SJukes

Looking at driving from London to Glasgow. We will be leaving from London on a Saturday and need to be in Glasglow by Tuesday. Suggestions for route and important stop off and must sees, would be greatly appreciated.

bilboburgler

Which month?
What sort of thing do you like?
Who are we?

Rubicund

Your route takes you towards the west side of England once you clear Birmingham on the M6. The route is easy: M1, M6, M74, providing you are coming from central London. Depending on where you start in London, you can be in Manchester in around 3 1/2 hours for Saturday afternoon and night, Sunday morning with time to explore. Great city, lots of history, easy to get in and out of, big choice of hotels and restaurants.

Then up to the Lake District, maybe Ambleside or Windermere, less than a couple of hours from Manchester, relaxed Sunday night. Monday could give a short trip up to Carlisle, overnight and then to Glasgow Tuesday morning.

bilboburgler

or t'other side and cross from Edinburgh, or even take one of the over the Pennine roads.

sofarsogood

London to Glasgow covers much of the British Isles so asking for suggestions is a bit vague. We really should be asking why you want to do this rather than taking a train and what you're hoping to see.

SJukes

We are a Canadian 50 year old self employed outgoing couple!!...we will have already taken the train from Edinburgh to London earlier, so looking at mixing it up...!! and taking the auto route just to enjoy the country side. I'm a professional photographer, and we've driven the coastal highway of California and Hawaii and enjoy fine dining and great experiences. Is Liverpool worth going to see???..

bilboburgler

So, you'll have seen the North East coast but not seen Newcastle (a city of train bridges and Victorian Grandeur), York (medievel city), Durham (ancient city on a volcanic plug) though you will have passed by them.

If you go the West side you get easy access to Manchester (very active sprawling city with some fine old buildings) and Liverpool (probably some of the finest Empire built Victorian buildings in the country), certainly the refurbished parts of Liverpool and the Wirral are interesting in a post industrial way. The Lake District is good walking, flat lakes surrounded by what we Brits call hills), lots of walkers while the coast up to Carlisle is a bit bleak deppending on when you go while the parts into Scotland are good driving.

Hadrian's wall reachs both sides.

bilboburgler

If your comfortable on motorways either way will do, the M1 is an easier road due to less traffic than the M6, but you see very little from the motorway (and no lane hogging please)

Gordon_R

There's a common misconception among overseas visitors that driving from city to city by motorway will give them great views / experience of "the countryside". Unfortunately you'll see very little of interest that way, as most motorways have grassed/wooded embankments on either side for much of their length. They were built to achieve rapid transportation from A to B, not to show off the scenic bits like the PCH in California. You need instead to think in terms of detours off the motorway into scenic areas or towns/cities en route (but note that many British towns/cities are full of inconveniences for unfamiliar drivers).

historytraveler

I agree with Gordon. The motorways ( M1,M6, M74) are good at getting one from A to B to C, but are by no means scenic routes.

janisj

If you want to get north in a timely manner -- you take the motorways. If you want to SEE things you avoid the motorways and it will take much longer.

You have 3 days -- very doable in 3 days but you'll have to be selective re what sorts of things you want to see. I could devise 6 or 7 different routes (countless really but 6 or 7 easily doable routes w/ lots of WOW factor)

Do you want castles, lakes, mountains, scenic cities (such as York or Chester), big cities, villages, literary connections (Brontes or Beatrix Potter or Wordsworth for examples), Hadrians Wall, a little time in SW Scotland???

PalenQ

and don't forget the Borders Abbeys - just beyond Hadrian's Wall and on the side roads route to Edinburgh.

tjhome1

Driving sounds like a great idea. Depending on when you leave you could make it to Liverpool in 5 hours in time for a late afternoon look round the docks and anything else that attracts your attention - it's a lovely city. As you like good food see if you can book in at the north west's very few Michelin restaurants Fraiche, which is a short taxi ride from the centre of Liverpool in a little conservation area in Oxton. If you like cheese you should definitely try it.

