England/ Ireland in Sept 2012, Olympic hangover effect?!?

I'm somewhat in the same Olympic-dilemma boat as you, Janelle. But I'm pre- and you are post-. I'm taking a cruise from a port near London, which ends about 3-4 weeks before the games begin. I'm afraid that prices next year will be high by late spring and probably not go down. . . maybe ever. So I'm giving serious thought to skipping London (which I love), spending a couple of days before and after in other places (Oxford, Colchester maybe) and then Belgium and Holland for a week instead of London. I like your husband's idea of Italy. September is a good time to go, early October is even better. I learned about 4 phrases in Italian (greetings for a.m. and p.m. and please/thanks). If you start with those, the Italians are usually quite happy to speak to you in English. Once you are in a plane, it's not that much farther to Italy than to London. Two weeks in Italy sounds awfully good to me.

If you stay in Bath or some other town within a couple of hours of London, you can daytrip into London to visit Buckingham Palace. Windsor might be a good place to stay; then you can visit Windsor Palace as well.

Have you considered Wales and/or Scotland? Or maybe Ireland? No language barrier, and both Wales and Scotland are sell served by the British train system. If you go in Sept. you'll avoid most of the "Festival" crowding and price hikes in Edinburgh (August is Festival month).

Hi Janelle, my husband and I are planning a trip to England in September of 2012 as well. I hadn't even considered there being that "hangover effect" from the Olympic games! We were thinking of flying in to London around the middle of September and then from there traveling up to Scotland for a few days before flying home. We might postpone until October. We were in London in Oct. 2009 and the weather was great. I was hoping to see some gardens in bloom, though. My husband would LOVE to go to Italy, but I'm kind of wary of the language barrier also. Anyone else have ideas on the tourist activity post 2012 Olympics?

@ Cindy especially- what about starting in Scotland and ending in London? That gives London a bit longer to "clear out" after the Olympics, but gets you over there in time to catch (maybe) some fall garden splendor. With Scotland on the same latidtude as northern Canada, fall starts early and winter can set in very early. It is still beautiful- we used to go late Nov/early Dec- but often less fall-like and more winter-like than you'd expect. The Gulf stream does help warm the UK, they it is still pretty far north!!!

I know that London and Bath seem to be the big attractions when it comes to visiting the UK but personally I would avoid London at all costs any time around the Olympics. Have you ever thought about Gloucestershire way? The Forest of Dean and Wye Valley are spectacular places. Some very lovely hotels and B&B's and well away from the London madness and expense. It's also convenient to Bath and Bristol as well as a short hop across the border to Wales. Castles and history galore. Oxford is probably the same distance as it is from London and the Cotswolds are on your doorstep. It's also well served by the M5 and M6 and trips to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool are convenient with the Black Country, home of the Industrial Revolution full of interesting sights and museums. Heading south you have the spectacular national parks of Exmoor and Dartmoor plus the fantastic coastline and charming villages of Devon and Cornwall. So much to see and do that unfortunately gets overlooked by the big draw of London.

I wanted to post this interesting article in The Economist regarding the upcoming Olympics:
http://www.economist.com/node/21538203