On this trip to Great Britain, we concentrated primarily on the Southeast and East of England. In addition to the garden, cathedrals, stately homes, abbeys and castles which have been the previous focus of our trips, we have now added lighthouses to the desired viewing list. Lighthouses are often in the middle of extremely beautiful scenery.  For example, Beachy Head on Day 2, sits just off shore, at the base of a tall chalk cliff. South Foreland on Day 3, has been turned into a museum which can be toured and the only way to get there is to park and walk along the top of chalk cliffs. Cromer Lighthouse sits on top of a hill and can only be reached by walking from the town along the sea. Each lighthouse has a very unique setting that makes the trip there worth the effort. We also enjoyed the windmills which have been scattered throughout the trip.

On this trip, we were able to visit the Treasure Houses of England that we had not visited on earlier trips as well as revisit some. Each of these have a unique character and are well worth visiting.  However, as we have discovered, it often takes more than one trip to England and you can discover so very much more at each House on subsequent visits. Additionally, the list of houses has changed over the 23 years that we have been traveling to England. Exactly what constitutes a "Treasure House" is not clear. Waddeson Manor, on day 12, was as spectacular as any of the "Treasure Houses" yet is not listed as a "Treasure House". It is more the marketing as anything.

Below are small maps showing the area covered each day with links to daily pages shown on the left. On our daily pages we present one picture (if possible) from each of the sites visited that day as well as links to more detailed information for the site. We have attempted to always present the "official site" (National Trust, British Heritage, etc.) whenever possible as well as the "best" alternative site we could find on the web.

Planning your own trip to England, Scotland or the UK?
     You can start at the British Tourist Authority. You can request information sent to you and they have links to Tourist Authority sites more specific to a region like the Scotland Tourist Board.
     We would recommend investigating the "Great British Heritage Pass". Our 15 day pass cost $95.00/each and we entered more than 35 properties which would have had an entry fee of more than $410.00/each (not to mention parking). It is interesting how each property deals with the pass. At Woburn Abbey on day 12, you enter the house and garden free, but they charge for entry onto the grounds to get to the house. One did not want to accept the pass, because they had a special event, a boot sale (flea market) on the grounds that day. However, with some discussion, they ultimately did accept the pass. While one could purchase the pass in England, we find that time is too valuable and we also find the booklet that comes with the pass to be a very helpful planning tool.
     To find good B&B accommodations, we have had success using the British AA (Automobile Association) B&B Listings, and SmoothHound.  We highly recommend the AA rating system and found it to be very reliable.  The Scottish Tourist Board ratings are an acceptable alternative. We have had the best success booking direct (via internet or phone).
     For pure internet maps, we would recommend StreetMap.co.uk and MultiMap.Com. The first is our personal choice, but it does not have the routing found in the second. We often copy multiple maps from the first choice, paste them together and then print the combined map for our trips. Remember to pick up a good map for the tour.  We like the British AA Great Britain Road Atlas (4 mile to 1 inch scale).
     We always go over with a defined route for efficiency (no-time-lost). For trip routing (directions from point A to point B), we would recommend MultiMap.Com or The British AA Route Planner.