Off to Liverpool in two weeks and wondered if I have every Beatles landmark place ticked off below. Suggestions would be great? :)
Magical Mystery Tour (Covers most I believe?)
Cavern Club
The Beatles Poster Shop
Penny Lane
Strawberry Fields
Various houses of The Beatles
Mathew Street
Tower Ballroom
Ofcourse, i forgot to include it. The Beatles Story right?
Yes, don't miss the Beatles Story museum, especially if you love the band's early days before Brian Epstein moved their management to London. It's right next to where the Magical Mystery Tour bus departs (bus end point is right near Cavern Club and Hard Day's Night Hotel). The TI is right there too; handy place to buy postcards and get stamps to mail them. Your bus ticket gets you free entry to the Cavern Club.
If you're traveling by car, there's a large parking garage near the Albert Dock, but we parked outside the World Museum, which is an easier navigation from the Edge Lane (A5080) and closer to where the bus ends. You can pay by phone, and even top up your parking by phone if time runs out before you're ready to drive onward. Coming from the Edge Lane, whether you park at the World Museum or go on to the parking garage, watch out NOT to enter the Queensway Tunnel under the Mersey to the Wirral peninsula. (Of course, if you're coming from Wirral/Wales then this works in your favor.)
The Beatles Story could take half a day if you really want to savor every detail. I'm not sure if they sell tickets online in advance, but if so it might be worthwhile because the entry desk is small and can get backed up when a tour group arrives.
The Hard Day's Night Hotel lobby area is really wonderful to walk through as the walls are covered with photographs and the p.a. system plays Beatles music all the time. If you're hungry (note the Cavern Club serves only drinks, no food), the hotel bar area has an "Any Time At All" menu so you can sit down and have a cup of tea & scone or a sandwich; doesn't have to be a full meal.
Enjoy!
As someone who's visited 3 times over the decades (and watched the Beatles tourism business grow from almost nothing to a pretty big deal) the highlight for me is the National Trust tour of the inside of the Lennon and McCartney homes. Great for the Beatlemaniacs in our group but also interesting to see how the middle class lived during and right after WW2. Have to book in advance but worth doing.
The time we did that we also did a Beatles taxi tour so we could skip the regular tours that would have taken us right back to those 2 sites.
Yes, do book NOW for the National Trust tour of John's and Paul's childhood homes. Numbers are strictly limited, and while other tours pass the outside, this is the only way to get inside: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatles-childhood-homes
As said above, The Beatles Story is strongest on their pre-fame years, so unless you've researched these thoroughly, you're bound to learn something new. For instance, did you know that before they played the Cavern Club, the Beatles played the Casbah Coffee Club (aka, Pete Best's mother's basement)? If you're interested, you can tour it: http://www.petebest.com/casbah-coffee-club/tour-the-casbah-coffee-club.aspx
The Beatles Story is in two separate locations (single admission). When I was there, at the "annex" was a good temporary exhibit about the British Invasion. But beware - there was also an inane Fab 4D Experience. That's 12 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
Don't neglect the non-Beatles attractions in Liverpool, which I found very worthwhile. Rick's England and Great Britain books have a very good chapter on the city (same exact chapter in both books). If you want more details of my visit, here's my trip report (you can skim past the Glasgow and Manchester sections - unless you're going there also, of course): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/uk-trip-report-glasgow-manchester-liverpool-in-september-2016
