6 days in Jane Austen's England

A lifelong Jane Austen fan lives out a literary fantasy during a storybook six-day tour through England.

Apr 7, 2025 - 18:17

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman of good fortune must be in want of a trip. This ham-handed riff on the oft-quoted opening line from Jane Austen's beloved 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice, is never far from any book nerd's mind. One such nerd since childhood, I’ve held Austen’s prose close, like secrets written in a journal that only she and I share – as if!

For the 250th anniversary of the great author’s birth, I was invited (forwarded an email) for a trip to bring some US-based travel writers to England to follow Austen's path by coach (not the horse-drawn kind) from London to Chawton to Bath, all around the Cotswolds and back again.

Follow this dream-come-true itinerary to see Jane Austen’s England firsthand, from the place of her birth to the site of her grave, and honor her legacy, mark her extraordinary literary contributions and inhabit the worlds she created, either in fiction or the filmed adaptations of her novels.

A side view of a two-story red brick house, with a white door in the center, white trim on the windows and a sign hanging from the second story.

When to arrive: Come when it’s least expensive for you to do so. This trip began on a Monday morning, after a red-eye from New York City.
How to get from the airport: Take the £10 ($12) 15-minute Heathrow Express to Paddington Station.
Getting around: We took a bespoke tour from Rabbie’s. You can rent a car and drive yourself. We also took a Jane Austen–themed day tour with In & Around Bath.
Where to stay: We stopped at Henry’s Townhouse in London, the Wykeham Arms in Winchester, the Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa in Bath, the Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds and Minster Mill in Oxfordshire.
What to pack: Corsets and bonnets? Or bring smart-casual layers: pants, shirts, sweaters, jackets, shoes you’d happily get a bit muddy, a raincoat and an umbrella

A painting of a seated woman wearing a Regency-style pale blue dress and bonnet.

Jane Austen's portrait in the entryway of Henry's Townhouse in London

A table set with clear plates that hold white napkins with a single fresh flower in the center, silverware and glasses; the center of the table has clear vases with pink flowers, purple candles and small white votives.

The tablescape at Henry's Townhouse. Brekke Fletcher/Lonely Planet (2)

Day 1

How to spend the day

Check in to Henry’s Townhouse in the Marylebone neighborhood of London. This exquisitely appointed dwelling is the former home of Austen’s favorite brother, Henry. Each room is named for one of the Austen siblings or relations, with furnishings that evoke the 19th century but with 21st-century conveniences. I stayed in the James room – and just wow.

The hotel arranged an Austen-appropriate activity for the afternoon: a tutorial in tablescape design with Flowerbx. My thoughts went to the elder Miss Bennets picking flowers from the Longbourn garden whilst discussing Mr. Bingley’s intentions.

Dinner

Glasses of champagne in the drawing room accompanied conversation with Jessica Bull, author of an Austen-inspired series of novels, Miss Austen Investigates. An elegant dinner (decorated with our tablescape) followed.

A three-story stone house with a pitched roof and an L-shaped wing.

Chawton House in Hampshire

Sheets of paper and a quill on an octagonal dark wood table and a wood chair with a woven seat.

Jane Austen's writing desk. Brekke Fletcher/Lonely Planet (2)

Day 2

Morning

We took breakfast downstairs at M Halavants Pantry before alighting the coach that would transfer us to Steventon and Chawton.

How to spend the day

The first stop was a phone booth-turned-bookstall in Steventon, the hamlet where Austen was born in 1775, followed by a visit to her home in Chawton, Hampshire, where she lived with her mother and sister, Cassandra, from 1809 until two months before her death in Winchester in 1817.

Now a museum, Jane Austen's House includes original furnishings and belongings, including jewelry, first editions, clothing and the tiny desk on which Austen wrote her most beloved novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. I was gobsmacked by the diminutive size of this table in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of hand-written words and pages she scribed upon it.

A one-room exhibit surveys the multiple TV and film adaptations of her work, including the BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries, the film of Sense and Sensibility for which Emma Thompson won a Golden Globe (accepting it with a speech as if written by Jane Austen), Persuasion and Clueless (the Los Angeles–based retelling of Emma).

Afterward we walked to her brother Edward’s neighboring estate, Chawton House, where we stopped for a midweek roast luncheon in the Old Kitchen Tea Room and a tour of the property and grounds. The library is simply extraordinary.

To learn more about Austen’s years in Hampshire, watch this short film.

Dinner

For the evening, we transferred to the Wykeham Arms, an eclectic and homey pub in Winchester, and walked along the river to enjoy a delicious dinner – and a ghost story or two – at the Chesil Rectory, housed in a 600-year-old medieval house.

A stone floor panel with writing inscribed on it.

Jane Austen's grave at Winchester Cathedral

The author sitting at a dark wooden desk, using a quill and ink to write on paper.

Using a quill and ink at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath. Brekke Fletcher/Lonely Planet (2)

Day 3

How to spend the day

We began with a walking tour of Winchester that included the home where Austen died and her final resting place in the breathtaking Winchester Cathedral.

After the tour, we made our way to Bath, another of Austen’s hometowns. We checked into the Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa, imbibed at a stunning tea service and spent the afternoon wandering around the town, with stops at the Jane Austen Centre to continue our Austen education (there is cosplay). At the center, you can also attempt to write with quill and ink (I clearly do not possess a fine hand for lettering) and dress in period garb.

