England fall 2025

Firstly, what type of music? The answer will greatly affect recommendations.

The best way to see plenty would be to look at a number of locations and plan to find some accommodation for a week at a time. There will be literally hundreds of places that you could use as a base and that will provide enough to interest you within an hours drive.

Driving is very very different to California. You really will not want to drive 3-4 hours on day trips. The main roads are much more congested and are stressful, boring and time consuming to drive on. The more minor roads can be very narrow, winding and again slow, although probably a lot prettier. And you then have the complication of what for you is driving on the "wrong" side of the road.

tlind4464, welcome to the forum. I'm starting my research for July's Rick Steve's South of England tour. Since you are interested in King Arthur, you probably want to visit Tintagel. I found this website for some information,
https://www.visitcornwall.com/destinations/tintagel
What is is your experience driving in Europe? Driving in England (or Ireland or Italy or anywhere in Europe) is not like driving in the US. Few freeways, narrow roads, different driving rules, driving on the "wrong" side of the road in UK and Ireland. From my limited experience driving in Ireland and Italy, if Google Maps says 3 hours, add at least an hour or more to that. You don't want a car in cities.
In the London area, Historic Royal Palaces website and membership easily gets you into palaces. https://www.hrp.org.uk/#gs.h98c0t

Others with more experience outside of London can offer more information for you. Be sure to look at this website's Explore Europe, do forum searches for info, read guidebooks.
Have a great trip

Love this forum. So far the responses are very helpful. OK, strike driving! I understand there is a pretty good rail system there, yes? We are into rock music and hope to see some of the elderly classic rock artists who still tour England, but also would like to catch some new acts, something I will decide by reading music mags from over there. Thank you for the Cornwall website. We would like to have 3 or 4 days in London, knowing that won't be enough, and probably 4 days in Paris in there somewhere. We love museums and I would like to visit some libraries also. I'm an English Lit major and taught classic literature for 30 years, so Tintern Abbey is a must, among other things. I would like to check out some very old manuscripts if possible. So far I have spent looking at Air BnBs outside of Birmingham, as it seems somewhat centrally located. From reading another similar topic I have realized that we must spend a good amount of time in York.

Hi, I was in England earlier this year for six weeks, or rather a little bit under. For the most part, I based myself in places for anywhere from 4 to 7 nights. I started in London for five nights, then took the train to Cornwall where I rented a car stayed for four nights, then drove to Devon and spent another four nights there.

After that, I returned the car, and took the train up to Livermore where I stayed with a friend for three nights. I then rented another car in Liverpool, and drove to the Peak District for five night (staying in Castleton), then I spent seven nights in a cottage I rented a few miles from Helmsley in North Yorkshire.

After that, I drove up to Northumberland for three nights and then spent three nights near Hadrian‘s Wall. I turned my car in at Carlisle and took the train down to Oxford where I spent one night there and the last night at an airport hotel before heading to Heathrow airport and flying home.

Here is a link to my trip report if you’d like to look it over. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/wandering-around-england-in-38-days-march-to-april-2024

I think spending lots of time in England is a fantastic idea. We have traveled there twice in 2023 and twice in 2024. All 4 trips were 5 weeks long, and the first trip we rented a car for 2 of the weeks and the other 3 trips were entirely by train and bus.
The cathedrals are amazing! These are some of our favorites: Ely, Durham, Canterbury, Wells, Salisbury, York Minster, Bath Abbey and Winchester.
We love museums as well, and besides the wonderful museums in London, we loved the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, and smaller museums in York, Salisbury and Keswick.
Our favorite areas for hiking have been the Lake District basing in Keswick, and the Cotswolds basing in Broadway.
Please ask more questions if you’d like and let us know how your plans evolve.

OK, strike driving!

Not entirely.... The rail system is good at getting you between main places but not so good at reaching out of the way places. You will still need to hire a car for exploring country areas.

You can't do everything from a central base. Rather think a base per week to cover the main areas of Britain.

See this website for the top 10 Arthurian sites- https://www.medievalchronicles.com/medieval-europe/medieval-england/the-legendary-tales-of-king-arthur-and-the-knights-of-the-round-table/exploring-king-arthur-top-10-sites-in-england-to-unveil-the-legend/#:~:text=Exploring%20King%20Arthur%3A%20Top%2010%20Sites%20in%20England,8%208.%20Merlin%E2%80%99s%20Cave%2C%20Tintagel%20...%20More%20items

There is not really anywhere that you can stay which is within day trip range of both Somerset and Tintagel.

Tintagel may only be 2 hours 30 minutes from Glastonbury but once you come off the motorway at Exeter it is fairly slow country roads.

And Winchester to Glastonbury is at least 2 hours.

You are going to be doing several one night stays to make this work as a road trip, and leave out Herefordshire and Edinburgh.

