Best way to see England for the first time and not be too busy.

I suggest you get a map and see that your desired locations are not very close together. A single hotel isn't going to work very well. However, trying to do it all in a week is also unreasonable if you don't want to be too busy. Only a true road warrior would try to do your itinerary. London is your obvious "base" and you could spend a week there. Anything less than three days won't be doing it justice. From London, York is about a 2 hour train ride and is certainly worth two days. Salisbury is also a reasonable train ride from London (in the opposite direction) and is possibly worth a day. Personally, it's a good spot to drop given your time limitation. There are van tours from London to Stonehenge if that's your goal. You can get to the Cotswolds by train but a taxi would get you around to the smaller villages. It will take the best part of a day just to get there with public transportation. This is also a desination that could be dropped. If you do go there, it's worth a couple of days to soak up the "country charm."

I agree with Ken that if you're going to stay in just one place for a week, London should be your base, and you could take day trips out by train to visit both Salisbury and York. Though you can't book tickets for June yet, nationalrail.co.uk has a journey planner function that will let you see when trains travel between London and other cities, and give you an idea of how much tickets may cost. We saved a bundle by buying advance tickets whenever possible, but you have to commit to one particular train to do so. We enjoyed the London Vicarage Hotel in Kensington. A double/twin with private bath ran about $200 last fall. I'm sure there are other charming hotels out there also, but you'll probably want to choose one soon. The best thing to do is ask each other what are the top 2 or 3 things you want to see while you're in England and then plan around that. If the Cotswolds are really important to you, then maybe you should stay in Bath for 2 or 3 nights and take a Mad Max tour. Many many years ago I took tours to Salisbury and Stonehenge from Bath, and you could undoubtedly do the same nowadays. However, you probably can't stay in just one hotel, see everything you listed, and not be exhausted. The travel would be just as tiring as changing hotels.

Melinda, How many days in total do you have for this trip, especially the first part when you'll be on your own? Also, have you purchased air tickets yet? As the others have suggested, it would probably be better to use several "home base" locations to visit the places you mentioned. One possibility would be to fly to Manchester and start your trip with a few days in York. The EvenSong Service at York Minster is incredible! From there head to London for a few days and then Bath for a few days (day trips to Salisbury and the Cotwolds). As someone else mentioned, Mad Max Tours would be a good choice for a day tour to the Cotswolds. After that head for Surrey. If you're returning home after visiting your friends in Surrey, Gatwick is reasonably close. Happy travels!

As stated above. London would be a good choice. trains from there to York and Salisbury would work- you definitely dont need cars in York and Salisbury if you are there for a day. however, Cotswolds are impractical and frustrating to try and do by the local (not very many) bus services. There you will need a car- or take a tour from London York is a longish train ride. I would stay overnight

Hi Melinda, We used London as a base for two weeks. The first week we visited outlying areas of England either via train or using local tour companies. Our hotel arranged several day tours for us including Cotswolds, Stonehenge, Bath. We also took day trips via train returning to London each evening. The second week we spent seeing all the sites London has to offer. London has many hotels to offer in all price ranges and a tube station or train station are always nearby. Note the Olympics begin in mid July so you may have to accept higher hotel rates in the summer of 2012.

All of these responses have been most helpful. Thank you for your patience with someone who clearly does not know what they are doing. I would love to also ask for hotel recommendations. I know that is hard because taste are so different. We want clean , of course and safe, full of English charm and convenient. I definitely think we will stay in York for a few days and then also need a hotel in London before staying with our friends in Surrey.