blimey - so many options. Depends what you like. Obviusley London has so much to see and do on it's own. But depending on what you like, visits to Oxford and Cambridge are always good - as are trips to the south coast to visit maybe Brighton and Rye................

Thanks KevP4.

We like everything - maybe not so culturally inclined, so don't much care for museums and nice looking buildings.

More nature, adventure and shopping (of course!).

How many days should we spend in London?

We are on a tight budget, because of the exchange rate, so do you know of any cheap but safe and clean accomodations, with ensuite bathrooms? We really hate the backpacking, small dingy places with shared toilets.

Any help will be appreciated.

If you book ahead you can probably find some "saver rooms " in london on http://www.travelodge.co.uk. travelodge let so many rooms go for those that book in advance

For nature I would suggest the Lake District, Cornwall, or the Peak District.
York is a lovely place to visit with the North Yorkshire moors and Yorkshire Dales nearby
There are so many wonderful places in England

hi pinup..x

if you are coming to London...then its worth checking out the area of Camden Lock.

fantastic markets here.

website.....

http://www.camdenlock.net/

my daughter tries to go here at least once a month.

Where are you coming from, and more to the point where are you arriving at (Heathrow? St Pancras??).

And how are you planning to travel around?

Mundane questions perhaps but if you get carried away with the locations and don't plan the travel you could wreck your budget.

Missing out the nicest part of the UK then?

Landing in London.
Doing the public transport. Or we could drive but heard parking is a killer. Plus, driving is on the "wrong" side of the road. But is it better to drive? We are open to suggestions.

Oklahoma wrote:

Lake District, Cornwall, or the Peak District.
York is a lovely place to visit with the North Yorkshire moors and Yorkshire Dales nearby

With just 2 weeks, is it feasible to go up North to visit these areas? How far are they - by car/ train?

Hi Pinup! You don't say exactly where you are coming from, which is a pity because perhaps folk here could advise you better.

You might find that there is some sort of travel deal if you are coming from outside the UK on the trains such as a BRITRAIL PASS which is only available OUTSIDE the UK to non UK residents. Also you might investigate NATIONAL EXPRESS which is a coach company and see if they have a pass for so many days unrestricted travel.

You might also investigate the Interrail pass scheme. I would think that you should still consider driving but NOT when you're visiting London .......... the volume of traffic, expense of parking and the Congestion Charge (you could google this too) which makes London pricey.

Are you leaving from London too ......... perhaps your airline has some connection with transporters in the UK who could offer you a deal?

You might like to google something like UK Tours/Backpackers Tours/Mountain Goat Tours to see if there are any tailor made tours including accommodation amongst likeminded youngsters like yourselves.

Oh just a last thought, why not try the BRITISH TOURIST BOARD website in the country you are coming from before you visit. There may be lots of helpful advice here, but you may have to try other titles like TOURISM IN BRITAIN to get help. I believe there is a useful site called VisitBritain that you should try.

hi, come to the beutiful lake district where I live ! only 3 and a half hours by train from london, you'll see some great scenery, fab pub grub and loads of nice people to show you around !
you can't travel all that way and not come up north !

Pin Up

You say you're on a tight budget, before you think about driving you should realise that petrol is likely to be around £1.10 per litre by July. A small car will cost from about £150 per week to hire. City driving is probably no worse than many countries but the main highways are also extremely busy and if you're not used to tightly packed fast moving traffic for long distances it could be scary.

I've noticed in another of your posts you said you were Asian so I assume you will be landing at Heathrow. Not the best of ideas, but there aren't many alternatives, expect long delays at passport control.

The Britrail website is worth looking at for passes but I'm not convinced they offer good value to people who can get their itinery organised in advance. They may be an option if you want to be flexible. DO NOT buy point-to-point tickets from this site, they are a rip off! I've just asked for a sample one way journey at 11:00 on March 27 from London to York, it came back with a price of 156 US dollars. Asking the same question from the train operator's own site got an answer of £10 (less than 20 dollars), only rising to Britrails price by selecting short notice, peak hour and fully flexible!

For better train information use National Rail which is the overall site for all British train companies. It gives timetable info with guides to prices and has links to each company for more detailed info. It also has The National rail map. Timetable enquiries only work for a couple of months in advance (which is the reservation limit) but the main timetable changes only occur in mid May and December so a week-day in July should be the same as that day in June and journey times will be similar all year long. Times at weekends can be variable due to a tradition of doing most track repairs at this time! For a journey over 75km it may be much cheaper to buy the ticket 4 -6 weeks in advance.

Check the operators site but in most cases where online purchase is possible you can select to collect the ticket at the station to avoid having them mailed half way around the world! In this case you will get an email confirmation with an airline style reservation reference number which you can use at the ticket desk or some ticket machines to get the actual ticket - you will need to show the same credit card used for the purchase to do this.

For an itinery suggestion how about, first night stay in London near Kings Cross. Because of the possible delay at Heathrow Airport it wouldn't be a good idea to plan to travel far. Use the "Tube" (London Underground) to get into London.

Next day train to York, journey is about 2 hours. Stay 3 or 4 nights there then across the Yorkshire Dales by train or maybe local bus to the Lake District for a few more nights here. Then 2 nights (preferably weekend) in Liverpool. Finally the train to London (2 hours) for the rest of your stay. This means you don't travel back to London at the last minute and risk missing your flight. And you can do your shopping at the end and don't have to drag it all around England!

You can't travel to the north of England but miss out the extra couple of hours it would take to see Edinburgh!

Yes she can!

Whilst I would prefer Scotland to London the lady definately wants London. You have to draw the line somewhere otherwise you end up like the stereotypical American tourist - been everywhere, seen nothing!

Also, since Scottish tourism is so much better organised than English it would make a perfectly good tour on it's own in another year.

No she can't!

Scottish tourism better organise? ye think so????

Yeah Steve, you're correct about the Asian part. Thanks for the info. Will take your advise on the routes. I don't want to rush and try to see a lot of places. More is less, in this case. Will check back with you with questions later. Am at work right now so will post later (the time difference). Appreciate the help, y'all.

if you're only here for 2 weeks, Id recomend staying in or near London, and taking day trips out. the north of england is lovely, but so are some of the surrounding areas of London, and you don't want to spend a lot of time travellng around. coach/train trips to places like oxford/cambridge/canterbury are well worth doing. Theme parks like Chessington world of adventures, and thorpe Park would be good. Hire a car and explore some of the little villages in Kent (the garden of england). Plus all that London has to offer will keep you more than busy for 2 weeks. If you want to explore the north and scotland, I'd advise a seperate trip at a later date away from London.

We had a long weekend in London 3 years ago and we bought the London Pass which was really good value as it gave us reduced price or free entry into lots of the major attractions plus included a travel pass. We were able to get out to Windsor with it. The details are at http://www.londonpass.com

Stay in London it has loads to check out and you do not waste time traveling all over the UK(the transport set-up is pretty slow) you could waste a day getting to say Cornwall or Cumbria.

Check out Brighton for a day/days out fantastic seaside town with many bars and clubs of all genres and preferences.

the sun always shines there!!