My wife and I (along with 2 year old) will be spending four days in Liverpool this June. Any recommendations on what to do or even day trips outside. My wife will be at a conference there. Otherwise not sure there would be enough to do for four days (but of course I could be wrong). Any ideas?

BTW, we are then headed off to Italy for a week.

Beside all things Beatles-related plus some good shopping and a couple of museums - there are TONS of things to see/do w/i a short drive of Liverpool.

Chester is wonderful. Plus all the scenery and castles of North Wales. A visit to Blackpool would be a definite diversion. And the Lake District is less than 60 miles away.

You will find a lot to fill your time.

There is some good information about Liverpool's attractions here -
http://www.visitliverpool.com/
including details of events happening in June.

Janis is right about finding a lot to fill in your time, although I think I'd give Blackpool a miss.

They should have sobered up from last week's party by now (if you don't already know about the junior local football team's miraculous snatching of victory from near-certain defeat in the European Cup final, you certainly will after four days there.)

Liverpool has far more than a "couple" of museums: it's got more art on public display than anywhere in Britain outside London, more Georgian buildings than Bath, more buildings listed as conservation quality than Oxford, Cambridge or Edinburgh, and it's a UNESCO-endorsed World Heritage Site (which Canterbury or Stratford can't boast). Its pubs are the best anywhere (make sure you all get to see the men's toilets at the Philharmonic Hotel - probably the only urinals in the world that close to allow tour parties in, and the party room at The Vines in Lime Street is almost as good).

The city has changed the world's history at least four times (three more than any of those Cotswold villages they all flock to - though Chipping Norton's discovery of aspirin counts a bit): follow the city's sad connections with slavery at the Maritime Museum, wonder why there's so little in the city about its role in the invention of serious global trading, retrace the path of the millions who migrated through the city from all over Europe to the New World in the largest human migration ever, and examine the recreated HQ for the Battle of the Atlantic (together with Midway, Stalingrad anf the Battle of Britain, one of the four turning points of WW2)

You have to visit at least a bit of the city's besotted football sites: if you can't face a tour of either football stadium, the Liverpool FC merchandise shop in Williamson Sq gives you an insight into how it's possible for so many apparent adults to be so doolally about what's jut a game (and you'll undoubtedly hear repeatedly the ridiculous answer a former Liverpool manager gave to that question).

If, after all that, you want to let your 2 yo off the leash, get the train to Formby or Freshfields and take him/her through the pine woods by the sea. Practically the only place left in Britain where our native (and beautiful) red squirrels haven't been driven out by those dastardly North American grey things, the pine woods abut an endless beach - albeit sometimes a bit chilly for what we call nesh people. Swimming there in June (or better yet, Easter)is what gives us our moral fibre.

You're arriving at the wrong time to watch the world's greatest horse race, which makes those tedious things at Ascot or Louisville look like a schoolgirl's gymkhana. But if you like golf, the Liverpool area has more courses than any other county in England, with Royal Liverpool and Royal Birkdale still used for the Open.

If you've got time for the Beatles in a mere four days after all that, I'll be amazed. The shopping has been pretty mediocre for several decades (the local gentry all go to Chester) and is temporarily marginally worse, since a huge proportion of the centre is being dug up for what the city claims - modest as always - is Europe's largest city centre redevelopment.

However, the city's shoppers are worth watching - at least for you. The current fashion among Liverpool lasses (and the city's population is astonishingly young by British standards) is for minimal (but sharp)clothing, especially in the summer (June for us is hot), and good attendance at the gym. If you can switch off from their intriguing predilection for dayglo orange fake suntans, you'll find them the most photogenic shoppers in Britan, and a far cry from the grunge-wearing flabbies so prevalent in Britain's posher towns.

Hi
The Tate at Liverpool has just commenced an exhibition called Summer of Love, art of the Psychedelic Era' which I can't wait to see. Getting great reviews and runs to September. www.tate.org.uk

flanneruk,

Thank you for that wonderful post. As a former woollyback, I have a high regard for Liverpool and its surrounding areas, but could never have put it as eloquently and passionately as you do.