Birmingham or Manchester?

Not Birmingham.

Go to Manchester and ask for directions to Weatherfield. Coronation Street, specifically. Fun place.

I’d love to visit “Madchester” just cuz

You know which one gets my vote.

Birmingham is a shit hole filled with predominately Muslims and Indians. Manchester has some hot guys that are a little rough around the ages and good nightlife.

Glasgow and Edinburgh

Edinburgh. Great nightlife, beautiful architecture, friendly people. My regret is that I only got to spend a couple of nights there and would have loved to have stayed a bit longer.

Leeds or Sheffield?

Liverpool or Newcastle?

I already plan to visit Glasgow and Edinburgh (love the Scottish accent), but now I will go with the advice to visit Manchester, too.

OP

Manchester is rough. I prefer Liverpool. The people are nicer.

R10 And those accents'll keep reminding you of the Beatles.

Leeds or Sheffield?

Leeds. It's somewhat more of a global city, with a strong financial sector, and connections to London via express train. It had good shopping in the city when I was there.

Sheffield is more of a provincial backwater. It's poorer, albeit with some very beautiful buildings.

As a Brit (admittedly a Londoner) I struggle to see why anyone would go to Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds or Sheffield unless there were some specific sight they wanted to see.

They're all modern cities like you'd find anywhere but there's nothing really about them that sets them apart. From a gay point of view, Manchester's Canal Street area is fun. Both Manchester and Liverpool have the obvious music connections if you're into that but otherwise there's not much there.

As others have said upthread, Glasgow and Edinburgh are much more interesting cities. Birmingham is horrible.

R13, I love museums, and Manchester is supposed to have some excellent ones.

OP

Manchester for sure - more culture and history as well as restaurants/bars. Birmingham is boring.

[quote]As a Brit (admittedly a Londoner) I struggle to see why anyone would go to Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds or Sheffield unless there were some specific sight they wanted to see.

Yawn, I'm pretty sure that OP is getting London into his tour but you can't even grasp that people may want to see places other than London in the UK.

Mancunian here who lives in London and loves both - R13 is just blinkered. Manchester has several excellent galleries and museums, great theatre and concert halls and streets full of impressive 19th century architecture - just look up as you walk around.

Yes, if you're going to Manchester take at least 10-20 mins out of your time to see the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the gallery, they're so good and it's free.

[quote]As a Brit (admittedly a Londoner) I struggle to see why anyone would go to Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds or Sheffield unless there were some specific sight they wanted to see.

Leeds seems like a good base to explore the Yorkshire Dales. I am thinking of doing a few days there and in York itself.

York is a real gem, charming, stunning, and historically well-preserved.

Bath, Bristol and Cardiff are a better combo

The men of Manchester will steal your heart, & your wallet.

R4, and who wouldn't want to be manhandled by Treat Williams?

OP I would suggest skipping both and going to the SW of England instead.

Go to Bath, which is absolutely beautiful. And then explore the Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall coastlines.

Much more scenic than cities.

Unless they were visiting family/friends or seeing a concert, no-one has ever said "I'm going to Birmingham/Manchester for the weekend".

This is like asking: "I'm going to the United States. Should I visit Detroit or Cleveland?"

They’re destinations to see on maybe the 5th visit to the UK for Manchester and the 10th visit for Birmingham just to be a completist.

I used to *live* in England and saw NO REASON to ever visit Birmingham.

I’ve lived my whole life in the UK and have never visited Birmingham. Manchester has some attractions, including the Lowry, but it’s a pretty rough city.

If I was visiting from abroad, I’d want to see London, Edinburgh and Glasgow at an absolute minimum. Edinburgh is beautiful, historic and refined and Glasgow is a lot of fun. It seems like a much bigger city and its museums, theatres and concerts are worth considering,

As others have said, York is an absolute gem The Minster and the Shambles would be enough to make it worth visiting but it also has great pubs and restaurants and the shops are nice.

I’m surprised no-one has mentioned Brighton. It’s charms are faded, but it is still an impressive place!

Stay the fuck out of Birmingham, you poof.

R29 I've always wanted to see Lowry's "Cripples," if only for the title.

Birmingham was a nice city until it was mostly destroyed in WW2. What they rebuilt it with is concrete. When I was there in the 2000s it was mostly a Black city, but it was friendly enough. It sounds like the Indians have taken over today.

