England Travel Answers

Yes Holyhead is a bit unexciting (for want of a better word). Bath is a treat and the train station is very central. You should give Devon a visit - get the train to Exeter and maybe do some riverside walks and the historic centre is interesting too. I;m sure you'll get dozens of other ideas here too, Have fun.

Scarborough is a pretty good bet by train but it's a long day from Birmingham. Beyond York (you'll have to change at York - which is an excellent destination in itself) there's only Malton and Seamer junction as stops. The section through Kirkham gorge is very attractive, albeit brief. Holyhead itself is very disappointing and sadly run down. The places along the coast, such as Conway and Chester have much more to commend them. Stratford is close to Birmingham and is a very popular with tourists. I live too close to it to fully appreciate the place ;-) If you haven't been to Oxford then that's an excellent day out, particularly if you can combine it with Blenheim Palace. As for where the train stations are - Google maps, look for the station symbol. Train times from thetrainline.com or several other similar sites.

How about York, or Worcester, or Berwick, or even Edinburgh. I can think of loads of other places within the 2-3 hour time frame......... Holyhead would not be top of my list. I would not, however, recommend any rail passes. It would be better for you to decide where you want to go, then cost out whether it is more economical to buy individual point-to-point tickets. Do not buy tickets on the day as it will cost much, much more. If you buy up until 18.00 the day before you want to travel, then you will save a great deal. As a rule, passes are not the best option. You don't say when in October - remember that the days are getting darker and shorter, the more so the closer you come to the end of the month when the clocks go back one hour.

York, most definitely. Holyhead..no. But Bangor is worth a wander; it has a rather nice cathedral (my Bangor page has info) and buses to Caernarfon (castle) are frequent enough to make a daytrip feasible. Or maybe you'd prefer to take the bus to Llanberis, for the lake and the foot of Snowdon? Bus info: Bangor>Caernarfon: arrivabus.co.uk/serviceInfor... Bangor>Llanberis: padarnbus.co.uk/service85.ht... Stafford is a very pleasant little market town, as is Northampton. both have some interesting historical bits. Shrewsbury too...and Chester (although its black-and-white is mostly not Medieval). Don't forget Warwick for its castle, visitor-oriented but still a stunning example of a Norman castle with later additions. http://www.warwick-castle.com/ And Warwick is lovely too. Or Stratford-on-Avon? Or Worcester? Or...loads and loads of places! I have pages on all the places I've mentioned. It's normal in the UK for railway stations to be within easy walking distance of the historical centre of towns and cities, so you needn't bother too much about that.

If you're up for a bit of a walk around the countryside then I'd suggest the Peak District starting in Sheffield. You can get buses close by the train station and on a lovely day it offers some beautiful views.

Some off the beaten track suggestions: Port Sunlight near Liverpool is just over 2 hours from Birmingham and is a Victorian / Edwardian workers' village with "quaint" houses, an excellent art gallery, a small but interesting museum, and several tearooms and a pub. The village was built by Lord Leverhulme and is an example of 19th century workers housing in the garden city style. We bought bars of soap for our grandsons that were the same as those given to first class passengers on the Titanic, and were made in the adjoining Lever Brothers factory.. Ludlow is as little as 1 hour 40 minutes from Birmingham and is a historic walled town with over 450 listed buildings. We had tea at the Feathers Hotel (a number of years ago) but it is worth viting for its architecture. Blackpool is less than 2 and a half hours from Birmingham and would be a change from the historic and beautiful - bold, brash, fish and chips, winkels, and pubs. The only thing to remember is that Scarborough is a bit similar although more refined in my view, but then anything is refined compared to Blackpool. If Scarborough isn't a must, remember it is over 3 hours by train. Hope these ideas are useful. Enjoy your holiday.

Ludlow's a good idea. It's a really 'foodie' place these days as well as having a good castle. More ideas: Bletchley, for the home of the WW2 code-breaking team: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ Coventry for its old and new cathedrals. Hereford: lovely town, wonderful cathedral. Lincoln: wonderful cathedral, Victorian prison, Roman ruins, Medieval houses. Lichfield: another rather nice small market town with a wonderful cathedral, birthplace of Samuel Johnson.

When you arrive, you will probably find you can pick up a 'Days Out By Train' or similar leaflet at the station that will give you ideas, and may have some money off vouchers. Definitely try Warwick and/or Stratford on Avon if you didn't visit them when you went to the Cotswolds. Or Shrewsbury is interesting if you like history (just over an hour from Birmingham by train, no changes).

