tuscanlifeedit

Hi

We have been contemplating this trip for a few months, and I may need to step up the plan due to limited availability of award tickets from the US to UK.

We can only take less than two weeks vacation so I am hoping to fly into and out of Manchester.

I can give more itinerary details later, but right now I would like to know if July is a decent time to make a trip that sort of circles from Manchester to York, across Yorkshire and into the Lake District, down to Liverpool for a day and night of museum visits, then back to Manchester airport.

Are July crowds unbearable in any of these places?

Our alternative month is June, but we would probably have to fly in and out of Gatwick and then make our way north and back. July would give us an extra day or two in the north.

flanneruk

1. Liverpool's museums will be joined in 2011 by the Museum of Liverpool Life. It's not altogether clear what this will be like (its now closed forerunner was mainly politically correct trivia) - but it claims to cover "Liverpool's unique contribution to the world". Slavery's already in the Museum of Slavery, so the new MLI ought to include railway and international steam transport, 19th century high-tech investment banking, its unique role in the world's biggest ever human migration (the city's boosters claim over 40% of the population of the New World are descended from migrants who'd transhipped in Liverpool) and the Battle of the Atlantic (arguably THE decisive battle of WW2). Or it might be stuffed with just silly vox pops about the Fab Four. But worth checking its opening date (not yet announced).

IMHO, by the way, Liverpool's best museum is the Lady Lever, and the Port Sunlight model village it's located in.

2.Crowds can be a problem in the Lake District during school summer holdays (roughly mid-July to early Sept, though they vary by province and school type: the Lakes get a fair few Scottish visitors, and Scottish school holidays finish earlier). They can also be a problem most weekends from Easter till it get cold (usually mid-Sep), and weekend traffic into and out of the area can be a nuisance

Just avoid the weekend for your Lakes bit, and you shouldn't find crowds too big an issue.

alihutch

the Lakes get a fair few Scottish visitors, and Scottish school holidays finish earlier).

They also start earlier....in early July....
We had a lovely short break in Liverpool in Feb....stayed here http://liverpoolcitycentreapartment.co.uk/

Morgana

As mentioned, I would definitely let the school holidays be your guide on this. Please don't underestimate the effect it has on everything once the schools break up (transport, crowds, difficulty in booking accommodation etc). In England you are looking at around mid July for the schools stopping, so if your trip is early July then go for it. If not then I would go in June and sacrifice the day you'd save.
I recently stayed in the Staybridge Suites in Liverpool and thought they were very good.
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/sb/...otelCode=LPLKW
'Yorkshire' covers a huge area and as we live there we know where to go to avoid crowds all year round. I don't know what your Yorkshire itinerary so I can't comment on whether places will be crowded. York is busy all year round though, so again I would avoid a weekend to visit if you can.

tenaya

Renting a car or using public transportation?
I'd definitely heed suggestions re. July and give up the extra day. June is one of the best months for U.K. travel.
SO many divergent places to visit it's hard to offer suggestions - but flying into Manchester I'd immediately take the 45 minute direct bus to Chester.
From there you could visit Lady Lever Gallery mentioned above and travel through the Wirral en route to Liverpool -- via the Mersey Tunnel if driving and train if not.
Public transport excellent throughout.
Parkgate a favourite place in South Wirral -- Ship Hotel very reasonable.
Although I'm used to driving in both countries I'm in awe of people who can land somewhere like London or Manchester and immediately drive off in a rental vehicle.
With above suggestion you could delay rental until Liverpool.

janisj

Try for June and if MAN/MAN isn't available try for open jaw LGW/MAN.

OR -if you must do LGW/LGW you don't have to lose a day since there are flights between LGW and MAN so you'd just get to Manchester maybe 3 hours later.

I'd spend the first day in Manchester since you will have been traveling overnight. Then collect a rental car and head out. 10-13 days will give you plenty of time to see all the things on your list and more. By going in late June you won't face crowds almost anywhere except for a bit on weekends in the Lakes. But nothing like July.

tuscanlifeedit

This is just the type of information I was looking for; thank you all very much.

My first thoughts were to try to get the MAN<>MAN tix if I can, then get public transport to York after landing. I'm not sure on where I want to go after York, but some of the things I would like to see are Whitby (I taught Bram Stoker's Dracula as part of a novel writing class for many years); Fountains Abbey; and Castle Howard.

I was then hoping to spend a few days (not on a weekend) in the Lake District, and then travel down to Liverpool and Port Sunlight. The Liverpool museums I am interested in are the Walker Museum and the Lady Lever, because the Pre-Raphealites are one of my major interests.

We are going to play with getting tickets tonight.

Morgana

Happy to help out with your itinerary once you get to York. I live just a few miles down the road from Fountains Abbey, but also know the other places you mention.
In York itself you won't need a car to get around. However the trips to Fountains, Castle Howard etc will be SO very much easier (and so much quicker!) with a rental car, plus I could suggest other points of interest (or suggest routes) that you could only visit with a car. There are some amazing places in this part of North Yorkshire such as Rievaulx, Byland Abbey, Nunnington Hall, Helmsley and Pickering castles etc etc.
Just give me a yell if you think I can assist.

tuscanlifeedit

Morgana, you can most definitely help. We will have a car, but I'm not sure yet on the where and when.

I ran into a glitch with US Airways and my FF points, or would have the air tickets by now. I tried hard to get them to fix a mistake that was theirs and not mine, but after nearly 3 hours on the phone on Saturday, all I had was a headache.

The tonight, the phone rang and it was US Airways Dividend Miles Service Center, wanting to fix the problem. You could have knocked me over with a paper ticket.

So I'm waiting for my new balances to show up in our accounts, and then I'll be looking for tickets, hopefully in the next 24 hours.