Where do people without cars holiday in the UK?

[Furrytoebean]

Me and dh have got rid of our car because

1. We both absolutely HATE driving
2. we don't need one because we live in the city
3. It saves us money.

On a day to day basis we are not affected at all, but we did used to go away a couple of times a year for weekend breaks in the car.

We've decided it would be nice to explore the UK by train but can only think of obvious places.
Does anyone know any fantastic holiday spots that are easily accessible by rail?

We're in the north east, but quite like a rail journey.

I love trips by train! I don't know the north east at all, so don't know what's nearby but I would probably start with Scotland. Alternatively, download or print off a map of the train lines and start planning! If you can get to a major station, it opens up a world of adventures.

Check out a series on YouTube called All The Stations for more inspiration, a lovely couple travelled to every station in England, Scotland and Wales and some of it looked fabulous!

Whitstable.

Tenby

You could rent a car if you want to go somewhere. Although you don't really enjoy driving but might feel differently if it throws up an opportunity for a fab holiday.

Otherwise maybe just look at the train map and see where it takes you?

City breaks by train would be the obvious.

Glasgow as a city break, but so easy to get to Loch Lomond from there, or over to Edinburgh, down to Ayr, or even North Berwick.

Alnmouth, Whitby, Liverpool, Chester, Bath, Cheltenham, Carlisle, Keswick (bus from Penrith), York, Harrogate

London! And while you're there, you can hop on Eurostar and go to Bruges or Paris for the day. Oxford or Canterbury and many other places are also doable in a day from London.

Are you looking for City breaks ?
Hill walking ?
Famous landmarks?
Seaside?

Depends what type of holiday you want (seaside,city) and then look at where trains go from where you are, does the route pass through major interchange stations etc. Basically you need a big train map to start. Many major beach places have rail routes (Bournemouth, Brighton, Weston Super Mare, etc) but obviously you are coming from the north (I don't know much about seaside up north I'm afraid - except Blackpool!). You can get all the way down to Penzance in Cornwall - that's the furthest south you can go and it's a very nice scenic journey - but a looooong one (I went from Paddington in London). Some places like Centre Parcs, Butlins, Haven etc often provide a shuttle bus from the nearest train station.

And get a travel card like Family and Friends or Two Together. It will save you loads.

We go all over the Uk by train, sometimes you have to be a bit creative but lots of places are very accessible by train.
We are in the midlands and can get direct trains through to North Wales, we also go down to Cornwall regularly, Brighton is only 50 minutes by train from London, Edinburgh also a favourite destination for us. South Wales is accessible by train

Sometimes we do 'grand tours' so we can get to various places.
For example we want to go to Whitby, no direct trains and a very long journey. So we will go to York for a couple of nights, then to Scarborough, then up to Whitby. We will look for somewhere with a direct service from Whitby for a stop on the way home.

Last year we wanted to visit Harlech/Barmouth and then on to Conwy but they are on different lines. We found a great airbnb in Talybont, 5 mins walk from the station, the train from there went to Barmouth, Harlech, Criccieth and Portmadog. From Porthmadog we got the steam train to Ffestiniogg ( great trip in itself) spent the day at the slate mine, Ffesstinog is on the other train line which takes you up to Conwy/Llandudno area. From there its a short trip up to Liverpool to visit family. then back down to the Midlands.
It sounds a faff but with a bit of planning, creativity and the odd bus and taxi its fine.

Cricceth lovely little town, nice beach castle and plenty of walks with the Wales coastal path. (Note I haven't actually visited by train but I know there is a train station) You could also do porthmadog which has the Snowdon mountain railway. A few places alobg the welsh coast have reasonable train access.

Blackpool is accessible by train and you can use the trams to get to Fleetwood and other places nearby.

We also enjoyed a weekend break in Grange-over-Sands, which seemed to have quite a good train service.

Buxton is another nice place to visit for a couple of days, other places along the local train line to Buxton are worth a visit too, particularly if you are into walking.

Another walking suggestion - Edale, which is on the train line between Manchester and Sheffield.

My parents in law went to St ives by train, the Penzance train from Newcastle! If countryside is more your thing edale in Derbyshire has a station. Fort William has a station and is lovely. Further afield - Marseille is now connected by Eurostar!

Minehead. Then use the steam railway to visit nearby attractions

We were car-less as a child. As a family we went to thevLake District, Wales, isle of Mann etc.

What sort of holidays do you like?

London - get around by tube, bus or walking
Edinburgh - lovely city
Liverpool - good place to visit

Lake District - good if you like walking

Cambridge - flat, so good for walking, or hire a bike

Oooooh this all sounds so fun!!

I'm currently looking at getting the train up to Scotland and island hopping. I love holidays where I feel on the move

Growing up my parents didn't drive and we had 2 or 3 UK holidays every year, always by train. Seaside resorts there's Bournemouth, Weymouth, Great Yarmouth, Blackpool, Dawlish, Newquay, St Ives, Eastbourne that we went to. You can get to Windermere in the lakes. North Wales. We've done a caravan holiday at Wemyss Bay in Scotland, the caravan park is walking distance from the station. For so long train was my only option (my husband also didn't drive until 5 years ago) so I got quite good at planning holidays by public transport!

For long distance we hire a car, it's usually cheaper than the train even if buying advanced tickets. But there are loads of places easily accessible places by train nearby but we're furthest away from a coast so we tend to do it in day/weekend trips.

We really don't want to hire a car.

The anxiety of having to drive would ruin the holiday. We just like getting on a train and tootling about.

Edinburgh is easy enough without a car, and you can visit places such as Stirling, Glasgow and St Andrews easily enough from there.

Edinburgh has great public transport.

IME, the Scottish islands (and highlands) have pretty useless public transport. The train takes you there, but after that it’s rather difficult.

Can get a train to Barnstaple then a taxi to eg Croyde but bit far for a weekend!