Thanks everyone so much! This is enlightening. Keep it coming. Please.

The challenge you will have in seeing classic rock bands is that you won’t know until much nearer your departure who is playing and where. It will be awkward if you’re in Cornwall looking at Arthurian sites and one of your favourite bands is playing in Newcastle. The big names will announce several months in advance but with a trip like this I would want at least an outline plan in place before that.

For new bands I would advise you plan some time for Manchester, which is currently the best place to see live music in England, including London. For that you can assume that you will see something interesting whenever you’re there.

Agree with Johnew, touring bands don't really know their schedules so far in advance. And even if someone has booked a date for a year from now, there are all kinds of reasons they would need to cancel or reschedule.

Also, it's not likely that a band you know won't be touring the US instead of the UK, more venues means more money. Which is really the only reason classic bands tour these days, oh that and merch. There's no money in selling CDs or downloads, it's about ticket sales. If they haven't killed each other, perhaps the Gallagher brothers will still be out there.

As noted, Manchester is the standard music recommend.

And forget driving, it's rarely worth the expense, hassle or risk. I've done it enough to know that I'll never willingly do it again. There are always trains or buses or tours or drivers or ...

As others mentioned, you could explore having a base for several nights; take the train to your base, then rent a car for a few days to do day trips. In some bases, you might be able to use local buses or take a day trip tour with a small group. But in others, renting a car can help you visit more sites.

For example, since you enjoy Wordsworth, the Lake District is beautiful, with lots of literary associations. You can take a train from London to Kendal or Penrith and rent a car there, then drive around the Lake District. On sunny days, you can visit outdoor sites and hike; on rainy days drive to indoor displays such as Dove Cottage or the Wordsworth House.

You had good suggestions for Arthurian sites, so here are some other literary options:

Bath: The 2025 Jane Austen Festival will take place from Friday 12th to Sunday 21st September 2025

Oxford has many literary associations, including J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, John le Carre, and Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse). Le Carre attended Lincoln College as did his character, George Smiley.
You also have the Bodleian Library and Blackwell’s bookstore (which is a delight) and the Ashmolean Museum is fantastic.

There are nice walks along the rivers and bike trips as well. You can book a short river trip, including an Alice in Wonderland trip, or take a boat to nearby Abingdon and walk or take the bus back.

https://salterssteamers.co.uk/short-trips/

https://www.localwalks.co.uk/local-walks-blog/oxfordshire-walks-abingdon

https://www.experienceoxfordshire.org/places-to-go/abingdon/

Oxford is a reasonable day trip from London or Bath, or you could stay a few nights and explore the Cotswolds and Stratford-upon-Avon from there. Or you could stay in the Cotswolds and take day trips to Bath, Oxford, and Stratford-upon-Avon.

I’ll suggest you other literary options in my next post.

All the best,

Raymond

In London, there are several Dickens sites worth visiting including the Dickens House, which is near the British Museum and the British Library (lots of manuscripts here).

If you visit Westminster Abbey, it’s worth booking the Vergers Tour:

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/guided-tours?

London Walks will have several literary themed tours:
https://www.walks.com/

If you’re a Dickens’ fan, then Rochester and nearby areas have numerous sites of interest.

It’s about an hour from London via train and was the childhood home of Dickens before his father was sent to debtor's prison and Dickens to a workhouse.

The Restoration House is said to have inspired the massive, dark, Satis House, owned by Mrs. Havisham, in Great Expectations.

The Guildhall Museum's Dickens Discovery Room has objects related to the author on show.

There is also the Six Poor Travellers House, a Canterbury pilgrim's hostel (a Chaucer link) that is the basis of a Dickens' short stories and Rochester Cathedral, Britain's second oldest.

The Corn Exchange Building, a structure Dickens, famous for his daily walks through Rochester, would often stand and admire.

https://www.charlesdickenspage.com/charles-dickens-rochester-chatham-map.html

Another Dickens’ site is in Cobham, Gravesend, UK (about 1 ½ hours from London by train and bus)’ He visited The Leather Bottle pub and describes it in The Pickwick Papers. He was also a guest at Cobham Hall and walked its grounds. The Hall is now a private school for girls and only open on a few days a year. Cobham is a charming village to visit. The church features some excellent brasses. I visited Cobham and Rochester in 1985 and enjoyed both.

https://www.discovergravesham.co.uk/famous-people/charles-dickens.html

https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/cobham-stunning-kent-village-linked-7990194

https://annisbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/p/were-rare-medieval-brasses-in-cobham.html

All the best,

Raymond

There is definitely a touring season these days this is generally between mid November and few days before Christmas. Any named acts won't announce their plans for Autumn 2025 until Q1 next year at the earliest.

