Corvette road trip to England in June 2014 – need some ideas for good places to stay
12-30-2013, 03:00 PM
#1
Pro
Thread Starter
Corvette road trip to England in June 2014 – need some ideas for good places to stay
Yes, it’s happening again: After being part of a group touring through the South of France in 2012 http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...day-diary.html and Northern Italy in 2013 http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...day-diary.html , there will be a
road trip leading us through Southern England in 2014.
There’s a difference though: Instead of 20+ cars we will be a small “force” of two 69 Corvettes and a C6 and we are organizing it ourselves instead of being lazy tag-alongs. The route itself is more or less given. Our biggest challenge is finding suitable Bed & Breakfasts on the way. That’s not as easy as I thought: Most look really great on their respective web sites but when you look at them in Google Earth and read Trip Advisor reviews, many raise an eyebrow. I know some of you here are from England and I’m hoping to get some tips about good places to stay. If you think you know nice places at or near the route, please don’t keep it to yourself!
Here is the route we plan to take. Since we come from 3 different countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), we’ll meet up in Dunkirk on the French Atlantic coast on June 13. We will spend a week in England and return to the continent on June 21.
Basically, we plan to drive daily trips on scenic roads for about half a day and spend the rest of the day exploring the places we are visiting. Cornwall, Devon, Dartmoor, Exmoor, maybe we’ll even fight our way through London – we’re excited. We’ll be posting our adventures here, if you’re interested. But for the next few months, we’ll simply enjoy planning it.
2014 will be a good year indeed.
Martin
road trip leading us through Southern England in 2014.
There’s a difference though: Instead of 20+ cars we will be a small “force” of two 69 Corvettes and a C6 and we are organizing it ourselves instead of being lazy tag-alongs. The route itself is more or less given. Our biggest challenge is finding suitable Bed & Breakfasts on the way. That’s not as easy as I thought: Most look really great on their respective web sites but when you look at them in Google Earth and read Trip Advisor reviews, many raise an eyebrow. I know some of you here are from England and I’m hoping to get some tips about good places to stay. If you think you know nice places at or near the route, please don’t keep it to yourself!
Here is the route we plan to take. Since we come from 3 different countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), we’ll meet up in Dunkirk on the French Atlantic coast on June 13. We will spend a week in England and return to the continent on June 21.
Basically, we plan to drive daily trips on scenic roads for about half a day and spend the rest of the day exploring the places we are visiting. Cornwall, Devon, Dartmoor, Exmoor, maybe we’ll even fight our way through London – we’re excited. We’ll be posting our adventures here, if you’re interested. But for the next few months, we’ll simply enjoy planning it.
2014 will be a good year indeed.
Martin
12-30-2013, 03:28 PM
#2
Instructor
I know a lovely pub that does bed and breakfast, it is near J17 of the M4 and it is in a village called Kington St Michael. The pub is called the Jolly Huntsman and we have stayed there a few times.
The Jolly Huntsman
Hope this helps.
The Jolly Huntsman
Hope this helps.
12-31-2013, 02:34 AM
#3
We have done big European Tours each summer with our Finnish Corvette Owners. So far we've done Italy, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Norway etc. Always a big fun getting out there in your classic corvette.
Anyways, We've done the "ring", Le Mans 24h twice, Corvette Euro Meet and in 2012 we went from Helsinki, Finland to Travemunde, Germany. Stayed in Bremen for the night. In the morning headed to Wezep to visit Frank Boer's collection again. From there drove straight to dunkirk and took a ferry to Dover, where we spent the second night.
Boer's Mid Years.
We picked up one of the Finns from Dover and he took this pic, while we were trying to find each other.
We spent the night in Dover and headed up north to visit Scott at Corvette Kingdom. Scott was kind enough to give us the grand tour around his shop. Scott also builds Sting Ray Racer replicas, which is one of my all time favorites.
From CK we headed back south to visit Tom Falconer at his shop called Corvette Claremont. We've met Tom on our trips to Le Mans and always wanted to visit his shop, he has very nice collection of cool stuff always in the shop.
How's this for rare...
From Tom's place we headed to Brighton for the night.
After a nice meal and few more drinks it was nice to doze of to sleep hearing the waves hit the shore from the hotel balcony.
Following morning we headed to Goodwood Festival of Speed, this is a must for anyone who is even remotely interested in motorsports or cars.
