I'm planning a 12-day family vacation to the U.K. in August 2009. After four days in London, I had thought about taking a train to Bath, spending two nights there, then renting a car and heading South to the Devon/Cornwall area, and making our way east eventually towards Portsmouth and back to London. But I've read so much about the crowded summer season in Devon/Cornwall, that I'm now thinking about forgetting that and heading to Wales instead. Either taking a train to Cardiff and heading north, or perhaps to Chester of Llandudno and heading south, eventually taking a train back to London. Any thoughts pros or cons either way? THANK YOU!
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Your first alternative (London - Bath - Devon/Cornwall - then working your way back to London) sounds like the better of the two alternatives, but that's just my preference. Those destinations are popular, for a reason: because they are so worth doing. You have plenty of time to book accommodations and get good rates, thereby avoiding one of the problems of August crowds.
Posted by
Atlanta
800 posts
Mark - we did a long trip several years ago with our kids (11 & 13) and visited both Devon/Cornwall and N. Wales. It would be hard for me to say which area we enjoyed most as they were very different from each other. In Devon/Cornwall we enjoyed lots of outdoor activities - fossil hunting along the beach in Lyme Regis, biking in one of the small towns in Devon, surfing lessons in Cornwall, visit to Mount Saint Michaels (English version of Mont St. Michel). We enjoyed meeting Enlish families on vacation and in general really loved it. It was a long drive - we went all the way to Lands End/Penzance but really worth it. It was also relatively warm & sunny.
We also LOVED N. Wales. We hit most of our rainy days here but it was so interesting. We visited several of Edward's castles - we are big time ruined castle fans (as opposed to furnished palaces). We also loved being rather unique - people came up to us at tourist sites, in pubs & restaurants, etc. wanting to know why we were in Wales, what brought us there. It seemed that we were fairly off the beaten track - very different from being in London where you are treated like you would be in any cosmopolitan city. We did not really visit S. Wales and again, going all the way North and then back to London will add travel time. We were able to get return flights out of Manchester so it made a lot of sense to end our trip there.
So - I've really given you pros for both places but hopefully you can decide what would be a welcome addition to your trip - Cool Castles or English Beaches. Either way you can't go wrong.
Posted by
Charlotte, NC, USA
3428 posts
Cardiff and the Snowdonia area are among our favorite places. The train trip from Bath is short and Cardiff is a neat place for 2 or 3 days. You can browse the cool shops in all the old Victoria Arcards, tour the castle- it's right in the middle of town- go out to the harbor, and take a day trip to the slate mines. We stayed in Betwys-y-Coed and loved it. Beatiful walks along streams in unspoiled mt. country!. Take the bus to Snowdonia and do the steam train up the mt.!!! Very peaceful and some of the best food you will have on vacation.
Posted by
Penn Valley, CA
8 posts
We've gone to Penzance, Cornwall for the past summers. We absolutely love it! It is an enchanting place with wonderful people. I would suggest going to Cornwall!