Alright, driving on the “wrong side of the road” has never been easy for me when I travel “British influenced countries.”  Ok, I have embarrassed myself by coming back to the car and getting in the driver’s seat only to find that the steering wheel was not there!  Got out, looked around to see who was watching – went to the “passenger door” and got in – drove off in the left lane.   Hey lookie – If you can drive in and out of a Wal Mart parking lot safely, you should be able to learn to drive in Britain.

If you have lots of time, the best route might be going Southeast from London to Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Winchester, Bournemouth, Saisbury, Bridgwater, St. Austell, Penzance, Lynton, Oxford, Glouchester, Chepstow, Tenby, Aberystwyth, (Wales), Barmouth, Shewbury, Bangor, Macclesfield, Lincoln, King’s Lynn, Lpswich and back down to London.  You will have covered the South part of England – East Coast, South Coast, West Coast and central area.

In your travels you will have covered market towns, lush green river valleys, farmlands, bays, cliffs, granite, sandy beaches, steep rugged cliffs, mining industry, lonely moorland, stone villages, wooded hills, cathedrals, lovely English gardens, prehistoric temples, castles, old oast houses and thatched cottages, ancient forest that were the hunting grounds of kings, battle grounds of the Normans and Welsh, national parks, mountains, railways, waterfalls, medieval barns, universities, and more history than you can

retain, or a home library could store.

You will have traveled approximately 3,000 miles and the recommended time to visit these places along the way is estimated at a minimum of 60  - 90 days.  Of course, England’s bed and breakfast lodging would be an excellent choice and could easily be arranged a week ahead as you travel.  The picturesque countryside will hold you in an amazed trance as you see images that must have come straight from the movie set of Harry Potter.  Thatched cottages that look as if they came from a calendar page seem to be around every bend of the road.

Towns await you that the Celts, Romans and King Arthur all had ties to. 

There is Maiden Castle, a prehistoric hill-fort that can be seen for miles.  Iron Age men dug ditches there to protect the 5,000 plus inhabitants that have roots going back to the Stone Age.  You will stand in amazement at Stonehenge  while visiting property that Iron Age people, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans inhabited.  There is the Medieval town of Axbridge.  The white cliffs of Dover will hold you in awe.  A smile may cross your face as you visit the hometown of Lady Godiva.  There are 4,000 year old flint mines to visit where miners worked with wooden tools and deer antlers to mine the stone.  One would not want to leave England without walking the streets where Shakespeare roamed the Stratford area.  Any of this trip may be broken down into two week travel time if one does not have the full 60 – 90 days to see the beauty of Southern England. 

Frommer’s Britain’s Best – Loved Driving Tours with more than 100 full-color photographs and maps is perhaps the best guide on the market today.  The tours are numbered, well marked, and each area is exceptionally well described as to what to see, what to do, and “what-not-to-miss.”

Happy traveling.