Where should I NOT go in the UK this summer?

Don't bother with Bangor. It's shit and depressing. From the train station, head on the bus to Caernarfon to see the castle. It is really stunning and a far prettier town.

Bath can be a daytrip from Oxford or London easily by train. Oxford can also be an easy day trip from London.

Manchester also can be a day or daytrip, or cut. Do you have a specific reason for going?

Cut Kingham/Cotswolds. A TOTAL mess already with traffic and tourists in early May when I was there, and will only get worse in summer. Very hard without a car in any season.

I would personally want more time in London, there's really a ton to do.

Drop 1 night each in York and Chester. Both are great cities, but quite compact and you can see the main sites in a day - especially if you are not travelling far to them and arrive fairly early.

Cut out Cotswolds - unless you want to rent a car to drive around its very difficult by public transport alone

I would give the Cotswolds a miss without a car. I agree with the previous poster that a night can be cut from both York and Chester as they are small. Also Llandudno. What is it you want to see in some of these places? It would help to know or what sort of things you like to do.

That's a really ambitious plan. I think it's worth being aware that there is a longstanding and ongoing dispute with the train drivers main union leading to frequent industrial action leaving many routes without any service on some days and also overtime bans causing regular cancellations. This has been going on two years, whilst it isn't every day or even every week your schedule is that packed you only need to be stuck once for everything else to go up the wall. I hope it doesn't affect you but worth keeping in mind when planning.

I'd definitely scrap the Cotswolds and Clarksons Farm. Probably Llandudno and Bangor/Anglesey (It's a nice railway journey but not a patch on the West Highland Line). I'd probably scrap a couple of York, Durham, Chester, Bath, Oxford or Stirling, not that they aren't all nice places, just some of them you are just going to end up saying you've been to them and that's it, not really seen them. Manchester, it's a great place, a booming modern European city, the city itself doesn't ooze industrial heritage so to say though. I know it's tough deciding what not to see, have done it myself many times and all the places on your list are lovely. All the best of luck and I hope you have a great visit, and have no trouble with the trains. Ha ha.

Don't go to Clarkson's Farm. There are lots of other places in the Cotswolds that are nice and not run by media gnomes.

You could cut the night in Durham and if there is something you want to see there, stop for a few hours on your way between York and Edinburgh.

You haven't really listed the travel either. So you are in York for two nights, do you arrive in the evening and have one full day and leave the next morning? Or the following evening?

Durham isn't far from York and again up to Edinburgh.

Stirling isn't too far from Edinburgh (an hour on the train?)

What are you doing in Manchester for 2 nights?

Also Chester is nice - but is that one day and two nights or two days?

Any particular reason for Llandudno (never been, nothing against it, but why)?

I understand you are trying to tick a load of things off a list, but you will spend a lot of time travelling. Can you drop the two nights to one, spend a morning on the train, an afternoon and the following morning in some places?

Example. Arrive in York in the afternoon - a stroll around the walls and the Shambles in the evening (don't know where you are coming from but remember we have long days in the summer - light until 10pm or more). Next morning visit the Minster (or whatever else you came to see) and then get a train to Durham. Not sure what you are doing in Durham but you could spend a few hours there and conceivably get an evening train to Edinburgh?

Swap Liverpool for Manchester I beg of you. Liverpool is 10000% more interesting

I’ve travelled the UK fairly extensively, and this is of course my opinion based on timescales , things to do etc.

I’d personally drop Chester - I prefer York, if you’re looking for that sort of thing. Add those two extra days onto London. Nothing against Chester, it’s beautiful, but going to York on the train is so easy and it’s the perfect halfway point between London and Scotland, and I feel like Chester wouldn’t offer you a huge amount above and beyond York if you’ve got timescales and stuff to stick to.

I’d also drop Bath - that would be better as a day trip from London.

As for the Scotland portion, depending on when you end up arriving in Mallaig, and how long you’ve got until you leave the next day, I’d absolutely recommend 2 nights there. There’s actually so much to do/see there - the Silver Sands of Morar, the Old Forge pub (which is the remotest Pub in the British isles - it’s a 2 day hike over mountains to get there, or you can get a daily ferry from Mallaig). You can even get the ferry to the Isle of Skye.