Pub rock is not the thing is was in the '70s and '80s, simply there is not the pubs there once was and pubs have diversified down different routes other than live music, but some do survive. Much depends on where you are venues outside London to look out for are the Fleece and Firkin or the Fleece as it is known now in Bristol, the Parish, Huddersfield, Rock City, Nottingham, The Academy, Manchster (albeit these two are more like clubs), the Engine Shed, Lincoln and the Picturedrome, Holmfirth and more traditional venues like Newcastle City Hall and the De Montford Hall Leicester. All have websites, keep and eye on them among other places.

Don't rule out driving entirely. See what your skeleton itinerary looks like and decide what you need to do to see what you want. Perhaps it won't be worth the stress, but it's not bad if you're game. Well, I've never driven there, but my husband has clocked over 5300 miles between UK and Ireland since 2009. He did enjoy this last trip, however, when our future son-in-law did most of the driving!

Any interest in ABBA? We enjoyed the ABBA Experience near London. We even went a second time to take our daughter. Check out information on it (a few people have posted youtubes about it, although no recordings are allowed inside).

Surely your starting point would be to see when and where the bands that you you are interested in, are playing. Most artists advertise well in advance and most of our large cities have large arena and many smaller venues down to pubs.
Contrary to what has been said earlier, we have plenty of "highways", called motorways over here, they will be congested at times.
Whatever music you are interested in may determine where you visit. Manchester for me is the UK music capital, New Order, The Smiths etc, although apart from a few sights from album covers, there's not much to see. Liver[pool has the Beatles of course and sells it really well. Sheffield and Birmingham are well known for heavy metal.

Since you are from California, let's give you a size perspective.

If you take England and Scotland--forget Wales for a moment--then added it again. So you would have, from the bottom, England--Scotland--England--Scotland.

That's approximately the size of California. From the Mexican Border to the Oregon Border and from the Pacific Ocean to the borders of Arizona and Nevada.

As for Transportation, driving is good. But the UK also has an extensive rail and bus network. There are also smaller airlines flying all over the country.

My suggestion is splitting up your hubs into 2-3 different places to make visiting sites and concerts much easier.

A few random comments:

Re: Arthur: (the ruins of) Tintagel Castle are impressive, if wind-swept, but Tintagel has over-dosed (and over commercialized) on Arthurian legend - or at least it had done the last time I was there, but if Arthur is your thing you should probably visit. Much easier to get to by car. Lots of nearby hiking on the coastal footpath and Bodmin Moor for example.

I'm a Brit, so driving on the left is not a problem to me but I find the timings on Google maps more or less accurate. Roads in Cornwall are notoriously narrow and winding, even by British standards, so take extra care and be aware that just behind the hedge at the side of the road is a stone wall. There are highways ('Motorways') where you can keep up a steady 70mph if the road is reasonably clear, but there is only one in the southwest of England (the 'M5') which can snarl up at busy times.

Most historic cities have more-or-less declared war on the motor car and parking is generally hard to find and expensive (Oxford, particularly so). Some have park-and-ride places where you park outside the city and get a bus in (Oxford has 4 or 5). I'd try to create an itinerary where you have a car for one period for the country areas and another for cities where you use public transport.

North Cornwall is not well served by trains, the nearest station is Bodmin Parkway (I think) but there are buses. Train fares are complicated and walk-up fares typically expensive. There are various offers and discounts available which can bring prices down substantially and others on the forum can advise you much better than me. As a generalization: flexibility carries a cost and if you can book in advance you will normally do much better regarding fares.

It's interesting what BillS says about Tintagel.

I was highly sceptical about Tintagel, and had actively avoided it for a long time. I was heavily talked into it by an American (not on this forum, but associated with it). And I actually really liked it. I 100% thought it would be a tourist trap, not me at all, but ate humble pie afterwards.

So we are all different.

That was actually one of my really great and special car free days in Cornwall. The open top bus from Newquay up the coast to Padstow, time to look around the town (and if I had been a mug, or was one of his fans, go to Rick Stein's place), then the fun little foot ferry over the estuary from it's low tide landing place around the headland to a beach landing at the village of Rock, beach walk in lovely soft sand (proper beach sand) ,walk up through that rather attractive seaside village, bus from the top of the Village to Tintagel.
Then bus back to Camelford for exploration time there, back to Wadebridge (for the now closed American diner there) and the express bus back to Newquay.
Proof that sometimes not just racing from attraction to attraction by the shortest, fastest and easiest method works. (I didn't have to go via Padstow and ferry outbound, that route was all about the experience).

Isn31c - it’s a while since I’ve been to Tintagel but I recall things like “King Arthur’s Car Park “ and “King Arthur’s Fish and Chips “ which I felt was pushing the association a bit far. Perhaps it’s better now.

I don’t dislike Tintagel, the castle of great and the Old Post Office (totally non Arthurian) is interesting too. Some of the higher end shops are quite attractive but there was a fair bit of tat when I was last there.