lirazel | (no subject)

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Hello British friends slash friends who are very familiar with Britain!

I am planning a trip for me and my parents to visit the UK next May. (Basically: I do all the planning/booking/etc. and they take me along. Which is a really good deal for me!) This was the trip that they were going to take to visit me while I was in grad school but then Covid Happened.

I had been inclined to take them to York because I know they'd like that, but with the distance (which is tiny by American standards tbh!), we're kind of thinking of staying within about 2 hours of London at any given time instead. We will not have a car, so we'll be doing everything by train and bus.

I am prioritizing the kinds of things they like to do. I am thinking of doing a loop: After three days in London, we would go and spend a few in Bath. Then we would move to Oxford, from which we could see the town itself (including, probably, C.S. Lewis's house for my mom), go to Blenheim Palace, and go on a Cotswolds village tour. Then because my mom wants to see Jane Austen's house, we would go spend a night or two in Winchester and see what's around there. And at the end, we'd loop back to London to catch the plane home. It should be 10 days, and the amount of days we would stay in each place are dependent on what we decide to do in each place.

So what I'm asking for is suggestions of things we could do in these areas that we can reach by bus or train (or a walk of a mile or two) that maybe aren't high on the tourist list but are really nice to do.

Things they like:
+ GARDENS. They looooove gardens. The more, the better.
+ Cute little towns with scenic streets, cute shops and bookstores
+ Beautiful outdoor areas with very gentle hiking/walks
+ National Trust type homes that are less gorgeous palaces (the visit to Blenheim is quite enough for that) and more homier type things (for instance, my mom and I are depressed that we can't see Beatrix Potter's house, but there's no way we're going all the way up to the Lake District). I know there are a zillion National Trust properties, but I don't know which are the best to do! It's so hard to narrow down!
+ Historical sites, maybe, depending on what they are

Unfortunately they are not museum freaks like me, so unless it's a really amazing museum, they probably won't care. They also do not care about Stonehenge.

Some things I'm toying with but don't know whether they'd be worth it:
+ The Courts Gardens
+ William Morris's Kelmscott Manor
+ Gilbert White's House and Gardens
+ Bletchley Park
+ The Watercress Line
+ Yoesden Nature Reserve

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Oooh, what an amazing holiday to do! Unfortunately, you've picked a part of England with which I'm not hugely familiar (although it's perfect for the sorts of things that they will enjoy doing). I was in Bath recently and enjoyed walking around along the canal, and around the Victorian-era botanical gardens, but beyond the other obvious touristy things to do in Bath I don't have much advice.

However, my mum did an eleven-day hiking trip in the Cotswolds during her recent visit over here, and while I wouldn't recommend the walks (the whole thing was over 120km in total; it was intense), I will check with her about picturesque villages and National Trust properties, because I know she passed through several of those. I assume you want places that are accessible by train (or train and short walk), and some of these places were only available to get to by bus or car, but there ought to be some places that fit your requirements. I'll ask her, and try to get back to you as soon as possible.

I'm super keen to hear more about your trip planning, and the trip itself when it happens!

Bath is so fun! I really love it and I'm super looking forward to showing it to them!

(the whole thing was over 120km in total; it was intense)

WILD! Your mom is a trouper!

I think we're going to do a guided tour of the Cotswolds because it doesn't sound like it's possible to do it without a car, but I don't know which towns to prioritize when I pick that, so I would be glad to know which ones she loves best! Thank you thank you!

So Mum has got back to me with some suggestions, but honestly I think whichever tour you go with is likely to take you to nice places. I quote her verbatim:

I stayed one night in a charming village called Painswick. Although I didn't visit it, there's a famous garden — the Painswick Rococo Garden — nearby. Some walking chums visited Sudeley Castle (with gardens) as a side trip and said it was great. These two things were adjacent to the Cotswold Path, which runs through the national park on the western side of Bath (and some distance north of Bath). The two most famous gardens are not near Bath or the trail. They are Highgrove House (owned by the king) and Hidcote Manor. I feel your friend should be able to find some coach tours, possibly even from Bath, that will take in the sort of places her parents will like. This one might do the trick!

I hope you all have a great time!

Oh my gosh, that Garden Tour is SO tempting! It'll probably be out of the budget, but I have inquired just in case because WOW.

Thanks to you and your mom!!!

Aww, this sounds like a lovely trip—I hope you have a nice time. By the way, York is within two hours of London by train, if that makes a difference! (fast trains from Kings Cross are about 1 hour 50 minutes)

Anyway, I have a few thoughts on the Oxfordshire/Cotswolds area:

Oxford itself has a very nice Botanic Garden right in the city centre. I'm not sure how far it would appeal to more garden-oriented people (I was there for the interesting trees), but Harcourt Arboretum in Nuneham Courtenay is lovely, and easily reached by bus from Oxford. I've heard good things about Waterperry Gardens, though that is not so easy to get to by public transport.