Ditch the 2 nights in Stirling - bar the few historical monuments, the place isn’t great. Plus the fact you want to hike, I’m assuming you were thinking hill - but you’d still need a car to get to those. Again, you’d be far better adding an extra day in Mallaig to hike the highlands there - it’s absolutely stunning scenery. If you really want to see the historical things in Stirling, add an extra day to Edinburgh and do Stirling as a day trip from there rather than staying over.

• Make Durham a day trip, not an overnight stop. It’s small enough to see the main sights in one day.
• Drop Stirling, or make it a day trip between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Similar to Durham, it’s quite a small place.
• Drop Manchester, extend Keswick to three nights. Manchester is a great city, but you’ve got to compromise somewhere and the Lakes is beautiful.
• Spend one night in Chester instead of two. Also, look at Conwy, the medieval walled town next to Llandudno.
  
• Anglesey is beautiful, but it’s not worth travelling to Llanfair PG for a photograph. If you want to visit the island, travel to Holyhead and do the walk up Holyhead Mountain and South Stack lighthouse instead.

You'll be doing a fair amount of travelling, just be aware of that.

From my personal experiences you can do Bath and Oxford in a day each. They're lovely places but nothing you probably can't see in a day.

I would add a day to Glasgow as its a huge metropolitan city these days.

Three days in London sounds about right if you want to do the tourist things casually. 

Cut Llandudno - I don't know why anyone would bother going unless you're local. If you want to go to the seaside and a pier, cut Llandudno and take a day trip from London to Brighton, which has a lot more going for it. 

Likewise Llanfair PG isn't worth the trip just for a photo. 

As much as I enjoy the Clarkson's Farm TV series, at the end of the day it is just an ordinary farm shop, mostly staffed by local teenagers, with enormous queues to get in and tricky public transport. I'd drop it. You can buy the merchandise online if you wish. 

Cut the following:

Durham

Stirling

Chester ( similar to other places you going just not as good)

Llandudno (definitely cut this)

Bangor/Llanfairpwll (again definitely cut this, there are nice bits of north wales these aren't them)

Oxford

Kingham

Spend more time in London, Glasgow and the Lake District, consider visiting Liverpool.

You only need one night in each of Bath, York and Oxford, they aren't huge. Cut the Cotswolds and Clarkson's farm entirely.

Llandudno is a day trip by train from Chester.

Would look to cut the Durham / York to 1 night instead of 3.

The Llanfair PG sign is exciting for about two seconds. The beaches and mountains of north Wales are so much more worth visiting. Maybe a train up the Cambrian coast, get off at Minfordd and visit Portmeirion. Or get off at Porthmadog and get a bus to Beddgelert.

In my opinion you can get away with just 1 night in Llandudno, Chester, Bath and Oxford.

Don’t bother with llanfairpwll just for the long sign as nothing else there . unless visiting Beaumaris for example too.

I’d remove Durham, Manchester, skip Bangor (you can go on the train from Llandudno junction, all trains end going through there anyway, and make sure to visit the Great Orme!), and skip the Cotswold trip (by that time, you’ve seen a lot of greenery in passing, and it’s not that spectacular).

Come to Falkirk, see the Kelpies, Helix Park and the Falkirk wheel. Then off to Callender house and the park. You'll love it. Only downside is, if you want to go on the wheel book in advance.

I would say you can drop Durham, if you’re doing York anyway Durham is just like a smaller version.

Llandudno???

Ye that can be removed in my opinion

If you're able to, you should absolutely add visiting sites on the Northumbrian coast in to the mix.

For me it's one of the most beautiful and historically significant parts of the country.

Skip Chester, or make it a day trip

Is there enough in Durham you need to stay the night? Same with 2 nights in Chester and Oxford, is there really enough to stay 2 nights? Edinburgh in 3 nights could be 2 fairly easily if you're not visiting every Gallery, museum and old building under sun. Manchester is a big city yes but it again doesn't have loads for tourists, it could be a 1 night. Bath is another where unless you're doing a day trip to Bristol too 2 nights is probably too much, I did bath and Bristol on the way to Cornwall, staying 2 nights near Bristol and I was perfectly happy with the amount of time I got in Bath. Llandudno is doable in a day, morning in the town, afternoon up great orme.

