our england road trip : 7 day itinerary

After 5 days in London, we set out on our English road trip. This was our first real adventure to commence our year abroad.

And what an adventure it was! A road trip in Great Britain means one big thing for Americans… driving on the left side of the road. Luckily, Trent got a driving lesson from our British friends. Unluckily, he practiced in the center of London! Once he had a few short drives in London under his belt, we felt like he could drive anywhere.

Our favorite driving tip to pass along is, as the driver, always keep yourself in the center of the road. This helps when making turns and knowing which lane to turn into. It also keeps you focused on the center line of the road, which makes you less likely to not veer and hit parked cars!

Once, he mastered driving, we turned our sights onto our itinerary. Of course, we asked our British friends to recommend their favorite must-see spots. Just like our other travels, our road trip left us wanting to see more of England and, spoiler alert, making plans to return to our little home in the Lake District.

Here’s our England 7 day road trip itinerary!

Our first stop was sunrise at Stonehenge! This visit warrants its own blog post which will be coming soon.

We left London at 2 AM and made the 2 hour drive to Stonehenge. After our tour, we made a quick stop for breakfast (1 of 2 McDonalds visits on our trip so far) and then we were on our way to the sea.

DEVON

We made this trip to England during mid-July, so we thought that we would enjoy time by the sea. We were lucky to find out that we visited Devon the week before school let out for summer. It was relatively quiet and the weather was nice.

We were a bit unsure where to stay in Devon and booked a place in Paignton. We stayed at Cherwood Guest House, a bed and breakfast run by a sweet family with two small boys. We loved the accommodations, their bunk beds for the kids and endless Disney movies to borrow from downstairs. But Paignton was not the small, seaside town that we pictured. If I did it again, I would find a house in a little village and enjoy slow days by the sea.

Paignton did make a great home base to see other sights. We made a trip to Kent’s Cavern, underground caves that have been family owned for over 100 years. We enjoyed an hour long tour of the prehistoric caves with a fantastic guide. The kids loved the tour, T more than Liv, who got a bit scared of the dark. T even got to lead the tour for a bit and loved asking questions at the end. It was reasonably priced (£11.70 adults/£9.00 kids, online). But we were happy that we visited this cave system before our visit to the amazing Postojna Caves in Slovenia.

The highlight of our time in Devon was a trip to Haytor Rocks. We made the 30 minute drive to the rocks through teeny tiny English roads. The area was beautiful with sheep and wild horses dotting the landscape. After only traveling in busy cities and towns, the kids were elated to be able to run free. They raced up a huge hill to the rock formation. Trent and T hiked the biggest formation. We enjoyed watching rock climbers and playing “baby lions” (this is the perfect spot to reincarnate the Lion King Pride Rock scene). We climbed the smaller of the two large formations as a family. It was a great afternoon.

BATH / CHELTENHAM

We split up our cross country road trip with a day trip to Bath and a night in Cheltenham. Both towns were lovely. Bath was busy and filled with tourists. I had high hopes to take a tour of the Roman baths, but it was not in the cards for the day. A bit expensive and packed with people. We had a delicious lunch at Wagamama, a must for a trip to England, and enjoyed walking through the beautiful town. We ended our visit with a walk through Royal Victoria Park and playing at the enormous playground. After months in Asia, thinking about the playgrounds in England makes even me miss them!

We spent the night in Cheltenham, a cute, university town, which was much less expensive than staying in Bath. It’s also on the outskirts of the Cotswolds, an area of rolling countryside in England with thatched cottages.

Before we headed out for our six hour drive to the Lake District, we made a stop at Gloucester Cathedral, a beautiful church and a filming location for Harry Potter. Our love of Harry Potter brought us to the cathedral, but we enjoyed it far past seeing the iconic movie sights. I will share more in a dedicated Harry Potter post!

LAKE DISTRICT

Ah, our favorite stop along the way. The Lake District! Google maps may have said that it was a 4 hour drive, but it easily turned into a 6-7 hour trek up to the Lake District. Our drive was filled with traffic, slow lorries (semitrucks) and possibly one wrong turn. We also made a stop at M&S (an amazing market - Mark & Spencer) for meals and snacks during our time at the cabin.

After navigating small country roads with no internet, only directions from our Airbnb host, we made it to our little cabin. We spent three nights in a camping pod on a working farm. It was so special. We were about 30 minutes from the town of Keswick and lake Derwentwater.

We went into town for a morning and hiked along the lake, but the rest of our days were spent on the farm. Mornings were spent making soft boiled egg breakfasts with fresh eggs from the hens. Then feeding said hens. This was definitely the kids favorite part. Along with running down endless lanes. Walks are very popular in the Lake District. Day long walks, and hikes, ending with a meal at the pub is the perfect itinerary for your time in the Lake District.

The Mill Inn and the White Horse Inn were both great meals. Cosy, multi-room pubs with lots of plaid and good ales. Getting warm in the pub and eating heavy, British food was worth being cold and slightly damp for our entire time in the Lake District.

Trent went on two major hikes during our three night stay. Now, Trent is a runner. Like a “I’m going out for a run” then returns saying, nonchalantly, that he ran 14 miles and proceeds to go about his day! But he claims that these are pretty gradual, easy hikes. Please take this with a grain of salt. He hiked Sharp Edge, an 12 mile hike, which would probably take me 5-6 hours. (It took him less than 3, see what I mean.) And he also hiked Scaffel Pike, England’s tallest mountain, a similar distance hike. Both hikes were beautiful and would make for an amazing day’s activity. Definitely bring a map, phone for GPS and also a flashlight if you head out later. Trent basically asked every hiker for directions as the paths are not always clear and he got turned around a few times.

The most magical part of the trip was our coincidental sheep herding lesson. While Trent was on a long hike, the kids and I took a walk down the lanes near the farm. Andrew, our Airbnb host, came by on his ATV and told the kids to follow him to see the sheep. Since the Airbnb is on a working farm, the hosts’ days are filled maintaining the farm and they don’t offer tours. So this was a fun surprise! Andrew taught the kids how to direct their Border Collie and they sent the dog out to round up the sheep. Later in the afternoon, T had run down the path back home by himself (something he can only do in the English countryside), met up with Andrew and even got to pet one of the sheep. It was a suburban kid’s dream come true! He talked about that moment for days.

Our time in the cabin was cosy. It definitely helped to have little kids on this trip, because the space was tiny, but perfect for us. Just two weeks into our year of travel, this slow trip was exactly what we needed. We were happy to have days filled together doing practically nothing. It made us very excited for future stretches of our trip planned for slow days just like this.