Day trip from London (would you do one?)

Six days is not a lot of days in London. You could comfortably find more than enough activities and sights within the inner tube circle to fill 6 days. However depending on your interests you could consider: Hampton Court ( a long 6-7 hours) reachable easily by train. Stonehenge and Avebury (coach tour or rental car); Canterbury or Winchester (both with interesting Cathedrals and central city sights reachable by train). Kew Gardens (tube), Windsor (train- but not that unique in my opinion)

Natalia... if you've never been before (and ESPECIALLY if you won't be back to Europe anytime soon), Paris is a great day trip from London (and highly recommended by Rick Steves as well)! It's about 2 hours and 15 minutes by train... if you get on a train around 7am and head back around 7pm, you'd have enough time go see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre... Round trip tickets for two people in November cost me 200 dollars total.

I wrote this article for AAA Carolina's "Go!" magazine a few years ago. It is about day trips by train from London. You might find it helpful. Just copy and paste the web address. We've been to London more than 40 times and love using the trains. http://www.aaacarolinas.com/Magazine/2008/Jan-Feb/britain.htm?zip=28105&stateprov=nc&city=matthews

I think Bath is the perfect day trip. It has beautiful Georgian architecture plus fascinating Roman ruins. It's a delight to walk around Bath.

Natalia, It just dawned on me that I didn't really answer your question about whether you should dedicate one day out of your six in London for a day trip. That is a difficult question. With six days you won't come close to seeing everything there is to see in London. I would suggest you rank all the things you would like to do in London and determine how many you can do in six days. Then determine your first choice for a day trip. Compare that day trip to what you would do on a sixth day and London. You also have to consider whether the day trip is worth the extra cost and hassle of getting there. That's something only you can decide. If it were me, I think I'd stay in London, but it would be a close call.

The thing about day trips is that you don't need to commit yourself if you don't want to. So, I say plan to spend all six days in London, but have one or two day trip destinations in your back pocket just in case. Last time I was in London, I took a couple of unscheduled day trips (Oxford and Bath) to escape the wet weather in the city that week. Grab an early train out and the next to last train back (if you miss the very last train, you're stuck.)

re JCs comment- be careful if you come back to London late after a day trip, be sure you have enough time to get Tube to your 'home" station before they stop for the night. After the last tube, taxis seem to get very scarce

York will cost about 100$ and take about 6 hours RT ask your self is 100 and 6 hours the best use of my time and money.. York is neat but with only 6 days in London I would say NO

Try train to Windsor, I think only less than an hour, tour castle/have lunch and be back in London by early evening.

Windsor is a 30 minute train ride from Paddington Station. Thought I should add...there is a train that leaves the Windsor/Eton station every 30 minutes, you change in Slough but there is only 12 minutes until the train leaves for London, so by the time you change platforms you only have to wait a few minutes.

Windsor- however you generally have to wait for the schediuled departure at both Wijdsor and then again at Slough. So total travel time is going to be longer. However i do agree that the travel does not eat up a lot of time

Brighton is a comfortable day trip from London. Well worth the trip

I would definitely recommend a day trip for anything over five days. While taking a day trip will cut down on your sightseeing time in London, it allows you to see a wider scope and, in my opinion more importantly, to relax. London is a busy, bustling city, and that's fantastic. I spent ten days there this summer, and I loved every minute, but my day trip to Bath was delightful because it took me away from that. It was relaxing and light; the change of both scenery and pace was very welcome. When I got back to London, I found myself completely refreshed and just as excited as I had been on my first day there. It kept me from imagining myself "sick" of London as if! and brought a new appreciation for the city. Where you go depends on what you want to see. The English countryside is breathtaking. Bath was wonderful, but I would consider Stonehenge as well because it's such a historic place. Look into Windsor, York, and Canterbury and see what appeals to you the most.

