Tell me an amazing place to take my mum for weekend away

[Verbena17]

Ok so I’ve been thrashing through threads to see if I’m inspired and I just can’t decide where would be good to go for a 2 night break away with my mum.

She is 71 and I’m mid 40’s.
She has been to loads of popular uk destinations - me not so much.
We are both quite similar in what we like but she could browse round shops all day long - compared to me who is a minimalist and hates buying ‘stuff’ for the sake of it.

She is lactose intolerant so it needs to either be like an Airbnb stay or somewhere where’s there’s plenty of dining out choices that will do lactose free/vegan food.

I hate large busy cities but I don’t particularly want to spend a weekend walking round villages that don’t have much there except prettiness.

Is it a lost cause or can someone suggest somewhere that will tick all the boxes. We live in the East Midlands not far from Stamford so not near here.

So far, I‘ve wondered about….
Woodbridge
Castle Combe/Corsham - might be a bit boring?
Chatsworth House area/Bakewell - mum’s been to area but not to visit the house.
Maldon, Essex
Leamington Spa - want to feel relaxed - is it a bit posh? 😂

*trawling, not thrashing 😂

Presuming you will have a car: Ironbridge, Shropshire,. Ludlow, Harrogate, York for bigger town. Bakewell area is nice though too.

Chester

I would go with Chatsworth House probably.
You could get the train from Peterborough (see if you can get a good deal in First Class) to Newcastle then stay in Corbridge .

Mum has been to Chester I think.
Ludlow looks nice but almost a 3 hr drive - was thinking more like a 2 hr drive.

I’m slightly confused - Chatsworth is Derbyshire isn’t it? And Corbridge is Northumberland area?

@Headunderthecovers - ohhh unless they were 2 separate ideas?

Yes, One was agreeing with you the other is a suggested place that your Mum might not have been. They are obviously miles apart

Had to go to Maps and brush up on my uk geography 😂

I think I’m veering towards Chatsworth - looks so lovely and I’ve never been either.

Matlock
Bath
Bristol

She’s been to Matlock and both of us have been to Bath (weirdly I really wasn’t keen on Bath).
Bristol a busy city and not a nice place to drive 😬

Holt in Norfolk.

Aha yes!! I’ve only ever driven past Holt - great idea.
And a good mix of inland and not too far to coast.
Thanks so much.

We took our mom there just before Christmas. We all loved it! There are a few air bnbs in the town and some lovely places to eat. Enough shops to mooch but close to other places too. There’s a train station so you can get to the coast by train if you prefer.

Chatsworth is lovely and lots of nice places in Derbyshire to visit too- Buxton, Bakewell, Eyam (Matlock isn't as nice as any of these)

Stratford upon Avon? Bit of shopping, bit of sightseeing, theatre, food.

Can also easily visit Warwick and Leamington Spa from Stratford, and Kenilworth has an interesting castle too.

Just came back from a fabulous weekend in Harrogate with my daughter . We stayed at the Hilton, it’s very central with parking on site. She emailed them in advance and told them it was my birthday and they upgraded us to a lovely room. Birthday balloons on the huge bed and warm cookies at check in 😋 Breakfast was delicious, evening meal not so good so we walked across the road to a lovely Italian. It’s an old hotel but it oozes history. We also had a couple of treatments in the Spa. It was all included in a very reasonable price. Booked direct online. I would recommend.

Ironbridge is next on my list.

F

York - nice city to walk around, York cathedral, Castle Howard nearby, railway museum, nice restaurants,

We’ve been to a York a couple of times and I think we’re now thinking somewhere like Winchester might be nice.

Castle Combe is just a village (very quaint though). How about somewhere like Marlborough or Wells? Both are towns and in striking distance of other places of interest.

Would you fly within U.K.? Loads of suitable places up here 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Ross-on-Wye would fit the bill.

Or Whitby (Yorkshire coast)

Or Bronte Country / Haworth for Wuthering Heights inspired weekend.