Bath and The Cotswold Road Trip

Trip Log:
Members: 5
Start time: 8:30 AM, Saturday, 20th July, 2013
End time: 11:30 PM, Sunday, 21st July, 2013
Duration: 2 day,1 night
Total travel: 550 miles drive
Total walk: 10 km
Trip Type: , Historical place, Leisure
Total expense:
Around GBP 350, inclusive of accommodation, car hire, fuel, food, entry tickets, entertainment, transport
What went great:
- Road trip is always the best option!
- Beautiful Wales and The Cotswold
- Great company
Bad:
- Gross mistake made while hiring car (booked for 20th June instead 20th July): Time and money wasted
- Time management could have been better. Reached hotel at 2:30 am.

Weather: Pleasant and Sunny

The road trip map

Day 1: London (home, 8 am) -> Car pick up from Heathrow airport (lot of time wasted in car hiring because of mistake of wrong dates) -> Stonehenge(2:30 PM) -> Bath -> Swansea (reached very late, 2:30 am, night stay) 

8 am: Start from home. Took tube
9:30 am: Reached Heathrow airport for car pick-up from Enterprise car rental
Mistake: Did a gross mistake while car booking. I booked the car for 20th June instead of 20th July. It took almost half an hour to figure that out. On the spot car hire costing was more than 225 pounds for 2 days 1 night (more than the cost of the whole trip). Luckily we had a tablet and thought of browsing on net. Wow...the same car costing 225 pounds on the spot is costing 89 pounds on their  website. Shame...but that's what is business!
But this mistake definitely costed us a lot of time and money

11:30 am: Start from Heathrow and stuck in lot of traffic on the way to Stonehenge
2:30 am: Reached Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Day 2: Swansea -> Gloucester(Cotswold) -> Chipping Campden(Cotswold) -> Stow-on-the-Wold(Cotswold) ->Bourton-on-the-Water(Cotswold) -> London Heathrow airport -> Home

Itinerary planned before trip:

Time	Where	Things to do	Type	Fee	Notes
20th July, 2013, 8.30 am	London	Reach London Heathrow Airport for car pick up		£39+ £4.45	With insurance cover.
10.00 am		Start for Stonehenge			LHR to Stonehenge: 72 miles, 1.5 hrs. Breakfast packed for the way
12.00 noon	Stonehenge	Reach Stonehenge. 15-20 mins stopover for pictures.	Pre-historic monument	£8.00	Don't really need to pay to see this since they don't allow you to go close to the ruins. From the street you can see as much. You can choose to pay or not pay. Opening times: 9.00am - 7.00 pm. Stonehenge is extremely windy. Carry a windcheater jacket.
1.30 pm	Bath	Reach Bath			Stonehenge to Bath: 34.7 miles, 1 hr Look out for: Minerva Chocolate, Kitchen Cookshop on Quiet Street,
9.00 am - 6.00 pm	Bath	Bath Abbey	Church	Free	15-20 mins approx
	Bath	Orange Grove	Street/Area	Free	It is one of the principal routes through Bath, where people can walk, relax and enjoy the views, from admiring the Abbey to looking out over Parade Gardens and the river to the sweeping green hills that surround the city, including views to Sham Castle.
2.30 pm	Bath	Jane Austen Centre, 40 Gay Street (needs an hour approx.)	Museum	£8.00	9.45 am to 7.00 pm. Jane Austen actually lived in Gay Street (higher up the hill on the same side, at No.25) for some months in 1805. Long stay parking is at Charlotte Street public car park. The entrance to the car park is only 100m from the Centre entrance. There is no public parking outside the Centre. Tickets can be purchase from the Bath Tourist Information Centre, or direct at the Jane Austen Centre. Buy your entry from the Bath Tourist Information Centre and get 2 delicious Cream Teas for the price of 1 at the Regency Tea Rooms.
	Bath	In the footsteps of Jane Austen Trail	Walk-Self guided	Free	Have downloaded the trail map. It will cover the places mentioned in Austen's novels--Persuasion and Northanger Abbey
	Bath	The Circus and The Royal Crescent (also part of the trail)	Georgian architecture	Free	10.00 am-midnight.The best sites in Bath are free and open 24 hours a day. Walk up Gay Street, past the Jane Austen Center to the Circus, a circle of perfect Georgian houses. Walk to the left in the circle, take the first left and walk another block to the Royal Crescent, a half circle of perfect Georgian houses.
	Bath	Lunch			Lunch 12noon- 2.30pm. Evenings 5pm -10.30pm Yak Yeti Yak
	Bath	Fashion Museum & Assembly Rooms	Museum	£7.75	10.30 am-5 pm. Exit 6 pm. Audio tour downloaded. 1½ - 2 hours.         Fashion Museum, Assembly Rooms, Bennett Street
	Bath	Roman Baths	Historical site/Museum	£12.75+free audio guide	9 am-9 pm. Exit 10 pm. Roman Baths & Fashion Museum combined ticket: £16.25
	Bath	Pulteney Bridge (also part of the trail)	Historical site	Free	Best viewed from Parade Gardens park by the crescent weir. Pulteney Bridge, together with the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, is one of the world's most beautiful bridges. Like the Ponte Vecchio it is one of a handful of historic bridges in the world with shops built into it.
		Tea at Sally Lunn's			10am - 6pm, 5pm - 10pm (evening)
5.00 pm		Leave Bath
Target 9.00 pm	Swansea	Reach Swansea. Hotel check-in. 2 Double rooms booked	Hotel	£54.00	Bristol to Travelodge Swansea M4: 1.5 hrs. Check-out: 12 noon. 20 mins from Martime Quarter, 27 mins from Gower Peninsula, 24 mins from The Mumbles
Day 2
21st July, 2013, 9.00 am	Swansea	Breakfast	Beach/Bay		Some beach time fun owing to time in hand. Beaches: Swansea Bay, Caswell Bay, Langland Bay Beach. Breakfast at Verdi's Swansea
11am		Start drive to The Cotswolds
1.00 pm	The Cotswolds	Gloucester Cathedral	Church	No. £3 for photography	Parking: Great Western Road-£3/day, Hare Lane South Pitt Street-Pay and Display. . £1.3/hr
2.30 pm	The Cotswolds	Chipping Campden	Countryside	No	Go shutter crazy! One of the loveliest small towns in the Cotswolds and a gilded masterpiece of limestone and craftmanship
		Drive through Stow-on-the-Wold	Countryside	No
3.00 pm	The Cotswolds	Bourton-on-the-Water	Countryside	No	Chipping Campden to Bourton-on-the-Water: 20 mins. Park the car. Walk around, click pictures.
	The Cotswolds	Lunch			Bourton-on-the-water: Rose Tree Restaurant, L'anatra Italian Kitchen, The Mousetrap Inn Restaurant, Danish Tea Room
5.00 pm tentative		Castle Combe Village. Leave Cotswolds			The closest Motorway junctions are Junction 17 (Chippenham) and Junction 18 (Bath) on the M4. On leaving the Motorway the village and race circuit are signed. Please park in the visitors car park at the top of the hill.
9.00 pm	London	Car drop off at London Heathrow Airport
		Home!