8 Days in London and ?

You could really see a lot and quite a bit of variety by staying in London (as you say, tons to see ) and maybe taking a couple of one or two day trips by train to nearby areas- Canterbury. Salisbury, Sonehenge/Avebury. Cambridge (sounds like you need to go back). Unfortunately to truly experience the countryside (eg Cotswolds) you need a car, although you could pick a country town and just spend a couple of days there. For example richmond (on thames) Windsor, Tenterden. On our last trip to London (about 10 days) we stayed in two separate and very different hotels for 5 days each- to experience different parts of the city.

I highly recommend 5 or 6 nights in London and the remaining time in York. So far in my journeys (4 trips to Britain altogether) they are my favorite cities and work well together. Where London is giant and spread out, York is small and confined within old town wall. Both places are endlessly fascinating.

We have been to the uK more than 40 times. I really enjoy basing in London and doing day trips. Your time is about perfect for that. You can plan a trip about every 2nd or 3rd day and see a lot of different parts of the UK. I wrote an article for AAA Carolina's "Go!" magazine about doing just that a few years ago. You might find it helpful. The webaddress is : http://www.aaacarolinas.com/Magazine/2008/Jan-Feb/britain.htm?zip=28208 Dover would make an especially good trip for you- WWII and Castles in one!! Cardiff is also a favorite of mine - good shopping, as is York- history and shopping.
Feel free to conatact me by private message if you have questions.

While in London, for WWII history, we enjoy the Imperial War Museum, free and Churchill Cabinet War Rooms, fee to get in. There is a ton to see & do in London. Day trips are easy and the suggestions on here are all good. One other thought for scenery and ease is Madmax tours out of Bath as a way to see Lacock, Castle Combs, Avesbury, & Stonehenge. Can't say enough about what a good tour we had with Madmax and the knowledge shared by our guide and the amount of things we covered that we could not have done so on our own as efficiently. On our tour, people trained in to Bath from London, walked a few minutes to the meeting spot for the Madmax tour and then trained back to London at the end of the tour. We were staying in Bath, but I thought day tripping it was easily doable for this tour and worth it.

Thanks for the replies. I'll be in full research mode this weekend. I'm not too much into organized tours since I like to freelance but the Mad Max tours do look interesting. I think, just from the photos, I'm hooked on Bibury. For anyone who has done the full day tour can you explain how lunch is handled? Do you have the freedom to from a range of restaurants or is everyone taken to one specific location? Thanks.

I have not done the Mad Max tour. However, there is not much choice in most of the smaller villages for a bus load. I also would suggest that if you are enthused about a particular village (eg Bibury) find out in advance whether your tour will cover it

The biggest advantage to staying in London and daytripping is that you need to pack and unpack only once. WWII: The RAF museum Castle: Hampton Court Nature: Take the boat from Westminster to Hampton Court Something different: Take the sleeper train to Fort William, Scotland. The Jacobite Steam Train (Ft. William to Mallaig) is the real Hogwart's Express.
The 84 mile R/T journey is really an experience. From one of the stops, you can see all the small isles, including the Isle of Skye.

Richard I'm not drumming up business for my home town (honest!) but you could do worse than a couple of nights in Brighton. You can get directly back from Gatwick from here and while here there is the Royal Pavilion, surely England's wackiest palace http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/RoyalPavilion/Pages/home.aspx You can also get easy train rides along the coast to Arundel Castle http://www.arundelcastle.org/_pages/03_visitor_info.htm and to Hastings for a visit to Battle Abbey http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/1066-battle-of-hastings-abbey-and-battlefield/ Have a great trip wherever you go. Alan

My husband & I are not into organized tours either, but Madmax gave us a different insight to how they can be neat. We actually decided to do the tour the night before and called and there was room on our first trip. Read the reviews at Tripadvisor as I did before we left. We toured in 2008 & 2009. They keep groups small and gave so much information on the bus that we liked it. We've done the Cotswolds all day tour and Lacock, Castle Combs, Avesbury, & Stonehenge tour, all day. We stopped at a village and you were free to go where you wanted to eat, but they streamlined the service where they suggested, so ate faster and had time to explore the town we were in. We sat in our own group, not with others and enjoyed the restaurant on the Cotswolds tour very much. Food had great flavor, even the cooked carrots & peas. :) The tour that includes Lacock, Castle Combs, Avesbury, & Stonehenge was an o.k. restaurant, food didn't taste bad, but it wasn't like oh that was so good when can I eat here again. Oh, one more thing, on our own, for our first time there, I don't see how we could have covered as many sights that the Lacock, Castle Combs, Avesbury, & Stonehenge as well as sights along the way in the short amount of time we had in Bath. If we were to go back now and plan more time in the Cotswolds, we talk about walking between the towns and staying at different B&B's along the way. The towns are so cute! I loved seeing Bibury. It is good advise to check and see what towns they are stopping at for the Cotswold tour as they do vary from what our guide said.