The best route for a five day road trip in England

MY WIFE AND I AND OUR TWO TEENAGERS ARE TRAVELLING TO EUROPE FOR A 16-DAY TRIP NEXT SEPTEMBER. WE'RE VISITING LONDON AND PARIS, BUT RATHER THAN DOING ANOTHER CAPITAL CITY, ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR A FIVE-DAY SELF-DRIVE TRIP? P. DENOVAN, MELBOURNE, VIC

Driving in England is going to be slightly easier all things considered – familiarity of road rules, signage, language, driving on the left instead of the right – and what you could do is pick up a hire car in London and drive west, making a circuit to take in Windsor Castle, Oxford, Blenheim Palace, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Cotswold villages and Bath. If you still have enough time, on the journey back to London you could take a more southerly route to include Glastonbury Abbey, Stonehenge and Cliveden House. There's heaps of history in that route, some of Britain's grandest stately homes, poetry and the storybook version of England in the Cotswolds.