Going to England: What to do.

[Klora]

My girl pal and I are going to England for 2 weeks, from August 22nd until September 6th. We have both traveled to England before, but some of the cities we would both like to go to we have little to no experience in. We're looking for some suggestions as to what to do while in some of these areas. We are getting a train card and are not adverse to traveling a little ways outside the cities we'll be in.

August 22-25: London
August 25-27: Stratford Upon Avon
August 27-29: Birmingham
August 29-September 1: Liverpool/Manchester
September 1-5: Leeds/York
September 5-6: London (Where we're flying out of)

My girlfriend studied in Leeds, so we'll definitely be spending a decent amount of time there. I would like to see a soccer friendly (though I know the schedule won't be posted until June). We're both into art, and shopping for her. I like hole in the wall style bars and pubs, and live music would be a definite plus for both of us.

If any of you have any suggestions as to where we should go during this time it'd be greatly appreciated!

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

London:
British Museum
Cabinet War Rooms
Natural History Museum
The Science Museum
London Transport Museum
The Tower (with crown juwels room)
London Eye
The Globe Theatre (take the tour even if you can't get in for a performance)
Harveys' toy store
Fortnum & Mason Food Hall
Buckingham Palace tour (The Royals are at Balmoral and Sandringham in the summer and they let the public tour the Palace)
Go to a musical in the West End

There is so much to see in London; you'd need a year to do the city justice and even then you'd have to miss something out. You can spend a whole day in the British Museum and not see everything.

All London museums and art galleries have no entry fee (certain exhibitions may cost money, but the ones in the British Museum in particular are well worth it).

Manchester:
Museum of Science and Industry
Lowry Gallery

York:
Jorvik Vikings museum
York Minster (the tour guides are fantastic, extremely knowledgeable about the history of the Minster)
Fairfax House (similar to the Minster, the volunteer guides are very knowledgeable and very happy to answer any questions)

[Deleted]

Off the top of my head...

Worth seeing a musical in London, I saw the Lion King when I was down there, it was pretty damn good. Tickets will be expensive though (But everything in London is expensive, so there you go)

Stratford Upon Avon has the obvious Shakespeare stuff to go and look at. Decent scenery as well.

Birmingham has the Cadbury's factory. WELL worth a visit. Plus they give out free chocolate on the tour, doesn't get better than that.

I haven't got a clue about Liverpool and Manchester

No idea about Leeds, but it's worth looking at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York.

That's from my personal experience of when I've been to England.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

The Jorvik museum does rather gloss over the extremely violent Viking incursions into the kingdoms of Mercia, Anglia etc. between the 8th and 10th centuries, but it is still a very good museum.

[Curanhadin]

Aug22-Sept6 skip England go to Ireland.

[serenka]

come visit me, lets chill.

[Deleted]

Oh, one other thought. You pass pretty near Warwick on the way to Birmingham, I suggest taking a look at Warwick castle; there's a lot of stuff going on there, and it's pretty entertaining. They occasionally have a full sized Trebuchet demonstration as well.

[Vidpci]

Call them all red coats and sing the battle of new orleans song.

[Deleted]

Call them all red coats and sing the battle of new orleans song.

And we'll just reply with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington

[Vidpci]

And we'll just reply with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

[Deleted]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

Despite what Americans think, every Briton is not some tea-swilling, top-hat wearing Lord.

[Vidpci]

Despite what Americans think, every Briton is not some tea-swilling, top-hat wearing Lord.

Yes, but the stereotype is still funny. Just like not all Americans drink Budweiser and live in a trailer.

[Deleted]

Anyway, back onto the original topic.
London is, of course, the capital of the country and has that stereotypical British feel that people come here to experience. As others have noted, the city has a particular strength in museums. Outside of London, there isn't very many things to do. However, I have no experience of any other city outside of Newcastle and London so my advice is very much useless.

[Deleted]

In Leeds, if you want live music and/or an "earthy" (read: grungy) feel to bars and clubs, a few places I would recommend are The Cockpit, The Refectory, The O2 Academy, The Stage (Leeds Met Union) and Dry Dock (it's a landlocked boat 50 miles from any coastline in the middle of a city!!).

I think there are some decent galleries and the likes in Leeds. It's a fairly cosmopolitan city, despite being in Yorkshire. But, visual art isn't really my thing, so I can't give you any ideas there. Though the Royal Armouries (arms and armour museum) is awesome. And free to visit, I believe. Saltaire Village, a few miles out from the city (nearer Bradford, I think), is a really interesting tourist spot too.

Then, in York, a 25 minute train journey away, there is the Viking Center, Jorvik, which is pretty awesome but smells disgustingly authentic, the city itself, which has centuries of architecture all visible on any given street, an art museum and several galleries littered about, and some very nice gardens. Oh, and the awe-inspiring Minster, of course!
And then, for grungy drinks and music, there is Fibbers, Duchess, Gibson's and The Stone Roses pub (lol). Stone Roses in particular is exactly the kind of "hole in the wall" place you're looking for I think.

I won't speak for the rest of England or the UK in any capacity because I don't know it well enough. I'm amazed you or your girlfriend are interested in coming back to Yorkshire after she had spent a significant amount of time here!

[Teroseth]

For the liverpool part of your leg...I'd recommend sticking to the city centre, it's not that the rest of the city is a shithole (it mostly is though) there's just very little here outside of said city centre (like most cities I guess). There are a few decent museums and galleries though, the tate modern on the albert dock is fairly good, and the albert dock itself has a very interesting history of maritime museum as well...which sounds a bit naff, but some of the exhibits are quite eye opening. I think its likely that around the timing of your visit there will be a football match on, if you can't get to the game itself (which is likely, with the new ticketing systems, and I'd recommend that you don't buy off touts, you'll be massively ripped off) there are plenty of pubs in the city centre that will show the match (often "illegally", so you might have to look around a bit, but just keep an eye out for bars full of red or blue and it's easy enough to find).

[Deleted]

Just be warned, british people think their much superior to americans, and that americans are scum of the earth (at least the less educated do)
they also think its the best country in the world
*sources - half american/danish living in the UK for all my life*

[Kalis]

Call them all red coats and sing the battle of new orleans song.

Watch in amazement as nobody at all cares...

[Orby]

I advice you prepare for the typical British weather, you can never be sure what our weather is going to be, so prepare for all seasons

[Deleted]

I advice you prepare for the typical British weather, you can never be sure what our weather is going to be, so prepare for all seasons

a monocle is excellent protection from the glare, that often penetrates the clouds.
a top hat provides excellent coverage from those pesky rain drops.
a walking cane, will help provide stability from those rough winds.

[scoobysnacks]

For Manchester:

Check the websites of the Manchester Academy and the Apollo for gig listings. Alternatively there are a few bars and pubs which usually have live music on. I work at Manchester Museum, and I highly recommend a visit there too :-) There's also a big art gallery in the city center, as well as shopping centers such as the Arndale.