I'd probably avoid hanging around Market Street and Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, where there is open drug dealing although it's close to the gay area. The area around Victoria Station is much nicer with shopping, parks, and restaurants.

There are many rough but handsome tradies around Manchester with impressively large dicks. And there is some seriously expensive real estate south of the city.

Edinburgh is very pretty with very handsome people, but Glasgow can feel oppressive with all the mental illness. I'd stick with the latter.

R33 You like that grim deranged oppressiveness?

Glasgow has the worst rat problem in Europe.

When I visited England the first the first couple of times, I stayed in London so I could visit places nearby on day trips. I got to see Brighton, Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Salisbury and Stonehenge.

The third time I visited England years ago, I based myself in Manchester for a week so I could travel by train to the northern cities of York, Durham and Edinburgh. Manchester is ok but it certainly isn't London. It's more industrial, working class and less "pretty". Most people go for the nightlife.

I was a big Smiths fan in my youth so I wanted to make a "music pilgrimage" and visit a lot of the places that were associated with the band. I've never been to Birmingham and there would be other places I would want to visit before even thinking of going there. I prefer market towns - you can get to them easily by train in the morning, walk from the station into town and spend a pleasant time walking through the place. Bring your most comfortable shoes because you're going to be on your feet a lot.

If you are thinking of traveling by train, get a train pass. It will save you loads of money. I used my train pass like a bus pass - trips, transfers etc... You don't have to worry about getting a ticket every time you hop on a train. I went all over the place and saved nearly $200.00.

If you're staying in London and want to go riding the buses and Underground (subway or Tube), buy a Oyster card. You won't have to worry about having the cash every time you get on.

Cornwall and Devon in the south are beautiful as are the Cotswolds but I think it's better to tour those areas at leisure by car.

Train travel is seriously expensive in the UK now R36.

Oyster cards are used less frequently in London, it's predominantly tap n' go bank cards.

Really really expensive to take the train even short distances in the UK now.

Oyster only works good in special cases. Otherwise just tap with your debit card and rely on the fare caps.

If you're in Manchester you can take a train to Liverpool very easily. They are close together. They both have excellent museums. In Manchester The technology museum and the Lowry, both worth a days visit. Both are great historic places. Manchester has The Curry mile you can get the best South Asian food virtually anywhere on the planet here. Great old pubs and architecture to take in too. Birmingham I couldn't speak for.

R32, thanks for the advice about Manchester.

OP

Also thanks to R36 and R39 and everyone else who has responded.

OP

Bognor Regis or Weston-super-mare?

Blackpool or Bristol?

Southampton or Dover?

Agree that it can’t be understated the cost of travel and lodging in the UK. Last minute train fares are extortionate and often kill spontaneous travel ideas. If you live near a major airport, It’s often cheaper to take a short break by air to a random European city. Birmingham or Bologna? Tough decision.

Cambridge/Norwich/Cromer are worth a detour.

OP, it depends on what you’re really interested in. Smaller cities like Cambridge, Norwich or Winchester might be more manageable, have a greater concentration of historic buildings, and be walkable: everything of interest in the historic centre. Bigger cities might have their places of interest more spread out, need more effort to navigate, and be more ‘diluted’ by centuries of demolition and rebuilding. But equally, big cities will have things that smaller ones lack.

Having visited Birmingham, I think it gets a raw deal. Yes, it’s about 25% Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani. It also has some great food from those cultures. The city has some amazing parks and gardens, such as Castle Bromwich Gardens, and great museums: amazing Pre-Raphaelite collections. However, the biggest single museum, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, is closed for the next 12-15 months for rebuilding and maintenance work, so your timing could be off. And far from all train travel being expensive, I just checked and a return train ticket to Stratford upon Avon can be had for under £10, the journey is about 50 minutes and it’s an easy way to get the ‘Shakespeare experience’. There’s a friendliness to Brummies (Birmingham folks) which you’ll often find, as well.

Manchester centre is pretty walkable, plus there are three different free bus routes around it. The Manchester Museum and Whitworth Gallery up by the university are a bit further away, but still walkable if you are not elderly and anyway there are a gazillion buses up Oxford Road.

Most of the England is a shithole, outside of the places with money.

[quote] Most of the England is a shithole, outside of the places with money.

R47 has never visited England. Or the UK. Or anywhere outside of Iowa.

I like Melissa Manchester