Just some recommendations, I think doing all of that would be less than 20

Luton.

Dont go there. Ever

Don't come to Cornwall, us locals suck and are really nasty lol.

We also have hunched backs, webbed feet and walk like we've got a pebble stuck in our shoes.

And fathers and mothers day gets confusing for us. FYI.

Why do people do this to themselves?

It's going to be exhausting moving around that much. Can you base yourself in less cities and day trip some places from there? For example York (amazing place!) Is close enough to Durham that you could day trip it on the train.

If you spent longer in York you could also have a day at Scarborough to see the seaside.

Does inter-rail work in the UK? I thought it was EU only?

Pull out any of the following i have emboldened:

• York (2 nights)
• Durham (1 night)
• Edinburgh (3 nights)
• Stirling (2 nights) with 1 day for a hiking trip
• Glasgow - Mallaig (1 night) for the West Highland Line
• Keswick (2 nights) with 1 day for a hiking trip - given the short stay, you will HATE driving to/from here.
• Manchester (2 nights)
• Chester (2 nights)
• Llandudno (2 nights) - takes ages to get to.
• Bangor / Llanfairpwll (day trip) for a picture of the sign - not much going on and far away.
• Bath (2 nights)
• Oxford (2 nights) - Bath is better.
• Kingham (day trip) for Clarkson's farm + Cotswolds scenery
• London (3 nights)

The others are either worth travelling to OR on your general route anyway, so a bit of a no brainer. To make your trip worthwhile you need to make the route make sense. Bangor is literally the middle of nowhere, as is Llandudno. Keswick is also a nightmare due to single file but busy roads everywhere. Everywhere else is either moderately easy to access by train or car.

That’s a lot of moving around… I’m tired just thinking about it

honestly id drop the 3 in london for 1 in liverpool and 2 more in wales. betws y coed is a great one to visit

Llandudno is ok if you’re wanting to go up the Orme (cable car, tram, has a cool slide/toboggan run thing and wild goats). Skip Bangor, get the train from Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog and then get the steam train from Blaenau to Porthmadog (nothing to see there really, it’s just the train). From Porthmadog you can then get the main line train out to Birmingham via Shrewsbury.

Skip Stirling, Manchester, and Chester. And I’d add more up north in the Scottish highlands if you can.

Big question is how many pubs will you visit?!

I’d dump Chester personally.

So you’re doing Manchester and Chester but not Liverpool….Manchester’s a bleak shit hole for tourists and if your going to York you don’t need to do Chester

Add a night or 2 in Bath and Oxford, you won’t regret it

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Also,

Loughborough.

Why Manchester ? Nothing wrong with it per se but it could go…

Hull. Not in the summer...not in the winter...not if you have ANY option.

It's an utter shit hole, inhabited by the scummiest inbreds you could ever meet.

Definitely miss Manchester out

Wild swimming.

Any particular reason for Stirling? It's not a huge place and there's plenty to sew and do in Glasgow and Edinburgh, you could easily cut it and the itinerary would be more logical.

Come to Liverpool!

I'd skip Stirling unless you really have something important to do there.

Llandudno I would be surprised you need 2 nights for relative to the other places unless there is something specific like hiking or doing the Conwy Valley line you wanted to do while there.

You probably dont need two nights in Llandudno. It’s nice, but once you’ve walked the prom, got fish and chips and then driven up to the orme, there’s not much left. You could probably not stay there at all if you’re doing two nights in Chester. We live in Chester and a day trip to Llandudno is very doable; only takes about an hour to drive there.

Bradford

Where are you planning to hike from Stirling? Unless you have somewhere specific in mind, I'd spend those 2 nights in or near Glasgow, it's a more interesting city, you'll have easy access to the Loch Lomond area for hiking, and you'll be in the right place for getting the train to Mallaig.

I'd also skip Manchester, you could spend those nights in Liverpool instead.

