mistake I always have to stop myself making, so I’m glad it’s not just me. It’s Oxenholme for Kendal and the Lakes and Oxenhope for the Yorkshire Moors and the Brontes!

For information on rail travel in the UK including how to book tickets from abroad suggest you consult www.seat61.com
From this you will see you can save considerable amounts of money buying Advance Single Tickets on longer journeys. However with these tickets you have to travel on booked trains

Hi arottingen -

I think you need to choose between the Cotswolds and the Lakes on a comparatively short trip, one or the other but probably not both. Both contain attractive towns and villages but their appearances are different largely due to geology. It’s a generalisation, but The Cotswolds are built chiefly of honey coloured limestone, while the Lakes construction favours grey/green slate.

If wanting to check out Beatrix Potter sites the main one is Hill Top at Sawrey above the western shore of Windermere (the lake). If you’ve not booked accommodation already then Hawkshead, Windermere and Ambleside, maybe even Coniston may prove to be the best locations, but be advised public transport (buses) can be patchy as it is in many rural areas.

Where you choose to visit may be determined by what accommodation is available and where.

As a Yorkshireman, I have to say that Jennifer’s suggestion of York with day trips into the countryside from there is an excellent one! Good connections to and from London too.

Ian

Suggest visits to Windsor Castle, Oxford, Bath or Canterbury.
Stonehenge is another, you can do Windsor Castle and Stonehenge in one day.

The Cotswolds are great, but you need a rental car.

Wow! Lots to think about. It’s difficult doing this from the U.S. Sounds like it would be difficult to do cotswolds and the lakes, both. Didn’t realize the Cotswolds weren’t doable without a car. Not sure I want to brave that. I feel like maybe we should focus on 4 main areas and take more time in each. Yikes!

Thanks for all of the great tips.

Your daughter can drink beer cider or wine with a meal in a pub if bought by you

Well, there’s that.

Couple of thoughts. Stay in England. Add more time to London.

Libraries and Bookstores:

British Library a must then cross the canal and wander over to Granary Square to enjoy a meal at Dishoom. Dbl check if reservations needed.

Train to the Richmond neighborhood it will provide the village atmosphere. Visit the childrens bookstore The Alligators Mouth on Church Court Then enjoy lunch at The adjacent Angel and Crown pub.

If fans of Ted Lasso you can walk through the Richmond Green to see the pub some scenes were filmed at. OR walk to the Thames and walk along the Thames Path. Have a meal at the White Cross pub.

Liberia Bookstore Brick Lane is worth a visit.

Daunts is a bookstore chain.

The Charing Cross neighborhood was once famous for mom and pop bookstores but chain bookstores ruined that reality.

As far as fashion the Museum of Design in Holland Park might be of interest. Also the V & A museum.
https://nymag.com/urbanist/the-fashion-insiders-guide-to-shopping-in-london.html

And just because definitely visit the women’s shoe section in Selfridges. Also don’t miss Liberty.
There’s also Carnaby Street and Fridays at Portobello Market.

Great city to explore. Enjoy the Richmond neighborhood too.

Two places for fashion jump to my mind - the V&A museum (free) has an absolutely world beating collection of fashion. You could leave your daughter in there for a week and she wouldn't get half way through. Check their website. https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion

Also, depending on what the current exhibit is - Kensington Palace - where Queen Victoria and Princess Diana lived. The gang there do exquisite fashion exhibits, as long as your daughter wouldn't mind a little jewelry thrown in....
https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/ I see that exhibit when you are here will be the Royal Family through a lens.

It's extremely challenging to visit much of the Cotswolds efficiently without a car when you have very limited time. Bus service is thin, and it's difficult to link small towns to each other to cover multiple places on one day. I opted to take a one-day, small-group (van) tour and was very satisfied with it. There are multiple companies running tours. MadMax operates from Bath. I joined my GoCotswolds tour at the train station in the small town of Moreton-in-Marsh, but the tour also picks people up at the Stratford-upon-Avon train station and the Chipping Campden bus stop. Moreton-in-Marsh is a short train ride from Oxford, so I was able to treat the Cotswolds tour as a day trip from Oxford. I consider the £50 price (not including train from Oxford) for a full-day tour extremely reasonable. The tour worked well to give me a look at the pretty country side and multiple villages. You'll be buying your own lunch in one of the villages unless you pack something along with you to allow more walking-around time.

