Manchester is cool. You can walk the whole downtown in a day, maybe two.

You can drive everywhere outside London - just get a rental with Carplay that works with your phone and use the GPS. Set your international plan to $10/day roaming, OR if you have a phone with Dual SIM/eSIM you can get a data roaming account on the eSIM.

Nothing is more than a few hours drive away.

Thanks for all of the suggestions and recommendations so far. I know that London is large enough and rich enough in attractions that we could spend two weeks there and not see everything of interest. The question is whether we want to just stay in London and maybe take a day trip out, or do we want to spend 4 or 5 days in London and spend some nights out in the country. Definitely want to spend some time in the Cotswalds.

City guy here, love the cities, all the good ones. But even I needed some personal and open space after a few days packed densely. The mid-week respite to the Cotswolds helped that immensely.

When I got back from 10 days in London et. al., I found myself sipping a Pabst in our courtyard, middle of the City, relishing both the massive amount of private space I had, and a high ABV beer in hand!

I think you're on the right track.

Years ago, we lived around Swindon (80 miles west on London). We would go to London every 4 weeks to "escape".

Once I drove to RAF Duxford, got out and walked around. I heard metal taps, kept walking and there was an older British gent tapping on a piece of aluminum (aluminium for Brits) for a P51-B restoration!

The plane was about 95% and due to fly the summer after we moved back home!

did a week in 2008

one day trip, via a chartered tour, was Canterbury (excellent) , leeds castle, dover (weather was good, we could see France) and back

trafalgar square and picadilly were good

caught a show while there, got to see Monty Python's Spamalot live, excellent time,


another day trip was Bath, Stonehenge, and Winchester, we visited the Cathedral in Winchester vs the castle that may or may not have been Arthur's and the table that may or may not have been round,


good times, hope to return at least once before I get too old to enjoy it

I was disappointed by Stonehenge. And the Mona Lisa but you're not visiting her. All other suggestions are great, have a wonderful time.

The Natural History Museum is phenomenal.

My first time in London we spent three days in the British Museum, and never regretted it. Incredible.
Usually I get "the museum feeling" after half a day and half to get out, but not there.

I'd love to see all the other things mentioned.