I travel a fair bit with work so keep talking about towns and cities that MrsWCA has never been to. After hardly leaving the house this year the wife has expresses a desire for some weekend/short breaks around the UK next year.

I could give her some amazing trips to business parks and souless Travellodges but I suspect she wants more.

Please suggest pleasant towns and cities we could go to for a couple of days.

Durham
Chester
Edinburgh
Manchester
Liverpool
London
Brighton
Cardiff
Carlisle
Leeds

+1 chester
Stratford upon avon
Oxford
Keswick of course!

Dont forget to head to ludlow if you’re a foodie.

Cambridge
Canterbury
Windsor

Anywhere but these places and you should be ok 😀

1. Hemel Hempstead
2. Luton
3. Slough
4. Bracknell
5. Birmingham
6. Camberley
7. Coventry
8. Cumbernauld
9. Hatfield
10. Gateshead

Warsash/Hamble le Rice
Salcombe
Brighton/Hove
Arundel
Petworth
Midhurst
Swanage
Burnham on Crouch
Harrogate
Lunnjon

Bath
Durham
Whitby
Ambleside
York
Alnwick
St David’s
Conwy
Aberdeen
Ullapool

If you do Manchester, you can Salford in at the same time. The sunset over the precinct is one of the wonders of the world. Its breathtaking in its beauty

Glasgow (for the museums and banter)
Stirling (for the castle)

Can’t help beyond that because I hate cities.

Anywhere but these places and you should be ok

You missed out Peterboghorror…

Kinlochleven
Salen
Morar
Inverie
Plockton
Applecross
Gairloch
Ullapool
Lochinver
Durness

I was with you until you said Burnham on Crouch.

Here’s my impromptu and almost random list

Kendal
Harrogate
Barnard Castle
Durham
Falmouth
Hexham
Chester
Hathersage
Cardiff
and Skipton of course.

Doesn’t it all depend on what your wife wants from her weekends away? Without knowing that, these are just random lists of towns that people like for unspecified reasons. Theatre? Museums? Pretty architecture? Great seafood? Amazing scenery on the doorstep?

All I can tell you is that Peterborough meets none of these criteria unless you like bleak, soulless, cultural deserts with no hills.

Birmingham. And I’m bring serious. Great food, great shopping, lots of little art galleries, loads of good bars, really it’s a brilliant city.

I will now await my flaming.

I’m not at all religious but Ely cathedral is staggering.

Birmingham. And I’m bring serious. Great food, great shopping, lots of little art galleries, loads of good bars, really it’s a brilliant city.

“I’m taking you for a romantic weekend in Birmingham” has a certain ring to it. But points lost for not mentioning it had more canals than Venice.

Liverpool.
Manchester.
Leeds,
Cardiff,
Bristol,
Gloucester,
York,
Harogate,

avoid chester as its a dump,old tatty shops some still open,2 shopping centres half the shops boarded up, oh andthe traffic wardens are trained by the sas in stealth parking ticketing.

Salisbury – Stunning cathedral, superb bike shop, great countryside and the Good Beer Guide Country pub of the year just outside in Newton Toney

10. Gateshead

Yes don’t go there it’s terrible.

Rothbury
Alnwick
Bath
Newcastle upon Tyne
York
St Ives
Whitby

Center Parcs?
Or go to London and take her up the Oxo Tower.

In no order, apart from the first one.

Harrogate (so as I can have a go in your Merc, obvs)
Manchester
Bath
That London
Liverpool
Paris isn’t all that hard/expensive to get to.
Neither is Dublin
Winchester
Holmfirth
Scotland

If you come to Manchester, will Mrs WCA be joining us for another tour of the single malts in the Britons? 😀

Harrogate (so as I can have a go in your Merc, obvs)
Manchester
Bath
That London
Liverpool
Paris isn’t all that hard/expensive to get to.
Neither is Dublin
Winchester
Holmfirth
Scotland

In the absence of a 😉 I do need to ask, do you realise that Scotland is not a city?

Depends what you’re after: shopping & bars or nice country walks and good pub lunches etc.

Former:
Birmingham (seriously!)
Cambridge
Cardiff
York
Shrewsbury

Latter:
Ironbridge
Keswick
Oundle
Saffron Walden
Shepton Mallet

Cheers,
Jamie

Kinlochleven
Salen
Morar
Inverie
Plockton
Applecross
Gairloch
Ullapool
Lochinver
Durness

Our understanding of what constitutes towns/cities obviously varies 🙂

That said, it’s an excellent list (if perhaps a little misleading to those not hailing from Scotland!).

Interestingly, given the others on the list, i’m surprised you’ve missed of Shieldaig? It has the greatest charm of all for me. (also…kinlochleven…wtf?) 😉

Bradford
Keighley
Burnley
Rochdale
Bury
Castleford
Billingham
Middlesborough
Batley
Dewsbury

The cream of the north

All I can tell you is that Peterborough meets none of these criteria unless you like bleak, soulless, cultural deserts with no hills

What I can’t understand about Peterborough is they’ve a lovely cathedral right in the city centre and they allowed the all the shite spring up around it 😕

Cheers,
Jamie

Happy to show you the sights of Cambridge…..

View from the roof of Great St Mary’s Church is good:

View from Great St Mary’s Church Roof by brf, on Flickr

Plenty on there 😀

I’d throw in Chepstow and the Wye Valley

Nice map, but not geographically accurate!

Cheers,
Jamie

I’m also going to throw in..

Ironbridge.

Make sure you “enter” it from Bridgnorth and not, NOT, Telford’s ghastly M54.. You could go up the A34 hit the outskirts of B’ham head east through Ludlow upto B’north and you’ll be pleasently supprised at just how stunning the County of Shropshire is.

Take the Merc, top down, eat well, drink modestly.

Birminghmad has always been good for museums / art and is now actually worth visiting as most of the the other stuff has been de-shitholed.

Nice map, but not geographically accurate!

Not by a long way

Seriously though

Hay on Wye
Cardiff
Tenby
York
Ironbridge
Porthleven
Clovelly
Salisbury
Bath
Dudley…. 😉

Middlesbrough. Put it as No.1 on your list and it’ll add an extra shine and sparkle to everywhere else that you visit.

I do need to ask, do you realise that Scotland is not a city?

oops sorry, more of commune isn’t it? Silly me.

Well if it’s for weekends away I’m assuming Friday, saturday nights and saturday, sunday daytime. Access by rail/air/motorway important. My suggestions are all a bit obvious really (plus massive northern bias):

London’s one but I’m sure that’s already been thought of.

York – history, decent shopping, good pubs, good restaurants, access to the moors/Dales.

Newcastle – Spend a day at the coast or at Durham and then a day in town. Quality food and drink available and the theatre or the Sage have great programs.

Manchester – Great city, loads going on, great bars, great food.

Glasgow – Similar to Manchester really, just a really “vibrant” place.

Birmingham – for the reasons outlined by other folk.

Skipton – Spend time in the dales and nip into Leeds on the train for the day if you want to go shopping.

Ripon – Lovely place for a weekend.

Newcastle upon Tyne