UK Day Trips - Short Easy Away Days From London

These UK day trips are quick, fun alternatives to a day in the city

Windsor Castle is everyone's idea of a fairytale castle. And there's plenty to see at the Queen's weekend home (which, we hear, is her favorite). The building alone covers 13 acres and is the biggest inhabited castle in the world. William the Conqueror picked the site, west of London overlooking the Thames and it has been a Royal residence and fortress ever since - almost 950 years.

How to Get There: Trains leave every half hour from Vauxhall Station to Windsor & Eton Central and return to London Waterloo. A Cheap Day Return ticket costs less than £10. The castle, a short walk from the station, dominates the town and is impossible to miss.

Oxford University, England is the oldest university in the English speaking world, dating back to the 11th century. Graduates of Oxford University in England have made notable contributions in every form of human endeavor. Walk these streets and you will be following in the footsteps of Nobel prize winners, kings, presidents, and prime ministers. The university has produced saints, scientists, explorers, artists, authors and actors. And where you find students and the UK's gilded youth you'll also find wonderful pubs and great shopping. Altogether Oxford is a terrific, and easy, day out of London.

How to Get There: Express trains to Oxford from Paddington Station are frequent, take less than an hour and cost under £20.

Ightham is as charming a Kentish village as you can imagine - but it's the sort of place with so many dark happenings in its history at Agatha Christie would have rubbed her hands together with glee. Besides having picturesque 14th and 15th century houses and pubs, Ightham is just up the road from Ightham Mote, a fortified medieval manor, and just down the hill from Oldbury Wood, a protected ancient woodland and Iron Age earthwork. There's plenty to see, a good lunch to be had at the George & Dragon and some fine but easy walking.

How to Get There: Trains to nearby Borough Green & Wrotham Station from Victoria Station are frequent, take less than an hour and cost under £11 round trip.

Denbies Wine Estate, the UK’s largest, holds day-long Vine&Dine grape picking days in October. It's a really continental style experience, learning about the harvest, taking part, enjoying a traditional, rustic, pickers’ lunch, a wine tasting and taking home an estate grown vine There is nothing else like it in the UK. And, in case you didn't know that the English make serious wines, Surrey and Sussex vintages regularly win competitions against French, Spanish and Italian wines.

How to Get There: Trains leave regularly from Waterloo and Victoria Stations to Dorking, a 40 to 50 minute trip. Advance round trip tickets start at £7. Denbies is a 15 minute walk from the station and most locals can point you in the right direction.

The Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden is where keen English gardeners go to be inspired. Its world famous collection of plants has been developing for more than 100 years and there is always something new to see, any time of year. Spread out over 240 acres in Woking, Surrey, about an hour's drive from Central London, Wisley is a lovely, peaceful place for a stroll as well as a demonstration garden full of practical garden design ideas and cultivation techniques.

How to Get There: Trains from London Waterloo Station leave regularly for nearby West Byfleet or Woking. Take a taxi for the short ride from the station. On weekdays during the summer months, a special bus service operates from Woking Station to Wisley.

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton, is the splendid summer house built by George IV when he was Prince Regent. In the early 19th century, his architect, John Nash, slapped a cast iron framework around an older, simpler farmhouse and, well, just went to town, really.

The Pavilion is just one of the attractions of this lovely seaside town. Visitors love to stroll among the antique shops and boutiques of "The Lanes", walk the shingle beach or take some fish and chips out to the end of Brighton's Victorian pier.

How to Get There Trains leave about every 15 minutes from either London Bridge or Victoria Station, cost less about £17 and take about an hour.

Shopping! If you thought London was the be-all and end-all of fashionable shopping, a short train journey to Bicester Village will open your eyes. More than 100 chic boutiques are all discount designer outlets. All the big European and international designer brand names are there with prices much lower than Bond Street or Fifth Avenue. And there are a few restaurants and coffee shops where you can rest your tired feet (or park your "bag man").

How to Get There Trains to Bicester North Station leave up to four times an hour, daily, from London Marylebone. The journey takes just under an hour and the fare is about £20. There is an inexpensive shuttle bus from Bicester North direct to the Village.

Beaulieu, a country house in the New Forest, is a great day trip from London that is jam packed with things to see and do. Besides offering a look at Victorian upstairs-downstairs life in a manor house, it as beautiful gardens, an abbey ruin, a monorail, vintage double-decker bus, a restaurant, Go Karts.

But all of that pales before Beaulieu's amazing National Motor Museum. Car enthusiasts from all over the world come to admire more than 100 years of automobiles, plus star cars, movie cars, James Bond cars. It's a knockout! How to Get There Trains to Brockebhurst Station leave every 15 minutes from Waterloo. The journey takes 1.5 hours and costs £16 round trip for advance tickets.Take a taxi from the station.