We will be traveling to the UK for approx 12 days in early October. Our son & his wife will be residing near Falmouth and we want to visit them the first week, and explore their surrounding areas (perhaps Penzance, Lands' End, the coastal areas) during this time. We have an "8 day in a 1 month" period flexible rail pass that will take us from London to their area and back. No rental car in the plans (yet, unless needed for areas outside of the rail system). We hope to explore Devon/Cornwall regions, hoping that Dartmoor National Park is something for us - we all like the outdoors, hiking, exploring. Rick Steves' video also refers to a part of the area as a comparable Stonehenge. On the train return to London, we thought we'd explore Bath, and saw good ideas about Avebury, Salisbury, etc. We have been to the Cotswolds, however it's been 30 years. Not sure about seeing Stonehenge, as we keep seeing how "touristy" it's become. As they'll be residing in the UK for the next 2-3 years, this is our first trip to "get our feet wet" - therefore, we will only be spending overnights in London for incoming/outgoing flights. Also spent a good amount of time in London 30 years ago.
Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated - routes, places, things to see/do, accommodations, restaurants, etc. Thank you so much!
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11805 posts
We spent 3 weeks in Wales and the Salisbury area this spring so a couple of thoughts.
I was worried Stonehenge would be madness, but we went early, arrived before it opened and got on one of the first shuttle buses of the day. It was a magnificent day weather wise and a stunning experience. I am so glad we went. The museum was good, too, but by 11 am it was getting to madhouse-state and we headed to Avebury by car, also well worth the time. Made for a full-ish day and you might consider getting a car if only for that day’s activities. We are car-averse when traveling but our companions insisted on one and in this situation was absolutely the efficient choice. BTW, we were based in Salisbury and that is a town worth exploring. Be sure to take the City Walking Tour sponsored by the tourist office. Only £6 and a small group. Bath was nuts and driving/parking there a bad idea. Awful traffic both going in and leaving. If we went there again, I would take a bus.
Posted by
St. Petersburg, FL
146 posts
We recently returned from a 4 week trip in Southern England/Cornwall/Cotswolds. In the Cornwall area - we spent 5 nights in an awesome airbnb in Feock and then 3 nights in Cracking Haven. Both were excellent bases for exploring. In the Penzance area we especially enjoyed Lizard Point (2 very nice restaurants with awesome views of the coast) with walking trails that you can spend hours walking the coastline. There are several coastal towns with walking trails that can keep you consumed. In particular we enjoyed Port Issac both being Doc Martin fans but it is also a great base for costal walking. Rick’s southern England tour gives you some good suggestions. We also joined the national trust as well as English heritage and both have lovely properties to explore both in Cornwall as well as the Cotswolds.
We did Stonehenge this trip. We had been to Avebury (highly recommended) twice before. We booked tickets on line for Stonehenge that we turned into tickets at the site in a very short line. Tickets were free for both National trust and english heritage. We did not take the shuttle but walked to the site and back. We found that the way it is now structured you can get pics of the stones with no other tourists in some of the views as you walk around the stones. I thought it was well done and better than we expected. If you book ahead they do have evening hours where you can enter the interior. We were not able to book those and to be honest no sure it would have been worth the extra time. Our favorite property in the area is stourhead. Particularly lovely in the spring with the Rhododendrons and azaleas.
We did had a car for our trip and found driving in Cornwall/Cotswolds somewhat challenging with the one lane two way roads as we stayed in small out of the way villages . My husband did get the hang of the pull outs where you had a chance. We spend 8 nights in the Cotswolds (our first trip back in 30 years) and then 4 nights in Cambridge as we had lived/worked there for a summer 15 years ago.
We throughly enjoyed our trip and found everyone very friendly particularly in the small town pubs. Given the exchange rate - it is a great time to visit., Enjoy your trip!!
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14862 posts
I did a Road Scholar program in Cornwall a few years ago and we stayed in Falmouth for 6 nights. What a neat town! LOTS of restaurants! A neat fortified castle, plus you can take the frequent ferry across the mouth of the River Fal to St Mawes to see it's companion fortification and cool little village.
If you have a car, I'd also recommend the Chysauster Ancient Village - an Iron Age Village with terrific docents but you need a small car to get up the teeny lane to it!
There are lots of stone circles and alignments in the whole area. I don't remember which ones Rick shows. On a Rick Steves tour our guide took us to an alignment in the Dartmoor National Park that was pretty cool along with the Clapper Bridge near Post Bridge. On the FB page for The Megalithic Portal their banner picture is the one we went to in Dartmoor - very neat alignment ending in a small stone circle. On the Road Scholar tour we went to the Hurlers Stone Circle which would be fairly easy to find and is near the touristy Jamaica Inn of Daphne du Maurier fame and also near the feature called the Cheesewring. Do a google search on Neolithic sites in Cornwall and Devon and you'll get scores of ideas.
There are many small harbor towns near Falmouth. Besides St Mawes I particularly liked Mevagissey, Fowey, Charlestown and on the other side of the peninsula, Boscastle. We were to take a ferry from Fowey across the river mouth to Polruan but it was the tail end of US hurricane Ophelia that had blown around and it was too rough to go.
What a wonderful opportunity! Yea for the son!
Posted by
3124 posts
Falmouth is not far from St. Michael's Mount, which I highly recommend. You can get there by public transport if you prefer not to rent a car. https://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/
Posted by
8355 posts
We did a great 28 day drive tour of S. Wales and England in 2017. Here is my review:
https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=599139
We are planning, in the next couple of years to spend about a week in Devon and Cornwall.
We will probably take the train to Plymouth or Exeter then rent a car.