Traveling to UK

<p>Traveling from US, my wife is going to Southampton for six days. I can go with her for just the cost of airfare. Since it looks like Southampton has a train station, I am seriously considering going even though we will be in London a couple weeks later for vacation.</p>

<p>Unlike our vacation, this would be entirely photo-based for me, go wherever I want each day while she's working. That brings me to my question......</p>

<p>What would you do if you had six days to photograph the country? I was thinking of taking the train to London but I believe it takes a couple hours. Anyway, it would be a great opportunity to visit Grays of Westminster and take some time photographing the city, something more limited when traveling with my wife.</p>

<p>But even if I spend a couple days in London, there is so much more to see in this beautiful country. I have seen so many great UK photos here that they inspire me to search for more locations. Where would you go each day?</p>

 

<p>- Salisbury (50Km northwest) is certainly worth a visit.<br>

- If you like vintage cars, visit Beaulieu in the New Forrest (about 20Km south west).<br>

- Corfe Castle (70Km south west) might also be interesting.<br>

- Bath (100Km north west).<br>

- Stonehenge (50Km north west).<br>

... an a lot more.</p>

<p>The rail fare structure (and buying tickets) in the UK since rail privatisation is a nightmare. If you travel by train, try to book in advance somehow...maybe via the internet, the 'walk on' tickets bought just before you travel at stations are VERY high indeed...scary in fact.</p>

<p>Try durdle door and lulworth cove ( on south coast, west of southampton, further than corfe castle) if you like coastal landscapes .</p>

<p>Rainer, thank you. All the places sound fascinating. Can't believe I forgot about Stonehenge and I would love to visit some castles. Bath sounds really neat, wonder if I can also make a day trip to the Canterbury area.</p>

<p>And Steven, I am slowly learning about the UK rail system. Found a couple sites online but they are a bit difficult to navigate without understanding the system. I am working on that but already learned you are quite right about advance purchase of tickets. Can make quite a difference in price.</p>

<p>I know I am a bit limited because of starting out so far south so I am just trying to narrow this down to what looks best for each day. And even then, I have to work around the rain. Thank you very much for your help.</p>

 

<p>Thank you, James. I love coastal landscapes. As long as the train has a stop along the way to the castle, I will check it out. This train schedule thing takes some serious planning.</p>

 

<p>Forgive me if you know this already, but the best landscapes and scenery in the UK is rarely close to or easily accessible from railway stations. Neither, in general will you see the best of what the UK has to offer from a train. <br>

If you hire a car then you can get to some beautiful locations in and around the New forest, the Dorset Coast, Chichester Harbour, Avebury, Stonehenge etc from a base in Southampton. If you rely on trains then you'll be best I think to stick to cities and towns where the station is reasonably close to the centre and twhere there's a reasonably direct rail link from Southampton. This may not include all the places mentioned above. Access to the station in Southampton itself is also likely to be very important. </p>

<p>Great insight, David. Actually we will have a car but unfortunately my wife will be using it for work. That's why I came up with the train idea but you make some great points. I was thinking that a second car would be too expensive but I really am having trouble working out this train schedule thing. Ah, back to the drawing board to work on this some more......</p>

 

<p>Take a boat over to the Isle of Wight (where I live).</p>

<p>If you visit Bath, Wells Cathedral is worth seeing! And I second the Isle of Wight.</p>

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<p>The rail fare structure (and buying tickets) in the UK since rail privatisation is a nightmare.</p>

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<p><br />I agree, actually this (combined with the fact that I don't feel comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road ;-) ) is what makes me afraid of visiting UK, in spite of the fact that I love the British countryside.</p>

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<p>I don't feel comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road</p>

 

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<p>No. We drive on the right side of the road.... The left.</p>

<p>There is a website</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/">http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/</a><a href="http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/"></a></p>

<p>That makes the routing, timing and pricing of fares in the UK somewhat easier. As I say my biggest problem with the rail network is not its manageability, its that it doesn't get you to the right places at the right time for many types of photography. And once you get out of towns, the buses aren't a lot of help either.</p>

<p>Luca. As someone who drives several thousand miles a year "on the wrong side" since pretty much wherever I go from the uK requires this, let me say this</p>

<p>Its getting easier. Cars are becoming a lot more similar. Road signs, driving cultures and rules are a lot less idiosyncratic now. After a little while it becomes pretty much natural and not something you even think about. Driving on one side or the other means little to me. My driving concerns are in driving in places like Cuba where they don't bother much with road signs or decent maps, around Mexico City where the road structure is indecipherable and volume of traffic is way beyond my experience, and in the USA when the people that rent you a 4wd vehicle fit it with street tyres. None of these really apply in the UK; sat nav systems make navigation whilst driving solo better than it was, and apart from advice not to drive in central London - which you don't need to do anyway- I wouldn't expect any decent driver to have a really bad time here. </p>

<p>David, I happened to drive in UK, Australia and Japan, to mention places where people drive on the wrong side. I know I can manage, but I am afraid of what can happen because of an action taken on habit. A former colleague of mine some years ago, was going back to the hotel after one day at a customer site. Maybe he was tired, maybe he was lost in his thoughts and he turned left doing what he did a milion time, i.e. keeping the right side of the road. A motorbiker was coming and did not survive the impact with the car. I am afraid that a momentary lapse of thinking and automatic switching to old habits might be an issue.</p>

<p>People drive on the right in some places that are not the UK, because they are following the pattern set by Napoleon, who didn't want to do things the British way when he was conducting a war against them.<br>

Although Napoleon was beaten and died in ignominy I'm sure he would be pleased to think that there are people who can drive on the right and not think it wrong.<br>

One place close to Southampton is Portsmouth, it has the historic dockyards although I'm not that fond of the town.<br>