I think Bath and Oxford are the most natural day trips from London. Oxford has a bus that's easy and cheap. Bath is a great place and worth a visit. If you are really ambitious you can probably do Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral in a day. If so, I'd leave to get to Stonehenge at opening, visit Salibury for an hour or two and spend the rest of my time at Bath.

I think it depends on how much in love with London you are. If you have listed the places you really want to visit and reckon you can do them in 5 days then by all means take a day trip. For me, my choices for a day trip would be Windsor, Dover or a relaxing day at Kew.

If you have never been to the UK, a day trip from London would be worth it. Check Britshrinkers for great day trips. Years ago, I did a Bath, Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge day trip. I am glad I did it. When I returned to the UK I spent extra days in Bath as I fell in love with it. London --- there is so much to see and I have probably spent 11-12 days in London and still haven't seen it all.

I think if you've never been to London before, ever, then leaving it for even one day can be a really difficult decision when your time is so limited. There is WAY too much to do, and I always leave one day for utter exhaustion when all I want to do is take high tea somewhere nice and see a play. I don't want to be 'over-booked,' otherwise, it's not a vacation, it's a forced march. :-) However, if you find you're not in love with London, and that does happen, I feel like that now after spending 3 weeks there some years ago, Bath is simply wonderful and MUST be seen at some point in your life! There is a lovely little costume museum there and of course, the Bath tea rooms, where you can listen to the tinkle of the Bath fountain of mineral water at the same time a pianist plays delicately in the background. Very nice. Oxford has its own charms, but I think probably it's a niche destination, pretty much best for people who are really into literature and education. Brighton is delightful, a lot of fun, and best when it's warm enough to appreciate the sea. Stonehenge is very interesting, but Avebury is better, although I don't know if you can get to Avebury easily; I just don't remember. Worth finding out.

I may come in for a bit of flack here but Liverpool is only a 2hr train journey away! :) It has great free museums, great shopping, great cathedrals, brilliant architecture and of course The Beatles. If you do decide to head North then seriously consider NOT taking the train on a Sunday (Engineering works tend to slow things down a lot) and book well in advance (My family and I have often taken the day trip in the opposite direction and managed to get 1st class rail tkts for a great discount) 1st class entitles you to use of the First Class lounge in Euston London, the first class room at Lime Street Station in liverpool and something to eat and drink served to you on board the train. That said, (I agree with other posters' comments here) if it is your first time in London then you may find yourself not wanting to go anywhere else anyway. Have a great time no matter what you decide to do!

Re Avebury: Avebury is very easy (and a short distance) to get to from Stonehenge by car- together they make a great trip. Neither is convenient by public transportation, however a number of the tour companies do tours to the two locations. depoends whether you want to have flexibility on your day trip.

I'd day trip either Paris, which we did and is doable or Bath. If you did Bath, look up MadMax and join them for their all day tour of Stonehenge, Avesbury, Castle Coombs and another cute Cotswold stop for lunch that I'm blanking on the name right now. It allows you to see a lot and is easily walking distance from the train station. They'll even drop you off back at the train station if you ask. They have a great website and are one of the best tours we've ever done.

I would definitely plan a day trip. Even though you won't run out of things to do in London, it's great to get out of the city and experience something different. We did the day trip to Parisdoable but hectic. We did the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame (the surrounding area was even better), Louevre (barely had any time there), then walked to the Arc d'Triomphe (farther away from the Louevre than it looks!). I wouldn't recommend visiting Paris that way unless you really don't think you'll ever have another chance to get to Paris. I highly recommend the trip to Windsor, which is more like a half-day trip. Bath is awesome, but we went there first and spent two nights as opposed to doing a day trip from London. On our way to London we stopped at Salisbury Cathedral (not as exciting as I'd hoped except for the Magna Carta), Stonehenge (breathtakingly awesome), and Avebury (a nice visit but I must disagree with those who think it's better than Stonehenge). Having spent several great days in London, we are so glad that we got to experience the small-town feels of Bath and Windsor.