Excursions from London....Other Than Stonehenge

Many people go to London and think Stonehenge is the only place one needs to visit outside the city lines. If you believe that, you are missing some wonderfully unique British trips that many Americans and other tourists don’t know about. Shhhhhhh! Don’t tell them we told you……

First are the Cotswold Villages. This is a truly wonderful trip that can take days if you let it. If you do it as a single-day excursion, don’t worry, you will see a lot! The Cotswolds are simply this: amazingly picturesque villages and towns dotted along a gorgeous stretch of the English countryside. When you go to visit this place (these places) is take in the landscape as you walk from village to village. Check out the name of some of these towns! There’s Wotton-under-Edge, Stumblewold, Moreslaughter and Burton-on-the-Water. Two good home-bases for trips to the area are Chipping Campden and Stow-on-the-Wold. There are tourist centers with pamphlets suggesting which routes to take and we suggest you use these as guides if you don’t have one already.

For you Roman-lovers, don’t worry. They made it to Britain, too! In fact, a short excursion to Corinium might just be what the doctor ordered for you. Corinium was the second largest Roman city behind Londinium on the island and had everything you could ask for of a Roman city: aqueducts, and amphitheatre, palaces, forts and basilica. Unfortunately, the Dark Ages occurred and most of the city went to ruins. Don’t fret, though! There is a great museum featuring the site’s artifacts and the amphitheatre is still there in Earthly form (a giant grass bowl!). Check out this photo blog concerning the museum’s artifacts: http://photodelusions.wordpress.com/category/archaeology/corinium-museum/

Finally, there’s Stratford-upon-Avon. If you were listening in high school history class, you might remember this to be the home to Shakespeare himself. This is another unique experience that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg. This town is in similarly picturesque countryside as the Cotswolds and has an extreme amount of culture attributed to it by William S. Here, you can view five different houses that were a part of Shakespeare’s life and even see a theatre production by the Royal Shakespeare Company which are one of the two most prestigious companies in the UK and specialize in William’s plays.


Expand your horizons and check out these wonderful places while in London and don’t forget, we didn’t tell you about the Cotswolds!