<a href="http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/">http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/</a></p>

 

<p>If you are not driving, then stick with London. You could easily spend 6 days photographing the sights around central London. Check out LondonPhotoWorkshops website for some inspiration.</p>

<p>Thank you Phil. What other locations do you suggest in the UK that are somehow "manageable" with public transport?</p>

<p>Luca, you could do any of the cities, but many are not particularly photogenic. London has so much more to offer photographically than the others.<br>

If you want to photograph countryside and rural locations, then it can probably only be done conveniently with a car, particularly if you want to be out early or late. Another way would be to join a photographic tour/workshop.</p>

<p>Steve, the Isle of Wight is a brilliant idea for a day. Easy to get there and so much to see. My only concern is traveling about if I arrive by ferry. Have to look into this. Thanks.</p>

<p>Stefan, thanks for the suggestion of Wells Cathedral in Bath. I think I can take a day trip to Bath via the train so it's just a matter of how far everything is from the train station. I don't mind walking all day to see the sites, well I don't mind if it's not raining. The umbrella definitely goes in the bag.</p>

<p>Phil, I think most people would agree London is one of the world's great photogenic cities. Been there, absolutely love it, and will spend 4 days there when we vacation in Europe next month. If I can work out the train on this trip, my hope is to spend a couple more days there. I would be quite happy spending a month in London.</p>

<p>For this trip, I also wanted to see places I have never been and the suggestions have been excellent. So much to think about. Thank you.</p>

<p>As for the driving, thank you Peter for that explanation why you drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. I wondered about that because other EU countries use the same side as us over here on the west side of the Pond. However, I still found it challenging driving in Italy and some parts of Greece. Definitely don't have the traffic controls we are used to here.</p>

<p>Hadn't thought about a workshop. I will look into that but being based in Southampton, I would think there are very limited opportunities. But it could be fun if I could find a one-day thing in London. I'll check around.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the great ideas and suggestions.</p>

 

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<p>My only concern is traveling about if I arrive by ferry. Have to look into this. Thanks.</p>

 

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<p>You can buy a one day rover ticket and get around most of the island by bus. £10 will get you 24 hours of bus travel.</p>

<p>http://www.islandbuses.info/</p>

 

<p>Awesome! I already checked out the Isle website and there is quite a lot to see and do there. A bus is a perfect way to get around. Definitely setting aside a day to go there. Thanks Steve.</p>

 

<p>Thanks also from my side!</p>

<p>Bruce, all the rest of Europe drives on the right so most UK travellers have had qite a lot of practice driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. From my own experince and also from everyone I have spoken to all report that it is a pretty easy thing. All the other traffic is also on the 'wrong' side too so you just follow where everyone else is going. When I pick the hire car in France otr wherever I always have a circuit or two of the car park just t oget the feel of the car and driving on the right. So I suggest you might want to give a hire car a try.</p>

<p>There are good reasons why you would do this. Most of the Enlish countryside you might want to see is not easily accessble by train. If you only have public transport then (a) you are restricted to towns (b) sadly UK trains are very expensive. By the time you have taken all these trips you will have spent almost as much as if you had hired the car.</p>

<p>The omly exception to using cars would be if you only wanted to visit towns. I would strongly recomend trains and underground trains for London and many UK towns are best got to by train then walk around them. Here are some southern UK towns you might visit :</p>

<p>London (obviously - but try to select what you want to see before you go)<br />Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Windsor, Canterbury</p>

<p>There are of course loads of others and some good suggestions above. Do your research before you come.</p>

<p>Have a good trip!</p>

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<p>My only concern is traveling about if I arrive by ferry. Have to look into this.</p>

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<p>Hi, check your e-mail. I sent you a note yesterday about Wight, explaining the ferry service via Red Funnel and Wight Link.<br /> <br /> Like others, I strongly suggest that you rent a car. Trying to get around by train, bus and on foot is going to be both limiting and frustrating, not to mention damp and chilly this time of year. You could easily spend a couple of days exploring New Forest, which by the way got its name a thousand years ago - there is nothing new about it - but you can't do it by train. While I agree with Steve Smith that it is possible to get around Wight by bus, I wouldn't do it, and I suspect that he wouldn't, unless there was no other choice. As I mentioned in my e-mail, you can rent a car in Southampton and take the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth, thereby avoiding the slow car ferry from Southampton, or you can take the high speed, 25 minute foot ferry from Southampton to Cowes and rent a car on the island. The Ford dealer in Newport is great to deal with, and they will meet you with a car at the ferry terminal in Cowes.<br /> <br /> I think that you will find that driving on the other side of the road is pretty straightforward - much easier than remembering to look the other way when crossing streets on foot :). The only tricky part is getting used to roundabouts, but it doesn't take long. Also, on Wight some of the rural roads are fairly narrow, but this is an easy adjustment - slow down and enjoy the view.</p>

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<p>Ruaidhri, I appreciate that but I didn't see the email so it must have been dumped into my spam by mistake. That's really sad because so much junk mail somehow gets into my inbox while the important email doesn't. Very annoying.</p>

<p>Colin, I will reconsider hiring a car while I am there. Obviously it has a huge advantage in that I can go wherever I like, much more flexible for those early morning/later day shots. I thought it would be much more expensive than the train but perhaps I am wrong. I'll look into this.</p>

<p>I'm really not concerned about the driving thing though obviously I would never want to have a car in London any more than I would in cities like New York or Washington where parking is limited and public transportation is so good. BTW, we have many Brits visiting here in Florida so if they can figure it out, I'm sure I can too.</p>

<p>A side note, I have seen a lot of your photos and they are quite impressive. It helps me to get some ideas of where to go and things to look for. Thank you.</p>