Frommer's Best Day Trips from London Guidebook
Days Out in England by Train, Bus, or Car
Aug 3, 2009
Visiting London is often the start or end of a vacation in England. Some travelers to the UK may spend their entire vacation in London. What a great idea for a guidebook, then, to pick out the 25 best day trips to be had from London, almost all of which can be done by bus, train or by car. The only real exception is the furthest day trip, to York, which the authors admit is probably that bit too far from London to take the bus (5 hours each way). It would be a long drive too, at almost four hours, but it can be done easily by train at only 2 hours each way.
Best Day Trips from London by Train or by Bus
One of the best features of this guide is the very useful practical information it provides on getting to and from the featured day trips. It includes not only journey times for train and bus but frequency of service and the cost, along with a contact number to confirm up-to-date information (the book was published in 2008). For going to Stratford-upon-Avon by train, the authors point out that it can be cheaper to buy two single tickets than a return ticket on this particular route.
Best Day Trips from London by Car
Not only do the authors provide routes, distances and likely driving times, in most cases there is advice on where to park and how much it will cost. Not in every case, though. For instance, the parking information is missing from the Stratford-upon-Avon chapter, where it would be very welcome, but for most day trips there is advice on the best car parks and the approximate costs.
Best Day Trips from London: the Format
As well as how to get there, the guide recommends (where appropriate):
- Essentials, i.e. Tourist Information, Best Time to Visit, Getting Around
- A Day in..., i.e. Best Way to Spend a Day in Oxford or wherever
- Shopping
- Where to Dine
- Extending Your Trip, e.g. where to stay, and what to do in the evenings
The book runs to 242 pages, with about 5-10 pages per destination plus a whole lot of other travel information too. This includes essays on art, architecture, history, and English food and drink as well as advice on getting around London, traveling in England by train and bus, driving in England, and how to save money on admission prices.
So What Are the 25 Best Day Trips from London?
This highly recommended Frommer's guide covers day trips to Bath, Battle, Brighton, Cambridge, Canterbury, Chichester, Dover Castle, Greenwich, Hampstead, Hampton Court, Hever Castle, Kew Gardens, Knole, Leeds Castle, Monk's House and Charleston, Moreton-in-Marsh and the Cotswolds, Oxford, Rye, St Albans, Salisbury and Stonehenge, Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Stratford-upon-Avon, Winchester, Windsor and Eton, York.
Londoners who live in Hampstead, Greenwich, Kew or near Hampton Court will be amused to find they are regarded as a day trip from London, but perhaps the authors were requested by the publishers to include some parts of London beyond the West End. That doesn't detract from the book's usefulness, though.
The Best Day Trips do include all the places visitors are most likely to want to see, that are easily combined with a London vacation. York might have been excluded as being that bit too far for an easy day trip, and somewhere like Chichester, Ely or Gloucester included instead, but it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that anyone planning a London holiday should buy this as well as a good London guidebook. England is a small country and there's so much to see on these easy day trips from London.
Buying the Best Day Trips from London
Best Day Trips from London by Stephen Brewer and Donald Olson is published by Frommer's at $16.99 in the USA, $18.99 in Canada, and £9.99 in the UK. It's available from Amazon and other online book stores, from book shops, and from the Frommer's Online Bookstore.
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