I was fortunate enough to have a weekend off while traveling to Berlin and London for business this week. Rather than spending the two days off in either of the cities, I continued my pursuit of getting rural to have a deeper cultural experience abroad. My coworker and I rented a cute little coup and cruised South from Heathrow hitting some of our favorite romantic comedy inspired destinations and natural landscapes.

EXPERIENCE

Getting out of London proved to be a great change of pace after a week of tough work and long days. Our first stop was the Seven Sister’s County Park in Sussex. This park is lovely, though a little tough to navigate. To hike out to the famous Cliffs, we made a wrong choice and hiked to a slightly less than ideal viewpoint. The drive was charming and narrow, and well worth the few hours from London. This area is very cute and reminiscent of one of our favorite English holiday films, The Holiday. From here we had hoped to stop at the Parham House and gardens for lunch, but ended up a bit behind schedules and instead stopped at a very cute place called Horse and Stable. We drove through South Downs National Park and arrived to Durdle Door for a quick hike down to the Jurassic Coast. The view from here was awesome and would have made for a perfect sunset spot on a less cloudy evening. This place overlooks the English Channel and the French Coast can be seen across the water. We spent the evening down in Dorset in a hotel that worked out to be a great place to hang with the local for the evening. 

On our second day of adventuring we hit the road to a small town after breakfast. The towns of Salisbury and Dorchester were also en route but  my coworker knew a friend from Nelson, so we stopped here. It was fun to get into one of the small towns off the road to check out the standard church, main street and local pub. Our next stop was Stonehenge. We made this a quick visit since the wind was fierce. We were feeling quite wiped out by this point so passed on taking  a trip into Bath to explore. Our final stop was a quick fly by Highclere Castle because I needed to experience that opening icon from Downton Abbey. Our trip finished up back at Heathrow for an Uber ride back into London to begin our week of work.

STAY

Since we were arriving from Berlin and renting a car, I decided it would be best to avoid London in our first hours with the reverse side of the road driving. We stayed our first night at a simple, but suitable accommodation called The Stanwell Hotel near Heathrow. This historic hotel was hopping with a Tina Turner impersonator and impressive number of locals enjoying the bar. The breakfast was plentiful and this place worked perfect as a spot to sleep to begin our trip. 

The hotel on our second night was also simple, not fancy, and more like a hostel than a hotel. The Ilchester Arms Hotel near Dorset and Weymouth had a wonderful restaurant that perhaps trumped the hotel room. We had a great dinner here and enjoyed the locally bottled ciders in the evening. I cannot say this hotel was especially clean, but if you’re willing to forego a shower and just need a place to have a drink and lay your head, it is as quaint as can be and a lot of fun!

EAT

The focus of consumption while on this route should be breakfast, beer and seafood fare. We were told in advance that some of the best fish and chips are really in this region, closer to the sea than London. We tried this, scallops, mussels and seafood risottos while on our journey. The English Breakfast is truly the staple of the day. The hotels seem to all include a huge spread of breads, marmalades, eggs, bacon, ham, roast tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, fruits, and cereals as part of the room rate. Plan on having this, a light lunch, several pints of beer and cider and ending your afternoon with biscuits and tea. The cider menu was quite varied and adventurous including infusions of rosemary, elderflower, hibiscus, mangos and dates.

This little road trip was a great decision and something I’d do again if I find myself with a few days in England to spear. I have done a similar trip north to Scotland in the past, and would consider going more west in a next visit to hit Bath or get further down the coast.