Oxford, Cotswolds, Bath, Lacock and Stonehenge

Shouldn't be a problem taking the train from Bath to Paris. There are frequent schedules from Bath to London (Paddington station 1.5 hrs) and Eurostar from London (St. Pancras station 2.6 hrs) to Paris. If there's anyway you can have a car it would really make it a lot easier for the Oxford-Cotswolds-Bath, etc part of your trip. You'll be in the countryside and it's no more difficult driving on the left than driving in L.A. on the right.

Thank you for the train info. Do you think I have to book it from the US? Unfortunately, getting my husband to drive on vacation is not going to happen. I think it would be better for us to go on an guided tour too. I'm in contact with Mad max tours now. Do you know the tour group? We plan to take an early train from Oxford 7/19 to Bath Check in to a hotel for two days in Bath 7/19 Take their Cotswold full day tour 1/20 Take their Stonehenge full day tour 1/21 Leave via train to Paris in afternoon Since they come back to Bath at 5:00ish everyday, do you think that we have enough time to see the Roman Baths and the city? We want to shop and see the Jane Austin museum etc. too. So much to do in Bath. Thanks a lot for your help!
June

Not necessary to prebook the Bath to London train, but you can usually save some money by booking the Eurostar from the U.S.... take a look at eurostar.com Prices vary depending on the time of day you leave & which restrictions you opt for. Bath is very compact so you can see a lot in half a day. I haven't done a Mad Max tour, but they have great reviews. I see they have a half day tour of just Stonehenge & Lacock which would give more time for Bath.

Thanks for your help Tim. I will look into the half day trip.
June

June, Since your husband is reluctant to drive, the Mad Max tours are a great option, especially given the limited time frame. That will give you a brief look at the places you want to see. One comment though. You'll join the tour in one of the main squares in Bath. There are usually several tour buses there at any one time, so you may have to do some enquiring to find Mad Max. When I last toured with them, the Bus wasn't marked. Happy travels!

Thanks for the heads up Ken about inquiring about the mad max tour bus. Can anyone recommend a good hotel in Baths? I think one centrally located would be better since we don't have a car. We are a family of four and I have grown kids. Also, is there a something special we shouldn't miss in Bath? Other than the Roman baths? I heard they have a Jane Austin self guided tour too. Remarkable or favorite restaurants? I'll take all advice!
June

We enjoyed the Bath walks guided tour, from the square by the Baths. I think it takes about 2 hours and is free and well worth it. Of course see the Cathedral (especially notice the front of the church with the angels going up and down to heaven and hell) and I think from what others have said the Museum of Fashion (not sure what it is called) was not worth it. Can you get a bus to Wells which is not that far and we LOVED IT. Can see it on one of Rick's videos and that is why we went there. We stayed at the Henry as recommended by Rick, it was under renovation when we were there and I think it has changed hands. Very central location about 2-3 blocks from train and right in town. It does have lots of stairs no elevator and I seem to remember shared bathrooms but not sure. We thought it was a good value and great breakfast. Get a scone at Sally Lunn. Enjoy.

Thanks Gail! Sounds great and I will get around to looking at that video on Rick Steve's.
June

You might look into Three Abbey Green in Bath. My wife and I have stayed there but I don't know if they have double rooms for four people. A really great stay. Three Abbey Green is about 300' from Sally Lunn's restaurant (as well as the nice French restaurant next door to Sally Lunn's) and about 500' from the Roman Baths and a large pedestrian shopping mall. Three Abbey Green is about 4 blocks from the train station. The Jane Austen museum is about 6 blocks away. I know that one well as my wife is a Jane Austen fan. She was fully outfitted in period costume for the Promonade through Bath 2 years ago for the Jane Austen festival. There were 400 people in period costume. You can do all of your day tours (except Oxford) out of Bath on the Mad Max tours. You may have already seen their website but if not, here's the link: http://www.madmax.abel.co.uk/ Note that there is some Harry Potter stuff at Lacock Abbey. Some of the movie was shot there.

Thanks Larry, I will definitely check into that hotel. My daughter and I love Jane Austin too. We can't wait!
June

June My itinerary is similar to what you are planning only reversed. We will be traveling to Bath from Gatwick Airport when we arrive in the UK. I booked advanced train tickets to Bath for £8.50pp, Bath to Oxford for £7.50pp and Oxford to London for £4.00pp so booking train tickets in advance does save money. We have reservations at Three Abbey Green in Bath which does have family rooms, the B&B is located a few minutes from the Roman Baths and just around the corner from the location that Mad Max Tours picks up. I have booked two tours with Mad Max-the day trip to Cotswolds and the half-day tour to Stonehenge. We will have an additional day in Bath to visit all the local interest though. Have fun planning.

Spelling is really bad but you all who are going to Bath need to walk across the Pultnoy (how bad is that??) bridge, it is great evening stroll.

What site did you use to purchase your tickets? Europetrains?

I booked all the tickets listed on the The First Great Western site. http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/TwoForOneLondon.aspx When you book the tickets they will send or give you a Collection ref: number. When you arrive you will need the credit card you used to book the tickets with, then collect the tickets using the card and collection ref # from the ticket machines at the train stations.
These ticket machines don't require that you have a chip and pin. If you have any trouble you may also take your collection ref # and credit card to the ticket window.

