OT trip to England

1930artdeco

1930artdeco

Well-known member
Ok we are headed to sunny England at the end of March. Any tips from the locals as to where to go, eat, and do?

Thanks,

Mike
 
Not a local. Festival Of Speed, Goodwood Revival, Goodwood swap. National Motor museum. Dates may not work depending on how long you are there. We like the Peak District and Lake District where you can hire a "cottage" by the week as the locals do. Need to be fit walking on the hills tho!
 
If heading to London- run over to Bond St- where all the hoy poloy shops are. Nice to see. You will also obviously see the queens palace.
For food- go to some of the back streets, were the locals go and avoid the tourist traps.
Cuisine in England is pretty basic.
 
Goolge's your friend here. But for petrol heads British Motor Museum and National Motocycle ( both east of Birmingham) are worth a visit. Classic Car and Restoration show (same area) is on at end of March. Also National Motor Museum (Hampshire) worth a detour. Lots of competitive vintage car events ( spectate or even participate) start by visiting Vintage Sports-Car Club website https://www.vscc.co.uk/ . Culinary experience may not be the best in the world, but lots of variety by virtue of Indian/Chinese/Asian/French/ Italian restaurants . Where are you going to be based? PS beer here should always be served and consumed at room temperature... and certainly not fizzy:)!
 
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England is big. Where are you going exactly?
Coventry has a great transportation museum. It's the Detroit of the UK, so everyone will look at you like you're insane if say you're going there...
We thought it was cool. There's a huge bombed-out cathedral and a statue of Lady Godiva in town.
If there are Harry Potter fans with you, Watford is where the original studios are. Fantastic to see that stuff in person.
Liverpool has been overhauled, very posh, but worth visiting if you have any interest in the Beatles.
London is cool, but chaotic.
I can't remember the name of the town, but northeast of London is home to Shakespeare. There's little village full of half-timbered thatch roof houses.
Depends what you're going for.
Dress warm,weather's going to be miserable in march.
 
We went to the UK a couple of years ago. It was nice weather, so that played a part. We loved London. There is a lot to do and see there. Also visited Stonehenge, the Cotwolds, Stratford on Avon, Liverpool, Bath, Chester, York, Oxford, Cambridge. Probably the wrong time of year, but I visited the Vindolanda Roman fort excavations and thoroughly enjoyed that. https://www.vindolanda.com We also hit Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland.

I found driving a bit of a challenge. Lots of roundabouts and they go the opposite direction of those here, of course. Narrow road, bridges built for one way traffic and lots of speed cameras.
 
Ace Cafe - https://london.acecafe.com/ One stop shopping for eats and petrol fun.
Goodwood is far snootier than the Monterey Historics. Like Ascot you are expected to dress for the event or be looked upon as one of the great unwashed.
Lots of F1 teams are based in England. If you want to see a shop cleaner and more organized than the operating room at your local hospital stop by for a tour.
 
Sorry I forgot to mention that we are based in London. I know it is a big town but the wife rented an apt. and I don't remember where it is. She got us tickets for a stonehenge tour, Bath and the palace. Other than that it will be museums and the transportation museum if I can can squeeze it in. Also, amy do some shopping for small stuff for the A;)
 
Martinbuilt said:
England is big.
Click to expand...
It just seems big because it takes forever to drive anywhere on the little roads with slow speed limits. It's worse than the heavily populated areas of New England.

England = Area: 50,301 mi²
Texas = Area: 268,597 mi²
So in reality it's about the size of Alabama = 50,645 mi²
 
Martinbuilt said:
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I can't remember the name of the town, but northeast of London is home to Shakespeare. There's little village full of half-timbered thatch roof houses.
Depends what you're going for.
Dress warm,weather's going to be miserable in march.
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly from my Junior High School days back in the 50’s, it would be Stratford on the Avon (river that is).

My wife says she can’t believe I can remember trivia like that but I can’t remember where I put my keys, wallet, my phone and even my glasses.

David Serrano
 
Martinbuilt said:
England is big.
Click to expand...

England is about 130,000 square kilometres. Our smallest mainland state is 227,000 sqkm and our largest, 2.65 million sqkm. IMO, it is tiny
For any American visiting England, I suggest (like nkaminar) that they learn to speak English. That said, I think you are in for a revelation.
 
Highclere Castle if you are going to Stonehenge where Downton Abbey tv series was filmed. On the days it is open, just rock up, don't try to book. English Heritage may still do a tour where you wander around Stonehenge with a security guard in the evening.
PS. Highclere was the home of Lord Carnarvon an early motorist who had a bad accident and went to Egypt for the warmth and backed excavations that resulted in the 1920's fashions.
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/carnarvon.htm
 
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Mike-
If you like old pubs with charm and history...

Near Knightsbridge, in Belgravia, you will find a delightful pub tucked away, hidden on a back street mews called The Grenadier. Actual address is 18 Wilton Row, Belgravia, SW1.
 
Synchro909 said:
For any American visiting England, I suggest (like nkaminar) that they learn to speak English.
Click to expand...
I just had a thought - I grew up my entire life calling it the Queen's English. Now I guess we need to learn the King's English......
I love the cars built by their cottage industry (Lotus, MG, TVR, etc) but there is far more history than that. We're going in 2025 and planning for a month. My mom's peeps are from the Stratford on Avon area so that's on the list. My genealogy says I've got a couple ggetc grandfathers buried in Temple Church so that's a must. The Magna Carta lineage group used to do annual tours. They usually had a Tower of London and the crown jewels tour after regular hours. You could also get tickets to get into the royal enclosure when they ran Ascot - but you had to rent a suit to be properly dressed and that was 2-300 bucks and it wasn't that special since there were another 1,000 or so people in the same spot (Kinda like when the KY Colonels went to the Derby in the governor's enclosure). Then we'll have to hit Scotland - and Haggis is not on the menu!

I'm still very tempted to buy a Ford Model Y - what a hot rod that would be with a decent A engine.
 

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I was in London this past March on business for two weeks and really lucked out on the weather. My wife and I went to the British Museum a couple of times, the Tower of London was good and the Victoria and Albert Museum was also good.
We were standing outside of the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pup near Fleet Street and two different locals said we had to go in to experience that pub. It was really unusual and worth getting a beer to take in the locals.
http://https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Cheshire_Cheese

We felt very safe in London too.
And one last tip. Use the subway (the underground or the Tube as they say). Just tap a credit card on the turnstile going in and once you get to where you are going tap the credit card again to leave. Very convenient and fast.
 
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