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Things to do and see in England?
facetious
a wit so dryit shits sandRegistered User regular
a wit so dryit shits sandRegistered User regular
So I'm planning a trip to England next year, about which I'm very excited. But I'm having difficulty nailing down a proper itinerary - at once there seem like so many things I'd like to do, and yet I feel like I'm lacking specific ideas. I have more broad ideas without knowing specifically where the best places would be to indulge in them. (To give an example, I'd like to tour a proper old English estate, but I don't know which. But there are even broader things like wanting to know cool places to eat and things such as that.)
And in general, I've always been more interested in the quirky, out of the way stuff, not necessarily the big obvious touristy attractions. But obviously, without living there I'm sure there are lots of things I simply don't know about and which might not show up on a generic search.
So what I've been doing is soliciting ideas from people who either live in England (or Scotland - I'm considering making a sojourn up there during one of the days of my trip), or have at least visited, on stuff they think is cool to see or do or try. I figure, the more ideas I have, the more I can figure out which appeal to me the most.
I should add, my plan is to stay near Coventry, which given its location at the very heart of England gives me the most ability to travel about the country to hit various 'spots'. So don't feel as though you need to limit your suggestions to a particular city or region.
So, H/A, what say you? Give me ideas! Please!
And in general, I've always been more interested in the quirky, out of the way stuff, not necessarily the big obvious touristy attractions. But obviously, without living there I'm sure there are lots of things I simply don't know about and which might not show up on a generic search.
So what I've been doing is soliciting ideas from people who either live in England (or Scotland - I'm considering making a sojourn up there during one of the days of my trip), or have at least visited, on stuff they think is cool to see or do or try. I figure, the more ideas I have, the more I can figure out which appeal to me the most.
I should add, my plan is to stay near Coventry, which given its location at the very heart of England gives me the most ability to travel about the country to hit various 'spots'. So don't feel as though you need to limit your suggestions to a particular city or region.
So, H/A, what say you? Give me ideas! Please!
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
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If you're planning on going to Scotland you'll need more than 1 day. Travelling up from England itself can take anywhere from 3-9 hours, and that's just to Edinburgh. To get up to the Highlands will take longer.
England proper is pretty densely populated with both people and historical areas of interest, so you could quite easily stick to one area and get to see all manner of interesting places, if you so wanted. Have a look for the National Trust or English Heritage websites as a start, as they administer a lot of historical places of note.
BUT! Coombe Abbey is right next door and should satisfy one of your interests.
Behold!
EDIT: It says hotel but it's open to the public most of the day. And there are travel links from the city.
2) Think about staying in Birmingham instead. Much better rail-links and worth visiting itself.
Fings near Birmingham
- If you're super into Tolkien, visiting Sarehole Mill might be interesting. I haven't been, myself.
- Cadbury World is an awesome chocolate factory. You may find this a bad move though, since once you return to America you will then have a newfound craving for delicious unobtainable British chocolate.
- Birmingham is right next to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakepeare's home), which is the second-most-visited place in the UK. I don't think it's that great. I'd rather go to the remade Globe Theatre in London.
There are lots of country houses to choose from.
Chatsworth House is one of the best, but very isolated.
Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Winston Churchill) is very popular, but not that interesting, to me.
Hampton Court Palace is less of a country house (it's a palace!), but probably the one to visit, if you're going to only one. It's got a maze, yo.
If you want to go to a castle, go to Warwick Castle. Most English castles don't have much left to them, but Warwick is pretty much all there still.
Shed loads to visit, too.
Also go to Stonehenge. It's kind of neat to see it in person.
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http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-beta-map.htm
They say that nowhere in the country is more than forty minutes travel from a National Trust property.
Also if you're as far south as Birmingham/Coventry but still want to see Scotland, you should consider splitting your trip (arrive in one place, leave from another). Trains up either the West or East coast main lines will take about four hours for Glasgow, five hours from Edinburgh, and if you try to make a day trip of that you'll be travellng at the most expensive times. It's worth considering flying domestically, but again, trying to make a return trip in one day will require you travel at peak times.
Plus, Coventry isn't really that great a place. Birmingham, on the other hand, is pretty awesome, there's plenty of places for you to go while you're there. I'll second the recommendation for Cadbury World. Plus, if you're into canals at all, then Birmingham's got a vast canal network you can walk around.
Btw, how long are you planning on staying here for? Because if it's a long stay then you've got plenty of chance to soak up lots of different things, but if you're only here for a week then we can just recommend the really big awesome things that you can do quickly.
On that note, there are a pile of great museums in London, if that is your thing, most of which are free admission. The one I did have to pay for was the Cabinet War Rooms, which was totally worth paying to see IMO, and not too expensive.
Second the recommendation for Bath, the Roman baths are cool, as are the Georgian Crescents. Wales is also worth a trip, though I'm partly Welsh, so that plays a roll in my wanting to see it.