I can tell you that the bus from London to Bath is much less expensive than the train. Just in case you want to save some money on this trip, you might want to check into the bus schedule. My husband and I were on a bike tour of this region just last September. We opted to take the bus over the train. I understand that time wise, it's very close, and the bus was comfortable as well. The bus station in Bath is right next to the train station, taxis are available, and the walk to the center of town isn't bad either! We spend a couple of nights in Bath, pretty much saw everything the first day there. We took the tour of the church, up the bell tower. Went into the Roman Bath building, but didn't pay for the tour, we could see the baths from the bell tower of the church! Better photo from there. Lacock is pretty, but only a couple of streets. The National museum store has some interesting items for purchase. If you have time, don't overlook getting to Avebury. The standing stones there are wonderful, and you can walk everywhere. At Stonehenge, if you have time, or a way to get there, you might look into getting an "inner circle" access one of the mornings (if you can get there at 7AM or before) It is so much nicer to have access to the inside of the circle, and not just stand on the sidewalk with 1,000 other tourists taking pictures of each other! You get to go into the circle with a small group of no more than 26 people and have free range of the site for an hour before it opens to the public. So cool to watch the sun come up through the stones. Just some suggestions....enjoy, and I hope you get more sun than we did in September!

For the best advance priced tickets try and book 12-11 weeks before you travel. What I did was before my date was available I would do test bookings using the same days of the week my dates would be...May 2 is a Tuesday so I would check train times and discounts for Tuesdays. This gave me a good idea when the best rates would be released for my dates. I also did Saturday test bookings because week-ends have fewer trains and have different time schedules. You do know that you should book your Eurostar tickets 120 days in advance for the best rates. I booked mine for about $70.00pp. Your stations will be: London Paddington to Oxford
Oxford to Bath Spa Bath Spa to London Paddington Then once your back in London you will have to take the tube to St-Pancras for your Eurostar train to Paris Nord . Any more questions just ask.

Mad Max from bath is probably the most used tour to Cotswolds and Stonehenge (the tours from London spenc a lot of time travelling, and not much sightseeing in my experience Oxford is so close to Cotswolds. Both Cotswolds and Stonehenge/Avebury/Lacock are most conveniently done by car, and once you are out of Oxford the driving is easy on slow roads. Maybe one of your kids will drive?????????? You wont need much time in Lacock,, really very small village. There are a few services who do personalized car/van tours of Cotswolds from some of the Cotsold towns, but uundoubtedly much more expensive than Mad Max. Check for them on the web. Cotswold Visitors web pages should have them

Brian You stole my thought!!! (Maybe I should try to report the theft when I get to Gare du Nord LOL). Can't anybody else drive? Surely with a family of 4 from LA somebody else must have a license) Oxford is no place for a car but a good place to collect one. Then you can gently potter at your own pace (doesn't have to be fast or far) through Broadway, Bourton-on-the-Water, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter, Bibury, Burford, Stow-on-the-Wold - absolutely your choice. When you see a horse next to the road, or a field of sheep, or Morris Dancers, or a beautiful village, just stop the car and get out. Go at your own pace... not that of the tour bus which needs to keep to a schedule.

The Mad Max tour of the Cotswold is quite OK but to really see the Cotswokd, there is nothing like having a rental car. The train only goes to one village. The buses link the towns but they are not that frequent. Also, we day tripped by car to Oxford and visited Blenheim Palace which is just a few miles short of Oxford on the road coming in.

Even the Griswolds drove a car to Stonehenge! If they can do it, y'all can do it! (hope the stones have been put back by now)

Ok, I will pose the driving idea to my family. Do we pick up a car in Oxford?

Strongly suggest automatic car, not manual. First time driving in Ireland had a manual and had a hard time with shifting using my left hand, went from first to fourth, could not find second and third gear and forget reverse. Next times got automatic and was a world of difference. Don't be afraid of driving on left side of the road. It is not that hard.

"Even the Griswolds drove a car to Stonehenge! If they can do it, y'all can do it! (hope the stones have been put back by now)" Yes, Tim, but it took them quite a while to get there ;-) (BTW, isn't that about the time they put that fence around the stones...)

Oxford's not a bad choice. Just be sure to collect it after you have finished doing everything in Oxford because Oxford is no place to try to park a car. A word to the wise is sufficient. All the major players are in Oxford, a quick google will find them. Ask the counter dude how to get out of town, you will probably want to head towards the A40. A quick primer on road names in England. When you look at the map work out which numbered routes you want and note those down. Except for very local directions don't try to get the street names because they will change frequently. Use the numbered routes for most inter city driving. There are 4 flavours of road in England: M roads, like M40, M5, M4 are similar to Interstates, limited access and high speed. A roads, like the A40 into the Cotswolds are next. They can be 4 or 6 lane limited access or just one lane each way with barely a line to separate. They are the main arteries of commerce. B roads, like the B4040, are much slower, usually, and almost always one lane each way or sometimes just one lane in the middle of the road, especially under narrow bridges.
Unclassified roads are generally country lanes or streets in villages, towns, and cities. Especially on unclassified roads you need to work with oncoming traffic to pass, and to pass parked cars. Driving in England is fun and exhilarating. Just make sure to read up on the rules - you'll have a great time. Once you have pootled around the Cotswolds and down to Lacock you, and your brood, will say what a great time you had.

We enjoyed the Mad Max tour from Bath to Avebury, Stonehedge and Lacock. We were very comfortable in their Mercedes small bus. My husband was SOOOOO happy he was not driving the narrow roads. Our driver often had to pull off the road to let the trucks narrowly get by. We also enjoyed our driver's tales of the areas we were passing. Whether it was Jane Seymore's house or the horse carved into the mountain side. I have been to Bath by train and by bus. IMO, I would never go by bus again. It was a very long trip with many stops.

We used the Grayline Tour Company for our day trips to the Cotswolds, Stonehenge, Windsor, Bath and around London. We used the regular tube to go to Oxford and Cambridge. We stayed in the Kensington area and used Gray Line and the tube for all our day trips. We have used Gray Line in Canada, Boston, New York, Australia, Italy, Paris, Bruges, Switzerland, etc. Elaine, Mission Viejo