Holiday in southern England

rachel_green

I am looking for some ideas on where to go in southern England with my hubby and 3 year old son.
We are sailing over and going to Paultons, (and we have our hotel booked for our few days here) but I would be grateful for some suggestions on where else to go before we sail back home.
Itinerary
Day 1 Drive from boat to Southampton & check into hotel
Day 2 & 3 Paultons
Day 4 Check out of hotel and go ????
Day 5 SUGGESTIONS / HELP PLEASE
Day 6 Check out of hotel & drive to Longleat safari and then drive to midnight boat
Day 7 Arrive home

We plan to see Stonehenge, Southampton and Salisbury on days 1 -3
But when we check out of the hotel on Day 4 (Tues morning) I would be grateful for some ideas for where we should travel to and book our hotel.
We have never been to this part England before and don’t mind booking a hotel and traveling around, but we are not sure where we’re going or where we should base ourselves.
Have thought about Bath, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cornwall and Devon, but we only have two days and while I don’t mind several hours driving each day we couldn’t go to all of these and don’t know which we should definitely visit.
Any help appreciated

Thanks

Rach

andrewf75

seems a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question as it depends on what kind of thing you're looking for. But to me it looks like you're trying to pack too much in. I certainly wouldn't attempt to go down to Devon or Cornwall. How about the New Forest or isle of Wight? Both much closer given your short time.

rachel_green

Thanks for your reply. After paultons we need to go somewhere else and we just can't decide where.

New forest and Isle of white are close by but what are the tourist attractions there that would be suitable for us all. We are open to all suggestions but would be grateful for some guidance.

We know Cornwall and Devon are beautiful and scenic but what is there to do with a toddler.

We have had two days at paultons so not sure if hubby and I could take any more theme type parks hence why longleat and postman pat village will be on the last day!

We don't intend to visit everywhere I mentioned but we can be flexible on our return ferry date so in theory we could.

martindow

I agree that you don't want to drive too much. I'm not sure if you need to do anything too special with a 3 year old for which two days at Paultons might be a bit much.

They will be fine walking around the New Forest looking at ponies and or playing on beaches at Bournemouth. You could go on the Sandbanks ferry and have a day in Swanage. Break it up a bit with odd visits to playgrounds.

missbiggles1

rachel_green wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. After paultons we need to go somewhere else and we just can't decide where.

New forest and Isle of white are close by but what are the tourist attractions there that would be suitable for us all. We are open to all suggestions but would be grateful for some guidance.

We know Cornwall and Devon are beautiful and scenic but what is there to do with a toddler.

We have had two days at paultons so not sure if hubby and I could take any more theme type parks hence why longleat and postman pat village will be on the last day!

We don't intend to visit everywhere I mentioned but we can be flexible on our return ferry date so in theory we could.

I have to say, I don't see much appeal in taking a toddler to either Stonehenge or Salisbury, interesting as they can be for an adult. What are you planning to do when you visit them?

I agree with the poster above, you seem to be trying to cram far too much in.

gamston

what about Monkey world & dinosaur museam both in dorset
quite abit in dorset too see
you must want something to keep the little happy, must be open farms where you can hold and feed aminals

Robin9

Beaulie Motor Museum

Yes to New Forest and Swanage no to Salisbury, Bath

rachel_green

Thanks for the replies. gamston thanks for your suggestion of Dorset, I'll have to investigate Dorset further as we had thought of Bournemouth, Poole or Weymouth. But friends and colleagues have said we should visit Cornwall or Devon or bath or Bristol instead. And since we can't visit all these places I was looking for any idea of where we should base ourselves.

WestonDave

To be fair if you are planning to drive from Longleat to the boat then Bath is certainly a possibility as its only a 40 minute drive from Bath to Longleat.


I guess the question is what are you looking for - Longleat and Paultons Park are clearly aimed at the little one. Salisbury and Stonehenge more adult - albeit a 3 year old will enjoy a play park anywhere!


If you wanted to do Bath, I'd suggest that you aimed to leave Bath for Longleat on the morning of day 6 so spend day 5 at least in Bath. Again I'm not sure what your idea of hotels is like but I can recommend suitable ones within your budget. Within Bath you can do visits like the Roman Baths, and Abbey which are fairly adult but you can also take your son for a stroll through Victoria Park (conveniently passing the major architectural attractions of the Circus and Royal Crescent) ending up at the massive play area we have in the park.


The tricky part is finding things to do if we say assume you were to do 2 nights in Bath so arriving on the evening of day 4. Stourhead is lovely and on the way up http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead/ The other obvious alternative is to save Salisbury for the journey up and have more time at Paultons just enjoying the park.

rachel_green

I should say we just intend to drive past Stonehenge, the white horses and the crop circles.

Elsewhere

If you are looking for something relaxing to do on day 5, how about a trip on the Kennet and Avon canal which is near Longleat and Bath? It's beautiful and interesting. You can hire a boat for the day or there are organised trips, I believe.