Less obvious places to visit by train

[wheneverwhereverwhatever]

Afternoon,

Due to various circumstances, I'm completely in charge of the holidays for my children this year (3 of them, aged 8-13). DH has various work related commitments coming up, so we've decided that I will book what I feel like for us, and if he's able to join us, he will. Slight catch - we won't have the car. I'm happy to travel by train, and we've done a number of city and coast day trips and short breaks by train, and have one city break planned already for this year, to Liverpool. I'd like to keep it to the UK ideally. We may have a Eurostar trip at some point, but the last couple of years we've had holidays abroad, and I like the idea of staying at home.

I'm finding it easy to come up with ideas for cities and various coastal resorts, but I'm wondering if there are less obvious places that are reachable by train that we should consider, either for a day trip or a short break. Any recommendations? For reference, we've been to Birmingham, York, Southend, Brighton, Great Yarmouth, Hastings, St Albans, Canterbury, Rochester, Whitstable, Margate and Stratford-upon-Avon among others in recent years. I'm maybe looking for smaller, quieter seaside resorts, or smaller cities and towns which maybe have some interesting museums, or walks, or parks, or are particularly pretty and easy to amuse ourselves. Happy to do hotels, caravan parks, apartments or house. Probably not camping (don't fancy lugging the gear) but maybe one of those glamping type places could work. We can get to any central London mainline station pretty easily, so hopefully we should be able to get to most places without too many problems. Don't mind a long-ish journey if there's somewhere good we can stay for a few days.

All recommendations welcome! If we don't use them this year, can always keep them in mind for the future.

Newcastle is also a brilliant city

Lake District

Oxford (lovely free PittRivers museum - compact city), Lincoln, York (lots of lovely things to do - train station is central) , Bath.

Portsmouth, could go over to the Isle of Wight on the Hovercraft.
Winchester, lots to see there and close to Marwell Zoo.

Sorry should say accessible by train and/or bus. No train station in Grassington!

Bristol, Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Penzance,

I bloody love threads like this. Some of the best unique places we've ever been were found on a mumsnet thread! Thanks everyone

Train to Blackpool ..bud or uber to here.
Everything on site.
Great for all ages.

https://www.ribbyhall.co.uk/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={CampaignName}&utm_adgroup={AdGroupName}&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAhbi8BhDIARIsAJLOlucA692Qn9VGcDXAHnkghPlK2PuJ1630XlBz0jXEU0uzgdI3GtsL0VMaAszbEALw_wcB

Being a Cardiff girl I would echo this recommendation.

Also Bath and York - absolutely beautiful, both of them.

One place I was surprised at how easy it was to get to by train was Totnes. Then local buses to beaches and so on.

Defo the Isle of Wight. Train to Portsmouth and catch the Cat ( same building) The beach right as you get off. Lots of dinosaur tours in Sandown . Buses are good.

Me too!

How do you access the Norfolk B-roads by public transport?

I shall be investigating that myself!

I'd choose Pitlochry, Plockton or Aviemore. Whitby, Settle, Alnmouth or Hexham.

So many places to explore by train.

Knaresborough and Harrogate are both nice days out. Halifax has the Eureka museum, and the Piece Hall is nice for a wander, if you have young DC.

The aisle of Wight is great and you feel you're properly on holiday

For Ribby Hall you would be better with the Kirkham and Wesham station on the blackpool line

Settle is beautiful and plenty of places to walk. Ribbleshead and Horton in ribblesdale are just a short train journey away giving access to Peny-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. You could then after a few days continue on to Carlisle and access the lake district

Train to Wroxham - where you can get boat trips, or hire a boat to stay on.
Bus network across Norfolk is pretty wide reaching too.

Amberley has a fabulous outdoor museum next to the train station, as well as a castle not too far away.

York,

You can get the train to Alnmouth, which is a gorgeous little village on Northumberland coast. Buses go from there to Alnwick (for the castle), Beadnel, Seahouses… all along that lovely coastline.

Another vote for Skipton. It's got a castle!

Alnmouth in Northumberland. For Alnwick Castle, the Alnwick Garden, lovely town and second hand bookshops. Also near the sea.

Exeter. Then you can do train day trips to Exmouth, Dawlish, Totnes, Torbay even if you wanted. Or a bus up onto Dartmoor (or train to Okehampton).
The underground passages in Exeter are good, nice shopping streets, museum and harbourside area with boat trips or hire a paddleboard/kayak.
The train line to Dawlish (and beyond) is right on the estuary (ditto the Exmouth line but slightly less scenic). Topsham is a lovely little stop off on way to Exmouth for a stroll, cafe or ice cream, walk out to the bird hides by Darts Farm.
Lots and lots to do!