England outside London: an exotic foreign country?

(speaking as someone from Oop North myself)

Well, I'm thinking I should! Maybe until lately I've just been desperate to escape my culture, to the point where my culture becomes a bit foreign itself. Because London isn't really "English" in the way the rest of England is. It's too international, and too much of a cultural hotch-potch. I just thought this was an interesting phenomenon and I wondered if anyone else ever felt this way.

The West country has some great places to visit, like St Ives.

Train to London and back, for me, usually costs about £65. Petrol to London and back is £40-£45 - and that could theoretically be between five people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/news/generic_images/towns/milton_keynes/mk_cow_270.jpg

x-posts

I am going to Suffolk for a week in June and really excited. Nearly 3 years in exile has given me quite a fondness for England. Also: Somerset (especially Bath) and Cornwall both very lovely, as I remember.

Yeah, you can fly within England but then you have to deal with jet fuel guilt.

places i want to go to:
norfolk
cornwall
newcastle
liverpool (i went twice, but never actually went around the city as both times i was being driven to somewhere)

Of course there's always the Megabus. I got a return from Bristol to London for NOTHING plus 50p booking fee last summer.

Once in Sheffield, point and laugh at our charming Northern accents and hilarious local music scene, hire a car, then head for the Peak District (or, if you're not sick of trains, the Folk Train). WIN.

doncaster airport is nearest

niche nightclub has closed down.

travelling outside london is classic. there are a million places to visit. My folks are coming up to sheffield soon and even though you wouldnt think of sheffield as a good holiday location there are too many things for them to do in a weekend - industrial museums, walks, castles, derbyshire villages etc. if you fecth up in a town and just look at Game and Wilkos etc then you are missing a lot. i reckon any town is interesting, even Exeter, supposed chain store capital of the UK.

holidaying in britain is v classic. as for trains, well you can gte anywhere on the midland line or east coast mainline pretty damn cheap, so thats most of the east coast, peak district etc nailed. york too. GNER and MML are offering v cheap tickets - eg shef. to london for 5 quid.

"oh right...big church, town hall, Topshop, Tescos..." doesnt this pretty much describe EveryTown europe wide? except substitute Champion or Carrefour for Tesco etc?

Tickets that cheap have a *very* small quota, though - you have to book practically as soon as that date's trains are available for reservation.

xpost i didnt mean so much about shopping, i just mean that it depends on what you are looking for, how "exotic" do you want it to be? i essentially like going to any town really, im not too depressed about the chain high store thing. i firmly believe that places essential character still shine through. i think its a function of stepping out the train station and thinking "amaze me!" that will lead you to assuming that a place isnt interesting. and frankly i suspect that sometimes the only reason that similar towns in other countries do amaze us is purely cos you had to fly across the sea, or speak another language to order a coke, rather than the essential make up of the town. there are towns and villages and cities in the UK to rival any other countries in terms of aesthetics, history, culture, etc etc, i think.

Mid Wales (especially the part near to Shropshire, where all my family come from) will remind you of Eastern Europe. Knighton (right on the border) is a groovy little "gothic" town deep in the mountains, and everyone is lives there is directly related to me :)

I'm hearing It's Immaterial's "Driving Away from Home" in my head.

I have flown London to Glasgow a few times and East Midlands to Glasgow, and the reason was usually just because it is cheaper than the train (I don't drive). If you're going London-Glasgow it's 5-6 hours on the train or I think about 6-7 driving. I usually get the train because of not being organized enough to book flights and because I like going through the Laked District on the train. Plus jet fuel guilt, as I said. Getting a flight London-Manchester is well lazy, but I assume people do it because it's cheap.

It cant be more than an 8-10 hour drive from Lands End to John O'Groats surely!

Much more than that - I'm only guessing, but I'd assume that Edinburgh to John O'Groats would be at least 6-7 hours, and that's a third of the distance at most.

Torquay - Bristol = 2 hours
Bristol - Glasgow = 6 hours
Glasgow - Inverness = 4 hours (? It's been a long time since I've done it)

Those are pretty direct drive times with no stops and assuming no road holdups.

I'd guess Lands End to Torquay is about 2 hours, and Inverness to John O'Groats about the same, so best case is probably about 16 hours, in reality probably about 20 (in other words, Cathy OTM).

are we going to include Wales in this? As pretty much anywhere there is great to visit.

I did say without any stops or holdups. Plus I have a very heavy right foot. Allegedly. Officer.

That is my contribution.

Oh, and they don't enunciate their vowels properly...there's no "r" in "pass"