Originally Posted by
UKtravelbear
To catch a train to Devon fron LHR you can either get the Heathrow Connect or Heathrow Express to Paddington or the railair coach to reading and pick up a train from there. Though I'd be tempted to spend a night in London to get over jet lag and then travel to Devon a day or two later.
All of those places are practical to visit but I would suggest not trying to do all of them otherwise you spend so much travelling that you don't get to explore so what I would do is come up with a list of pro and cons for each destination to try and cut it down a little. Also the lake district is a huge area and Hadrians Wall is over 70 miles long so you'd need to be a little selective and not all of it is easy access though from my hazy school visit memory Vindolanda is a good site to visit.
You can use the national rail enquires website to plan train trips and national express runs a pretty comprehensive coach network.
I have to laugh when English people refer to the Lake District as a "huge area". It's tiny, it's over-crowded and it's so-so scenery. That is in comparison to other places in the world and even in comparison to the Scottish Highlands. The Great Wall of China by the way is 5,500 miles long. Things need to be put in to perspective. Hadrian's Wall in my opinion is simply a 'list tick' kind of thing. Much ado about nothing.
In regards to your original question GadgetFreak, I would go to the Jurassic Coast, stay as long as you want to and then spend any left over time in London where you know what you will want to do given your previous times their.