Bradford, Luton, Rochdale, London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester.

make sure you visit Kettering for the worlds only Weetabix factory

Durham can be done as a day visit on the way from York to Edinburgh. It’s not very big. Bangor is not too appealing as a place but Caernarfon (down the road on the bus) I find much nicer.

Break your Manchester trip into 1 night Manchester / 1 night Liverpool .

Probably wouldn't bother with Manchester if I'm honest. Durham and York are pretty cities that are worth the look

I would say keep Manchester in, loads of industrial and cultural heritage. And also the food and drink scene is great in Manchester too, I think you could have a great time there. And you're well connected to all the other places you want to go via Manchester train station too.

Do you have any other specific interests?

I'd also say Inverness for two reasons one nessie obvs Two there's a swathe of. Local whiskey distilleries around there you can do a few in a day.

And I know Aberdeen has cruise ships coming in but ffs no.

The seaside. Unless you like paddling in other folks effluent.

In any lakes or rivers

I’d skip Stirling personally, there’s better places to visit in Scotland.

Scratch the Kingham day trip. it will be insanity and you won't enjoy it.

Bath and Oxford can both be done in a day from London. With those extra two days, I would add an extra day in London because realistically you could holiday there for two weeks and still not do everything.

Kingham is not really worth it. You can pretty much go to most of the English countryside and get the same scenery. Clarkson's Farm will be solid with traffic and even then, its a farm. There are loads of other open farms elsewhere.

Chester is not worth 2 nights. You already have the best small cities covered (Durham, Bath, York). After a while they become very samey.

Brilliant that you have mentioned Llandudno. One recommendation. I would spend a day in Llandudno itself, and spend one day going up the Conwy Valley Line, which is stunning.

I wouldn't imagine u need 3 days in Edinburgh. Even 2 is a push unless you plan on doing Arthur's seat or something. I'd give yourself a full day in Glasgow & a day doing your west highland line. If you weren't hiking in Stirling I'd have knocked that down a day as well.

Do Glasgow over Manchester. Stirling can be a day trip - and getting further north by train can be great - I'd definitley want to get over the Forth Rail bridge on a UK train holiday.

I honestly wouldn't bother with Oxford. We live near there and for me, it's just nothing special. Also, Clarkson's Farm is a tacky tourist thing.

Brighton

Glasgow-Mallaig is a very long day - the train is ~5 hours and cheap tickets start at 9 or 9:30. For sure its a spectacular journey but give it more time.

When you are near Oxford/Cotswolds maybe try to fit Blenheim Palace in. It’s a stunning building.

Go to London for 3 weeks

Oxford and Bath can both be day trips from London, and York can also be a day trip if you’re taking train from London to Edinburgh then you can stop off at York and have a look around. I’d also cut Durham completely, not much to really see there. Also you could remove Cotswold and Clarksons farm, if you don’t have a car then they’ll both be unpleasant. I think with the remaining days you could add them onto your hiking itinerary as that will take a lot out of you.

Would love to hear your other europe plans too, planning my own interrail trip for a couple of weeks

Mannchester will disappoint you. I'd drop it.
You won't see any industrial heritage apart from in the Science & Industry Museum - and important parts of that are closed: https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/about-us/we-are-changing#current-closures

If it's August then the Edinburgh festivals are on which is either brilliant or awful depending on your preferences, but means accommodation costs are obscene

If you're going to bother going out to Mallaig I'd chop off quite a bit from rest of trip and travel around there. Albeit realistically would need car hire.

I'd remove Chester and add to your time in Bangor/Llandudno so that you can go up Mount Snowdon.

How are you getting to and around Keswick? You can get the train to Penrith but you also need to consider the travel in the Lakes, public transport isn't great. Also there isn't a lot to do in Keswick at night.

Take out Durham, it's a small city, not much different from places like Bath and Oxford.

This depends very much on what you’re most interested in.

Personally I’d cut the Cotswolds if you’re travelling by rail. And I’d cut Oxford and take a day trip to Cambridge instead (it’s about an hour on the train from London). Similar vibe but you can see a lot if you take a ride on a punt along the backs which is a very pleasant way of sightseeing. Then I’d maybe cut a night in either Chester or Manchester, depending on what you’re actually planning to do in those cities. They’re close enough that there’s not much travel time between them to cut into your activities so I reckon you could save a night there.

