UK travel opinions: Durham/Newcastle/Lincoln/Nottingham

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m starting to plan my annual trip to the UK and want to see some new cities. Most of my time has been spent in Liverpool, Manchester, and London since I have friends in all 3 cities. This would be my 7th time visiting the UK.

Durham seems like a great place to visit, I’ve spent hours reading about the cathedral. There’s quite a few YouTube videos showing the city centre and it looks amazing. I can also use Durham as a base for a day trip to York. I do also want to see York Minster. Outside of that, York doesn’t really appeal too much, I’ve been to Chester and I liked it, so maybe York will grow on me, but as of now it seems too touristy.

Newcastle is close to to Durham, so I guess I should head up there, although I think it’s mainly known for hen and stag parties. Is there anything to appeal to a visitor?

Lincoln also has a cathedral as well as a castle, but I’m wondering if it’s better done as a day trip from Nottingham. I’ve watched YouTube videos of Nottingham and the city centre looks amazing.

Feel free to suggest away, the focus of the trip is on Northern England. Approximate dates are 15 May-29 May. I’m going to be flexible because I’d like to meet up with some of my UK friends but it’s way too early for them to be able to commit. I’ll be using trains only, there’s no chance of me driving because I always have a pint of good ale at lunch. Other cities I’m considering are Leeds and Sheffield. As of now, I don’t plan on going to Scotland. Ideally, I fly into and out of Manchester, but if I need to fly in and out of London, I’ll add a day or so to the beginning and end of the trip, I’m very familiar with London.

My interests include history, art museums, politics , real ales , inexpensive restaurants, coffee houses, lots of walking, theatre, music and sports.

I usually stay at Premier Inn or Ibis, I am not a £250 luxury hotel person.

2

Newcastle is near one end of Hadrian’s Wall. There’s the Angel of the North statue. But you could easily drop Newcastle from your schedule.

York / Yorvik was a major Viking centre and there’s lots to see there both in history and architecture. Unless you’re like me who had uveitis and saw York Hospital instead of York. :frowning:

Given your list and you reliance on rail, you may be better off basing yourself in York

3

You’re travelling by train, so does the National Railway Museum appeal at all? It’s got Mallard, Duchess of Hamilton, Evening Star and a working replica of Rocket. The first two in particular also count as art…:wink:

4

Durham is a lovely town, lots of cafe, large Norman Castle and Cathedral - night life is a bit limited. The centre is steeply hilly. Make sure to have a walk up and down the riverbank, you can certainly get a good flavour of it in a day. You would be better off using either Newcastle or York as your base.

It’s a bit limited in train travel options though - yes to can get the train but you are either going to York or Newcastle.

York - yup its touristy, not quite as much as Chester and it does depend upon time of year, if you go in the early months you’ll find it ok, but summer weekends are busy as heck - even so there is probably quite lot more to see than in most cities apart from London - you can spend three or four days there and only scratch the historical surface. Pretty good night life and lots of eating places at every level from greasy spoon to high end. Once a month they have a street food fair - it isn’t cheap but you get to try a lot of craft foods.

You might hop off the train at Northallerton on your way from York to Durham. It’s a nice little market town, catch it on a market day if possible - you can do it in an afternoon.

If you stay a night or two in York you could take a trip to Whitby, follow the Dracula trail and wander around the old town, climb the 199 steps up to St Hildas church and Whitby Abbey - which is famous for the synod of Whitby in 664, when England adopted the Romanesque Christian practices as opposed to the Ionian practice.

Newcastle, has a castle - hence the name - which is worth a visit, lots of nightlife, lots of eating places - take yourself around the museums. Like York it has better options for trains. Go to the Biscuit museum

Lincoln - apart from the Cathedral tour and the hobble up the small steep roads up to it, its really a bit dull, 60’s dreary architecture in the town centre so best bet is to pretty much go around that part. You might have a chance to see the old part of the castle if they have opened it and really suggest you visit the old Victorian prison. Lincoln - its less exciting than you might think. Stick with Nottingham.

I’ve been to all these places quite a bit visiting each of their prisons in my pre-retired working life but I doubt they will let you in to the working parts of them!

Leeds and Sheffield, loads of nightlife, lots to eat, but these are former industrial towns, you can certainly find lots of historical stuff but you’ll need to drive or do your research beforehand and develop an itinerary, both are large, Leeds especially was right at the heart of the industrial revolution so there are factory museums, the town hall, art gallery and I believe there are arranged walks. You would not be searching for genteel municipal beauty - still a lot of industry.

5

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6

For a bit of a change of pace if you’re up in Northumberland, the Farne Islands are pretty interesting, especially if you like wildlife at all. There’s some historical buildings, though disappointingly you’re not allowed in the oldest ones, but it is a little tricky to get to on public transport, as well as needing a boat trip.

Nottingham’s pretty amusingly touristy in my experience, with the excessive Robin Hood nonsense. It’s a nice enough place, but in my opinion it focuses too heavily on its imaginary history, despite having plenty of the real thing.

If you’re going to Newcastle, prepare for the Geordie accent :wink:

7

I you visit Whitby by train there is steam train route to Pickering going through some wonderful moorland scenery.

Castle Howard, close to York is also a grand day out.

8

A good day out in the northeast is the Beamish Living Museum. Reachable by bus from Newcastle or Chester-le-Street.

9

Add my name to those suggesting Whitby, it’s a lovely little seaside town and you can get awesome crab sandwiches.

I’ll also second (or third) basing yourself in York.

10

Where do you stand on tea? Harrogate’s quite nice. It’s like the Bath of the North.

11

Lincoln’s nice, and everything is more or less between the station and the top of the hill, where the Castle, Cathedral and Bishop’s Palace are. You walk up the hill, wander around the historic sites, walk back down the hill to the station, the perfect day trip.

Nottingham is a very unpleasant place, very popular with drug addicts and big on knife crime.

12

I agree (to an extent). I’ve never had much regard for Nottingham. Bit of a dump really.

They must have a good marketing team.

13

Most of them are produced by students at the university so I guess it’s obvious that they’re going to present the city and Uni in a good light.

But yes, as of now, Nottingham has pretty much been eliminated from the initial travel itinerary.

14

I’ve been known to argue that Durham is the single most spectacular town or city in England. (Edinburgh outdoes it on that score UK-wide.) But other than walking about and taking in the views, there’s little in the way of formal tourist attractions. Apart from the Cathedral and the Castle, there’s just a handful of small museums that are either very specialist (and excellent as such) tied to the university or just a bit parochial (the local regimental museum comes to mind).

Well, yes. But it always has had its fair share of regional museums. Everything’s a bit reorganised these days, but the university had the great collection of material from Hadrian’s Wall, which now all appear to be in the Great North Museum.
For art, the Laing was traditionally good. The Baltic across the river postdates my days kicking around the area, but has a considerable national and international reputation.

15

I don’t let one random event deter my travel plans, but I can’t say I enjoy reading about this double knife crime incident. Especially occurring on a Friday night in Nottingham city centre.

I’m hoping it comes out that it was some sort of dispute among gangs over drugs.

Still inclined to skip Nottingham on my next trip, there’s just too many other places to see in the UK.