Two nights in the UK, where would you go?

[LiverpoolMiss]

Would love to hear your suggestions for a two-night city break in the UK this autumn. Anywhere except London!

Requirements: relatively large city with good shopping. Within fairly easy reach of an airport. Ideally some fun cultural things to do as well.

We want a couple of days to wander around the shops and explore a city. What would you recommend?

Newcastle.
Has everything you asked.

Windsor is nice too. Harrogate. York.

I was going to say Bath too! The roof top thermal spa is fab.

Derby city centre is awful. York or Bath would be great. I like Norwich too, or Oxford?

Yes, I was quite surprised at the suggestion of Derby, but then I thought that just maybe the bit I went to was a bit rough and it's actually a really gorgeous cultural place!

We've enjoyed city breaks in Chester, Manchester and York.

Glasgow,
Bath.
York.

Bath! But love Birmingham for shopping and nightlife 👍🏻

Belfast lovely (and doesn't smell of piss) but it will probably rain.

Poor Derby it's not great. It's an important city though and it was hard done by when it didn't get to be the home of the National Railway Museum. Never understood why York got that when it has so much more as well. That would have brought tourists to Derby and they would have visited other places too.

East Midlands is sadly often overlooked.

Newcastle, Bristol both cities have lots on, to do and good combination of busy, cosmopolitan, vibrant shopping, history / culture and green spaces and both have changed loads in recent years so even if you've visited before there will be loads to see
Newcastle airport is more accessible than bristol (you can get a metro straight into the city centre)
Bristol is probably better for really good food but Newcastle has more than enough great food places to visit in 2 days

Depends what you mean by cultural, Leicester has a dead king and the national space centre, the guild hall is nice and the museum houses the Attenborough Picasso pieces. Lots of independent restaurants especially if you like Indian, the golden mile is interesting too, come for Diwali if possible! The shops are basically the same everywhere I find.

True Leicester has dead King.......York doesn't have one of those.

Isle of Wight

(With shopping via Southampton or Portsmouth for the big stuff and then the indies on the island)

Belfast. Cracking - loads of great shopping, fantastic restaurants and bars, brunch and Premier Inn in Waring Street right in the middle of it all - cheap, really clean and beds are super comfy.

Not that I'm homesick

Leeds. Airport is very easy to access.
Decent enough train links to then explore a bit further afield.

You could do, Harrogate, Knaresborough and then onto York (on the Harrogate line) for a night òut and get the more direct train back to Leeds.

Loads of shopping and great bars in Leeds.

Glasgow
Belfast
Edinburgh

Norwich! The covered market is the best in the UK (they got an award!) and the street food there is incredibly good.

2 cathedrals and a castle to explore. Beautiful walk along the Wensum with places to stop and have a drink halfway down. You can explore the lanes which have tons of indie shops, bars, restaurants and art galleries. Eaton Park is beautiful, and has a great cafe.

It’s big enough to take 2 days to explore, but not so huge you feel like you’re missing out on anything. Love it!

Liverpool. It's fab.

We loved Chester. I remember it was also only a few pounds to get a ticket for regular trains to and from Liverpool as well.

Norwich, York , Canterbury , Brighton , Portsmouth , Plymouth, all great for a couple of days shopping / sightseeing

York isn’t very near an airport though, but judging by the amount of planes flying over our caravan outside of york you’d think we were.
It has great rail links though.
I’m off to Cardiff today ...yayyy

Notton..Cardiff this week...Dorset next week
Glastonbury here I come...yayy