A little late to the update, but I couldn’t not share the details for our trip to England last spring. If you know me in person, you know that I am obsessed with the royal family. My sports are State Dinners, Trouping the Color, and all other events where Catherine, Princess of Wales (AKA Kate Middleton), makes any sort of debut, especially involving a tiara. We were in a semi-close area, and could have made the trip to see her and Prince William out and about, but forewent the opportunity and survived. I won’t, however, let myself live down missing The Princess of Wales when she came to Boston later that year… Tragic.

Since this post is not an update on all things royal, we’ll move on. We’ve been asked multiple times: why England? Well, my sweet husband and I had not, at that point, traveled outside the U.S. together, except for our honeymoon to St. Lucia. We don’t always travel well together (two first-borns… need I say more?), and wanted to get our international feet wet without the added stress of a language barrier. We have each traveled to non-English speaking countries, he to Peru and I to Central Asia, but never together. So, we made it easy on ourselves.

Using our American Airlines miles we booked flights in April. We love to travel during shoulder seasons, as flights are cheaper and there are less crowds. It was perfect. Cold, but perfect. I highly suggest England in Spring, especially if you love wildflowers. I was enraptured by wildflowers and bright yellow fields. Magic.

When it comes to planning any sort of itinerary, you need to decide a few things. What is the purpose of visiting this place? How much time do you have? What are major area attractions, and will there be any added disruptions such as cruises, sporting events, festivals, or concerts? Do a quick scan of the local town website to get a good idea of what may be going on, or what major sites you don’t want to miss. Trip Advisor is a great resource for things to do.

London is a great city to visit because of the incredible variety of things to see and do, all reachable by public transport. I do not recommend renting a car until you are leaving the city, and then perhaps rent one as far from the city center as possible, as there is a strict area of increased tolls/fees, and the traffic cameras are a little too good. That’s a story for later.

After that, consider a drive to the beautiful Cotswold’s and beyond. Driving on the other side of the highway can be stressful, but it can be done! If you aren’t feeling up to it, most of England can be reached by train or bus. Toto, we are not in Texas anymore!

Our Itinerary starts where every good thing starts: Microsoft Word. Good for party planning, as seen here, as well as itinerary planning. This is the rough draft outlining each day, where we start to where we finish. Clearly we did not make any dinner reservations… It all worked out, and no one went hungry.

It is tempting for some to start planning the nitty-gritty, moment by moment details of each day as you go. My advice: don’t. Start with a very basic idea of where you start and where you end the day, and fill in later. Trust me, too many details too soon can cause some burnout. First, plan flights. Then transportation, then hotels, then any concrete activity reservations (unless you’re going for a specific reason: concert, sports event, etc., then purchase those first).

When it comes to filling in the details, guesstimate how long each attraction will take (reddit is a great place to find this information). We grossly underestimated how long we would take at various points of interest… A supposed two hour trip to the Tower of London really took us four. Maybe it was my five trips around the crown jewels. Maybe it was him reading every. single. sign in the sword and armor rooms. Who really knows? But, live, learn, and give yourself more time next time. Lifelong learning, isn’t that the goal?

Okay, below is our detailed timeline of events. We stuck to this fairly well, although we did not do the Robin Hood Tour or Warwick Castle. My best advice is to always start your day earlier than you think. Most crowds start lining up around 10am, so if you get up and get going, you can see what you really want to before having to fight someone else to see it. Austin kept saying, “man, our timing is so perfect!” Thank you, remember that tomorrow when we are up at 7am!

There, of course, is so much more to see in London and beyond. We missed quite a few sites in Bath simply for lack of time and knowledge. Our goal for Bath was to relax and soak up the mineral waters. Next time, I would see more of the historical sites, and obviously, any and everything Jane Austen. I hope this helps you in planning your next adventure!

xo, Amanda