Those who dream of doing village-to-village hikes would need to allow extra days and explore public-bus schedules if they are unwilling to rent a car.

Thanks for all of the amazing ideas, especially fashion and libraries. Thinking maybe we should just stay in England and not rush it. Thoughts on Bath? Would that be a place to do day trips or a tour from?

What about day trips from York? Just trying to get different views of England (a small sample platter).

Thx everyone! Love this forum!

When she was in college, our daughter really wanted to take a day trip from London to Brighton because she was following a blogger there. It's a pebbly beach but it is a beach. It's easy to do with public transportation. Durham is a college town near York and has a nice walking path along the river. The cathedral there has a section, I think the cloisters, that was in Harry Potter movie. In my opinion, the best way to see the Cotswolds without a car is to take a Mad Max tour from Bath.

Thank you, Cala.

I definitely agree with stay in England. I’m not much of a fan of Bath or the Cotswolds, I definitely like the north of England and agree with the York suggestion. Chester is also a possible day trip in the north of England, although it’s somewhat similar to York. I don’t know anything about fashion, but Manchester has definitely played a role in history from the industrial revolution to the 80s new wave scene. It might be worth a look and also possible as a day trip from York.

Wonder if it’s possible to do both: Bath and York.

oh, and Carnaby Street. Before your time (not mine) perhaps, and certainly way before somebody born this century, but loads of history there and of course immediately adjacent to Liberty. The fabrics in Liberty!!! (tell her you left your purse at home).

York is 2 hours by train from Kings Cross. Bath is about and hour and a half by train from Paddington Station. Whitsable on the coast about 1.5 train ride Victoria Station.

Depends on your interests. Roman Baths or The Shambles in York.

Know that different London neighborhoods have different looks. Richmond differs from Brick Lane.
Chelsea differs from Fulham. Westminster is different from SoHo. Highgate different from Brixton. All neighborhoods reachable by the Tube.

I took my twin girls to London when they were 10. I highly recommend finding a "home base" B&B in London and doing day trips from there. The Celtic Hotel is in a great location, is very affordable and has a lovely landlady. The V&A, British Museum, Tate Britain (great Pre-Raphaelite collection), British Library (original Beatles lyric sheets), the Dennis Severs Museum (eccentric, immersive experience, candlelight visits on Friday evenings), sailing down the Thames on the Clipper water taxi, Westminster (free organ concerts on Sundays, Evensong & church services also free and very atmospheric), all wonderful. Maybe see a play? Oh, the Tower of London moat has been planted with millions of wildflowers to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee (they're calling it the "Superbloom.") That should be something to see! It's free to walk around the Tower Hill pedestrian path to see the flowers but you must book a ticket to do so.

When we stayed in Bath, we took the Mad Max mini-van tour of Stonehenge, Avebury and Cotswold Villages (which included seeing crop circles and trying out dowsing sticks!) which they're still offering 20 years later (£60 each, a bargain.) They also do full-day tours of either the Villages or Stonehenge (including special entry after the site is closed to the public, during the sunset!) Comfy 12-person vans, funny and knowledgeable commentary, no driving by you required (and you can sleep on the way home. :-)

A couple of days in Edinburgh is totally worthwhile. The train ride from London is about four and a half hours and is a beautiful journey. Do the "Water of Leith" walk and you'll pass by Dean and Stockton Villages, some of Edinburgh's original settlements and definitely "village-y." Rosslyn Chapel (featured in "The Da Vinci Code") is an easy bus ride. Edinburgh is your best bet for a nighttime ghost tour!

