Pedestrian Friendly Cities in the U.K.
 

A friend and I are taking a trip to the UK in September and spending the majority of our time in London. However, we have a few days/nights to set aside to spend in another UK city (including Scotland or Wales). We have Britrail passes and will be doing our traveling by train - the rest of our traveling will be primarily by the Tube and when outside of London, by foot. My question is where to stay that is pedestrian friendly for our two days outside of London. Intial thoughts are Cardiff, Southhampton, Portsmouth, or Bath, but also even considering taking the 6 hour train trip up to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Thanks,
Ken W.

What do you mean by pedestrian friendly - all UK cities are walkable.

If you mean "no cars / buses" then try the likes of York

I think Bath is a good choice
either Oxford or Cambridge
Since you are willing to go farther north, you could also consider Durham. It is a relatively small city with many beautiful buildings, a castle and a magnificent Norman cathedral is magnificent.

YORK no contest

Chester? Winchester?

Many British cities and towns have become pedestrian-friendly because traffic has been banned from many city centres. Bath is eminently walkable, as is Oxford and Cambridge. York is full of narrow medieval lanes and partially intact city walls, as is Chester. To me neither Cardiff, Southampton nor Portsmouth is interesting enough for a special journey, unless you have a personal reason for visiting (e.g. researching family tree). Portsmouth does have Mary Rose, but the rest of the town in frankly scruffy and (was heavily bombed in the war, like Southampton and tastelessly restored).

You can easily spend a half-day or more at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where <i>HMS Victory</i>, <i>HMS Warrior</i> and many other interesting exhibits (including <i>Mary Rose</i>) are maintained. The yard is a five-minute walk from Portsmouth Harbour train station.

www.historicdockyard.co.uk

Can you define what you mean by &quot;pedestrian friendly cities&quot;?

If you mean towns that don't need a car - well, the whole point of a proper town is that you don't need cars, so it's not a useful criterion in this country since, apart from Milton Keynes, all our cities are designed to be useable without cars. You might want to give other criteria (like &quot;pretty&quot;, &quot;decent art galleries&quot;, &quot;maritime heritage&quot; or, since you've chosen Portsmouth &quot;typical example of the ghastly way British towns rebuilt themselves after Hitler bashed them&quot;)

If you mean &quot;very short walk from the railway station to all the stuff&quot;, Oxford, Chester and Durham might rule themselves out for some people, but York would be perfect. If you mean &quot;somewhere I can stay in a reasonably-priced hotel in the middle of the town&quot;, again Oxford and Cambridge would rule themselves out.

Thank you for the replies - guess I need to clarify our intentions more. We won't have a car of course and would prefer the non-taxi ways of getting around. Looking for an authentic &quot;medieval&quot; city (guess York might win out here) but with enough amenities for a good two days of sightseeing, shopping, etc. Basically, like to experience a different place in the UK that is very unlike London but still with enough in the area worth exploring. We are into museums and war history but we'll get alot of this in London.

Thanks again for the replies,
Ken

Honestly I can almost think of no city that isn't &quot;walkable&quot; or pedestrian friendly. So I'd just go where ever sounds interesting. Probably the biggest bang for the buck on foot would be York or Edinburgh (BTW - it doesn't take 6 hours by train to Edinburgh - closer to 4 hrs). But Oxford, Cambridge, or any of a hundred other places would be fine too.

I do have a question - if you are spending most of your time in London, and only going away for a couple of days -- why are you buying BritRail passes?? Unless there is more to your itinerary, a britrail pass wouldn't seem to make any sense.

Oh - I didn't see your latest post -- York or Edinburgh would be great . . . . .

Reference the Britrail pass - we are going to use London as a base and take day trips by train to a few places interspersed with doing things in London (we have been to London before). Plan on a day trip to Portsmouth for example. But our first two days, since we arrive from the states so early, we figured we would just jump on a train and head away from London overnight for a couple of days.

Ken

I honestly don't see how a BritRail Pass pencils out for a few day trips. Point to point tickets would probably be cheaper (possibly a lot cheaper) - but what's done is done. If you already have the Passes - try to make the most of them.

How about 1 night in York and 2 nights in Edinburgh? Then the rest of your time in London.

York is a good recommendation. Canterbury is lovely and has a substantial pedestrian center, if I recall correctly. The station in Cambridge is outside the town center, but there is an easy busy to the pedestrian zone, which is very lively because of all the young people.

I have to defend it as live here in Cardiff. Not intresting enough is a personal point of view I know, but there is lots to see and do in and around Cardiff. Paddinton to Cardiff train sraight through approx 2 hours.
http://www.southernwales.com/
Having said that Edinburgh is a good choice, but there are lots ob cobbled streets, and with you only having 2 days it is a long trip to make. I would save it for another time when you have more than 2 days.

If you are interested in military history, particularly modern military history, then Portsmouth is a worthwhile place to visit.

It does lack charm - it wasn't great before the Luftwaffe, and didn't improve after rebuilding. It does however contain some excellent museums.

The Royal Naval museum at the dockyard is well worth the trip. As well as the wreck of the Mary Rose (Henry VIII's flagship), and HMS Victory (Nelson's Flagship), there is also HMS Warrior from the 1860s. The Museum also gives a very good overview of the history of the Royal Navy. The RN museum alone could take you all day to visit.