I love Keswick and Edinburgh. I’d definitely prioritise keeping those, especially if you’re going to hike up Skiddaw from Keswick or something

outside, too hot

I'd skip Chester and Durham as they're lovely but very similar to York, and also only do one night in Manchester.. It's great but it's a busy city that will have the same shops and experiences of any other large city.

Swap Durham for Newcastle ♥️ it’s a beautiful city with lots to see within walking distances, and good cheap train routes to the coast

Here’s what I would do:

Durham - don’t stay the night, just pop in on the way to Edinburgh.

Chester just one night

Llandudno one night (don’t bother going to Bangor)

Bath one night.

You could also consider condensing Edinburgh by one night instead of any of the above.

Enjoy :)

I live near Chester and not far from Llandudno. I’d drop both of them. Chester is like a mini York and there very little of interest (that I’ve found) in Llandudno

Come to Norwich!

For North Wales I'd go Manchester to Conwy spend the day there then go to Llandudno for the night and next day. For really ancient industrial heritage there's a stone age copper mine on the Great Orm and the beachs are nice.

Then go on to Chester after that. One day/night is long enough to cover all the good bits of Chester

I'd drop a night in Keswick, though I'd still replace it with another lakes night. Maybe Windermere, Ambleside or somewhere similar.

Mallaig is a lot further than Glasgow ..like another 3 hours drive

Mallaig is a lot further than Glasgow ..like another 3 hours drive

Stirling could be a day trip from Edinburgh. The castle is good, but there isn't much else there.

Durham could be a break of journey on a York - Edinburgh trip.

Liverpool is possibly more interesting than Manchester.

Llanfair PG doesn't have anything other than the name.

Spend more time in Scotland 💜 get out of the cities and into the hills and the lochs!

If you're going in August, avoid Edinburgh like the plague.

It will be rammed and enormously expensive because of the Festival (Fringe), and frankly 3 nights isn't enough to do it justice anyway, IMO.

Conversely, York and Edinburgh are a must. Maybe lose a day in Edinburgh to help but it's a tough call.

In both the above, if you are up for a nice evening walk, both have awesome 'Ghost Walks' York is a fun one and the catacombs under Edinburgh is a darker tale

Drop Glasgow and swap Manchester for Liverpool. Both are utter shite holes and not worth a visit.

One friend of mine compares visiting them to his tours in Afghanistan. He doesn’t want to go back unless he absolutely has to and he’s got his rifle with him.

Barrow in Furness - shit hole at the end of the world

Sack off kingham. You’ll get off the train to see where people live who get on a train into London. Possibly the most underwhelming place in the Cotswolds to visit until Clarkson’s farm shop happened. Although the pork pie is quite tasty, it’s not worth the effort

As someone who has been going to Edinburgh for 16 years and my now partner lives there YOU DO NOT NEED THREE NIGHTS! I would say 2 days and a night is sufficient. Honestly as much as I love the city (moving there soon) it's full of tourist traps so really narrow it down to the things you MUST see. The castle actually looks better from the outside tbf.

Two nights in Chester might be a bit much as there isn't really that much to see or do there. You might want to head over to Liverpool as there is a lot more history and things to do.

Cornwall

Don't go to Keswick, for the Lake District you want Bowness-on-Windermere. It's the main market town by the biggest lake.

I was going to say Durham is a day trip between York and Edinburgh. Though, you could extend it and visit Beamish, which is an open air museum. Definitely visit the institute of mining and mechanical engineers at Newcastle. It is a brilliant building just next to Central Station and has the 2nd largest collection on the industrial revolution. It's run by the common room so it might be worth letting them know when you plan to visit. https://thecommonroom.org.uk/

I would find two nights in Llandudno boring tbh. I also personally think Chester is dead boring.

Dont skip out on Manchester - you can do a day trip to the Peak District really easily from there and it's a beautiful part of the country.

You could do Kingham from Oxford in an afternoon, you could also probably tack in Churchill's ancestral home Blenheim Palace (get off the train at Long Hanbrough and get the shuttle bus) to make a bigger day of it.

Make London 2 night, its disappointing over here.

