lavdi99

Hi,

I am going to London for a business trip.
I will have a free Saturday before returning home.
Since, this is not my first time in London, I am planning to take a train to see a different city?
What would be your choice? Manchester, Liverpool, something else?

Thanks.

cferrb

Bath? York?

janisj

What sort of experience are you looking for/what do you enjoy?

York, Canterbury (or Canterbury + Dover castle), Oxford, Bath, Cambridge, Manchester, or countless other places.

KayF

If you haven't been to Windsor, you could go there and see the castle, Eton and the town of Windsor. It's easy to get there by train. Canterbury and Cambridge are both lovely places with lots to see, they both offer guided walks from the visitors centre which are interesting. I also like Brighton, the best thing there in my opinion is The Royal Pavilion, it's amazing inside. Brighton also has the pier, pebbly beach and lots of shops and restaurants in the old lanes area.

Kay

Sassafrass

If you have not been there, Bath is fantastic: ancient Roman baths, a beautiful Abby, Georgian architecture, history, Jane Austin connections and excellent, free guided walks. Also easy by train.

Pillow

I agree with many of the places already mentioned and will add Stratford to visit Shakespeare country or Salisbury and Stonehenge.

flanneruk

It's interesting you've shown interest in what are essentially 19th century cities but everyone's advising you to see relics of much earlier eras.

In terms of the sheer density and number of spectacular buildings, Liverpool rivals Oxford and beats all the other towns mentioned into a cocked hat: its earliest major and interesting building dates from 1750, and its architectural highs span from 1830-1930, but it's unique outside London Oxford and Cambridge in having a substantial number of distinguished buildings opened since the 1960s (and it requires dogged detection to find them in Oxford or Cambridge). All within a 20 min walk of the railway station, which itself is close to a marvel of townscaping. Only Venice and Istanbul present such spectacular views as you walk out of the station. (OK: Edinburgh does, sort of, too)

At 126 mins by train, it's almost as quick to get to from London as Salisbury (and quicker than Stonehenge): it's also got, should you be interested, more major, interesting and free museums and art galleries than anywhere mentioned by previous posters. And that's before we get into the number of times events in Liverpool changed the world. Don't rely on me: ask most of the medieval-boosters why "their" town isn't a World Heritage site and Liverpool is.

You need to do a bit of advance planning, though. The walk-up return ("round trip" in Colonial) train fare to and from Liverpool is £70 on a Saturday (compared with about £25 to Oxford): it comes down to £34.50 if you buy on line, committing to specific trains, up to the day before, and to less still if you buy online some weeks earlier. www.nationalrail.co.uk

lavdi99

Thank you all for good advices.
2-3 hours one way commute is not a problem as I did it couple times in the past. Since, it is a winter, I would probably prefer to see some architectural sights. I do not want to spend time in museums as I visited Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Madrid last year and spent hours looking at paintings and sculptures.

humptynumpty

Go to Oxford.

There isn't a small city like it in the world.

Flanner trying to sell you Liverpool is akin to Pablo Escobar trying to convince you that Cocaine will help you lose weight.

"Why does the River Mersey run through Liverpool?
Because if it walked it would be mugged"