Historical Lodging within an hour of London

[msim]

Is there such a thing? Looking for something old and historical, but not a dump. (big history buff) Will be travelling from Gatwick by train and/or tube. Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Cranbrook look like they're only an hour away - never been to UK, need advice. We will be making daytrips to Canterbury, Stonehenge, Hampton Court, maybe Dover. What would actually be convenient? Thanks everyone!

 

[tony64]

Hi Msim
There are so many it's hard to know where to start, you could stay anywhere from a Castle to an Old Coaching Inn, I'd suggest a search on a site like travelsupermarket.com and just see what takes your fancy in the areas you wish to stay.

 

[Dimplenose]

Are you travelling by car once you're over here? If not do you have to go into central London to start each of your day trips? You may find it more convenient to be stayig in London rather than an hour outside as you seem to be going off in a lot of differnet directions.

Libby

Edited to Add:- That said this hotel always looks nice when I drive past

http://www.carltonhotels.co.uk/mitre/?CFID=10620098&CFTOKEN=82108205

I've never stayed there but it is very close to Hampton Court Palace - 30 minutes by train to London Waterloo. (Be aware that some of the exterior photos aren't of the hotel but of Hampton Court Palace itself)

 

[wishspirit]

It depends whether you are driving or not.
If you are from America, i would highly suggest you dont unless you look up o our highway code properly or have someone to help you. Our system is very different from America, with lots of roundabouts and streets that arent in blocks. we like to make things complicated!

If you dont want to drive i suggest staying in London, as then you are at easy access to loads of different trains going in all directions. Otherwise i could recomend places on the type of history you are intrested in, my home town for instance has loads of Roman and Tudor history to it.