If you go to nationalrail.co.uk/passenger... you will be able to see the national rail network maps which will show you what places are served by train. Then as has been said before you can go to the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner(ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/perso... to see how long the journey will take and how much it will cost. Birmingham is very well served as you're obviously aware but bear in mind that not all trains go direct to where you want to go. You have so many choices but if you like 'Secret' places what about Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire? It takes around 1hour 30 m direct from Birmingham. I won't say any more than it was the home of British Secret Service Codebreaking in WW2 and the birthplace of the modern computer.

Well a 2-3 hour train journey in the UK can take you quite a distance, although often not very comfortably. I'd second Bath, Shrewsbury and Port Sunlight. The latter is a picture postcard delight of English quaintness. May I suggest Liverpool :-) Direct fast trains from Birmingham and the camera will start clicking as soon as you leave the station with a host of neo-classical buildings and views across the city. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:S... It is a fairly small city centre. There are the two Cathedrals and stunning waterfront. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverp... And a Chinese Arch en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:P... You could also do the Radio City tower (old revolving-restaurant) for high up views. The local trains to Port Sunlight are roughly every fifteen minutes.

Thinks...big day out ... You could get the early train to Liverpool Lime Street, then the underground (Merseyrail) Wirral Line to Port Sunlight. Walk back through the village and past the Lady Lever art gallery (or take a look inside as it is really good, even a giant statue of Hadrian's boyf) so walk back to Bebington Station and take the train back, but get off at Hamilton Square station Birkenhead. You will leave the station and to your right a large Bath like square of fine stone houses, and to your left the river Mersey and superb views. Take the ferry across the river from Birkenhead to Liverpool, and walk up Water Street and Dale Street for superb buildings and views and up to St. John's Gardens and Lime Street station .... hope you're a good walker ;-) but it would be a good "photo" trip and doable in a day if your don't hang around too much. It may have stopped raining by October!

Good decision to visit Bath, miss Holyhead but as suggested York is worth a visit. i will add Durham, Oxford, Edinburgh (excellent choice as the station is in the centre and many attractions surrounding it). Instead of Holyhead why not choose Llundudno and visit Conway Castle, Mount Snowdon. Of course you will have to spend some time studying train schedules to maximise your day trips to your locations of choice.

You could also see a great deal of beautiful historical sites less one hour or less from Birmingham. Warwick (castle), Stratford, Worcester and Lichfield (cathedral) have all been mentioned, but there's also the extensive ruins of Kenilworth Castle a few miles from Warwick, the beautiful 15th century Baddesley Clinton which can be combined with Packwood House (Lapworth train station - less than 40 minutes out of Birmingham). Further afield is Stokesay Castle and Ludlow in Shropshire - both beautiful spots. Birmingham being dead centre of England, 2-3 hours can get you to most places so you are pretty spoiled.:)

I think you are correct to miss out Holyhead but i suggest that York, Durham, Oxford are worth visiting, and if you get up early Edinburgh is a wonderful choice as the station is right in the centre and within walking distance of most attractions Castle, Royal Mile, Holyrood, Museums, Princes Gardens.I dare say that you will be spending a lot of time studying timetables to maximise your day visits.

When in Scarborough you would be very well placed to visit the North York(shire) Moors if you were interested. There's a local bus service that drops you round all the beautiful villages and amazing scenery that you can hop on and off. This service stops for the season at the end of Oct so you're in luck! Scarborough is a lovely sea side town too with amazing cliff tops and harsh windswept beaches. Lovey fish & chips too! Here's more info on the Moors bus; northyorkmoors.org.uk/moorsb...

Not so secret but not often mentioned in here - Bridgnorth, Shropshire which can be reached by the Severn Valley Railway (Steam) from Kidderminster. Lovely train ride followed by a pleasant walk through the upper and lower towns of Bridgnorth lying on th ebanks of the River Severn. Not sure about train timetables though. Also, Ironbridge but again, not sure how practical the bus ride from telford train station would be. I assume not too bad.

What about Cambridge? It's a direct train route (not too sure of the time but I reckon it'd be under 2 hours).

Birmingham>Cambridge may look as if it's a direct route but the majority of possible departures involve 2 changes. There are, however, direct departures from Birmingham on the hour + 22 (and from Cambridge hour + 38) throughout the day, although journey time is just under 3 hours.