Day trips from Liverpool
 

Hello,

I will be in Liverpool for 4 days and am looking for day trip ideas. My boyfriend and I will most likely rent a car so several hours of driving a day is fine. Our interests are historical and archaeological sites from any period (excavations, castles, abbeys, forts etc.), interesting architecture and quaint towns, and pretty scenery. Any recommendations?

Thank you.

Blackpool, Liverpool's beach, is the UKs number one most visited place outside of London supposedly - it's exactly the opposite of what you seem to be interested in! But the fabled Lake District is just a few hours drive to the north.

kat: From what you say you enjoy - Blackpool is definitely not a good choice, but you could go there in the evening and see the illuminations.

And the Lake District would certainly be a lovely day trip -- but it is a bit short on the "excavations, castles, abbeys, forts" front. Amazing scenery though.

A perfect day trip from Liverpool would be to the amazing castles and coast of North Wales. A visit to Chester w/ it's city walls and medieval bldgs would be good too.

You also would not be too far from the Peak District - not many castles -- but Chatsworth, Hardwick Hall and some great hiking.

Well for castles of your dreams it's a short drive Liverpool to Wales - Conwy Castle lies in a lovely seaside walled town and Beaumarais nearby has the absolute castle of your dreams - sitting by itself on the coast near Bangor. Caernafaron Castle, where Princes of Wales are invested is also near Bangor. Bout 100 miles however to Caernafaron - Conwy about 70. Near Conwy is the Great Orme, a fabulously popular peak known for its mountain goats and views over the sea - an old-fashioned rack railway train goes up there or you can drive. Warwick Castle, often called Britain's finest, is also not too far from Liverpool as is Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon.

A great website to help plan your visit to Welsh castles is http://www.castlewales.com/home.html, they detail the big tourist castles but also many of the lesser, wonderfully rustic castles which are fun to explore. Check out the castle index to find some of the smaller ones. We really enjoyed Denbigh which is in an interesting town and Dinas Bran, a nice hike from the tourist town of Llangollen. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is near and it is an interesting stop. As Janis suggests, Chester is an interesting city and the Peak District is absolutely amazing for scenery and walks.

Thanks for the suggestions; Wales, Chester, Lake District sound perfect.
Cheers,
Kat

Blackpool absolutely IS NOT Liverpool's beach (it's got dozens of miles of its own, and there's absolutely no need to trek off to the frozen north where Blackpool is). But the beaches surrounding Liverpool offer a terrific way of blowing away any cobwebs from overindulgence in Liverpool's spectaclar pubs. Most stops on the Merseyrail system are a few hundred yards from endless, bracing, beaches.

For culture: the St Christopher at Norton Priory, near Runcorn is one of the very few serious British religious sculptures surviving from the pre-Reformation era and is just stunning. The Lady Lever art gallery in Port Sunlight (itself an extraordinary example of industrial village planning) is the best collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings outside Andrew Lloyd Webber's house.

If you're heading north, check out Ribchester, which was more or less the last place the Romans left.

But why leave Liverpool at all?

If you want a nice little town or village near Liverpool, you could visit Port Sunlight.
It's is a garden village which was founded in 1888 by Lever to house his soap factory workers.
It has a rather nice little art gallery too

see: http://www.portsunlightvillage.com/

kat100, I think you would find much to enjoy at Ironbridge, the birthplace of the industrial revolution.

There are a number of museums including the Bliss Hill Open Air Museum of the 1890s. It's about 60 miles south of Liverpool near Telford.

The website is http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/

If you do a google search fo Ironbridge you'll find many other references. BTW, there was (is) a shop with an exhaustive selection of garden gnomes near the bridge.

If you want nightlife and the most happening city in UK at the moment, pop along the East Lancs to Manchester. Gawp at the glass and steel architecture, wallow in the decadence of the Northern Quarter, have a drinky-poo at Harvey Nicks and see what kind of outdoor extravaganza is on at the Triangle...if it isn't pouring with rain. If it is, go into one of the castlefield Museums or mingle with the gays in Canal Street or pig out in Chinatown. As in See your own City as a Tourist, I was amazed at the transformation of my city in the 21st century.

Blackpool may not be Liverpudlians beach but it seems to be Manchester's, farther away who are farther away from it than Liverpool - so i think that some Liverpudlians must also go to Blackpool. Flanner: have you been to Southport lately - it's a ghost town in day - beach empty and thrives only at night when Liverpudlian beer-guzzling youths descend on it for its many night spots. Least that's the impression i got from being there recently. No Blackpool is not Liverpool's beach - i missed on that one but i think more Liverpudlians perhaps go to Blackpool that Southport or Bootle or Wallasy or Hoylake - not sure never seen those beach meccas but like most UK beach resorts probably mainly shuttered up with B&Bs not old folks homes.

I ditto the suggestions of Chester and Port Sunlight. If you enjoy World War Two history, you might want to visit Western Approaches, the HQ for the Battle of the Atlantic, in central Liverpool. Have you seen the Maritime Museum at Albert Dock?