low_delta | England

I have two wonderful friends in England.

aellia lives near Dover.

melodysk lives in Sleaford, which is not too far from Sheffield. They might be able to offer advice from locals. Also, my friend

marswalker went to England recently, so he could help, too. He wrote something about barfing on the white cliffs of Dover, but I can't remember.

I'll link to this. I have half a dozen or so over there on my f-list, sort of spread around from what I can tell. I have a tough time finding places there.

Thanks! I've only got a couple English friends, so this was a big help.

it looks like you've got enough leads here that dad could easily spend the next month checking it all out. my across-the-street neighbors are across the pond right now.

Sorry - I can't help on the lodgings front as I don't know that area too well, but if they get a chance, they should definitely come through Herefordshire and Shropshire of their way north, and experience some of the most beautiful, unspoilt scenery that England (and Wales) has to offer! Any suggestions needed, give me a shout.

you're johnny-on-the-spot.
thanks.

Glad to be of service, ma'am!

Thanks!

Hiya, I'm here via

waning_estrogen and just thought I'd pop in with a couple of thoughts.

Unfortunately we don't have accommodation over here like you do with regard to motels and such. And certainly not at the same kind of prices. As far as lodgings are concerned, it really depends on what you (they) have in a budget. The cheapest are probably going to privately owned Bed & Breakfast places, a site like this (http://www.bedandbreakfasts-uk.co.uk/southeastframe.htm) may be helpful, but they're not *guaranteed* to be the cheapest around.

An alternative, and certainly the one I use when I'm travelling away from home, is to use the Travelodge (http://www.travelodge.co.uk/index.php) or even Days Inn (http://www.daysinn.com/DaysInnUK/control/home). Both offer accommodation ranging from £26 to £50ish per room per night and I think the advantages that these have over the privately run B&Bs is that they're generally of a decent size, clean, nationwide, usually located right next to a Brewers Fayre (http://www.brewersfayre.co.uk/) - so no hunting round for somewhere to have dinner or breakfast - and they're usually located close to main thoroughfares, so are easy to find. They're all much of a muchness of course, identical builds as you'd expect from a chain, but the staff are usually friendly and helpful, the reception areas are often filled with local tourist information and they do refunds if you'ren ot happy about anything without batting an eyelid - unusual for over here, believe me.

Tip for driving up to Scotland? Remember we drive on the left. ;)

And they will *literally* probably spend a couple of days driving to Scotland. Remember, it takes longer to cover similar distances over here than in the U.S.

He was planning on taking his time, but I wonder how far he'll get before he has to head to the M-ways to get where he's going on time.

Thanks, that's a lot of help.

Again, can't help on the bedrooms, but shoult Hastings be the first stop driving across the country to Stonehenge can be done in three or four hours. There's not really much at Stonehenge; it's sort of in the middle of nowhere.

If they get a car with GPS, and have a couple of days to travel north, they could try to avoid the motorways and take A-roads; Herefordshire and Shropshire (like

bingo_mcdingo said) and the Wales/England borders are well worth driving through, as is much of Cumbria (where the English Lakes are).

Thanks, I'll let him know.

Oh and another thing, I echo

bingo_mcdingo there.
Stray from the path and see the country. It's really very green and very beautiful here if you take the time to look around. Too often people come to England and go to London only, which in my mind is like a principality in itself and in no way representative of the rest of the country.

The trip from Hastings up to Scotland is going to be a long one, and mainly boring if they stick to the motorways, which is of course the most direct route. If they have the time, they should definitely explore. Stray from path and take their time seeing the real country. :)

They're specifically going to avoid London. :-)

Thank you!

outer hebrides

It does look beautiful, but he's staying in the southern part, between Edinburgh and Islay.

I'm in Oxford, I can help with local stuff here, but have no particular information about Hastings and Stonehenge, apart from having visited them both in the last 20 years.

Not sure if he'll go through there. If he does, is there anything that he might find interesting to see?

Depends what he's interested in. Mostly there's just Oxford itself, the town dates back to the ninth century, and with the university there's plenty of history here.

Since he's just travelling through the country, he's probably more interested in the touristy, easy-to-view things.

While I can't offer lodging advice, since I live in England (when I'm not in Singapore purgatory), I can heartily recommend Battle Abbey and the Battle of Hastings site (which is in the appropriately named Battle, not Hastings-- watch this if you're making train reservations).

Hie thee now to the English Heritage Society's web site at http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/default.asp. You can get a special tourist membership, which will greatly cut the prices you pay to get into some of these sites, particularly Stonehenge, which is not exactly the biggest bang-for-buck tourist site there is. If you're going to visit Stonehenge anyway, I strongly suggest also visiting Avebury, an entire village enclosed by a stone circle. Unlike Stonehenge, at Avebury you can actually reach out and touch the stones. The towen is very open to visitors and does have a couple of B&Bs and an Inn, if I recall correctly.

Battle is a fantastic day trip from London and can be done by train if you're staying in London and don't fancy driving around all that much. If you are driving, please bear in mind that driving in the UK is much, much slower going than driving in the US, and petrol prices are listed per /litre/, not per gallon, although gas mileage is generally measured in miles per gallon (just to confuse everybody even more).

Battle Abbey is a beautiful building, and you can see the whole of the Battle of Hastings site. Sometimes they have special events; check the EHS calendar at the site noted above for cool stuff going on at Battle Abbey.

