Where would you stay/do between Lancaster and Newcastle/Durham at a weekend?

[Farang]

We live abroad and I'm coming with my Year 12 DD to UK and will have a few days to tour some unis. We're going to arrive in Manchester airport on a Friday and go to Lancaster uni for their open day on the Saturday, staying in Lancaster on Friday night. We then have tours booked of Durham uni on Monday morning and Newcastle uni on Monday afternoon. I'm trying to figure out what to do and where to stay on Saturday and Sunday nights and Sunday day. I'm from London and don't know the area at all. I could hire a car but I don't really want to drive so I think we're going to stick with public transport,
What would you do and where you go if you were me if we finish at Lancaster uni Saturday Pm and need to be at Durham uni on Monday morning?
DD hasn't lived in the UK since she was 5 and our visits have mostly been to see family in London and around SE so it's all new for her
(For info, from Durham we're continuing to York and Leeds on the Tuesday and Manchester and Liverpool on the Wednesday and then down to London via Notthingham on Thursday)

York?

You can get a train to Newcastle and stay in the city centre or down by the Quay side, walk along the river and the Ouseburn. Have lunch then check out the city centre. It's a quick train ride to Durham for the monday morning visit and then back for the afternoon. Or go directly to Durham as either city is worth a day to explore.

I'd probably stay in Durham at least from Sunday to Monday. It's a bit ambitious to see two unis in one day and get an impression of the Durham colleges but it can probably be done whistle stop style, so if you stay in Durham the night before, you get a chance to look around the city before the open event and you can spend a bit if time looking around Newcastle after the open event there.
But if you're looking at all those unis in such a short time, i think you might be overdoing things

Yeah, I'm a bit worried about doing too much - but it's also our only opportunity. When it's not an open day, the campus tours are quite short. We can always cut back if it gets too much and drop some of them.

If you're going to be using trains, York or Carlisle are decent interchange points.

But I agree it might make more sense to just get over to Durham/Newcastle so you get a proper look at those two places.

Ah if it's not open days, you may be ok. But I'd make sure to look at the cities as well as the campus. Some will allow you to visit the department too if you contact them in advance

So go straight from Lancaster to either Durham or Newcastle for Saturday night? Probably we'd want to spend two nights at the same hotel (Saturday and Sunday nights) to avoid moving too much.
Newcastle seems quite lively for a teenager rather than Durham but Durham does seem quainter.
We already will have a night in York so that seems a bit back adn forth (although I love York - but never been to Durham or Newcastle)

Yes, that's what we're doing. Since international students are such a cash cow for the unis, they are being quite accommodating!

If you're in the north at the weekend (or any other day come to that) don't underestimate how difficult and erratic train travel can be these days, particularly across the Pennines (Lancaster to Durham/Newcastle). Trains are regularly cancelled or replaced for engineering repairs and Transpennine Express is one of the worst for it. Lovely trains and journey when they are running but check times carefully and allow plenty of time.

Newcastle and Durham are just doable in a day, if the trains are running as they're about twenty minutes apart but you will be better off doing what the previous poster suggests and staying over if you don't want to be exhausted.

Train via Carlisle, spend Sunday in Newcastle. Museums, galleries, shopping, historic sites... depending on what you and your DD enjoy! Or hop on the Metro system and spend much of the day out at the coast if the weather's nice.

Oh, this will be at the weekend. If we go from Lancaster to Newcastle then we'd be using the transpenine route? Are the engineering works announced?
I do drive so I could hire a car but it'd be one way unless i drive the whole time from Manchester to Manchester which I really don't fancy doing

If your dd likes cats there’s a cat cafe In Newcastle called Mog on the Tyne.

The area between Lancaster and Newcastle is pretty rural and generally doesn't have good public transport.

It's known as good walking country and also for Hadrian's wall. There is stuff to see but getting there by public transport is very very difficult.

So if you are dependent on public transport I would do as others have said and go straight across.

Otherwise: Vindolanda is a great Roman museum and Roman remains. You'd probably need to get the train to Carlisle and then a local bus.

You could go to the Lakes - possibly Windermere or Coniston. Again, getting around by public transport is very very difficult. I'd guess at get the train up to Keswick and then a bus over to Windermere.

Durham is lovely, but the city is very small so spending the whole weekend there may feel a bit long. Purely from a getting an impression point of view I'd say spend Saturday night in Newcastle. The two cities are very different and for uni choice it may well depend what kind of lifestyle floats your DD"s boat. That is quite a faff though. Otherwise I'd say spend Saturday night somewhere chill, to get a break from the uni browsing

Will you be paying international fees OP? I would genuinely question whether studying in the UK is worth it if you have other choices.

I presume she would be. But we knew this when we left, it was part of our calculation and we have saved for it over the years. We currently live in a developing country with few offerings in English. Where else offers good quality higher education in English for a UK national? It's pricey everywhere. US, Canada and Australia are even more expensive...

Exactly, I want do something fun on the Sunday. THinking Newcastle will have the most options and variety, especially if we are without a car.

Thanks all. This has been super helpful.
I'm thinking we'll make our way to Newcastle after the Lancaster uni open day and do something fun there on the Sunday. We can then leave our bags at the hotel in Newcastle on Monday, go to Durham without our luggage and then pick it up at the hotel and travel after the Newcastle uni vist to York

I think go to Durham so she has enough time to have a feel for the town. You’ll be rushing off from the campus town to get to Newcastle. I assume you can then spend Monday evening looking round Newcastle itself after that tour?

I'm doing something similar through Scotland and the North this summer. I really recommend you stay in the city to get a feel and visit the Unis. Your DD needs to know they are happy to live in an area as well as study there. The Campus tours are really short, so it pays to build in time to wander around the student areas—if you use something like www.accommodationforstudents.com/, then you can see which areas she's likely to be in post-first year and have a walkabout.

re International fees, have a look at some of the european universities offering courses in English, depending on the course she's interested in obviously but definitely worth a look.

I've heard good things about Sweden and Japan, and there are some ideas here https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/advice/international-universities-teach-english

I work at one of the places you are visiting OP, and whilst I hope your DD loves it I think as an international student it's worth exploring all the options. Some of our PhD students are quite surprised at the level of teaching on the undergrad programmes, thinking it could be more advanced. Maybe that's because of an expectation of more self-guided study in the UK, I haven't had any opportunity to compare it myself.

I do think there's a lot more to uni than the course though, so if the UK is a convenient location or your DD wants to try living in the UK for a while then it makes sense. I hope you get to see as much as you need to make a decision on your whistle stop tour! Good luck with the trains.

My DD definitely wants to be in an English speaking country. She's tired of being different. She has a strong preference for the UK although we did consider US, Canada, Australia & NZ. She wouldn't want to be in a country where most of the students will be speaking another language.

She could go to the Netherlands, it's pretty difficult to practice your Dutch in the general population and they teach in English.

That itinerary is knackering!

I studied there and all the students spoke English happily in social situations.