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.

Berwick upon Tweed? Easy from KX and lots of nice walks, food and a castle. Glasgow/Fort William suggestion above is also a good one.

I came here to say this. Beautiful trip by train and access to great walks.

Then there's the train line from Shrewsbury to Hereford. Again great walks from Church Stretton, the castle at Ludlow and Hereford for the Mappa Mundi.

Ludlow - beautiful.
Another vote for Carlisle. If you go via Leeds you can get the train to Carlisle via the stunning Settle Carlisle railway.

Carlisle is a surprisingly interesting city to visit.

Bristol is great for kids. We the curious, the Aquarium SS great Britain and the Museum. Quick to get to from London if you just want a day trip.

Saltburn-by-the-sea. You can easily get the train to Newcastle and the bus along the coast to Whitby. If you have children interested in geology there are often fossil trips within easy reach by bus

Second (or third) the suggestions of Scotland if you have the time. Sleeper is a fun adventure if prices ok then you can be in Edinburgh or Glasgow when you wake. But there are loads of fast day trains from London and good deals on advance tickets if you plan ahead - views are better on the east coast line. Made sure to check the train carriage direction and book seats on the sea side (book direct with operator not trainline for proper seat selection)

I would go up the east coast main line - to Edinburgh then stay there or Glasgow (can stay in either as only 50 min train apart- much better value hotels in Glasgow) then take a train from Glasgow up the west highland line to either Oban or fort William, Oban is prettier and lots of ferries you can take to various islands. But from Fort William you can continue on to Mallaig over the Glenfinnan viaduct (stunning whether the kids are Harry Potter fans or not). There are more ferry option from mallaig if you are interested. That's the end of the trainline.

Another vote for Lincoln and the castle and cathedral, I went years ago and have never forgotten the Victorian prison chapel. The Magna Carta is there if you're into history.

It's quite a compact city centre so easy to walk around, apart from Steep Hill (!)

Take swimming gear and catch a bus to Activities Away, it's a large lake where you can do paddle boarding or kayaking.

Going up the east coast from Kings Cross:

• Newcastle - access to the coast and city from places like Whitley Bay and Tynemouth
• Alnmouth for Alnwick and buses around the Northumberland coast.
• Edinburgh - there's a beach a couple of miles from the city centre at Portobello and a truck load of museums etc for kids. Or you could spend a couple of days in somewhere like North Berwick which is more seasidey.

It might be too far but Aviemore is a good base with kids and has a decent bus service by Scottish Highlands standards.

Cambridge very easy from London and loads to see and do.

Train to Cromer or Sheringham in Norfolk. Then use the Sanders Coach Coasthopper service which will take you to both Wells-next-the sea and Mundesley and a whole lot of other interesting places on the North Norfolk coastline.

Thank you very much for all your comments! I now have an amazing list of places to investigate. Many I've heard of but never looked into, some of which are a new idea. I'll be having a good old search on my day off, narrow it down to a few we can do this year.

Thank you once again!

Exmouth. Really easy by train from London (1 change at Exeter) and because Exeters only 30 minutes by train you can have a day out there too.

The Coasthopper is a good service. DH and I used it to do chunks of the coast path.

Suffolk

Angelsea

Snowdonia

Would you hire a car at the destination?

Edinburgh then lovely seaside town maybe North Berwick or St Andrews. Glasgow and Edinburgh only 50 mins apart on train.