Trip to UK

OK, so sometime in 2012 my wife and I are looking at a vacation to England. We have never been to Europe, and I am fascinated by the culture, history, literature, and sheer "Britishness" of the island. I am looking to absorb as much as possible of both bucolic rural England as well as the excitement of urban London. When we travel in the states, we tend to focus on large cities, but I am thinking the villages of the Cotswolds, Devon, etc. are worth the investment of my limited time.

And therein lies the rub. Time is indeed limited. Realisitically, the best we can do is 10 days at this point for various reasons. But, I think that seems a reasonable period of time, so long as we acknowledge that it is wholly insufficient to see or experience the entire country. We have to basically pick and choose carefully the locations and experiences we are looking forward to the most, focus on those, and do our best to not worry about the ones we're missing out on. True of any vacation though, I think. As a result, I say again that we will be truly investing our time in a handful of spots over a relatively short vacation period. Getting it right and having a good plan in advance of what we'd like to see, where we'd like to go, and the like, will help make sure we enjoy the experience and do not feel like our time has been poorly invested.

So, now that you have my travel credo if you will, I am interested in comments/thoughts on a rough sketch of the itinerary we have set out. I welcome your thoughts.

We are looking at something like the following possible itinerary at this point:


Day 1 – Thursday – Arrive London from US
Train from London to Bath (90 minutes)

Day 2 – Friday - Bath and Area

Day 3 – Saturday- Bath and Cotswolds

Day 4 – Sunday - TRAVEL DAY Leave Bath - Drive to Cornwall

Day 5 – Monday - Explore Cornwall

Day 6 – Tuesday - TRAVEL DAY - Leave Cornwall, drop off car in Bath, Train From Bath to London – Sleep in London

Day 7 – Wednesday - London

Day 8 - Thursday - London

Day 9 - Friday - London

Day 10 - Saturday - Leave London
Arrive US

Also, finally, if anyone has thoughts about visiting England (particularly London) in 2012 (but months before or after the Olympics, which run late July and early August of 2012), I'd appreciate those too.

More posts soon on other trips, travel experiences, etc. to come. Thanks for reading and commenting.