[condor27596]

St. Petersburg is fantastic for pics and is called the Venice of the East or something.

But I'm not sure how you go there now without a bodyguard.

I agree with not going to haunted places.

[robthebloke]

Ok, just read all your comments! Pitt rivers museum, ashmolean, bodlean library, are all good reasons to visit Oxford! (it's also very easy to walk around - its very safe - and oozes history from every pore!).

If you're a fan of childrens literature, then the house of cs lewis is in risinghurst (iirc the number 9 bus will get you there from the centre). You can basically follow the first few pages of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, and follow the steps of Lucy into the fauns cave (which is actually an air raid shelter - apologies for the ww2 reference!)

If you're a fan of Tolkien, then a visit to the eagle and child may be worth it (where the inklings used to meet).

If you've ever read the 'his dark materials' trilogy, you'll be able to identify locations in that book quite easily.

Alternatively, get someone to punt you up the Isis and see where the story of alice in wonderland came from

You can also visit hogwarts (Christchurch college)

If you're going to be in London a while, get an oyster card (for the underground), and that will keep costs down a bit!

[magkelly]

I live 'down south' near Southampton, so this is my opinion (knowing the area).

Southhampton Port - get out of Soton quickly!

New Forest - I'm a bit mixed on this really. It is pretty, but it's not as impressive as you might imagine (I've always preferred the forest of dean myself)

Salisbury (Stonehenge/Woodhenge) - its a little regimented, so you can only get close to the stones on the summer and winter solstices (although expect it to be filled with druggies, drummers, and drunks at the summer solstice!)

At this point, I'd recommend following the south coast towards Devon.

Check out web pages for the south west coastal path (the scenery along the Jurassic coast is stunning). Durdle door, corfe, studland beach, tank museum, an evening at the square & compass at worth matravers (best pub in the world), and that's all before you hit Devon/Cornwall.

Devon/Cornwall next

Then head back up to Glastonbury, bath, Avebury.

Brighton at this point, is miles away!! (and in the wrong direction!)

Cardiff is a cool place, but anything on the south coast of Wales is basically an industrial/mining area. The Gower is stunning, as are the breckon beacons, and north Wales in general (ie llangollen [pronounced thlan-goth-len], anglesea, Ruthin, etc)

I'd possibly then look at getting a ferry from Wales to Ireland, travel around Ireland, and then get a ferry from Belfast over to Scotland (despite its reputation, Belfast is a wonderful place, and the drive upto the giants causeway is stunning).

See what you want to see in Scotland, and then head south towards Nottingham, before heading down to Oxford (which I'd probably recommend as a substitute for Brighton).

From Oxford it's trivial to head into London (get the Oxford tube coach into London - 24hr coach service that's nice, quick, and cheap. You then get choices of alighting at Notting hill, marble arch [for Oxford street], or victoria [for Buckingham palace, Westminster, abbey road, south bank]. The train is a bit quicker, but will dump you at paddington. Whatever you do, don't drive into London!!!!!).

If you want a really long tour of Europe, I'd avoid staying in London too long (maybe a day trip?). It's an absurdly expensive place! That's kinda why I recommend Oxford (because it also has reliable coach services to Luton, gatwick, and heathrow - so you should be able to channel hop from there quite easily - unless of course you just take the euro tunnel from Waterloo to paris, if you want to spend longer in London and avoid flying)

A few tips about travelling around the uk though. Train tickets are cheaper if you buy them a few weeks in advance (and they get expensive if you buy on the day). It can be worth buying two journeys instead of one (for example, if I get a ticket from Bournemouth to Birmingham, it's more expensive than buying a ticket from Bournemouth to southampton, and one from southampton to Birmingham - just an oddity of the way the trains work over here). Coaches are generally cheaper, trains are usually faster.

If you are going by coach, in places this can be annoying (because routes radiate out from London), so you might want to do a bit of planning first! In some places, it may be easier to hire a car (be warned, our petrol prices are expensive!)

Megabus.com is the best place to buy cheap coach tickets (which will put you on the same coaches as the expensive places - eg national express, stagecoach, et al - just at reduced prices).

