Member
Registered: 03-25-08
|
I have to agree that if you are visiting Great Britain for a vacation, you have to go outside of London for a few day or over-night trips.
London is a wonderful city, full of great historic and cultural experinences; if you've never been there, you should plan on at least 4 full days to take in the sites (and even that won't let you cover everything).
I've made 5 trips to England, and I had a great time taking days trips from London or staying in other areas/towns.
For day trips from London, don't miss Canterbury and all the attractions in Kent. Canterbury is about an hour train trip from London. There are also many guided, day-long bus tours from London - one my family enjoyed took us to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath.
For the naval history buff, a trip to Portsmouth is worthwhile.
If you want some overnight trips, I'd suggest a stay in Bath, or better yet, to Wells, which is south of Bath. Wells is a great cathedral town with a moated bishop's palace and some great small-town charm. There's a cathedral school for music, specializing is choral music. It's sometimes tough to get a place to stay when school is in session, so try and go during one of the many school breaks (there's still in-residence choirs that perform nightly at the cathedral). Best of all is a short bus ride from Wells to Glastonbury, site of the famous abbey (now in ruins), the purported location of the Holy Grail (you can drink from the "Chalice Well"), the burial site (supposedly) of King Arthur, a fantastic summer festival and loads of New Age weirdness.
I'd also recommend York - for at least a 3-night stay. You can take a train from London, or you can fly into Manchester for a shorter (and cheaper) train ride. York was founded by the Romans, but it's been in the hands of Britons, Danes (Vikings) Saxons, Normans.... It has the largest Gothic cathedral north of the Alps, a fantastic city museum, nightly ghost tours, the National Railway Museum (free), a 14th century market area, abbey ruins, a nearly complete circular city wall and real friendly citizens.
If outdoors adventure is your "cup of tea", there are several great walking/hiking areas, such as the Cotswolds, Devon & Cornwall, a hiking trail that runs along he English Channel coast, and national parks in Wales, Yorkshire and Lancastershire. One place I really enjoyed for hiking was the Lake District - but go beyond Lake Windermere (it's crowded and "touristy"); I stayed the little town of Keswick (pronounced "KESS-ick") which is in the center of the Lake District. Great hiking trails, a hop-on-hop-off lake steamer that will take you to different trailheads, nice B&Bs and the Pencil Museum (yes, it really exists).
As a note, unless you're a huge Beatles fan, I'd avoid Liverpool. Also, Blackpool and Brighton are places to go only if you want to experience the kitschy, carnival atmosphere of a bygone English era.
When travelling to England, check to see if you can purchase a rail pass before going there; sometimes you can get a bargain that you wouldn't get if you waited to buy a pass in England. There are several web sites, but check in with a travel agent as well.
One other travel tip - I found that getting travelers cheques in British pounds or Euros (for the rest of Europe) here in America makes it much easier to use them. Many places in Europe charge more to exchange travelers cheques in US dollars; and more places will except ones in local currancy. Ask you bank (usually their main office) or go to one of the US traveler checques companies (American Express, Cook's, etc.) - they have web sites where you can order, but there's extra costs.
Well, I hops I wasn't too long-winded here....
Just wanted to share the joys of traveling with everyone.
|