Charlbury, twenty minutes along the Cotswold railway line from Oxford, is a lovely scenic little town, and there are some good gentle walking routes in the surrounding countryside (I like the route between Charlbury and Finstock, where Barbara Pym lived). In the other direction Dorchester-on-Thames is nicely pretty, has a historic abbey and several bits of interesting Iron Age earthworks, and there are some nice walking routes on the Thames Path and through the countryside across the river—it's on a bus route from Oxford.

This is so helpful! Thank you so much!

Those places are basically what I'll do with my mom if we ever make the trip to London again. They seem like such lovely places!
(except for not being a museum freak lol, pretty sure I got that from her)

Bookmarking this post for future references:)

So many lovely places to see! The problem is not not having enough, it's having too many things to do!

Kew gardens

Explore some of the back streets of fitzrovia and Bloomsbury in London.

Cambridge or Oxford and go to their botanical gardens both of which are stunning.

Hampton Court

We are definitely going to Kew and to Oxford, which I think they'll like a lot. They do not care about palaces, unfortunately, so I can't convince them to go to Hampton Court!

I did not get anywhere near enough time to see what I wanted to see the only time I was in England, but Longplayer was my favorite non-obvious thing in London. https://longplayer.org/about/

That won't appeal to them, but it does appeal to ME, so I have now added it to my "for the future" list! Thanks!

I have no idea, obviously, but this sounds amazing!!!! What a fun thing to have on the to-do list!

I'm soooo excited!

The Fashion Museum in Bath is a wonderful visit (as well as the Baths, obviously).

It's just on the edge of your willing travel time, but Sissinghurst is astonishingly beautiful. They'll have to deal with the fact that it was owned by a famous historical lesbian, but the gardens and scenery, and the ability to look in at the well preserved rooms in the buildings, are a complete delight.

If you're near Cheltenham when you're in the Cotswolds, Charlton Abbots is along a very friendly stretch of the Cotswold Way which touches on a Neolithic long barrow (Belas Knapp) and a wonderful Roman mosaic in Spoonley Wood which feels like an adventure, being almost completely off the map on private property, while still being accessible and gentle. The town also has a pretty village church.

The Fashion Museum is closed! They're moving house, apparently, and it will take years. I am sadface, but I guess we'll just have to see the clothes at the V&A instead (that's the one museum I've talked them into).

Unfortunately, Sissinghurst is the opposite direction of where we're going, and I am sad about it because I REALLY want to go! One day!

If you're near Cheltenham when you're in the Cotswolds, Charlton Abbots is along a very friendly stretch of the Cotswold Way which touches on a Neolithic long barrow (Belas Knapp) and a wonderful Roman mosaic in Spoonley Wood which feels like an adventure, being almost completely off the map on private property, while still being accessible and gentle. The town also has a pretty village church.

This sounds lovely! I'll have to see--thank you!

I remember Worcester and Gloucester Castles being within bus distance of Oxford when I was there as a study abroad student, and they're both very cool so they might fit the bill. My dad and I drove up to Stratford-upon-Avon when we went in 2017 but we stayed in a hotel near the town so that might be out of range for y'all, as well as Churchill's grave which my dad really wanted to visit. Bath is probably too far.

Edited 2023-09-10 03:15 (UTC)

They inexplicably do not care about castles. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We're going to do at least two nights (possibly three) in Bath. I know they'll love it!

Ohhh I'm jealous! I'd love to visit Great britain again!

Kew Gardens has already been mentioned, it's awesome! You can also easily spent a whole day there - we did half a day and combined it with hampton Court as it's easily doable. But I've seen that your parents don't care for the palaces. *g*

You can check out my holiday tag and scroll a bit down until you hit the South England reports. It seems that even the photos still work, wheee!

Bath was really great and we saw a lot of stuff there. Shame about the fashion museum, that one was awesome.

We really loved Stourhead, which is one of the not-so-big National Trust manour houses and mostly interesting because of its gorgeous landscape park (which was used as a filiming location for 2005 P&P). I don't know how easy it's to reach without a car (we had a rental), the website says that there's a bus stop not that far away, or perhaps there are tours from Bath?

Wells is also a lovely city that I somehow really fell in love with a bit. They filmed a lot of "Hot Fuzz" there, and it's got some nice historical sights and a huge cathedral (especially huge for the size of the town...).

Oxford is always great, though I found Magdalen College awfully touristy and wouldn't visit again. We went to the Pitt Rivers museum, which is full of weird and exotic things, like, really chock-full.

I always love the V&A museum in London, it's the one I can go to again and again.

Oh wow, you've really got me wanting to go to Stourhead and Wells! I don't know if we'll be able to make that happen logistically but they look so cool and they weren't on my radar at all!

Agreed about the V&A--it's easily one of my favorite museums I've ever been to!

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