Liverpool

What is your budget?
By the time you factor in ticket costs you might not save that much money.
You also need to factor in the additional travel time and inconvenience.

That said, Liverpool has a good public transport network in Merseyrail that covers a wide area so it is not that hard to travel into town.

It’s a total cliche on this site to suggest the Premier Inn chain which are dotted across the city but if you are looking for budget accommodation they might be a good option.

We are going to only spend a day and half in Liverpool and go further north maybe Lake District or the Yorkshire Moors area toward the east coast Whitby etc along the coast. Does that sound like a good plan. I think I’d rather take the train from Lime St Station to kinda close to where we wanna be then I’ll rent a car to get around once outside Liverpool. Is the Wirral area a good place to stay to access downtown Liverpool

I think if you want to see Liverpool it's best getting somewhere to stay in the city centre.

My knowledge of the area is from a long time ago, but you'd need to be careful where you picked to stay on The Wirral. Some of it is pretty grim, some of it nice. I think it's fair to say to avoid Birkenhead. Emma will tell you the nice places.

Still, I think you're best staying in Liverpool and renting your car when you're leaving to go off to Yorkshire and The Lakes.

Liverpool hotel prices aren't that high compared to a lot of other cities in the UK.

Is the Wirral area a good place to stay to access downtown Liverpool

No.

The Wirral can be a bit hit and miss. A lot of it is nice, parts of it aren’t so much. I would avoid Birkenhead and the area right around it.
With only a day and a half I would stay in central Liverpool. There is lots to do in the city. Unless there is a big event in town it shouldn’t be that expensive.
Where will you be coming in from on the way to Liverpool?

Edit. GerryM and I are definitely thinking alike., :-)

Hi folks, after leaving Liverpool would you suggest Wales to drive around and stay in or Lake district and east coast of Yorkshire and Moors area. I’m having difficulty selecting some nice areas. Thanks

Labanna, it would help to know exactly what kind of hotel you were looking for. Are there six adults, or is it all one family? If it's a family, you may be better off getting an apartment rather than a hotel because, in Europe, if you have any adults, you can only have two adults to a room, and a child 16 and older counts as an adult, so that might be something to think about.

I do agree with Emma that Premier Inns could be a good option. I've stayed in a number of them, and I like them because they're very reasonably priced, and they are consistently clean and have comfortable beds. They're not fancy, and they're not charming B&Bs, but they are good places to stay.

I think there are three PIs in the city center of Liverpool, so you might want to just look at those and check out the prices for your dates:
https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/merseyside/liverpool/liverpool-city-centre-liverpool-one.html
https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/merseyside/liverpool/liverpool-city-centre-lime-street.html
https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/merseyside/liverpool/liverpool-city-centre-albert-dock.html

after leaving Liverpool would you suggest Wales to drive around and stay in or Lake district and east coast of Yorkshire and Moors area.

All of those regions have some appeal to the visitor. How long have you got? Maybe you can take in an element of all of them?

We are going to only spend a day and half in Liverpool and go further north maybe Lake District or the Yorkshire Moors area toward the east coast Whitby etc along the coast. Does that sound like a good plan.

Well, it depends on what you want. Those two areas are very different from each other. Personally, I like the Yorkshire, especially North Yorkshire, which is where Whitby is. It's going to be much less crowded than the Lake District. There's a lot to see in the North Yorkshire Moors besides Whitby. The city of York is in that area, and there are some other really very charming towns and villages, as well as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It's one of my favorite areas in England. But that's me—I don't know what your likes are. As I said, the Lake District is a lot different, and it is also, as I said, very popular and can get very crowded.

Can you let us know more about your planned trip, it will help us give more useful answers.
How long are you planning to stay? What are your interests?

North Wales, Lake District and Yorkshire are all reasonably easy to get to from Liverpool.
There is no real right answer. Lots of people love the Lake District but it doesn’t do much for me. I have always found it a bit dull but many people would disagree. I prefer North Wales, I’m biased because my family is from there, but I also think there is more to see and do there.
If you did decide to go to North Wales you could use Chester as a base. It’s right on the Welsh border and also a stop on the Merseyrail network.

I agree with Emma in recommending Chester which is a Medieval town with a walkable Roman Wall. In North Wales you can visit wonderful real Castles built as fortresses. We had a great time driving out to Conwy Castle from Chester after we had stayed in an Inn with a Pub just west near town. You can also take the train. We also went to Beaumaris Castle. We stayed at a sheep farm on the way to Caernarfon Castle. We had a Welsh Castle pass and saw several more Castles. I would go to Wales instead of the Lake District which is much more crowded.

I would stay in Chester - lovely historic city centre. From Chester, take a day trip by train to Liverpool using Merseyrail. Train every 15 minutes and only £9.45 day return & journey time about 40 minutes.

From Chester, it is really easy to go into north Wales by train or road. (You can get more info in back posts in the RS Wales section).https://www.visitwales.com/destinations/north-wales

This part of Wales is about 1 hour west of Chester:>https://www.visitwales.com/destinations/north-wales/llandudno-colwyn-bay/10-brilliant-places-visit-conwy

only £9.45 day return

Except that if you leave Liverpool anytime at a weekend or after 0929 on a weekday you don't buy a £9.45 day return. Instead you buy a Merseyrail Daysaver for £6.40, at any ticket office or Merseyrail ticket machine (not the Transport for Wales machines at Chester).

That covers the whole Merseyrail network, so it's the same price if you were staying for instance out towards Southport or at New Brighton on the Wirral, as examples.

It is the same price if you use Contactless Tap and Go all day across Merseyrail, except that doesn't apply to Chester, as they don't have the correct readers at Chester.

Lots of places to stay in Chester but if you want to use it as a base to visit Liverpool the Premier Inn Chester North is a good budget option.
It is right by the Bache (pronounced Baych) station which is one stop down from Chester station on Merseyrail. It is 5 min drive from central Chester with very regular bus services right outside the door. Although if there are a few of you using a mini cab would work out cheaper than the combined bus fares.
This stop is also served by buses to Liverpool so if there were problems with the train you wouldn’t get stuck.
It is on the same side of town as the main car hire drop off and pick up point so that is another convenience.

Being a Premier Inn it’s not fancy or ‘olde worlde’ but you know what you are getting. That said the pub it is attached to is a couple of hundred years old ( first licensed 1797 I’ve just googled) although you wouldn’t know from the outside. And if you want a ‘locals’ experIence, which I know some people do, it’s in a nice suburb right by a parade of local shops and supermarket.
I live 5 minutes walk away:-)

Edit. I’ve just remembered I had my first illicit drink in that pub with a boy whose name I can no longer remember. I was 15 and so embarrassed…..:-)