Dear readers I need your suggestion. I will come to England for one week
for visiting London and the sorrondings. Because the airplane is landing
in Stansted, I thaought that taking an accomodation in Cambridge would be
practical for living some days in a beautiful "small" english town and
also being not too far from London.
Is it a good idea to rent a car and to drive from Cambridge to a place
somewhere near London where it is possible to park and to go by
underground train to the center of the city? I always do so when I have
to go to Milan from my town in the north of Italy.
Do you think that the traffic conditions near Cambridge are such that I
can make a good use of the car to visit for instance the seaside (Norfolk)
or another town like Oxford? Or I will be spending ours in queues?
Thank you for your suggestions. I love England where I spent one year
40 years ago (and I also got a british driving licence).

In message , at 04:49:03
on Mon, 22 Oct 2012, antoine remarked:
Dear readers I need your suggestion. I will come to England for one week
for visiting London and the sorrondings. Because the airplane is landing
in Stansted, I thaought that taking an accomodation in Cambridge would be
practical for living some days in a beautiful "small" english town and
also being not too far from London.
Is it a good idea to rent a car and to drive from Cambridge to a place
somewhere near London where it is possible to park and to go by
underground train to the center of the city? I always do so when I have
to go to Milan from my town in the north of Italy.
Do you think that the traffic conditions near Cambridge are such that I
can make a good use of the car to visit for instance the seaside (Norfolk)
or another town like Oxford? Or I will be spending ours in queues?
Thank you for your suggestions. I love England where I spent one year
40 years ago (and I also got a british driving licence).

Traffic in the centre of Cambridge is very bad, and also to/from London
during the rush hours. If you are making multiple trips to London I
would suggest getting a rail season ticket: £106 per week, or £135 with
London Travelcard included. As many trips as you like in any seven day
period (can start any day of the week).
--
Roland Perry

On 22/10/2012 05:49, antoine wrote:
Dear readers I need your suggestion. I will come to England for one week
for visiting London and the sorrondings. Because the airplane is landing
in Stansted, I thaought that taking an accomodation in Cambridge would be
practical for living some days in a beautiful "small" english town and
also being not too far from London.
Is it a good idea to rent a car and to drive from Cambridge to a place
somewhere near London where it is possible to park and to go by
underground train to the center of the city?

No. Get the train. It's about 45 min on a fast train from Cambridge to
King's Cross, which run every 30 min (there are also slower trains, but
there is no point in catching one as they get overtaken). Driving in
central Cambridge will not help your sanity, and long underground trips
might not be fun.

I always do so when I have
to go to Milan from my town in the north of Italy.
Do you think that the traffic conditions near Cambridge are such that I
can make a good use of the car to visit for instance the seaside (Norfolk)
or another town like Oxford? Or I will be spending ours in queues?

A car might well make sense for the coast (although you can get to, say,
Cromer by train for a day trip from Cambridge).

If you are staying in Cambridge, do you really want to do Oxford as
well, which is basically just (an inferior version of) the same thing?

Thank you for your suggestions. I love England where I spent one year
40 years ago

You might find it has changed...


(and I also got a british driving licence).



--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In message , at
08:13:53 on Mon, 22 Oct 2012, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
If you are staying in Cambridge, do you really want to do Oxford as
well, which is basically just (an inferior version of) the same thing?

It's not a particularly fun journey either by train or car (and
traffic/parking in Oxford is even worse than Cambridge).

For a second historic City to visit I'd suggest Ely (half a day
probably), Lincoln or York. All fairly easy train trips.
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
(antoine) wrote:

Dear readers I need your suggestion. I will come to England for one
week for visiting London and the sorrondings. Because the airplane is
landing in Stansted, I thaought that taking an accomodation in
Cambridge would be
practical for living some days in a beautiful "small" english town
and also being not too far from London.
Is it a good idea to rent a car and to drive from Cambridge to a
place somewhere near London where it is possible to park and to go by
underground train to the center of the city? I always do so when I
have to go to Milan from my town in the north of Italy.
Do you think that the traffic conditions near Cambridge are such that
I can make a good use of the car to visit for instance the seaside
(Norfolk)
or another town like Oxford? Or I will be spending ours in queues?
Thank you for your suggestions. I love England where I spent one year
40 years ago (and I also got a british driving licence).

I think Roland and Arthur have made good suggestions. Public transport is
good for tourism these days while main roads are very busy.

You will find accommodation costs might be higher in or close to Cambridge
though.

Cambridge has active local newsgroups so I have cross posted this to
cam.transport.

--
Colin Rosenstiel (Cambridge City Councillor)

In message , Roland Perry
writes

For a second historic City to visit I'd suggest Ely (half a day
probably), Lincoln or York. All fairly easy train trips.

I'd add Norwich to that list, which is a little over an hour from
Cambridge by direct train service.
--
Paul Terry

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions.
Thay are very helpful to me.

"antoine" wrote in message
...
Dear readers I need your suggestion. I will come to England for one week
for visiting London and the sorrondings. Because the airplane is landing
in Stansted, I thaought that taking an accomodation in Cambridge would be
practical for living some days in a beautiful "small" english town and
also being not too far from London.
Is it a good idea to rent a car and to drive from Cambridge to a place
somewhere near London where it is possible to park and to go by
underground train to the center of the city? I always do so when I have
to go to Milan from my town in the north of Italy.
Do you think that the traffic conditions near Cambridge are such that I
can make a good use of the car to visit for instance the seaside (Norfolk)
or another town like Oxford? Or I will be spending ours in queues?
Thank you for your suggestions. I love England where I spent one year
40 years ago (and I also got a british driving licence).


If your main interest is to stay in Cambridge so that you can visit London
you must understand how our railway works. If you want to arrive in London
before 1014 it will cost you at least £32.40. If you take the train that
arrives Liverpool St at 1014 the fare is £19 and you can also buy a
Travelcard (which covers both your journey to and from Cambridge as well as
buses, trains and underground in London) for £22.80 but trains to Kings X
still cost £32.20. The journey takes about 1 hour (slightly more to
Liverpool St) each way so staying in Cambridge to visit London could be
expensive and time consuming if you make several trips.

As for hiring a car to go to London or Oxford I have one word for you. NO.
Traffic is heavy and slow. Parking is difficult and expensive in the
cities. You can park outside the city and travel on by bus or by train but
then you are paying for the car all the time and using it very little; at
home you have already paid for the car! Also, to get to Oxford by train
you will probably go via London and even driving you can come via the
outside of London on roads that look as if they will be fast on a map but
they are often slow.

On 22/10/2012 09:12, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at
08:13:53 on Mon, 22 Oct 2012, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
If you are staying in Cambridge, do you really want to do Oxford as
well, which is basically just (an inferior version of) the same thing?

It's not a particularly fun journey either by train or car (and
traffic/parking in Oxford is even worse than Cambridge).

Park and ride.


For a second historic City to visit I'd suggest Ely (half a day
probably), Lincoln or York. All fairly easy train trips.

In message , at 14:13:40 on Mon, 22 Oct
2012, Mizter T remarked:
It's not a particularly fun journey either by train or car (and
traffic/parking in Oxford is even worse than Cambridge).

Park and ride.

Got the t-shirt. It adds about an hour to the round-trip time.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that anywhere with P&R is only
worth visiting if it's either essential, or one can arrive by train.

But that's what I'm sure the residents think too, so it's a bit of a
win-win situation.
--
Roland Perry