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From: bennison@turtle.DEC (Victor Bennison - DTN 381-2156)
Newsgroups: net.travel
Subject: Re: England
Message-ID: <2200@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-May-85 11:10:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.2200
Posted: Wed May 15 11:10:41 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Jun-85 05:45:35 EDT
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I disagree that a tour is necessarily the best way to go on your first trip.
Unless you're planning to visit Antarctica or Afghanistan, there's usually
more than adequate information available for you to plan your own trip and
to make it a very personal adventure.  Travel in Europe is particularly
easy and well documented.  Tours tend to take you where the other tours go.
(Example:  We drove into a quaint Cottswold village only to find 20 tour buses
parked along the main street having disgorged about 500 or 600 tourists who
were swarming around the rows of quaint gifts shops.  We drove right on through
to the next quaint Cottswold village, where there was not a single bus, hardly
any cars.  We parked and walked around, stopping to chat with man repairing
a thatched roof.)  I'd much rather have the freedom to go where I want, when
I want.

Concerning the English coastline, I can't believe anyone would recommend seeing
it by rail.  Not only will you lose precious hours waiting for trains to 
arrive, but the train stations are seldom that close to the coast that you'd
want to just stroll out to it.  The logistics of train travel are alot more
complicated than they might at first appear.  You have to worry about luggage,
train schedules, taxis.  It's much simpler just to rent a car.  You can go where
you want, when you want.  You can store all your luggage or picnic supplies or
whatnot in the trunk (aka the "boot").  It's the only way to travel as far as
I'm concerned.  The traffic is pretty easy to avoid.  We spent three weeks in
England (one week in London) and never got caught in slow traffic.  Driving on
the left becomes fairly natural after about a day, and isn't bad even on the
first day, though I wouldn't imbibe too many alcoholic beverages.  (In fact,
English laws on driving and drinking are so strict that unless you want your
bride to return from your trip without you, I would recommend against doing it.)

    				Vick Bennison
    				...decvax!decwrl!rhea!tools!bennison
    				(603) 881-2156