Premier inn hotel wembley

Hello marka55...I sure want my discount so I'm gonna go online and apply for my sons' Oyster card. I hope there's a pick up station at London heathrow airport so we can just pick it up from there when we arrive.

Stonehenge , Stratford upon Avon , Bath, oxford, Windsor castle

Stonehenge will maximum hold your attention (once you've finally got to it) for about 30 minutes, so consider doubling up on it with Bath or the Avebury stones. A car would be ideal for this.

For Stratford Upon Avon simply walk to Wembley Park station (which is not the tube station, it's in the opposite direction) and then take a direct train to Stratford Upon Avon with Chiltern Railways if you want the easy life (2:34) or drive (1:40-2:15 depending on traffic)

For Bath public transport is a couple of minutes quicker on a good day, and considerably quicker on a bad day. Take a tube train to Baker Street, then change there for a tube to Paddington, then change there for a direct train to Bath via http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk (tickets with them are considerably cheaper if booked way in advance, like now).

For Oxford, same as Bath - get a train from Paddington.

For Windsor Castle, take a train from Waterloo (get there by tube) or sometimes you can take the much quicker route via Paddington yet again, changing in Slough (but these connections are not very frequent).

Refer to http://www.transportdirect.com for a UK wide public transport route planner, http://www.tfl.gov.uk for route planning specifically in London.

As for the car, bear in mind that fuel in the UK is very expensive. Currently gas prices in Houston TX for example are around the $3.29 per US gallon. The bad news for you is that currently gas prices (or fuel prices if you want the British term) are £129.9 per litre. There are 3.785 litres in a US gallon, and £1 = $1.68, so that's 1.299 x 1.68 x 3.785 = $8.26 USD equivalent per US gallon.

Stonehenge , Stratford upon Avon , Bath, oxford, Windsor castle

So - rent a car from Heathrow airport and drive to Windsor on your arrival.
Stay in or near Windsor the first night and next day, exploring the town, the castle, Eton, etc
Next day drive to Stonehenge in about one hour to one hour 30 (a saving of over an hour if leaving from Windsor rather than London) and visit the site before lunch You can eat in the town and spend an hour there if you like.
Then drive on to Avebury (less than an hour) and spend the rest of the day there; overnight too - I believe there's quite a nice old pub in the village.
Next morning you can drive to Bath, which will take about one hour, and spend the day there.
Last day, to Oxford via the M4, then the A419 to Marlborough(?) followed by the A420 at Swindon This route will take you through pretty Cotswold towns and villages to Oxford in approximately one and a half hours.
In the early evening it will take you just over one hour to drive back to Heathrow airport, from which you can take a tube (London underground) into central London or anywhere on the network - even Wembley.

This route will take you only four days, save on drive time and gas, and give you cheaper hotel options into the bargain. It gives you more time at each site and, as a bonus, also includes Avebury which is a much more interesting site than Stonehenge

Yikesss!!! $8 per gallon.... did not realize UK gas prices are way too expensive! So comparing to transportation fares vs. Car rental, car rent may still be cheaper? Am I correct? I live in San Antonio Texas and that's right with the current gas price, same as in Houston.
Mother courage-- we've already booked a non refundable stay at premier inn wembley for a week and we cannot make any changes or else we have to pay so although it's more convenient and practical to just spend the night at Windsor, we can't bec of the non refundable booking.

Given you're a family, the family car is likely to still be cheaper, but you need to double check the tube fares (http://www.tfl.gov.uk) plus the train fares against what the car hire would be for the day + the fuel you'd need for it. http://www.viamichelin.com can rapidly calculate those costs for the car for you.

If the public transport is cheaper, book way the hell in advance (tickets open 12 weeks from memory) - the earlier you book the better and substantial (>50%) savings can be had on some routes (but not within London).

Thanks fwoggie! We will surely look into that. We're building a 7 day itinerary and once we know exactly our dates, then we can book ahead of time.

Organised day tours are not everyone's cup of tea. I certainly don't care for them but they do have their value. There are tons of organised tours that collect tourists in London for day trips that include stops in Oxford, Stonehenge, Bath, maybe Salisbury and sometimes a country house like Blenheim Palace. They are not cheap, even by London standards (I just checked a few tour companies online and was surprised at the price) but they can be a convenient way to see some of your top destinations outside London.

Even if the tours are pricey, when you factor the cost of hiring a car + petrol + any parking expenses + trying to navigate the traffic / getting out of London + driving on the other side of the road, the organised tours suddenly look much more appealing.

Having said that I'd still prefer taking the train if you can book the tickets well in advance. You can take lovely day trips via train from London and I'd say the top three destinations would be Bath, York and Oxford. (note that Oxford can also be reached by the cheaper Oxford express busses). York and Oxford would probably be more interesting for your kids, although Bath is a lovely albeit quiet town. York has a phenomenal cathedral, medieval city walls that kids love walking on, a charming and historic city centre around the cathedral with ancient houses and shops, including the infamous shambles, and several good museums. The Jorvik Viking Centre museum is always hugely popular with kids. York is only two hours from London via Kings Cross Station.

Oxford, of course, has all the colleges. Not all are open to the public but some are and the college chapels, libraries and refectories/dining halls are usually viewable. It's a great place to see a wide range of historic British architecture in a very British environment, and Oxford also has the Ashmolean museum and several other museums. Oxford is about 1.5 hours from London by train (Paddington) and two by bus.

Stonehenge, to be frank, is only mildly interesting and for about 15 minutes at that. You can't walk around the stones themselves and are held back quite some distance, and there's a busy motorway in the distance as well. Quite a few people just pull up alongside the motorway and see the site from the distance to avoid the stiff entry fees (about 14 quid per person). And Stonehenge looks exactly like what you see in the pictures, so it's not a great loss to miss the Stonehenge.

Look at National Rail for day trip ideas and costs from London. Note that the earlier you book the much cheaper it is. Pricing can be quite bizarre so often prices radically change from day to day and time to time, so don't necessarily be too shocked at the first quote. Keep prodding around at different days/time.

Tallybalt-- thank you very much for the details! Those are very helpful info indeed!😊👍 Tips like buying train tickets in advance to save money are different from what we're planning to do which is to buy tickets during the trip, at the counter. Since you mentioned it, we'll buy tickets in advance to save some ££.

Have a go at searching out Premier Inns and Travelodges nearer to town (Central London).
You might find some good bagains.
Also check-out booking.com too. There are some absolutely great deals out there that are generally cheaper than booking directly with a particular hotel or chain.

Thanks Lenny! Bec of your suggestion, I asked my husband if our hotel is refundable and he said yes so hooray!!..😊☺️😄 We booked at premier inn London city tower hill which is centrally located. They said it's a 5 min walk to the station and also to the Tower of London.