Hope that helps!

London is easily 75% of the England trip for me, so no, I don't want to cut it down to one day. :P Goodness forbid! I'll have to stay in city. I can't take a train or bus every day. Physically it would be too hard for me and pointless besides. I'll be at a different museum in London every couple of days. I know it's expensive but staying outside means a lot of transit money too. I'd likely spend it anyway. If I stay in the city I can walk some and take local buses and the tube. Much cheaper for a museum hopper like me...

I'm totally an art geek!!!! MUSEUMS are #1in terms of attraction for me in regards to the UK. London has literally thousands of them and unlike some other places in the world they don't charge a ton to see them. I actually plan on doing as many as I can for at least a month if I can find a room that won't kill my entire budget for lodging. I could stay in London for six months and still never get done with all the museums I'd like to see. Unfortunately I don't have the budget for that. A month or so maybe...

Cardiff has The Dr Who Experience, something I simply cannot miss if I am over there. That, and Madame Tussaud's are about the only touristy things I'd probably stand in line for. I have no idea of what else to see in Cardiff but I mean to make a day trip at least to see that. For me London is all about the museums, the interesting stuff I can see in local theater that's just not typical tourist musicals in the West End, and all the archeology related stuff.

I'm actually more interested in Newgrange and the other Stone Circles at Avebury than in Stonehenge, but I will probably go have a look at the infamous stone circle anyway. The general public is discouraged except at solstice time but you can get into there if you take certain tours and pay for the privilege. The conservancy that runs the whole thing allows several designated tour outfits to bring people in for a closer look, but it's strictly regulated in so far as to times and who. It's a bit expensive like $150 for the trip via coach, and I think you have to go at like dawn or something, but I probably will spend the $150 to do that if it means I actually get to go inside the fence. I just don't see the point in even going to Stonehenge otherwise.

I definitely want to visit Sherwood and the New Forest and Glastonbury. Sherwood because I'm a Robin of Sherwood freak and I want to see the infamous Sherwood and Nottingham. New Forest I want to see the animal sanctuary there but I also want to go because they have tons of antique shops and because it's where Sybil Leek once lived. Growing up I liked her books and her lovely corvis bird. She always made me laugh seeing her in interviews and that. She was an amusing person. New Age Tourist trap that Glastonbury is I'd probably enjoy it. Sue me, I like shops filled with crystals and kooky people.

I do mean to visit Hucknall and The Abbey and pay my respects to Byron. Ditto Bath and Brighton simply because there are things of historical significance there that I actually want to see. I thought about going to Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy as well but I'm not too sure I can do a lot in terms of seeing ruins and that in Italy because it might be too sunny and warm for me to handle it. I might get some sun in England etc, but I doubt it would be nearly as hard on me as in Italy. It's also why I've mostly avoided Greece even though I'd love to see some of the ancient places there. I really love archeology, history, and art, but I'm just not too sure how much of that I can physically handle with autoimmune disease complicating things. The more sun and heat I get the less I can usually do.

I'm sure most people would find my museum hopping thing a dead bore but I never tire of art. I could spend weeks just looking at everything in the Tate or the British Museum. I'm really not going to London to do too much that most tourists would do. I could care less about shopping the designer shops and that. Or clubbing. Or eating in a lot of fancy places. I do like antique stores, farmer's markets and flea markets, but that's about it. People on my doll boards are always talking about boot sales and things they've found. I gather that's the English version of Saturday flea markets? Now that's something I'd want to do for a couple of hours here and there.

Other than that I'd rather look at things like Canopic jars, fossils, and paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites and their brethren. I've seen Renoir. Renoir in person just completely blew my mind. I had NO idea he used such vivid colors. Also, Monet paintings here, but I've never seen a Degas or a Turner and I really want to see those in person. Waterhouse too. Tate Modern has some of his work, I think. Rosetti, Millais, the other's I've mentioned, they're painters who's work I love. I have prints of hanging on my walls, but I've never seen any of them for real.

There's just a lot to see, and do, and only so much time and money, alas...