Want to escape London for a weekend, £200 in my pocket, where/what would you do?

Posted by raymab68@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 33 comments

Solo traveler. Been in UK just shy of 2 years so have not travelled outside of London much. Keen to escape the madness for 36 hours. Leave 5am Saturday morning, return 11pm Sunday kind of thing. Have considered getting a last minute eurostar ticket to Brussel or Lille. Getting a train to Oxford/Cambridge. Renting a car and driving to somewhere random in Wales. Trying to find a 19EUR flight to Shannon, Ireland etc. Appreciate any suggestions or ideas. Keen to go sooner than later to distract from this miserable weather. I need to save my leave for going back home later in the year, so would prefer to avoid taking a long weekend.

Reply to Post

33 Comments

[-]

ryanstarman123@reddit

Chester is worth a visit, especially if you like roman.stuff

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

would you recommend I drive or get the train? Have not specifically looked at Chester, but generally when I look at trains they're always so expensive, slow and at awkward times.

[-]

mordhoshogh@reddit

Get the train to Chester and then, if you like and the weather looks reasonable hire a car up there to go into north Wales which is beautiful

[-]

irish_horse_thief@reddit

Cornwall is amazing

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

Which town(s) would you recommend I stay in?

[-]

Trash_Panda_Leaves@reddit

Torquay is right by the sea, but this time of year its cold!

[-]

_gtat@reddit

Torquay isn't in Cornwall

[-]

Trash_Panda_Leaves@reddit

You're tight- I meant Newquay

[-]

_gtat@reddit

I prefer to be called frugal

[-]

Trash_Panda_Leaves@reddit

Haha, with you and autocorrect by my side... - the dyslexia still hit hard I got nu'in

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

thank you for your suggestion! If i didn't like the cold, I wouldn't have moved here!

[-]

Trash_Panda_Leaves@reddit

Fair enough! But Brighton and Cornwall are much better in summer. Your post says you want to escape the weather too. A short trip south to Winchester might be fun- the city is small enough to see it all in a day and its got a big hill you can climb for nature. Oxford is also very pretty, but you might want longer there.

[-]

spudfish83@reddit

Norwich is a decent little city, nice cathedral and castle, and a nice walk along the river. As I recall its an hour or two by train. Winchester is an hour away by train (again, as I remember) and is a lovely historic place, lots of great places to visit, all in walking distance of each other. Not sure how long it would take or how expensive: Birmingham is great, vibrant and busy, with canals! Bristol is bohemian and great to walk around, a lot of public art. Cardiff is similar to Bristol, further to go of course.

[-]

sweencat@reddit

What are your thoughts on the pedestrianisation of Norwich City centre?

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

Thank you for the suggestions. Winchester peaks my interest after a short google. Also interested to hear why you like Birmingham. My Grandma was born there, left as a £10 pom, but talked about how much of a shithole it was my entire life. Combined with the memes of it being a shithole, I never had a desire to visit it. Maybe I should reconsider?

[-]

spudfish83@reddit

I spent a few days there about a year back after hearing all that too, but found a smart prosperous city peppered with very fine civic buildings. The shopping was excellent, the squares I visited handsome, the churches lovely, the people open and friendly. There's a lot of heritage to the place and the locals are rightly proud of their home. Check out the square around the town hall. It rivals any big square in the country for fine public buildings. The much maligned Bullring shopping centre is vast, modern, popular and bustling. I was hugely surprised! Yeah, some of the edges are a bit tatty, but so is any city.

[-]

Al3x1986@reddit

It’s half term next week so this weekend and next will be far more expensive to go anywhere.

[-]

g00gleb00gle@reddit

£200 won’t go far if you need accommodation. Train on lner to either York. Newcastle or Edinburgh.

[-]

wigl301@reddit

Head to Rye! Beautiful town centre, not an expensive area, amazing vast beaches.

[-]

Amddiffynnydd@reddit

Liverpool

[-]

pickindim_kmet@reddit

Eurostar fares begin at £35 each way, but usually hang around the £50 mark, and the earlier outgoing and late returning times often more. So I'd say for £200, knowing you need a hotel and spending money, probably not an option. I'd probably look at outgoing Ryanair flights from the London airports (I think Stansted are a base?) and picking something cheap. International flights will be cheaper than domestic trains, and hotels probably cheaper than British ones too.

[-]

TavernTurn@reddit

£200 won’t go far for a weekend anywhere in the U.K. or Ireland if you’re including accommodation. Best off going on Skyscanner and if there’s a super cheap flight to a European country, booking a cheap hostel and exploring that instead. Sad but true.

[-]

buy_me_lozenges@reddit

There are cheaper flights to many European countries than Eurostar tickets!

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

It is ridiculous. I've been to Amsterdam twice and Paris and all 3 times flying was half the price as the train. Back home a \~200km train is £10-20. How is it minimum £40 here, and that is only if you book 3 months in advance and take the 4.45am 3rd Tuesday of April train.

[-]

Andi-anna@reddit

Just fyi if you mean this weekend, it's the start of half term for most schools. So you are unlikely to find a cheap flight anywhere (I know - I looked to see if I could do a daytrip somewhere next week!). But the miserable weather is going to follow you pretty much anywhere you go in the UK atm. If you can push it back to the weekend of 28th Feb, see how early you can catch a train or bus to Luton or Stansted airport and get on whatever cheap flight you find to mainland Europe. Eurostar is also a good option but it's usually more expensive than a budget flight and will probably take a significant chunk of your budget tbh.

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

Given it is 2.30am this was a bit of a "I had a shit week at work and just want to run away from my problems" kind of post. Realistically the weekend of the 28th gives enough time to plan etc. Good point around half term because I did notice everything was super expensive this and next weekend. My quarter life crisis can wait 2 weeks.

[-]

Andi-anna@reddit

Lol gl with it and hopefully at least planning it over the weekend and knowing you have something to look forward to can lift your mood enough to get through the next couple of weeks!

[-]

Single_Classroom_448@reddit

Depends where you're from originally if I'm honest, if I was from somewhere that wasn't Europe I'd take the time to go on the shuttle into mainland Europe and see what's up, as london has a lot of great things about british history and culture already

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

I'm Malaysian/Australian, so definitely keen to see more of Europe. By shuttle do you mean a bus? I've looked a bit into buses but they all seem to take so long so not suit for purpose for a 2 day trip.

[-]

Single_Classroom_448@reddit

Nah I meant LeShuttle/Eurotunnel which you can take a car across on it so it'd be good if you wanted to travel around to hard to get to places. If you don't have a car it's probably better to check your local airports and see if there's any cheaper flights going, you might be able to snag some flights to Poland or Czech republic which are both beautiful. If they're out of budget due to time considerations, given that it's friday now and you'd be booking for saturday, I'd like to apologise for wasting a bit of your time

[-]

raymab68@reddit (OP)

apx how much is LeShuttle? I assumed it would be like 5x or more cost of a normal eurostar ticket so never looked into it. I've actually been to Poland and Czechia already because going to closer places was more expensive and less unique.

[-]

wardyms@reddit

Lake district or Cornwall.

[-]

AutoModerator@reddit

**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - When replying to submission/post please **make genuine efforts to answer the question given**. Please no jokes, judgements, etc. If a post is marked 'Serious Answers Only' **you may receive a ban for violating this rule**. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*