mapthor said:

So I’m going to the UK next summer and my family wants me to get some ideas for what we would do. Knowing some of you live in the UK, I was wondering if I could get some tips on what to do and see.

Thanks
mapthor

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So I went there last summer and if you want to go a bit Middle-earth related, I'd go to Oxford. You probably aren't as Tolkienite as me, but here u go. You can go to Tolkien's house where he wrote the LotR and most of his other works. Also you can go to the Eagle and Child ('Bird and Baby' (from LOTRO)), which is his favourite pub where he, CS Lewis and his other 'Inklings' met every Tuesday. Also you can go to the Bodleian Library, where you can see a lot of his original maps and drawings.

If you were planning to go to London, then there's plenty of places to go; There's lots of museums - like the V&A, National History Museum, Science Museum as well as quite a few wartime ones. You can also go on the London Eye (it does get seriously busy) and go around the Tower of London. Another thing is madame tussads, you can also book seats to watch performances of various Shakespeare plays in the globe - Last summer I saw the Merchant of Venice there.

Where in the UK its quite big....

Well probably London would be the #1 choice, theirs lots to do there you probably want to go on the London Eye which you need to book in advance to go on. Things like Big Ben cant be accessed by tourists. Theres quite a few museums, the war and history museum are probably the best ones. The Tower of London is good but its a long queue to get in. Along the Thames is a ton of military ships and you can take a boat ride down it. You can go up the Shard but its quite expensive, the west end has some cool shops and Greenwich is real neat but its a bit further west. If you like boring arts the South Bank has a ton of stuff for them people. Theres lots of other things to see aswell but it depends on how long you are there for. Theres probably some list online about what to visit.

If you want to see some castles the best ones are Dover Castle, Windsor, Warwick and Leeds. Dover Castle and Leeds are south of London and Windsor is to the west of it. Warwick is quite far north but its pretty lit. Dover castle also has WW2 bunkers. There are some cool military ports in Chatham which is near the mouth of the Thames.

Some other good cities are Portsmouth, Liverpool and Manchester which are all around England they have some cool places but they arent really tourist focused like London is. Best beaches are probably at Cornwall which is far south west of London and Devon and Dorset which is where you can find a ton of fossils. If you go the north side of Devon theres some good surfing beaches.

England is probably the best place to visit in the UK, Wales is just mountains and its always grey and cold so unless you like getting depressed or have a sheep fetish dont go there. Scotland is okay but its such a distance North you should go there just for Scotland. The only real notable places in Scotland are the highlands which has all the famous lakes and Edinburgh which has a cool castle build on a volcanic plug. Also the food in scotland is mank and they all wear skirts so its a bit crazy up there.

If you want to see some British culture like pubs you will find some in London however they arent really for tourists but more for young adults like students and unless you wanna go on a mad sesh you probably wont enjoy it. London is quite multicultural now so you wont find much of the British culture there now . However the rest of Britain has a good amount of it, the south east is great especially as I live there. There are pubs and fish and chip shops everywhere. And we all are posh apparently. It also looks like what you expect England to look like.

The food is quite obvious, coming to the UK there is only one choice of food and that is a cheeky Nandos. If you dont have a cheeky Nandos you have not been to Britain. Theres a ton of them around the country so its not hard to find. Weather spoons is also lit its like a pub but on steroids so its quite good. The food is all British things but dont go in after 8pm as its also a pub. Most of the other food is self explanatory I would suggest having a curry and go to a chicken fast food chain in London. They are grim but alright.

Best places in terms of natural landmarks are the white cliffs of dover which is where Dover Castle is so thats 2 birds with one stone. The Lake District which is in the far north of England and Stone Henge which is in the south west. Tbf its not as cool as the more modern stuff and as it always rains you will probably get a cold.

Oh yeh and Buckingham Palace is great but you wont see the queen as she is always busy you can have a tour of it but you have to organise it. I have never been in there so I cant say what its like.

thomasd18 said:

The food is quite obvious, coming to the UK there is only one choice of food and that is a cheeky Nandos. If you dont have a cheeky Nandos you have not been to Britain. Theres a ton of them around the country so its not hard to find.

