All,

I have a wonderful opportunity to stay a few extra days in the UK. We are holding a work conference in Windsor May 30-June 1st, and then I'll be staying after for a few days before heading home June 6th.
What should I see? Where should I go? I thought about heading up to Scotland, but transit will eat up most of a day there and most of a day back, so maybe it makes more sense to just stick around Windsor/London?

Not a lot of time to plan anything, so its all kinda last minute and I've never been to Europe.

You'e pretty close to the Cotswolds, suggest you take a day or two and explore, get lost on the B&C roads and soak in a beautiful part of UK. I especially like Broadway and Chipping Camden. There's a great restaurant and hotel in Broadway, let me know if you're interested.
You could add a day and head over to Bath too.

https://www.broadway-cotswolds.co.uk/

Talking just about London, the Imperial War Museum, Westminster, Tower of London. Bath is lovely, as is the cathedral. Stonehenge, iconic and overrated. Can't get close to the stones.

Train from Windsor to London. At least one day. Take in St Paul's Cathedral.

Windsor Castle is nice. Check to see if the queen is there. Her flag flies.

I was in UK for a 2 week multi-city business trip in 2017, and got to explore 4 new areas after work and on the weekend. We had all previously been to London so we explored other areas.

I'm not a soccer fan, but I've been to professional soccer (futbol/football) matches in Newcastle, UK, and Florence, Italy. Seeing a soccer match with rabid European fans was surprisingly fun.

I really like Bath, England. The Romans held the territory 1700 or 1800 years ago and built a roman bath house. If you're an engineer you'll appreciate the significance. The city itself is pretty interesting with the river and parks.

After Bath, we spent late afternoon and the evening in Winchester. The Cathedral is pretty impressive and so is the fort.

I would advise against a trip to Southampton to see the Titanic museum (Southampton is where it departed and most of the crew was for there). It was interesting, but it takes longer to get there from London than it takes to see the museum.

I only was able to go to Windsor the night before I flew out of Heathrow. The castle was closed for a private event so only got to walk around at night. Looked like it'd be an interesting place in the day.

British food is nothing to write home about, and even their best steakhouses are mediocre. Like most of Europe they tend to cook their eggs on one side only or undercook them if scrambling, most of their breakfast are carbs, and for some unforgivable reason all the hotel restaurants in our multi-city trip served boiled bacon (about the only way I've had bacon prepared that darn near ruins bacon as the flavor boils off and you're left with this limp wide noodle-like thing). However, they do have quite a SE Asian population so I had some delicious Thai and Cantonese food while there.

Imperial war museum. Churchill Museum, they are close together.

Take the train to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and discover the birthplace of modern navigation. The history and innovation is truly staggering. https://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory

The London Eye is cool for getting a birds eye view.

I would take a red bus hop on/hop off tour. Great way to see the whole city in one swoop and general feel for where you might want to spend extra time.

The British Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Both are free entry and worth a day apiece, but you can do a FAST tour through both in a day. Bath was interesting, the Roman bath house has a fee but is definitely cool to see the history being recovered in the middle of town. Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge can be done on a single day trip of their own. The tour of Salisbury with the climb to the top of the tower has some interesting history and some wonderful views of the area. I love the view of the cathedral in the evening. There are occasional tours into the stones at Stonehenge but it is unlikely a short notice trip would find tickets available. Take a season appropriate coat if you go, it can be cool near the stones when the wind comes across the fields.

Don't forget all of the other London sights, Tower bridge, The Tower, Chinatown, Leicster square, Buckingham and the Victoria memorial. You can tour the globe theater, or the HMS Belfast too.

We spent 9 days in London over Easter weekend.


Some of our favorites were (not in any particular order):

Tower of London (you can/will spend several hours here – try to get there shortly after opening)

Churchill War Rooms – order your tickets online at least 2 days before you plan to go. If you don’t you may end up standing in line for 2+ hours.

Royal Observatory in Greenwich (Prime meridian line) – not quite as busy as some of the other places, but I’d still recommend going first thing in the morning and also recommend going on a weekend. After you’ve toured the observatory, if you’re there on a weekend, walk over to the Greenwich Market and have lunch at the Red Cow Carvery.


Bath England / Roman Baths – would have like to spend more time in Bath. We took a tour bus that included Stonehenge – I would not recommend that as they rush you through and there wasn’t really enough time to enjoy either location properly. If I were to do this again, I’d look for a place to stay overnight in Bath and probably skip Stonehenge.


My personal favorite was a road trip to Gloucester England to see Gloucester Cathedral. No lines (a welcome change from London where everything had a line). We toured the crypt and the bell tower. The staff was very knowledgeable and the gal who gave the crypt tour took my daughter on a personal tour of the church after she found out my daughter is pursuing her masters in architecture – pointing out all the little details that one might typically miss... Had lunch in the café there as well – the food was excellent.


We also visited several pubs, I liked Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (It was rebuilt in 1667). I enjoyed a couple of cask ales, while the others in my family enjoyed the ciders. The food was good here too.


We weren’t impressed with the London Eye – Purchased our tickets online, but still had to wait in a two-hour line to pick them up and then another hour plus to get on the ride…

quote:

Originally posted by Surefire:
so maybe it makes more sense to just stick around Windsor/London?

^^^^
THIS

There is enough stuff in London alone to keep you busy for a month.

I was there in the mid-90's and went to these places and enjoyed all of them:

-The National Army Museum
-RAF Museum
-Madame Tussaud's
-The Tower of London
-Saint Paul's Cathedral
-Highgate Cemetary
-Tower Bridge
-Nightlife in Soho (this may have changed?)