Hi all!!!
Me n my husband have to go to the London at the end of this month. Its a sudden plan and after spending a few days in London, we have about 3 to 4 days to spare (excluding travel days). We want to fly out (or take a train) to some place and utilise our time. We dont have the Schengen visa so no european cities please. Any ideas??? Any town or city that you would recommend...
Thank you.

York. Couple of hours by train

See www.nationalrail.co.uk and book tickets and accommodation NOW.

I would have suggested Edinburgh but it's a bit too late to start searching out reasonably priced accommodation given the start of the Festivals in August

Gosh - what sorts of things to do you like to do? There are loads of options - other cities, areas of natural beauty, pretty villages - anything you like.

From London you have something like Salisbury for the cathedral and Stonehenge, Bath for the roman baths and buildings, Oxford or Cambridge for the buildings and history,

York for the ancient city, cathedral, train museum, plus easy access to Leeds and the Armories museum and the Yorkshire art Triangle, plus Hull is the city of culture this year.

access start with seat61.com general info http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ more specific train info
http://www.traveline.info/ train and bus info

How many days do you mean by "a few" in London? You could easily fill 4 or 7 or 15 or more days just in London. But if you really have at least 4 or 5 in London, then you "have time" for a day trip, and bilboburgler's suggestions are also my 3 favorite ones (and are the 3 I just escorted my group of 16 to in June of this year).

How many is a 'few' in London? Have you been there before? Your options in the UK are just about limitless - a (very) short list:

Bath
Oxford
York
Canterbury/Dover
Cambridge
Manchester
Edinburgh (though it will be crowded)
Glasgow
Inverness
Newcastle/Hadrian's Wall
Salisbury/Stonehenge

. . . but staying in London is also an option.

Or you could add:

Salisbury/Winchester
North Wales/Conwy/Chester
Devon coast
Cornish coast
Portsmouth
Etc, etc.

Suggest buying/borrowing some guidebooks and deciding what appeals to YOU.

we've been to London many times before and dont really want to explore London on this trip. We would like to go to any places with natural beauty, pretty villages/countryside. I am thinking of the following places but unable to make a realistic itinerary

Edinburgh
Scottish Highlands (please suggest where in scottish highlands)
Lake District

You are coming into the England & Wales school holiday season, the Scottish and Irish schools are already off for the summer and won't return until mid August.

Most accommodation will have already been booked especially outside main towns & cities.

There's also a whole series of major Festivals in Edinburgh for the whole of August.

frankly I would forget Edinburgh [it'll be full and expensive] and look at the Highlands and North Wales. even this time of year you should find something there.

I just checked Edinburgh hotel prices for the first week of August, and while they're high they're not terrible.

With four days, I'd spend a couple in Edinburgh just to experience the festivals, then instead of the Highlands I'd head south down the Northumberland coast. The scenery is spectacular, there are many interesting places like the Holy Island, Alnwick or Bamburgh, the weather will probably be decent, and you'll have an easier time finding accommodation than you will in the Highlands.

Drop the car at Durham or York, train back to London, badda bing. Terrific itinerary.

great idea, gardyloo.

I absolutely love Edinburgh but I wouldn't bother between late July and the end of August UNLESS you wanted to attend the Tattoo/Festivals (and already had Tattoo tix).

I would consider a loop from Newcastle including Hadrian's Wall, Alnwick, Bamburgh, Lindesfarne, St Abb's Head and one or more of the Border Abbeys.

Meant to add -- your other wish list destinations (the Lake District, most parts of the Highlands) it is really late finding accommodations less than 2 weeks from now. Plus they will be crowded.

Unless you're interested in the Festival/Tattoo, I'd avoid Edinburgh as it will be very crowded just getting to the usual tourist sites. I agree with Janis, don't underestimate the difficulty in getting bookings at the more popular tourist destinations if traveling within the next couple of weeks. The U.K. and especially Scotland have a lot more visitors than 5/10 years ago.