My family is visiting London and Scotland in June this year. I'm seeing a lot of sights are advising pre-booking. Seems like they're expecting a busy summer! Wonder what others here think about that. Do you recommend making reservations to busy sights ahead of time?

I definitely think you could do both Bath and York in that time. We took the train from Durham to Bath without returning to London and it was a little tricky because we missed our train connection(I don't remember in which town) and had to wait awhile but a train employee was very helpful to us in knowing what to do.

Thanks, Jean and Cala. Will definitely look into MadMax. I was wondering about preordering as well, Jean. My daughter wants to go to Kew Gardens. Is that the kind of place you need to book a time for now?

Only have 3 nights booked in London, so as of the 7th, we will need to relocate. Was thinking of looking in Bath. Eventually, we’ll be back in London, so will need to look for a new place.

If you'd like to go to Kew Gardens, the ticket page is at https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/visit-kew-gardens/tickets

If you buy Advance tickets at least 2 days prior to the visit you can save around £5 on tickets. If you daughter has a University card she can save quite a lot - the youth tickets require either a NUS card (National Union of Students) so a US high school card not likely accepted, or a University card.

The next to last stop on the Richmond branch of the District tube line is Kew, and just a 5 minute walk from the Victoria Gate (the main entrance).

Nigel, I saw the ticket site. Was wondering if I could wait until we are in London to book, or if I need to book sooner. Noticed there were time slots. Just didn’t want to lock in a time so early.

How fast do they fill?

unlikely you will have any problem unless we go into lockdown again in which case we all have a problem.

2 days ahead gets the discount, I might do 2 or 3 ahead... you'll want to watch the weather. If the Fiver each doesn't much matter just rock up on the day but there are often queues for the ticket windows.

What I'm saying is it shouldn't be a cause for worry

Twelve days isn't a lot of time. We did what one B&B host called the "Traditional American Tour": London, York, Stratford, Bath, and home. We did day trips (Mad Max) from Bath to Stonehenge and a few Cotswold villages. But that was in 14 days. Not sure 12 would give much time for day trips.

The city of York itself should occupy you for a couple of days at least. However you can get bus tours from York into the surrounding countryside - into the North Yorks Moors and to the east coast, the northern Yorkshire Dales or the more southerly moors which take in Haworth and the Brontes, for instance. While never having taken a bus tour (they are small sixteen seat ‘van’ affairs - I think that’s the correct terminology) because I live in the area, a quick search I did on a similar subject on another thread turned up Mountain Goat, Bob’s Holidays and Grand Yorkshire Tours. What is available depends on the day of the week you choose to go. Give them a look up and see if there’s anything that floats your boat, but ‘caveat emptor’!

Important for you to know: You are arriving in the middle of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Weekend which includes Bank Holidays.
London will be incredibly crowded during this time--more so than usual.
There are many events planned and huge crowds of people coming to London to see these; from all over the UK, Europe, & America.

During this weekend and the days immediately afterwards, the usual tourist sights in London will be so full it may be impossible to enjoy them. These sights which get crowded include: The British Museum, The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Rooms, The V&A Museum, and more. My husband and I once made the mistake of going to the British Museum on a Bank Holiday weekend. There were so many people in the Egyptian rooms, they were mashed up against the large display cases' glass like smashed bugs on a windshield, with crowds shoulder-to-shoulder pressing up behind them. Miserable. There was no point in being there, so we left.

In short, if you are landing at Heathrow on June 4, 2022, you should think SEROUSLY about going somewhere other than London directly from the airport.
If you, however, already know about this Queen's Platinum Jubilee plus Bank Holiday weekend, and are planning on mixing in with the crowds to get a look at things, well, it's your trip.

Queen's Platinum Jubilee 2022: Dates, Events, etc.:
https://www.countryliving.com/uk/news/a36604880/extra-bank-holiday-in-2022-queen-platinum-jubilee/
From the above article:
"When is the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday?
There will be a four-day bank holiday weekend from Thursday 2nd June to Sunday 5th June 2022, meaning Brits will be given two days off work to celebrate the Queen's 70 years of service.
The late May bank holiday will be moved to Thursday 2nd June 2022 and the new, additional bank holiday will be on Friday 3rd June.
There are a series of celebrations planned for the new four-day bank holiday weekend."