There is a cool castle roughly every third block in England and Wales, so be careful not to overdo it. :P
edit: just gonna...8th or 9th that Coventry is pretty crap, stay in Manchester or Birmingham if you want a central location with good travel links.
Land london
Salisbury Cathedral/Stonehenge/related stones
Coventry
Manchester
York Cathedral/Whitby/Scarborough
Trans Bridge+ into Hartlepool
Durham Cathedral/Langley Castle/Hadrian's Wall
Bamburgh Castle/Holy Island
Loch Lomond
Glasgow
Falrkirk Wheel
Dublin
Trearddur Bay, ferry
Bath
Cornwall to see the Eden Project
back to London
Also, Lake District, York, Carlisle on the way up to Scotland, Birmingham is handy for trains almost anywhere in the UK, Chester is pretty, it really depends on what you're interested in.
So, what do you like doing?
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"The power of the weirdness compels me."
It's not an extended stay - at least a week, I'm hoping two. That's probably the most I can manage with budget and time off work. I already knew that it would never possibly be enough time to do everything I'd like, but... well, I do hope one day to move permanently to England and eventually gain citizenship, so maybe in the future I'll have time.....
Anyway, thanks for the Birmingham suggestion. I did in fact mean I'd probably be staying there, I had a bit of a brain fart when I said Coventry because I have a friend who lives there who's said he'll help set me up with public transport, etc., in getting to where I want to go.
That's why I'm iffy about it. I'd absolutely love to make a proper exploration of Scotland, but I'm not sure it'll work out.
Admittedly Stratford-upon-Avon was one thing I pretty early decided to do, although I'm not really a Shakespeare buff. I'm far more of a Tolkienphile, and I was in fact not aware of Sarehole Mill, so thanks for that!
Also, thanks for the links to the country houses and castles; I was referring more to the former in my OP, but I do find castles fascinating too. Even those that are little more than crumbled remains. (And mazes rule!)
I have in fact always intended to "schedule" parts of my trip with the entire intent being to allow myself time in which to do nothing more than amble about and seeing what I encounter. All of those cities being ones about which I feel so inclined. That sense of random adventure/discovery, finding curious or beautiful little patches of whatever it may be (England!), is in fact one of the reasons I most want to visit.
Another thing that's definitely on my list.
Everyone else has given me great ideas too! I'm just scared of the pruning process that's to come later. :P
One other thing I meant to ask, what's the consensus about the best coastal area(s)? In particular, I'd prefer beaches that aren't overcrowded, ideally somewhat secluded, but as long as it's by the sea I'm pretty flexible as far as that goes.
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There is a tv series called Coast that would be worth watching for research. Wales certainty scrubs up well though
This is the site that runs the trips though I think there might be a few more operating now. He also runs trips out to go cage diving with Blue Sharks in order to show that tourism in Cornwall can make as much money maintaining a stable population of them rather than merely shark fishing trips.
Eden Project isn't really that great to be honest, but probably worth a trip if you were looking for a few extra things to do down in Cornwall. Also they have the largest concentrations of stone age circles in the UK, which are about a minute or two's walk from the roads.
I'd definitely recommend a week or so in Cornwall - you'll drive past Longleat on the way down which would tick off your Country Estate. Owned by Lord Bath who is the absolute defintion of a ma- eccentric English Lord. Makes Boris Johnson look sane. King Arther's castle Tintagel is also in Cornwall - and everything is about 30mins from everywhere else once you get there.
also get pasties.
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If you do stay in Brum, there are a few nice museums (and Kalkino will go on ad nauseam about the Pen Museum if you ask him), the Jewellery Quarter has a few nice bits, and there's the Barber Museum at the University which is well worth a visit. Birmingham city centre itself is generic crapness, though there are a couple of nice coffee shops (well..one) which is worth going down to.
If you drink then pop in to the Evil Eye lounge, they do fantastic cocktails and on the first floor up they have two beds instead of seats for people to sit on and enjoy their drinks. If you fancy doing something a bit different (and a bit of a laugh) then my wife created a quiz around York. It's tailored so you follow a certain route, pass some lovely sites (and plenty of pubs) and answer the questions based on things you see around you, be they information from a sign, or gargoyles on the top of a building. She split friends in to groups one year and got them to do it as a competion. If you're coming and fancy giving it a go drop me a pm
Also be sure to take in one of the ghost walks, they're a bit of a typical tourist thing to do but they are good fun and well worth your time and money. Also call by the King's Arms (yet another pub) grab a nice cheap pint and admire the measuring stick on the wall showing just how high the pub floods when the river busts it's banks. The pub bolts EVERYTHING to the floor as it floods every single year.