Dinner

A 20-minute drive into Wiltshire brought us to dine at the Walled Garden at Lucknam Park. Oh how I wish I had seen this gorgeous Relais & Chateau property in daylight.

A two-story tan stone house with a rounded portico over the central door, a gravel area in front and green shrubbery in the foreground.

Luckingon Court played the fictional Longbourn in the BBC's "Pride and Prejudice" miniseries

A large gray stone building with gothic arches on the ground level and a green grass yard.

Laccok Abbey in Wiltshire. Brekke Fletcher/Lonely Planet (2)

Day 4

How to spend the day

On the Jane Austen-tatious day tour with local operator In & Beyond Bath, we visited one of the Bath homes where the Austens resided, then meandered around the rest of the city, well worth a multiday visit for its pristinely preserved Roman Baths, epic cathedral and Bath buns at Sally Lunn’s.

Then we drove to one of the filming locations for the BBC's Pride and Prejudice. Privately owned Luckington Court, which dates back to the 12th century, is the stately Wiltshire home that stood in for the fictional Longbourn, the Bennet family estate. We had to sneak a peek of the house over a hedge from the yard of the adjacent Church of St Mary with St Ethelbert, also featured in the series as the location of the double wedding for the eldest Bennet sisters.

Our next stop was for lunch at the Castle Inn pub in Castle Combe, one of the most idyllic, picturesque towns in the Cotswolds.

We continued to the village of Lacock, the setting for the fictional town of Meryton in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, where we toured the 800-year-old Lacock Abbey, which had a cameo in the series, too, standing in for Cambridge during a flashback when Mr. Darcy discovers Mr. Wickham quite indisposed. The abbey is lauded as the birthplace of film photography as well as a location in the Harry Potter films, giving two of my fellow travelers an unexpected jolt of joy.

Dinner

Our casual pub dinner at the Raven, an easy walk from our hotel, involved meat pies and sausages, washed down by ale.

A display of old-fashioned bicycles clustered on the floor and hanging from the ceiling.

One of the bonkers rooms at Snowshill Manor.

Boxes of broccoli, carrots, onions, celery, red peppers and other produce in front of a store.

Produce at Daylesford Organic in Gloucestershire.

A long wooden table with many chairs on either side and craft supplies on the table and on shelves by the wall.

The crafts table at Larksworld. Brekke Fletcher/Lonely Planet (4)

Folded ecru paper with a black design on the border and in the center.

Crafting inspired by Jane Austen.

Day 5

How to spend the day

This is when our trip diverted from Austenland and into general Cotswold coolness.

First we stopped at Snowshill Manor and Garden, built in the mid-1500s, which can only be described as mental. This National Trust property is more of a museum of curiosities than a stately home. Its owner, Charles Wade, purchased the dilapidated property based on an advertisement in a magazine he read in the trenches during WWI.

Wade was a fanatic collector – of objects, clothing, clocks, model ships, furniture, 19th-century samurai armor – and yes, there are dolls. He put on at-home theatricals with elaborate costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries and dedicated every corner of the house to his meticulously cataloged assortment of well-designed and expertly crafted objects.

After luncheon at the Trough at Daylesford Organic, we enjoyed a charming crafting experience (with tea and cake) at Larksworld.

Dinner

We had a delicious dinner and spent the night in beautiful Broadway at the luxurious and exquisite Lygon Arms, a hotel, spa and restaurant steeped in 600 years of history.

A dark chicken with a red beak walking in a stone yard, with a white chicken by a pen in the background.

Cogges Farm Manor in Whitney

Seven people standing by a small pond in front of a large stone estate home in winter.

The Jane Austen press trip crew at Blenheim Palace. Brekke Fletcher/Lonely Planet (2)

Day 6

Morning

We visited Cogges Manor Farm, toured the house and kitchen, and met all the animals (sheep and pigs and ducks and chickens). The property was also a filming location for Downton Abbey.

How to spend the day

Next up was Blenheim Palace, where we were taken on a ground floor tour – the long library was a standout – followed by afternoon tea and a ramble through the park's extensive grounds. You could spend an entire day here and not see all of it. Sadly, scaffolding was covering the main edifice, but every other part of the property was camera-ready. Our newly bonded group took multiple photos with the palace as the backdrop to mark our final stop.

Evening

Our last night and morning were spent at Mister Mill in Oxfordshire, with our final dinner and breakfast at its Wildling Restaurant & Bar. Wandering the tiny lanes of Mister Mill, we came across the ruins of a 15th-century manor house, Minster Lovell Hall.

For fans of Austen and charming English villages, homes and farms happily trapped in time, this trip is an ideal collection of experiences. The best news? It’s easy to customize to capture myriad opportunities for imagining yourself as the lead character in your own Austen novel, hiking across muddy fields, rambling past sheep-dappled hills, meandering down narrow lanes and quiet hallways and grand galleries – a real-life journey wandering through the pages of the best book you’ve ever read.

Brekke Fletcher traveled to England on the invitation of Visit Britain. Lonely Planet does not accept freebies in exchange for positive coverage.