To read more about this and the events, see the official websites of the government and the Royal family:
https://platinumjubilee.gov.uk/
https://platinumjubilee.royal.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_Jubilee_of_Elizabeth_II

It is very easy to get on a bus at one of the bus stations within Heathrow Airport.
You could go to many places directly from Heathrow and leave London for later in the trip.

To continue on with what I said above.......
It is very easy to get on a bus at one of the bus stations within Heathrow Airport.
You could go to many places directly from Heathrow and leave London for later in the trip.
That's what I'd do!
And I've been to England and to London many times.
My advice is to save London for later in your trip, when it's not as crowded.
Back to the subject of the bus......

We landed at Heathrow (early in the morning) a couple of years ago, and took the bus (coach) from there to Bath.
You can just follow the signs in Heathrow that point down the hall, saying "Bus /Coach Station".
Walk up to the window with the attendant to buy your ticket.......to just about anywhere.
(Bus tickets are CHEAP compared to the train; at walk-up prices, especially.)
We bought our tickets to Bath, boarded the bus, and were there in about 2 hours.
The bus has comfy seats, WiFi, and when we traveled there were only two other travelers on the bus.

We arrived in Bath. The bus and train station are in the same location.
We walked to our hotel and were there in time to drop our bags and head out for lunch.
You could spend several nights in Bath.
It's a great place to walk around and see the lovely architecture.
Great shopping too! Lovely clothing stores. Lots of cafes and good restaurants.

On the second day, you could head out on one of the Mad Max Tours mentioned already by others.
(They're very popular here on the Forum.)
Have a look: https://www.madmaxtours.co.uk/

After 2 to 3 nights in Bath, you can take the train to another destination.

OR.....You could choose many other destinations when taking the bus from Heathrow.

You could go to Oxford, and stay there a couple of days.
Then onward to the Cotswolds, which are a short distance from Oxford.
You could take the train from Oxford to Stratford-Upon-Avon for a couple of days.
You could take the "Go Cotswolds" tour from Stratford-Upon-Avon on one of the days you are there.
We have taken this tour more than once and love it!

Take a look. You want the "Cotswolds In A Day" tour:
https://www.gocotswolds.co.uk/tours/
They pick up from locations other than Stratford-Upon-Avon, too.

In short, I myself would stay clear of London during the crowded Bank Holiday Weekend and Queen's Celebration.
You could make out a schedule in which you put London in the middle of your time in England.
From London, you could catch the train north to York and spend several days there.

I would be changing your London hotel reservation immediately, if you wish to escape the Bank Holiday Weekend and Queen's Celebration crowds.
I hope this is helpful.

Thanks, Rebecca
Will consider this. Was hoping it wouldn’t be too crazy, but sounds like it may. Will discuss this with my daughter.

I’m glad to hear that the bus is a good option. Had planned on the train. Any accommodation recs for Bath. We have tour booked to Cotswolds.

The Abbey Hotel Bath, on North Parade.
https://www.abbeyhotelbath.co.uk/gallery/
This hotel faces the square where Mad Max Tours picks up.
A short walk from the bus/train station.

The Abbey Hotel is in an older building with lots of character.
The two below are modern hotels, no character, but have clean, comfy beds at a good price.

Hampton by Hilton Bath City, on Avon St.
Premier Inn Bath City Centre, St. James Parade St.
Both are a short walk up St. James Parade St. from the bus/train station.

Restaurant recommendation is The Scallop Shell.
Great place for fish and chips.

About changing your London hotel reservation.....before cancelling the one you have, check to make sure you can find a decent price at your chosen hotel for another time in your vacation.

Best to make out an itinerary/schedule including other places you want to go during your visit, so you might know when to make new reservations for London.