Edinburgh, seriously we have had enough😂

Drop out Chester and Llandudno job done.

2 nights in Llandudno, Wayyy to long 20 mins is fine.

My only tip would be to avoid the London Eye area evenings and weekends. The only reason I say this is that it is chaos. We did grab a coffee there on a weekday morning and it was nice to walk around. Nothing is really open but it was very serene.

Also, I don’t care what anyone says, Pizza Express is good.

In the water.

Do NOT go in the water. Anywhere….

Unless there's a specific reason to go to the hike in Stirling, it might be worth binning it off and doing a hike in the peaks instead.

Easy access from Manchester via train, and it saves you a bit of travel time.

Visit the cathedral in Durham it’s beautiful:) If you have your own transport then a journey up to Northumberland would be well worth it! Gorgeous coast lines

Don't go to Bradford. It's a fucking shit hole. How to it got city of culture I do not know.

I'm from Manchester but if you're going for Touristy stuff then Liverpool has more imo.

Cut out Durham and shorten York. Do Malaig, Fort William and Oban and the locale for another couple of nights. Could even do Ben Nevis or the Steall Falls if you’re into hiking one of the most stunning locations on the planet.

Next to your "nights" count I'd try to calculate next to it how much time you actually get to spend there.

I LOVED the Lake District last summer and felt like my two afternoons wasn't enough time to enjoy it to it's fullest. So I'd suggest more time near Keswick, with a recommendation of driving over to Ullswater.

Bath and Oxford are arguably better off as single day trips. But I actually wouldn't do either and would do a couple days in Bristol for somewhere with a bit of nightlife. Oxford is definitely something you could tick off during the day and then have a nice evening in London.

Too much time in Bath and York

Get a flight to Belfast

Def move one of the Stirling nights to Glasgow. Edinburghs great but is about 30 times smaller than London so probably doesn't need the same length as London in the itinerary if you're stretched for time. 

The drive to Clarksons farm was shorter than the queue, I drove for 2.5hrs

I was at Euston station last night and noticed a sleeper train going from London to Scotland (I think it was Glasgow) leaving 11:30pm and arriving at 7:30am, I believe these have sleeping cabins on them. Changing round itinerary to include something like this may save you some time as the time you would otherwise have split across days could be spent sleeping, waking fresh and then have a whole day in the city, this would only be good for the first part but could save some time

Drop Durham, drop Manchester, drop Chester

That’s five nights back. Add one of them in Keswick - take the llamas for a walk or take a boat on Derwent water, go see the standing stones.

I’m from just over the border from Chester and there is absolutely no need to spend more than a day there, you really can see everything in an afternoon, but you may as well pop in if you’re going to the North Welsh coast as you’ll probably at least go through it anyway

I’d be more tempted to chip off Llandudno and try Llangollen instead, which is absolutely magnificent.

I would skip Manchester

Llandudno is an absolute GEM

Skip Manchester and Chester. Get Cambridge in. I'd also try and get Brighton in.

No Birmingham?

Not sure you need York and Durham. If you're only in Durham for a day & night, I'd not bother and as others have said, York is small (but more interesting than Durham), so if you keep the two nights there, you can fit it in and chill out a bit and get your bearings and brain into UK-land, and then head straight to Edinburgh from York.

Don't bother with Chester. If you have to go through there, fine, but no point in even an afternoon, let alone two days.

Bath is tiny, so maybe just a day and a night.

I don't want to offend anyone but two nights in Llandudno...? But I suppose if you drop Chester, you can have a bit of a breather there before you head off again for the final leg.

I think that's -4!

Oh, if you get bored in London for three days, or have got bored of the Londonness of it or if the weather is lovely, get on the train at Victoria Station and head down to Brighton for a day trip - one hour each way from Victoria! You walk out the station and see the sea. Head towards the sea! Enjoy!

Hiking

Unless you're a super fan of Harry Potter drop Durham.

There's very little to do up here and whilst it is a pretty city it's mostly charity shops and empty buildings now.

The cathedral is nice enough but there's better cities to spend your time in.

Brighton, Sheffield and Birmingham

Probably Clarksons farm. Awful man.