Sunday morning you have time to see more of Liverpool and then drive north avoiding motorways if you wish. There are a couple of options you could look at: the A565 and take in the seaside towns of Formby or Southport or the A59 cross country and take a look at Blackpool.

I've only ever used Rick Steves once but his Europe Through the Back Door does suggest that everyone should see Blackpool - it is so very different from the usual London, York, Bath, Cotswolds circuit that so very many tourists to this country stick to that I will always have a soft spot and an admiration for Mr Steves.

Blackpool remains the most popular seaside resport in the country and is visited by millions of people every year. You may be horrified by it but it is very English and you will have seen something that few of your fellow travellers will have experienced. You don't need to go so far as to stay the night though, which really is for the brave.

After Blackpool press on to somewhere lovely in the Lake District, either via motorway or through the Forest of Bowland, which is lovely. Again I'd pick accommodation based on proximity to a great food pub - the Drunken Duck or the Punch Bowl, both of which have accommodation. Another option would be one of the country's very best restaurants L'Enclume, in Cartmel - it also has accommodation. This second night would make a nice contrast to Liverpool.

On Monday you have time to explore a little of the Lake District and then stay somewhere different again in a small town in Scotland - Melrose maybe so you avoid the motorway and get some good cross country driving.

You can arrive whenever you want then in Glasgow.

Whichever option you decide on use aa route planner and build in some extra time so that you are not rushed. In three days though you should be fine.

As Janice says the options are countless but I think a combination of motorways and smaller roads is the best option and what I've set out is just one option, albeit a very good one!

PalenQ

Ah yes excape American tourists and go to Blackpool, my favorite British city outside of London - flotsam and jetson warts and all and if going August thru early November check out the fantastic Blackpool Lights - miles of christmas light displays along several miles of seafront esplanade and even some of the trams are all fancifully lit up.

Janis - what do you think about Blackpool - just curious as to your take - never seen you mention it?

tjhome1

Snigger

flanneruk

"Ah yes excape American tourists and go to Blackpool"

Absurdly few American tourists ever bother with Merseyside's Open-standard golf courses or its home for the world's most watched horse race. Fewer still try to find the few surviving red squirrels in the pine woods between Formby and Freshfield, or visit the greatest medieval sculpture in the English-speaking world at Norton Priory. Or take in the gastronomic wonders of Cartmel.

And the number of non-Britons (any flavour)among the crowds at Anfield or Goodison remains derisory.

You really don't need to go to Britain's dismal and decaying low-rent version of Coney Island to escape tourists. NW England is stuffed with far too many places worth visiting that the English have all to themselves.

Rubicund

We are all too well aware of Pal's obsession with Blackpool, although I doubt he's been there for decades.

"Rick Steves.....does suggest that everyone should see Blackpool". This is an extremely good reason why you should ignore Mr Steves pronouncements as it shows a marked lack of any sort of common sense. Blackpool is a dump!

tjhome1

The fact that it is the most popular seaside resort in the UK would suggest that there is something quite special about it - that it can elicit such strong responses is unusual. I'd hope we can agree that millions love it and lots of people have an opposing reaction - it seems to me that therefore it is a fascinating place for tourists like the OP. I'm certainly not suggesting they spend a night there but to miss it seems to me to have a rather narrow, complacent, unadventurous view of travel.

PalenQ

You really don't need to go to Britain's dismal and decaying low-rent version of Coney Island to escape tourists.>

you have not been to Coney Island I see in the last several decades - Blackpool is vibrant and alive.

and yes stay the night there when the action really starts - people watching at its best - that upper crust cultural snobs may diss Blackpool is expected but to see a slice of English/British culture you will not see in the places flanneruk advises to go instead head to Blackpool. Zillions of ordinary Brits - who do not participate in Fodor's - flock there every year.

I doubt if flanneruk or rubicund have been to Blackpool since its renaissance about 20 years ago.

sofarsogood

<<Blackpool is vibrant and alive.>>
<<its renaissance about 20 years ago.>>

what planet are you on???

http://www.theguardian.com/money/201...-place-england
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-23783425

it's 2015 not 1955