Simply the best event in the world. Looks like it won't quite fit in to your time table, since it takes place in Late June...
Make sure you visit town called Arundel on your trip and book a hotel next to the castle, you will love it. We sure did!
From Arundel we went back to London for the legendary Chelsea Cruise.
And for few drinks in the Ace Cafe.
From Arundel we went to Isle of Wight. We worth it, we stayed in Wellignton Hotel, which had nothing short of spectacular views.
IOW is a very nice place to visit and the Military Road is a must to drive.
From IOW we got back on the main island and headed to Portsmouth and took yet another ferry to Guernsey.
One of the Finns enjoying the glass floor on the Portsmouth tower.
So we went on to the Channel Island, something none of us had done before and I have to say, it was the best decision ever. Guernsey was just breathtakingly beautiful, we had a local tour guide to give us a proper tour, but even without one you can't go wrong with the place, it's just so nice everywhere you go.
From Hotel Balcony at guernsey.
So from Guernsey we took another ferry to Jersey, which if better known than Guernsey, but both are just as nice. I'd say Guernsey offers nicer natural attractions and Jersey more man made attractions. Both very very nice places to visit.
Jersey shore
From Jersey we took yet another ferry to France. Drove up to Valkenburg for the Corvette Fame before heading back home. It took us just over 2 weeks to complete this tour.
Just wanted to give you a heads up on the channel islands, something to think about.
Next summer we are doing the Corvette Club of Sweden's 40th anniversary event, Visit Koenigsegg, go to Denmark and Norway, nice wining and dining in nice castles and wineyards, should be another nice trip.
Anyways, We've done the "ring", Le Mans 24h twice, Corvette Euro Meet and in 2012 we went from Helsinki, Finland to Travemunde, Germany. Stayed in Bremen for the night. In the morning headed to Wezep to visit Frank Boer's collection again. From there drove straight to dunkirk and took a ferry to Dover, where we spent the second night.
Boer's Mid Years.
We picked up one of the Finns from Dover and he took this pic, while we were trying to find each other.
We spent the night in Dover and headed up north to visit Scott at Corvette Kingdom. Scott was kind enough to give us the grand tour around his shop. Scott also builds Sting Ray Racer replicas, which is one of my all time favorites.
From CK we headed back south to visit Tom Falconer at his shop called Corvette Claremont. We've met Tom on our trips to Le Mans and always wanted to visit his shop, he has very nice collection of cool stuff always in the shop.
How's this for rare...
From Tom's place we headed to Brighton for the night.
After a nice meal and few more drinks it was nice to doze of to sleep hearing the waves hit the shore from the hotel balcony.
Following morning we headed to Goodwood Festival of Speed, this is a must for anyone who is even remotely interested in motorsports or cars.
Simply the best event in the world. Looks like it won't quite fit in to your time table, since it takes place in Late June...
Make sure you visit town called Arundel on your trip and book a hotel next to the castle, you will love it. We sure did!
From Arundel we went back to London for the legendary Chelsea Cruise.
And for few drinks in the Ace Cafe.
From Arundel we went to Isle of Wight. We worth it, we stayed in Wellignton Hotel, which had nothing short of spectacular views.
IOW is a very nice place to visit and the Military Road is a must to drive.
From IOW we got back on the main island and headed to Portsmouth and took yet another ferry to Guernsey.
One of the Finns enjoying the glass floor on the Portsmouth tower.
So we went on to the Channel Island, something none of us had done before and I have to say, it was the best decision ever. Guernsey was just breathtakingly beautiful, we had a local tour guide to give us a proper tour, but even without one you can't go wrong with the place, it's just so nice everywhere you go.
From Hotel Balcony at guernsey.
So from Guernsey we took another ferry to Jersey, which if better known than Guernsey, but both are just as nice. I'd say Guernsey offers nicer natural attractions and Jersey more man made attractions. Both very very nice places to visit.
Jersey shore
From Jersey we took yet another ferry to France. Drove up to Valkenburg for the Corvette Fame before heading back home. It took us just over 2 weeks to complete this tour.
Just wanted to give you a heads up on the channel islands, something to think about.
Next summer we are doing the Corvette Club of Sweden's 40th anniversary event, Visit Koenigsegg, go to Denmark and Norway, nice wining and dining in nice castles and wineyards, should be another nice trip.