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I would love to have a cheecky Nandos here too. But yeah UK is not known for having good food and i highly suggest you to don't go in Italian restaurants because most of them are runned by brits and the food taste like garbage.

And don't let yourself get fish and chips, sounds good, but it tastes like plain kerosene.

U wot

RubenPieterMark said:

And don't let yourself get fish and chips, sounds good, but it tastes like plain kerosene.

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Leave

I went to the UK on vacation two years ago, and the only problem I had with it was that I only spent one night in each place.

I started in Edinburgh, spent two days there, went up to Stirling castle, and then into the highlands for a few days, (Fort William, the Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, etc) went south and spent a day in a quaint village in the Scottish borderlands (If you're into iron/bronze age ruins and stuff, 40% of all of the hill forts in the British Isles are in the Scottish borderlands) From there I went to Hadrian's wall, and spent the night in Durham, went to York for the next two days, go and walk the old Roman walls if you can. From there I went southwest into Gwynedd (Northern Wales). Go check out the castles at Conwy and Caernarfon, pretty interesting, plus, the smallest house in the UK is in Conwy. I would suggest heading south into central Wales if you get the chance, I hear its quite scenic. After that, I went through the Cotswolds, an area of classic small British villages in between Bristol and Oxford, go to the local pub in one of these villages if you can, you'll get a good experience of culture from places like that. Stratford upon Avon is in Warwickshire I think, birthplace of Shakespeare, there's the Royal Shakespeare Theater, book tickets in advance if you're into his plays. From there, I went to Bath, obviously you need to go to the Roman bath complex there. After that, I went to Stonehenge, and also hit Avebury, a super small village inside an enormous henge that's a ton less crowded, tho watch out for the sheep among the stones. Oh, and you might want to join the National Trust to get discounts on a bunch of places like Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge, and a bunch of other little things that you can get into for free with it. From there, I went to London and spent three days there. Go check out the Tower of London, the British History Museum, and Westminster Abbey for sure, and there's thousands of other options as well.

You can use apps stuff like AirB&B to find lodging, where you can rent out a room in some house for a night in places, which was very useful when I was on the Isle of Skye. That was my trip, but I excluded quite a bit, such as places up near Orkney, and the upper scottish highlands near Wick, Cornwall, much of the English coast, and basically all of southern and eastern England. Try to include as much as you can, but stick to places for two or more nights, otherwise its just too hectic.

If you really want a good experience of the British Isles, you're gonna have to do it in at the very least three 1 1/2 to 2 week trips. I'm heading to Ireland this summer, and I will hopefully return to go to northern scotland along with southern and central England. But for now, one trip will do. Remember, cities aren't everything, and in some cases, they hold the least that you want out of a vacation. And you don't have to see everything, so don't rush around all the time trying to catch a glimpse of every last thing. Its called a vacation for a reason, and its to relax, not to run around. Smaller and less-visited places can hold as much or even more charm than all of the big attractions that everyone goes to.

And I had Fish and Chips in a seaside village on the Firth of Forth, and they really do not taste like plain kerosene. If you find the right place to get them from, they're amazing.
Good luck on your travels!

mapthor said:

@thomasd18 my sister has always wanted to ask this. Sense America has Japanese and Italian restaurants. Does the UK have American restaurants?

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Well we have a ton of fast food chains which began in America. Burgers and stuff like that are common anyway in most restaurants anyway. If you want american food its preety easy as its quite similar to English food anyway.

@thomasd18 100% need to see birmingham, thats a must , i have no idea why you didnt mention that. On a serious note visite a lot of the castles around england they are pretty good

ooitsbirdo said:

@thomasd18 100% need to see birmingham, thats a must , i have no idea why you didnt mention that. On a serious note visite a lot of the castles around england they are pretty good

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Birmingham is British?!?!?!?

thomasd18 said:

Birmingham is British?!?!?!?

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Idk , is London british???

ooitsbirdo said:

Idk , is London british???

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Nope but I dont live there