Oxford University
Cambridge University
University of Edinburgh
I am completely new to travelling, however, and was wondering how I could organize a summer trip to these three places.
Thanks so much.
Find somewhere to stay in London, and you can get to all three places by train. And many others too. Because of the size of the UK, trains are the key to getting around. If you happen to be American, maybe you are more used to the idea of flying to other parts of the country, but the UK just isn't big enough to make that sensible unless you're in a real hurry. And anyway, you get to see more on a train. There are also long-distance coaches but trains are nicer.
Oxford and Cambridge aren't too far away from London and if you start early in the day, each is an easy day trip out by train. Or for Oxford, the "Oxford Tube" bus. Just don't expect to see anything called "the university" because they are collegiate universities. The individual colleges where students live, and faculty buildings where they go for teaching, are spread all over the town, and in term-time it is common to see students on bicycles getting from place to place.
Edinburgh is much further off and you can fly there from London, but price-wise it's much the same to go by train. By the time you've done all the fiddling around at airports, it's far nicer to spend 5 hours on the train from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. No problems with getting out to the airport and then into the city centre again at the other end - the train just takes you there. You get to see more out of the window on the way instead of just clouds. You will need a hotel for the night to have enough time to see anything of Edinburgh but I would advise that anyway. The local accent will be something to get used to but on that point, at least Edinburgh is not Glasgow! The Scottish accent in Edinburgh is milder than in "Glesga".
This doesn't matter so much for Oxford and Cambridge - as you can get there and back in a day, booking tickets in advance won't save anything, just buy a day return ticket at the railway station in London - but to get to Edinburgh, buy in advance at http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/ You can do this and collect your tickets at Kings Cross instead of having them posted to you. That can make big savings and bookings open 11 weeks in advance.
Britain has a dense frequent rail network that serves all the places you wish to visit. To save you the bother of buying individual tickets I would suggest purchasing a Britrail Pass before arrival
www.britrail.com
www.nationalrail.co.uk (Schedule information)
You will see a lot of Britain as you travel on the train and get a real feel for the country
you can get anywhere in the uk within a hour or a few hours ....( air ,train or car )
london of course - go to the WEST END ( and night life )
Manchester for the night life
you can do boat trips on the thames
millions of castles all round the country , and stately homes ( some older than America )
fly to dublin ( 50 minutes on the plane ) .... get tanked up in Irish bars with 'riddley diddley doo' music
be in paris in 2 hours via train from london , 1 hour plus to Belgium from lodon
you could seriously spend 20 years in london and still find new things everyday .....
you could go to the tate museums ( free , ) , 'the globe' shakespears theatre
there is millions of places to go , i suggest buying a 'lonely plane't book , best travel books ever made ... they have everything in it
every major town has a story....
if your smart enough to go to a university you should have no trouble getting around ..oxford and Cambridge are not far apart ..and you can get either trains or buses to get to them ..Edinburgh is in Scotland but still easy to get to by train
Not to bright are you? Google some flights. Fly here. Go to these places by train. Google some hotels.
All of those places can be reached by train from London.
