Sell Me on a New Place?

Simple - just stick with your instinct and go to Manchester. I’m sure others will come up with all sorts of other places but they won’t be better.

Manchester is a good base. There are many easy daytrips from there plus it is an interesting city.

I've been to Great Malvern. Nice area. Manchester is a gigantic former and present industrial city, all spread out. Careful where you choose there but certainly lots of transportation options.

Are you going to have a car or will you be using public transportation? What are your interests?

I'm at the beginning of planning a trip to Ironbridge in September. We are thinking of staying in Birmingham because we found a number of other interesting things to do there related to the industrial revolution, as well as Tolkien. We may even take a day trip to Coventry or Warwick. We will be using public transportation, but if we had a car we would have considered Ludlow and the Shropshire Hills AONB.

I'm going to that area for the first time in April. An HF holiday (my first with them, a company sometimes mentioned here). We go to Ironbridge. And Ludlow. I'm also planning on spending a day in Shrewsbury, which works using rail transport.

Are you going to have a car or will you be using public transportation? What are your interests?

MapLady, in so many ways I do not believe those questions to be important. I was not interested in answers crafted based on how one interpreted was my interests. Rather in the places that someone visited and what drew them there.

Actually, car or public transportation is somewhat important. It does no good recommending a place you can only reach by rental car if you’re taking public transportation.

If Manchester is of interest, then go there. A smaller place good for a couple nights is Stratford Upon Avon. If you don’t literally mean between Ironbridge and London, then possibly Chester. It’s smaller than Manchester yet good for a couple days.

We enjoyed Ironbridge and plan to return to see a couple sites we didn’t know were there when we last visited.

@VAP - fair enough! I am following this thread to see what others recommend...

@ Katy - I looked up HFHolidays - unfortunately our travel dates do not match up with the tour dates, otherwise I would have been seriously tempted.

Having just made a day trip up to Manchester, I'd echo a couple of other commenters and say go with your gut. It's perfect sized city to base yourself out of-- not too large or overwhelming, but with so much history and some very cool areas depending on your interests. As a younger person I quite enjoyed the Northern Quarter especially.