If you're driving to Scotland, try to spend at least a whole day in Edinburgh, which is an amazing combination of medieval and more modern city all put together. It's a beautiful place.

I doubt seriously if my family and I will be back in London before this trip gets made, or I'd offer us up as semi-native (my son and I are American by birth and my husband is Irish) guides.

As a relatively new transplant to England, I have done a /lot/ of touristy stuff over the last year, and if you want to know about London, I'm happy to help, since that's where we're based.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. :)

Harper

Oh, and definitely follow the advice of the two posters above who suggested straying from the motorways and making as much of the journey on A and B roads as possible.

They're coming through the Chunnel, and are going to see those sights that afternoon and stay in the area. Then they're heading north, avoiding London. He's pretty sure he's going to go to Edinburgh for a day.

Thanks for the tips!

I don't know anywhere to stay, but if he's interested in Stonehenge, he should probably go to Avebury too. As someone else said, Stonehenge is in the middle of nowhere, but Avebury is in a village with (as far as I can recall) a decent pub. There aren't many places where you can be served a hot meal in the middle of a stone circle. 8~)

Other advantages of Avebury are that you can walk right up and touch the stones (Stonehenge is fenced off), there are big earthworks too, you are only a couple of minutes from Silbury hill and a short drive from West Kennet Long Barrow.

Stonehenge is still worth seeing, though, and it's only about half an hour to/from Avebury.

I've never been to Hastings, but I can vouch for Pevensey Castle, where William the Conqueror spent his first night in England.

One of his big interests there is to see some stones and earthworks and such, but he wasn't going to go very far out of his way to see them (Stonehenge included). I think he'll just try to map a route past some. I'll send him these links. Thanks!

Banana's advice is on-the-mark. If you're going to Stonehenge, go to Avebury, it's just.. a stone's throw away. There are a few bed-and-breakfast type places in the area, and there's a pub in the middle of Avebury that does bed-and-breakfast, and the barkeep knows how to pull a nice pint.

He will see a lot more of the English countryside by taking the A and B roads, though they can be more.. exciting. The M-ways are great for covering distance, except around London in rush-hours, when treacle or molasses becomes the mood for the day.

I highly reccomend a stop in Bath, just northwest of Avebury. The Roman baths are interesting and it's fascinating just how good of shape they are in for being that old. Going north, the castle at Warwick is very well kept and a nice day's worth of tour.

If he's driving, and has driven in England, he'll have no problems. If this is his first time driving in England, get a GOOD map book, and plot out the routes the night before. Perhaps even draw "stick-figure" maps of the traffic circles and roads between, and lable clearly the direction he wants to exit the traffic circle in - ususally the signs will be for the next town off in that direction (e.g. leaving Avebury for the M4 you take the circle exit towards Devizes).

As long as he's in the area, he might want to check out some of the chalk horses in the Vale Of White Horses, several have paths you can walk around the horses and keeps, and they're scatterd about just north of Avebury.

He's a little nervous about driving there. He mentioned the roundabouts- he knows how they work but is hoping he doesn't get confused.

I'll let him know about those sights. They sound pretty cool.

I'm adding my "go to Avebury" comment to the pile. Much more interesting.
I'll also second Marswalker's comment about Bath. Wonderful place, don't miss the tour -under- the Victorian baths. Pre-Roman and Roman remains, baths, graveyards, temples, artifacts from the holy spring....
Bed and Breakfasts are much cheaper than hotels. Tourist Information is the key to bed and breakfast places. Donald and I normally just wander in to town by about 4pm and go to the Tourist Information office, chose a place to stay, and go off to it. Many places have books, with pictures.... If your dad isn't comfortable with that casual an approach, you can book ahead. Of course, Youth Hostels are even cheaper, but they are also pretty spartan, and not all of them allow couples to sleep together, rather than in men's or womens dorms.
Another nice town is York. I haven't been there for twenty plus years, but here is what I remember: The city walls have been restored so that you can easily walk around them, the cathedral is quite wonderful, and there is a very touristy Midieval life exhibition, which takes up a whole street (or warehouse or something.) If your dad were to drive up through the lake country, cross over along Hadrian's Wall (border of England and Scotland) there is a great site you can stop and walk a Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall. It really gives a good idea of what a Roman soldier's life was like.
I'll second (or third) other people's advice. Expect to take at least half again, or twice as long to drive the same distance as you would here. Most back roads are sized for horse and carriage, not modern cars. On the other hand, most people are far more courteous!

Good info, thanks.

He says he needs reservations in order to cross the border more easily. He's heard that customs look warily upon people who have no specific destinations, nor return tickets, as they might not be tourists, but be hoping to find work and stay in the country.

He doesn't have a return ticket?

I think reservations for the first night or two are good. Getting off a plane after a long flight, it is nice to have those reservations. However, in my experience, telling customs that you plan to travel from B & B to B & B, that your itinerary is roughly from X, Y and Z, is totally acceptable. Giving them an exact date (or range of dates) that you plan to leave the country is also usually acceptable. Certainly they have been for Donald and I, and that has been post 9-11.

Yeah, he's got a return ticket, but he'd like to be able to tell them where's staying, at least the first night in the country.

Thanks. :-)

Here via Telynor. Another good overnight company is Premier Travel Inn. IMO they are better than Travelodge. The website address is www.premiertravelinn.com Literally hundreds of places all across England and Scotland.

Thanks, I'll let him know!

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England

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