Additional City to add to a 10-day Trip - Primary destination is London

Spent a week in Paris in May and I so loved it.

OP, are you spending 10 days in London and can add more days to make it 10+,
or the total amount of time you have available is 10 days? In the second option,
how much time are you thinking about spending in London (so we know how much
time you have for another place)?

If the majority of your time is in London and you have only 10 days, Oxford and
Bath are obvious choices for a 2 or 3 day side trip from London, easily reachable
by train or bus. Scotland or Edinburgh might be a bit more time since it's a 5
hour train ride from London, and there is so much to potentially see in Scotland.

If you wanted options on the continent, it probably makes sense to tie it to your
return flight, so knowing your departure city could be helpful.

Thank you for the reply! Total amount of time we available is 10 days. Thinking about spending at least 5/6 days in London. We recently did a 5-hour train in France and didn't find it too laborious and was a nice respite.

I would suggest a night or two in Paris, as the cities are so different. Eurostar makes this quite easy and pleasant. I did this years ago with my teenage daughter and it worked wonderfully. And the Eurostar is how I go to Paris from Heathrow so I'm a fan.

If not Paris, Bath would be easy, but I am almost embarrassed to say that in all my years of traveling to the UK I have not been there yet. Hmmm

If you want to visit 2 large, but very different cities in one trip, then Paris would work. I'd recommend flying on a multicity ticket into London and home from Paris.

If you would rather see a bit more of England, then Bath would work. As well as having many sites of interest, you could do day trips to Stonehenge and the Cotswolds villages with local tour companies like Mad Max

Or head north. It only takes a little longer by train to get to York, which has plenty to keep you occupied for a few days. Possible day trips to the Yorkshire dales or moors.

I’d suggest 2 or 3 nights in York

I'd agree with York - lots to see and do there AND you have the option of seeing some of the best countryside in England with either the Dales or North York Moors...

If you want to stay in England then 2 nights in Salisbury and 3 in Bath might work for you along with 5 in London. I would probably head to either Salisbury or Bath first then have your 5 nights in London.

Since you mentioned outdoors, I’ve always wanted to walk the Kennet and Avon canal from Bath to Bradford upon Avon. There is also a panoramic walk in Bath that takes off somewhere near Prior Park Gardens. I had some difficulty finding it about 10 years ago and since I was on my own pivoted plans. It may be better marked now OR you may be better wayfinders than I, 😬😂😉.

Otherwise I’m all for a split between London and Paris! (With the suggested open jaw plane ticket arriving in London and home from Paris).

York for sure and the train connection from London is easy.

Paris or Amsterdam

I would suggest Edinburgh, which is an easy 4 hour train ride (or short flight if you prefer).

Another vote for York and Edinburgh. Train connections are, as noted above, very easy.

I’m going to suggest somewhere that isn’t York….madness I know! :-)
Absolutely nothing wrong with York or any of the suggestions above, it’s a great place to visit, but it does seem to be the default answer on the forum, along with Bath and Edinburgh, and there so many other places to visit in the country.

Liverpool and Manchester would hit your interests in art/museums, sports, dining out and sightseeing but gives you reasonably easy access to north Wales, the Pennines and Peak District.

North Wales is easy to get to on the train where there is amazing scenery with lots of outside activities and a long and interesting history.

The Lake District has beautiful scenery with great walking and boating options.

The New Forest is a great place to visit and could be combined with a trip to the Isle of Wight.

Norfolk has some great beaches and interesting towns with the Broads giving you the option for boating. Not so easy to get to on public transport though.

Just a few ideas and some more here

https://www.visitengland.com/places-to-visit
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit
https://uktourism.co.uk/

OR you could stay in London for the entire 10 days and do a lot of day trips to different areas outside of the city. There are some really unique places within an hour or two from London that would be well worth seeing. Since you like sports, you'd have the time to maybe be able to buy a ticket to a (European) football game, or tour one of the stadiums, visit some of the beautiful parks in London, or head outside to see some interesting history. Or even visit some of the cities named above, including Bath, Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Oxford and much more.

That would be my recommendation. 😊 But if your heart is set on going to two different places, then I would go with Emma, and I would vote for Liverpool and Manchester, with the option of heading into places like Chester and Northern Wales. That would be ideal, I think.