Hi everyone,

 I am gobsmacked at the beautiful photos on this sight, aren't you all so clever. I wish I could take photos like these.

My hubby and I will be visiting London for a few days in August at the beginning of our Europe tour and of course we must do all the tourist sightseeing like Buckingham palace and Harrods etc so we thought we would do a hop on hop off bus tour the first day, but on the second day I would love to see some historic villages, beautiful scenery, maybe a castle, gorgeous cottages etc, close to London. Does anyone have any brilliant suggestions, and is it best to hire a car or is there a bus or tour that will take us. My husband is one of those people who just has to get somewhere rather than enjoying the journey so a bus would be my first choice but I am open to suggestions.

Hi Leita and welcome!  I'm so jealous - we visited England last August and the weather was great.  I suppose you're going that time of year to get out of the winter weather.  We were glad to escape the summer heat (Phoenix, AZ, USA).  

Our first trip to England was in 2007 and we found ourselves with an extra day whilst in London.  I googled "day trips from London," and there are a lot of lovely options.  We ended up taking the train from Waterloo Station in London to the lovely town of Salisbury in Wiltshire, where they have a lovely medieval cathedral, and then took the Salisbury city bus out to Stonehenge.  It was all very doable for a day trip, and if you don't have too much time, your best option might be to do something like that.

Keep coming round here for ideas.  I'm sure you will love it here.  And if you've not yet booked your hotels, you can book through this site for a discount.

Gobsmacked - I love that word....

Gob-smacked (meaning shocked or surprised) was a Liverpool slang word, made famous by Liverpudlian singer Cilla Black, later finding its way into the Oxford dictionary.

Leilta watch your pricings when traveling around the London area. Its noted for 'ripping' tourists off, even the burger stands charge an 'arm and a leg' for a mouldy bun and dodgy burger. If you get on a tourist sightseeing bus check the price before you get on, if you arn't happy, walk or get a tube.

Listen to Cilla Black on youtube at the following website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tq9o11sSMw

Edited to remove copied material