My Next Dream Trip to the UK

With the current travel restrictions, I have been looking back on my 2019/2020 trip to (mostly) the UK and thinking on what I want to do when I get back there. Here are my thoughts on my next (God willing) trip to the UK.

Cambridge

One of my sisters lives near Cambridge and I had planned on seeing quite a bit of the city while staying with her. Unfortunately, I found myself more inclined to stay “home” and relax rather than going out and seeing things.

Next time, I’ll try staying in the city itself. A night at Cambridge’s one hostel might cost a similar amount to the return train ticket between Cambridge and my sister’s place, but hopefully staying in the city would give me the boost of motivation I’d need to get out and see the museums, churches, and university colleges that I want to see.

Oxford

Planning that last trip, I looked into spending a week in Oxford. As I was going to do Cambridge, Oxford seemed like a natural choice. Afterall, how am I to choose which city I prefer if I haven’t been to them both.

However, all three hostels were relatively expensive and sounded like they had noise problems (two were close to busy clubs). I was trying to avoid hostels where the reviews indicated that they were noisy, “party” hostels (I really do need a good night’s sleep). I’ll go to Oxford when I’m able to afford a room in a hotel or a BnB.

York

I absolutely love York. I was there for about a week and a half in January, I did everything, and it was awesome. Even though there isn’t much in York that I haven’t done and there are so many other great places to see, I still want to go back. Next time, I would like to time my trip so that I could check out the Jorvik Viking Festival in February or the Eboracum Roman Festival in June.

There are also a couple of small towns/cities near York that would make interesting day trips if I went back. The one that first springs to mind is Whitby. Whitby was once home to James Cook, the captain of the first ship to circumnavigate New Zealand (where I live!!!) and map the coast. There are also some gorgeous looking abbey ruins a medieval church that I would love to walk around.

Salisbury/Winchester

When planning my last trip, I looked at spending time in Winchester or perhaps Salisbury. Winchester was the capital city of all the greatest Saxon kings, Salisbury is close to a whole bunch of interesting prehistoric stuff, and both cities have gorgeous cathedrals. The big problem was that there were no hostels in either city; I couldn’t afford anything else.

Also, Winchester has lots of literary links. Jane Austen in buried in Winchester Cathedral. Arthur Conan Doyle mentioned Winchester in at least three Sherlock Holmes books. Furthermore, John Keats lived in Winchester for a couple of months, where he wrote a poem and some letters. For more information, check out this page from the Winchester tourism website.

Stirling

While I had initially wanted to spend the last 10 days of my trip in Edinburgh, the hostel I wanted to stay at had a seven-night maximum stay. I considered spending the remaining days in Stirling but eventually settled on heading back south. It turned out well, though – there was a big storm the day before I left the UK, and if I hadn’t already been in London, I might not have made it to the airport on time.

Still, there are several things in Stirling that I want to see. Afterall, it has played an important part in Scotland’s history (‘he who holds Stirling, holds Scotland’ and all that).

London

London is such a busy city, I think that I could easily find something new and interesting to do every day even if I lived there for 10 years. There are dozens of museums (I love museums), many of which are free to visit, and I’ve only been to like three or four of them. There’s so much in London that I want to do; I just have to be there to do them.

Wales, the West Country, and the rest of the UK

I have it on good authority (i.e. my sister-in-law) that I would love western England and Wales is beautiful. All in all, there are very few places in the UK that I wouldn’t like to visit. For instance, I recently read a book about Empress Matilda and her step-mother, Adeliza of Louvain, and now I really want to visit Castle Rising in Norfolk.

There are so many places to see and so little time to see them. The above list is just a drop in the bucket. That’s one of the reasons I want to move to Europe. In addition to those places in the UK, I want to see most of Europe, and then there’s the rest of the world. Do you have any favourite places that you think I should add to my list? Tell me in the comments below.