England, part one of our UK roadtrip

During this roadtrip we drove a lot of kilometers. Our vacation days were limited so, we wanted to discover as much as possible in the short time.

If we had more vacation days, we would have stayed in the same place for longer.

We visited England, Wales & Scotland during this short period.

In this blogpost we wrote all our stops in England down. The blogposts of Wales and Scotland are also on the blog.


England


Departure

We took the ferry from Dunkerque (France) to Dover (England). There are several companies, we took: DFDS Ferry. The transfer to Dover took around 2 hours. When we arrived in dover, we found a nice place to sleep with the app ‘park4night’. In the morning we woke up with a view on the chalk white rocks.

 sleepspot: 51°09’23.8″N 1°23’34.2″E


Tip for travelling with a dog while taking the ferry: You are normally expected to go to the deck without your pet during the trip. One of us stayed with Thor in the camper, they don’t check this.

 

General tip: we booked last minute. If you can book earlier, we recommend comparing the prices of the ferry with the Eurotunnel. With the eurotunnel, you get to your destination much faster (30mins).

 

Day 1

In the morning we walked on the beach along the beautiful white chalk cliffs for which the English South Coast is known. For example, we made a stop at St Margarets Bay. This is a small beach bay with beautiful colored beach cabins.

Afterwards we drove to Arundel Castle. Unfortunately, you need to pay a fee if you want to get close to the castle. For us personally, this was not a stop that we really recommend.

 

Further on our route we passed ‘old harry rocks’. We made a very nice evening walk here. Because we visited this later in the day, there were only few people near this special rock formation.

Day 2

From our sleeping place we drove west towards the Dorset region. We visited Durdle door and Lulworth cove here. We did a hike of about 9 kilometers to visit the two tourist spots and combined them on foot. It’s a must see/do, beautiful views guaranteed.

General tip: Both spots are very beautiful and instagramable. That means that they can be crowded. Avoid visiting these places on weekends or during high season.

After our hike with beautiful views, we drove on to a very special place to sleep. We slept with a view from our camper windows on stonehenge

 sleepspot coordinotes: 51°10’44.1″N 1°49’50.9″W


General tip 1 : We stayed at this place in offseason and it was already quite crowded with campers. If you go in high season, it is best to drive to the place in time so you can make sure you have a free spot.

General tip 2: Visiting Stonehenge is paid with a guide. There are also guards at the World Heritage site until late at night. There is a public gate along the paying entrance near the camper sleeping place. Through a wire that is separated from the paying part, you can still admire the world heritage and take nice photos.

Day 3

On our journey to the south of Wales we passed through the Cotswolds region, a beautiful region of old villages that have been well preserved.

We stopped in Castle Combe, a typical village for this region. Several films, including War Horse, were partly shot here. Personally, I would not return to this place. It isn’t a must visit if you have limited time in the region.


The next couple of days we spent in Wales. We continue our trip in the UK towards Scotland.

On our way to the Scottish border, we slept next to Hadrian’s wall. Hadrian’s wall has a very fascinating history and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although many think this used to be the Scottish-English border, it wasn’t. It goes to back to the time of the romans and was a border between the roman empire and the celts.

We hope u enjoyed our article about England. On the blog you can also find articles about Wales & Scotland.

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