As well as the RN museum, there is also a D-Day Museum, a Royal Marine Museum, and a submarine museum just a short ferry ride across in Gosport.

A recent development at the docks - Gunwharf Quay provides quite a few restaurants and bars. There is also the much maligned Spinnaker Tower (http://www.spinnakertower.co.uk/) which I entered in an entirely cynical mood, but left quite impressed.

In my opinion any of these would be good:
Edinburgh
York
Bath

Bath is closest to London - so shortest travel time but frankly I just really like the variety of Edinburgh and if you want medieval - York has a strong feel of that.

Portsmouth, was great you got off the train right at the docks, a short walk to the HMS Victory, the Warrior, and the Mary Rose Museum.Also, Emily said for me to mention the outlet designer fashion mall in Portsmouth. We also enjoyed Oxford. Windsor was a great town and castle. You can see pictures of our visits to England on our web site emilyandjim.info search on yahoo. We used our railpass to take day trips out of London to seveal towns, this is doable and can save you the hassle of trying to find hotel rooms in other Cities.

For military history buffs, Cambridge offers both Duxford Air Museum (with an operating B-17) and Madingley, the World War II American cemetery. It's possible to hit the highlights of Cambridge as a day trip from London but two full days with an overnite permit you time to savor the beauty of the city, perhaps attend evensong at Kings College or a program at Great Saint Mary's Church, poke around in some of the college gardens and the city shops, perhaps even try punting on the Cam. Lensfield House on Lensfield Road is a decent small hotel not too long a walk from the main sights. We stayed there a couple of years ago and were entertained by a nightengale seranading us from a nearby tree.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne/Gateshead is an excellent destination for a short stay, in my opinion. I have had many good times there -- not sure why it rarely gets mention on this board. The cities have gone through a metamorphosis from recent past decades.

It's very scenic, lots of old &amp; new architecture, on a main rail line, has a convenient Metro system and is great for shopping, art and nightlife.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Newcastle_upon_Tyne

If you want to overnight in a university city, you can probably get very economical accommodations in the college dormitories if school isn't in session. I've stayed at Queen's Cambridge several times, and the daily rate was in the single digits of &pound; (mind you, this was 20 years ago).

Bath immediatly popped into my mind. It's beautiful (loads of flowers everywhere), has great sites, and all sorts of shops/eateries, and a park.

And I thought that Newcastle-upon-Tyne was the sort of place that Eric Burden and the Animals fled from- Got to get out of this place.

For Medieval bang-for-the-buck, it's hard to beat York: the Minster and many other churches, the walls, the Shambles and other downtown streets. Shopping on the high street is good/typical of British cities (in other words, it had all of our favorites). We spent 24 hours (noon to noon) and could have easily filled a second day, not to mention the attractions nearby. The Minster really can take half a day - the undercroft is a must. The stained glass is medieval (I think the largest expanse of original stained glass in England or something).

Edinburgh is also great - I'd give it 2 full days if possible. You have the castle, which is amazing and the Holyrood Palace and the abbey ruins at the other end of the Royal Mile. Edinburgh is a good combination with York, as you pretty much go right through on the train, so janisj's suggestion is a good one.

We did Oxford as a day trip, and it is fantastic for medieval architecture. I would say you could fill in excess of 2 days there. The Ashmolean museum is quite good (maybe 2 hours or so). Several key things are closed on Sundays, btw.

We enjoyed Cardiff as well. Cardiff Castle is a good combination of Norman, Medieval and Gothic Revival. Nearby there are other good castles and abbeys. We only had time for Caerphilly Castle, a short bus ride away from the city.

Have you seen the Amateur Historian series of travel books by Sarah Kettler and Carole Trimble? Titles include:

<i>The Amateur Historian's Guide to Medieval and Tudor London</i>;

<i>The Amateur Historian's Guide to the Heart of England: Volume 3 - Nearly 200 Medieval &amp; Tudor Sites Two Hours or Less from London</i>; and

<i>The Amateur Historians' Guide to Medieval and Tudor England: Day Trips South of London - Dover, Canterbury, Rochester</i>

These books are packed with history and info about old architecture. I've found them very useful. All are available from Amazon, or from http://www.abebooks.com/ (used and new, several dollars less per book).

I have posted some trip reports (with photo links):

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34870457
(Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Salisbury, London)

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=35016109
(London, Oxford, Cardiff - still in progress)

The only totally pedestrian friendly UK city i've seen is Clovelly

That's a village, not a city, but yes, 100% pedestrianised. Even the residents aren't allowed cars.

and only if you really like steep hills

ttt

Barnsley?

the cambridge town is just a short bus ride away from the train station. once you're in town, walking is the best option. be careful of the bicycles tho when the transfer between classes

Sheffield is pretty nice.

Port Sunlight

Last Jan i found Chatham to be a very pedestrian city

York - with a trip out to the WWII museum Eden Camp (www.edencamp.co.uk), and/or the Yorkshire Air Museum (www.yorkshireairmuseum.co.uk). Both are only a short journey out of York, and not far from each other. York is definitely a walkable (and beautiful) city.