18 Travel File
Travel for a Few Dollars a Day
Bringing You Closer to Europe – England Edition
In our search for people and places to share with you, we are more interested in the goodness of the human spirit than in bathrooms. Of course, we like modern plumbing, steam heat, and elevators, But we have never made these things our gods, and we assume that you feel the same way. We value charm, the artful touch of creative people who have dared assert their individuality who scorn the ordinary and show a respect for the good things of life. We are attracted by personal gestures, such as a proudly made, deep=dish apply pie, or wood surfaces scrubbed clean with years of loving care, or the smile of hostess who is sincerely concerned with their guests’ welfare.
Would you like to live in a black-and-white timbered, 17th-century home, one hour from London; to sleep in a wooden, four-poster bed; to enjoy festive, multi-course meals while seated at a polished, black oak refectory table in front of a 15-foot wide fireplace, where cherry logs burn brightly both day and night.
We will take you to the cottage of a sea captain where you can experiance genial country hospitality and hear tales of the deep—or to a hillside farm, perched on a wild moor, where you’ll be served a four o’clock tea accompanied by home-churned butter and crusty bread, warm from the oven, and tick-clotted cream piled high on a bowl of tin strawberries that you yourself have just picked in a nearby field.
Section 1: How to get to England
We offer some various modes of transportation within England. Naturally, our focus is on the least expensive means of transport on such items as excursion fares and off-season discounts.
Section 2: London – where to stay, eat, and shop
We list first the budget hotels, then the restaurants and pubs, concluding with data on low-cost transportation, the major sights (including a personal list of the Top 10), shoping bargains, inexpensive night life, and one-day trips from the capital to Windsor, Woburn Abbey, Hampton Court, and lots more.
Section 3: Visiting the South and the West of England
Moving away from the city to the South will include Kent, Surrey, then Hampshire (Bournemouth) and Dorset (Thomas Hardy country), then “The West” (Cornwall and Devon). Here you’ll find our descriptions of inexpensive thatched cottages, hillside farms, Elizabethan manor hourse, which you can use for exploring the varied, historically rich English countryside. A preview of the most important tourist attracts is given with each “shire” introduction.
Section 4: Visiting other parts of England.
Less-visited, though magnificent, points for tourist exploration: East Anglia (Cambridge, of course, but also Ely, Norwich-the “fen” and the “broads” country); the cathedral cities of Lincoln and York in the great northeast, Cheshire (with its historic, half-timbered Chester and Nantwich), and finally the romantic Lake District in the Northwest.
Section 5: Scotland.
We conclude with Ed