If you're up this neck of the woods then take a trip to Whitby and check out the Dracula museum, it's terrible in a good way. Bram Stoker apparently wrote "Dracula" in Whitby and they're certainly desperate to cash in on that. The abbey is pretty nice there too and you HAVE to get some fish and chips whilst there.
I'd also recommend the lake district, I used to live there before York. Go to Windermere and grab yourself an ice cream, there's a store that sells hundreds of flavours, then hop on a pedalo and go over the lake. Don't run in front of a giant tour boat like we did, they honk their horn loudly and everyone looks... then pop on over to Cartmel and grab some sticky toffee pudding, if you time it right you could also put a bit of money on Cartmel races. Coniston is also pretty nice, I've got a friend who used to run a hotel there. Not an awful lot to do but a lovely place to visit. If you're touring and after a place to stay then Lakeside Hotel is around there, my ex used to work in it and it's a fantastic place to stay and VERY reasonable price wise.
Hawkshead is also a lovely little village in the lakes, not too much in the way of touristy stuff to do but just on the outskirts is Beatrix Potter's house. You can see where she wrote all her books and drew the pictures (she used locations in her house and around the yard to build her illustrations), it's interesting and something a bit different.
If you're in the area call in to Ulverston to hit up the Laurel and Hardy museum, I'm pretty sure it's still there. Then go in to one of hundreds of pubs and no doubt bump in to one of my cousins or uncles running a pub there, I lose track of them.
Anyway, they're the places I know best in the UK. I'd also highly recommend taking a show in in London and going to the opposite end of the UK and visiting Edinburgh. Fantastic city, lovely place and plenty of good pubs (It's where I had my stag night).
If you need any help organising stuff in York/the lakes then shoot me a pm and I'd be glad to help.
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Before I forget to ask, what happens with old posts on these forums? It won't disappear entirely, right? I'd rather just keep this link to check it later for reference instead of saving all the info.
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They do get deleted eventually unless added to the archives, but there is still stuff floating around from over three years ago. Threads are pruned from the end of the the thread list.
Edit: I was wrong. I checked a forum with some threads that have been around for six years. Looks like you can expect h/a threads that no one has commented on for over three years to be at risk of deletion.
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Stonehenge was a hillarious dissapointment. All those years I was anticipating it, and then when you get there it's just a tourist trap. Swarms of people surrounding it, you can't even touch the rocks or get anywhere near them. Not only that, but the rocks themselves are way smaller than they seem on TV.
Also, @OP: http://www.xscape.co.uk/castleford (indoor skiing).
Anyway, GO TO STONEHENGE DURING THE SUMMER SOLSTICE! It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. It's the only time you can go right up to and touch the stones.
Technically, it's celebrated as a pagan holiday, but it's really just a huge party from sundown to sunrise. People bring food and alcohol and play music. It's crazy! Be sure to bring warm clothes and I would recommend not going there alone.
It's an amazing experience though.
That sounds awesome.
I'll second Cambridge as I live there - loads of architecture and quirky museums, it's small enough not to get lost, and you can go drinking where Crick and Watson announced that they had discovered DNA, amongst other things (to counterbalance the Tolkein draw of Oxford :P)
It's also a short jaunt to Grantchester and the glorious tea rooms.
Look at some of the bigger seaside towns if that's your thing - I would recommend Brighton, Morecambe and Southwold (mainly for the Adnams brewery which has an awesome tour).
Are you at Cass? I just remember last time I met you you said you weren't far from Leeds, my memory is poor.
Op, if you like historic stuff it could well be worth your while picking up a National Trust pass, they're about £100+ but get you in to many sites free and give you free parking. Also check when you're here to see if there are any festivals on (film/music/anything), these could be quite interesting. Leeds/Reading Music festival is on at the moment and the Leeds film festival is on in October each year. Could be quite interesting to go to something like that.
::edit::
Reading the above I WOULDN'T recommend Morcambe as a seaside down. I used to live an hour from there and have been quite a few times, it's an utter DUMP. It used to be really nice, but it's gone dramatically down hill. Any other seaside town is definitely worth a visit though.
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It's also very difficult to do. If I remember correctly, there is a lottery for the tickets to this.
I disagree with Stonehenge being a tourist trap. It's a little mind-boggling to think about how old it is. Near Stonehendge lies Salisbury and the magnificent Salisbury cathedral.
Even if you aren't religious, I would encourage you to check out cathedrals, etc everywhere you go. Some fantastic history and architecture there. Canterbury was particularly moving for me....just putting my hands in the well-worn niche on the door frame where millions of pilgrims have walked before for hundreds of years.
If you make it to York, don't miss the Railway museum.
Edinburgh, Scotland is a fantastic old town. If you make it up there, be sure to visit Rosslyn Chapel. You may remember it from the Da Vinci Code? It's well worth a visit.
London? Eh, you could easily spend a week there, but personally I would take no more than a day and a half. There are too many other things in England to see.
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