khalidrkhan

We are arriving into Heathrow from Canada on 17th July evening at 7pm. I am planning to rent a car and to drive around in North England for 3 days and then return the car to Heathrow on the 21st evening and take the return flight. What itinerary would you suggest - where to stay for the first night (close to Heathrow) and then drive out the next day. This is the first time for me to be driving in England. We are a 60 year old couple. Thanks.

flanneruk

Depending on your definition of "North", you obviously want to visit some of:
- Derbyshire's Peak District
- The Lake District around Cumberland
- North Yorkshire
- The area now branded Northumbria: the east coast between Newcastle and the Scottish border and its hinterland back towards the Pennines.
- Hadrian's Wall (in effect a thin 100-mile long heritage reserve)

You can't do more than a bit of at most three of these in 3 days. An extraordinary amount of your time will be spent driving through some of the developed world's most congested roads to get to them from Heathrow.

I'd decide which bits you want to see, and start by flying as soon as practical to Manchester, Newcastle or maybe even Glasgow (surprisingly handy for the Lakes or Hadrian's Wall) or Edinburgh (for Northumbria).

bilboburgler

Yes stay near the airport. But the 18th is a Monday morning... so driving is going to be nasty.

Could you catch a cheepo flight to Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle airports first thing and start from there?

I live on the north east side of the country so would tend towards the last two but lots to do on the west.

Look at the lake district, penine national park, yorkshire dales, yorkshire moors, durham, york, hadrians.

I'd also surf the web a bit and look at https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en/e...rthern-england it is a bit puffy but good leads.

Just to clear up one error on the website

"Northern England lies above the counties of Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire."

they mean "north" not "above" but you can't expect the idiots in London to understand English.

dotheboyshall

My first thought is why are you flying into Heathrow when you want to be somewhere at least 3, probably 4, hours away. You've effectively lost a whole day by that decision

sofarsogood

<i>"Northern England lies above the counties of Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire."</i>

what an absolutely meaningless paragraph - they might as well have said it lies to the right of New York and underneath Greenland (why on earth use Glocs. as an analogy????)

<b>numpties</b>

khalidrkhan

Thanks for the advise thus far. The booking to Heathrow is already done. By North of England, I mean the areas around 100 KMs to the North of London. We may even not go as far as the Lake District if traffic is nasty. So please advise areas within about 100 KM form Heathrow.

bilboburgler

Hi khalid that is what we would call the "midlands"
http://www.visitheartofengland.com/
and http://www.tourist-information-uk.co...t-midlands.htm may help or you may find this useful

https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en/e...entral-england

though no one outside UK marketing talks about central england.

You probably either want to restrict yourself to East Anglia (the bit that sticks out like a pregnancy to the East) which is very flat and full of a series of lovely old towns like Cambridge, Ely, Bury St Edmunds or head into the delights of the more industrial and hilly parts of the middle of the country such as Oxford.

You might also need to research Cotswolds http://www.cotswolds.com/ which not that far north are really pretty and about the right distance from London/Heathrow.

At this stage it might be worth buying a travel book on England as there are many prtty little places to visit plus thousands of miles of gentle walks in the countryside which are not to be missed.

janisj

>> I mean the areas around 100 KMs to the North of London.<<

That is not (at all) 'north' England. It is southern England and a bit of the midlands. And definitely does NOT include the Lake District, which is more than 400 km from London.

So now that we understand what you meant - you have a couple good options East Anglia as Bilboburgler mentions, or someplace like the Cotswolds.

100 km wouldn't even get you as far as Birmingham

You absolutely need to pick up a guide book or two.

Dukey1

I don't suppose you will probably save much money by picking up the rental the morning you leave vs. the night you arrive (which means you get to park and possibly pay to do so) and believe me, I've been there and done that one at Heathrow.

As to the predicted "nasty" traffic do you suppose the traffic starts getting nasty at exactly midnight or perhaps it gets nasty a bit later in the morning?

If the latter is the case are you willing to leave your hotel early in order to possibly get ahead of it?

Is that "nasty" traffic mostly headed INTO London or is it to an equal degree headed out of the city?

khalidrkhan

Good, now with the info u provided, I can plan my trip much better. Thanks a lot for the help. Maybe in my next visit to the UK, I can plan on doing the North and Scotland. Thanks.

bilboburgler

sofar,
""Northern England lies above the counties of Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire."

what an absolutely meaningless paragraph - they might as well have said it lies to the right of New York and underneath Greenland (why on earth use Glocs. as an analogy????)"

I think they are writing so that their London centric friends can understand, being north of Warwickshire is of course a horror. "what north of Warwickshire!"

hetismij2

North begins at Watford. Any fule no that.

Traffic will be heading into London and around the M25. Leave around 9am and you should miss the worst.