Travelling to England for the very first time///

Hi there folks,
I am going to be travel ling to England and Ireland for the very first time on May the 1st and I am lookin for some advice on where to go. I am really into sight seeing and all that stuff, I like to shop, I like to sit and just chill too. If any of you have any suggestions that would be greatly appreciated.Oh and if any of you happen to be really really nice and are missing something so badly from Canada, I may be able to bring some over for you! (please don't ask for any BC grown pot though!

Thanks sooo much!
Emma

Hi Emma - I guess it depends on a couple things like how long you are going to be here, and how you want to travel around - by train, bus, car?

Presumably you will go to London and Dublin - did you want advice of where to go within those cities? Or other places to see in England and Ireland?

Hey there,
I am going to be in London and Ireland for two weeks each (possibly more). I don't really have a schedule, I am going to "go with the flow" and see where I end up. I have four months to travel around so any information on anything would be really great! (any good tips on where to stay would be great as well!) I would be traveling by the Train most of the time because I can barely drive on our side of the road, so it would be too dangerous for me to drive over there! hahaha. I would like to see both London and Dublin, but am really excited about seeing the rest of the country side as well. ( there is more to a country than city life eh?!)

Thanks so much for your reply!
Emma

You could spend a few days seeing London (definitely tour the Tower of London), but where else you want to go will depend on what kind of things you like to see. I quite like the history side of things so those are things that I like to see myself.

Stratford would probably be a couple hour train ride from London and is the birthplace of Shakespeare. It's a really nice town to just walk around, walk along the River Avon and see the various Shakespeare houses. I think to catch a play there though is a little expensive.

I just spent a couple of days up in York (which is pretty far up north - not sure how far by train from London but my guess is that it could take maybe 4 to 5 hours) over the weekend and I really enjoyed it. There is a lot of history there dating back to AD71 when it was a Roman fort. After the Romans, there was the Saxons, then the Vikings, then the Normans. There is a mix of Roman ruins, and medieval, Tudor and Georgian buildings to see. It has a beautiful cathedral which took them 250 years to build (from 1220 to 1472), which I thought was absolutely breathtaking. I even went to the top of the cathedral to see a view of the city. I was there for 2 days and didn't really even get a chance to visit any of the museums. It may be worth a visit.

There is a another city called Chester which is a lot like York (it is also a walled city dating back to Roman times), but smaller and is easier to do in a day than York. It's not far from Liverpool either (home of the Beatles) but I have been there and I didn't think there was too much to see other than some museums. There's not much to see in Manchester either. I am living in Birmingham and I would say that there is some good shopping here but not much else in the way of sights to see.

The university towns of Cambridge and Oxford are nice as well but if you are only here for 2 weeks then I would pick just one of them to see because they are quite similar.

I have never been in the south or any of the cities on the coast so I don't have anything to say about them.

There are loads of tourism sites, but a couple to check out are "enjoyengland" and "visitbritain" dot com - they might give you some ideas.

Hopefully that helps a little. You won't be able to see it all, so you will have to prioritize based on what interests you.

There's loads to do in London - just check out any guidebook!

Trips you can do by train:
- Salisbury - the Cathedral is amazing, and you can take a bus tour to Stonehenge
- Bath - beautiful, you have to see the Roman baths
- Cambridge or Oxford
- Brighton - if you like shopping or nightlife, plus has some good sights
- Edinburgh is an amazing city - but you'd need a couple days

Another option is a backpacker tour - this company, Haggis Tours (http://www.haggisadventures.com/HTML2/RTG-GB-56.aspx) do tours in England, Scotland and Ireland (http://www.shamrockertours.com/HTML2/RTG-GB-34.aspx) - haven't done it myself, but know people who did. It's a good way to get around, and also to meet others. You could do it for part of the time and travel around on your own for other parts.