Travel Frazzle

[rj_anderson]

So originally I thought I was doing this research trip to the south of England and west Wales in late October, and it would be the off-season so finding accommodation would be easy and there was plenty of time to make plans.

Now it looks like we're doing it in mid-to-late August, and... not so much. Especially as it seems unavoidable that we'll be there over the dreaded Bank Holiday weekend.

I am, frankly, overwhelmed. Flights aren't a problem, but once we get into Gatwick, my planning brain freezes.

I know London is ridiculously expensive to stay in, so I was thinking it'd be better to take the train out of London and find a B&B in some pleasant town in Kent, although I am not entirely sure which. Any suggestions from those in the know? We'll need easy access to a train station, so we can get back into London on a couple of day trips, but it would be nice to travel a bit around Kent as well.

I'd like to visit Squerryes Court in Westerham, on which my fictional "Waverley Hall" is partly based; I've had my eye on Eynsford in Dartford as a possible location for the village nearest to where the McCormicks (and the Oakenfolk) live. But other than that, I know nothing, and would be glad of recommendations for other nice places in the area that we ought to visit or where we might stay overnight without utterly impoverishing ourselves (and which can be easily accessed using public transportation, please -- I don't think we'll rent a car until we get to Wales).

After we've spent 3-4 days touring Kent and visiting London, I'd like to take a train to the Cardigan Bay area of Wales and do some touring around there before we return to London and fly back home. Again, any suggestions for what we should see (or avoid) in that area?

Thanks for any help you can offer...

ETA: By "we" I mean "my husband and I", as we will not be taking our kids on this journey. So we'd only be needing a double or twin room, no "family" accommodations or attractions. Thanks.

Comments

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

It might be financially preferable, but if the buses only run twice a day and they take 10 hours to arrive, plus making stops every ten or fifteen minutes all through London... perhaps not so practical for the equivalent of a high-speed chase. :)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

You are mistaking coaches for buses. Coaches travel from town to town and only make a few stops - less than those of trains, on average. The coaches from London to Oxford, for instance, make three stops in London, one half-way through at a place called Lewknor, and three in Oxford. The coaches from London East to Stanstead Airport make no stops at all.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I looked up the schedule for a National Express coach going from Dartford Bluewater (the closest station I could find to the area I had in mind) to Aberstywyth. The results are here (http://www.nationalexpress.com/bp/view.cfm?d=2092558716573660A210820081040210820081150SH2108007I0825AK5736612183A0210820081300210820082005NX2108420O1300EB) and yes, it does take nearly 10 hours and make stops every 10-20 minutes along the way. Unless National Express is the wrong coach line to be looking at...?

Sorry about the confusion in my terminology -- in Canada we tend to use "bus" interchangeably to refer to both local buses and city-to-city coaches.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, if that's the case, that's the case.

[alawston.livejournal.com]

I think it's a good place to use a bit of dramatic license. If you could work in some handwavey way of said 14 year old acquiring a ticket cheaply (because it would almost certainly cost over £100 for a ticket bought on the day, although maybe as a child he'd get on cheaper), then it would be much faster, particularly between London and New Street which is one of the fastest routes in the UK and only stops (ISTR) at Coventry and Birmingham Airport.

The trains aren't managed particularly well and are over-priced, but the coaches have their own problems, and I wouldn't use them at all if it wasn't for the fact that there's a bizarre non-stop service from London to the village next to mine... The number of crackheads around London Victoria Coach Station would probably give you a chapter in itself. Not a nice chapter, either.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

When I travelled by coach to Dublin a couple of years ago, the coach only stopped once on the motorwary and at the harbour. It is urban buses that make frequent stops. Coaches are no different from trains, in fact they stop less often than commuter trains.