We will be visiting Bath during the Jane Austen Festival. We would like to visit Chawton Cottage. Any suggestions on how to get there without driving. Suggestions for Bath area are "must see" sites.
Posted by
XXX
1170 posts
May I ask you when this even is to take place? We will be there in mid-May.
Posted by
Nottingham, UK
658 posts
Chawton is a royal pain to try and get to unless you drive there.
Using public transport you have to take the train to Basingstoke ( a concrete slum of staggering ugliness ). Then you wait in the bus station, trying to avoid the drunks, druggies and psychiatrically ill and catch a 'Hants and Wilts' bus to Alton. It takes forever. In Alton you have a choice of either a local bus to Chawton or an overpriced taxi ride.
You arrive at JA's house and with any luck it will be open to the public on the day you arrive ( don't bet on it ). You have a pleasant walk around the house, buy a few overpriced souveniers from an assistant who treats you with all the courteousy we normally reserve for cat vomit and then you try to make your way back home.
Maybe a bus will get you back to Basingstoke in time for your train and maybe it won't. If not you can take part in the local sport of ripping-off American tourists with over priced taxi fares.
On the other hand Bath is beautiful.