Help me build a UK vacation itinerary for this May!

April 24, 2017 8:45 PM

I'm in Liverpool from May 7th-13th for work. I then have the 14th-21st free to do whatever I please, before flying out of Manchester on May 21st. Help me make an itinerary!

I'm in Liverpool from May 7th-13th for work. I then have the 14th-21st free to do whatever I please, before flying out of Manchester on May 21st. I don't have much time to research and plan before I head out, so I'm hoping you all can help me make an itinerary. The more specific the better!

Relevant information: I'm a graduate student so my budget is limited, but this is also my vacation for the year so if it's worth it I'm happy to spend a little bit of extra money. I'm pretty easy to please--I love museums and history, people watching, giant tourist traps (I actually really like a good bus tour), things that are more off the beaten path, hiking/doing other outdoor activities in places with beautiful scenery, meeting new people, as well as wandering about aimlessly. I have never been to the UK before. I am a vegetarian (and love trying new food!). I'll be traveling solo the whole time and will be relying on public transportation. Above all, I'm more interested in relaxing, seeing some cool new things, and having a great time rather than doing as many "must do" tourist activities as possible.

Bonus points for ideas on things to check out in the evenings while in Liverpool.

posted by lucy.jakobs to Travel & Transportation (11 answers total)

Best answer: I have no idea about Liverpool and have only just moved to Manchester. A MeFi meetup is always a great way to meet people and learn about a place. If you'd like to post a meetup in IRL for Liverpool, Manc or elsewhere, we could get some people together to grab some veggie/vegan food and go to an exhibit perhaps.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:13 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I strongly suggest not doing the standard US visitor thing where you underestimate distances and try to see the whole of the UK in one week. The UK is small but it is dense. You will have more than enough to do if you stick in the North West. I think you'll want a couple of days to work your way through Liverpool's many museums and art galleries. Then after this, head for the Peak District, which is beautiful. Camping would be far and away the cheapest way to do this, if you can hack it. I'd plan to spend at least three days there. Then head for Manchester and spend a couple of days there. There are some truly awesome vegetarian/vegan restaurants there, and the People's History museum comes with many recommendations. This is actually a really packed itinerary, even though you won't have gone that far geographically.
posted by Acheman at 1:09 AM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Liverpool & Manchester themselves would tick the museums/history, people watching & tourist trap boxes - so maybe aim to spend a day or two at either end of your free week in either of those cities.

For hiking/outdoors, beautiful scenery & meeting new people - I'd recommend the Lake District, which is a couple of hours north by train from Liverpool/Manchester. There are a bunch of youth hostels in that area - the more basic hostels have bunkhouse or dorm style rooms, some also have snazzier single rooms - maybe start in Ambleside, ask around, see where you might enjoy going next, book the next night's accommodation based on what you learn, then follow your nose. Three or four days in the Lakes would make a great trip.

On preview - pretty much what Acheman said, but I'd swap out the Peak District for the Lakes, just because. Although Peak District is nearer to Manchester.
posted by rd45 at 1:19 AM on April 25, 2017

Best answer: You can get a train straight from Liverpool via Manchester to York , which is a small city but has a lot of bang for its buck in terms of history, touristy things and food. El Piano is a veggie restaurant there which is heavenly. York also offers good public transport access to various beautiful places: North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Robin Hood's Bay. It's very close to Leeds which is more of a proper city and has good museums. York is also only 2hrs on the train to London if you wanted to spend a day there doing touristy things.
posted by mymbleth at 2:24 AM on April 25, 2017

Best answer: I think you should spend at least two days in York. It really has it all in the way of history (Roman! Viking! Medieval! Victorian!) in a small package. If you want to go on from there, I'd go north, not south. Newcastle or Durham, then on to Edinburgh.
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:40 AM on April 25, 2017

Best answer: I would consider a day trip to Chester, its a nice little city, very historical, the only one in the UK to have a complete roman wall and you can be there in about a 40 min drive or 60 min train ride from Liverpool. Chester is also a good jumping off pint for north Wales. You could be in Snowdonia in 80 minutes drive from there and it would be less to get to places like Llangollen.
posted by biffa at 3:59 AM on April 25, 2017

Best answer: If you only have a week, don't try to do everything. I like Manchester a great deal and it'd be a good place to spend a few days walking around the Northern Quarter (great for vegans/vegetarians), looking at museums, and indulge in people watching. Then zip along to York to spend a few days immersed in history. Walk the city walls (free!), walk around the historic city centre (free!) and dip into all the cute churches scattered about (free!). Then spend half a day with the York Minster (not free - but well worth the ticket). I spent an entire day inside the Minster, but ymmv.

Manchester and York pretty much gives you the contrast between modern & historic England. Plus points: train journey takes you through some spectacular scenery.
posted by kariebookish at 5:35 AM on April 25, 2017

Best answer: I think some time in the Lake District bookended with Liverpool and Manchester and maybe a trip to York would be a great week. Definitely go to Bundobust and eat everything on the menu. You can buy a North West Rail Rover which will let you roam around the rail network and get you as far as the Lakes and Leeds.
posted by penguinliz at 6:18 AM on April 25, 2017

Best answer: I live just the other side of the river from Liverpool, and am over there pretty much daily. I am, however, short of time today, but will be happy to throw up a post in IRL when I get a chance, to gauge if there's interest in having a general MeFi meet up. Please feel free to hit me up in memail, even without a full-on MeFi event, I am always happy to hang out with MeFites, or answer questions about the area.
posted by skybluepink at 6:40 AM on April 25, 2017

Best answer: Free and awesome in Liverpool: St. James Cemetery, next to Liverpool Cathedral. It's a park that used to be a cemetery that used to be a quarry. There are really cool gravestones that now line the edges of the park as well as the path down from the cathedral. It's really evocative and lovely. The cathedral is nice too, but it's newer and doesn't have as much history.

Good food with lots of veggie options: Leaf
posted by leeloo minai at 11:43 AM on April 25, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks all! I had a really great time.

Jet leg hit me really hard so I didn't spend a lot of time exploring Liverpool in the evenings, but I did make it down to the docks and checked out many of the free museums. I also made it to the St. James Cemetery and the Liverpool Cathedral, which I really enjoyed.

I ended up spending three days in the Lake District (staying in Ambleside the whole time, but doing some walking as well as tourist activities throughout the district the whole time) then spending the remaining three days in London (which worked out well, since I was able to meet up with a friend who lives there).

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions! I have lots of ideas for future trips and have a lot of great memories from my travels this time!
posted by lucy.jakobs at 12:26 PM on May 25, 2017 [3 favorites]