UK city/town suggestions please

Since you are open to location, I will just throw out a few options for weekend breaks in the countryside with HF Holidays. This is a member-opened cooperative that owns or leases manor houses in good locations for walking and sightseeing throughout the UK. The programs are all-inclusive (lodging, food, guided walks at 3 levels each day, and transport to trailheads), and non-members are welcome.

They run 3-night programs starting on Friday and ending on Monday, so your available dates fit perfectly. Here are three possible options in coastal locations.

The first 2 are quite close to London; Whitby is a bit further but you could take the train straight to York on Thursday and spend that night there—-it a town well worth a visit. In fact you could return there for another night on Monday, then travel down to London on Tuesday. London to York is a journey of 2 hours or less; York to Whitby is another 3 hours, so it makes sense to break it up with the overnight in York. that is what we did when we went to Whitby and it worked well.

For Exmoor, you would take the train to Taunton, 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes, depending on the train; no changes on the way. Then taxi to the house from there. For South Downs, you take the train to Pulborough, 1 hour 17 minutes, and taxi the last 6 miles to Selworthy.

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/3-night-exmoor-guided-walking-holiday

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/3-night-south-downs-guided-walking-holiday

For this one at Whitby, I chose the “self-guided” option page because it has more photos, but “guided” walking is on offer as well.

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/3-night-north-york-moors-self-guided-walking-holiday

There are lots of other options not by the seaside, such as Lake District (2 locations), Peak District, Wales. . . .
The dates offered differ between the houses but there is sure to be one that matches your dates.

Nicole,
We have been to the UK quite a lot and done much in the countryside.
With a week, you probably should stick to Southern England.

Lots of great places to see
East of London is Cambridge
Southeast is Canterbury
Southwest is Winchester and Salisbury
West is Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Avebury, the Cotswolds, Stratford Upon Avon and Bath.

There are many more great places in the UK, but this is just a start.

By the way, we visited Whitby north of London after checking out the Yorkshire Moors, but that is farther away than you need to go for this trip,

I suggest that you read reviews about any vehicle you plan to hire. Here are 2 British sites with reviews of the MG :>https://www.carwow.co.uk/mg/hs
https://www.whatcar.com/mg-motor-uk/hs/hatchback/review/n20298

Click this link for a list of purely electric vehicles available in the UK - expected range in miles.

As you can see, it varies widely. I would not risk having a less than 300 miles range electric vehicle in the UK.

Note that the former British brand of MG is now owned by the Chinese.

James - I think your post is in the wrong thread. The OP has said that they will not have a car and nowhere is MG mentioned. But there is a thread to that effect that I have just posted on and would argue with you about your conclusions.

OP - do you have the option to open-jaw your flight to come into Manchester and back from London?

If so, it would make a trip to Whitby via York much easier. Or you could easily get to the Peak District or Lake District National Parks or to North Wales before going down to London.

For York to Whitby I would normally suggest the direct bus from outside York Station.
By train you have to go to Middlesbrough then change onto one of just a handful of trains per day.

if you can get to Pickering you can also use the North York Moors steam Railway to Whitby on a very scenic route.

Pickering is about 25 miles from York. https://www.nymr.co.uk/

The original reason Whitby cropped up was Lola's HF recoomendation. As the house is South of Whitby HF suggest that the most efficient route is train York to Scarborough. Then bus 93 or 94 or taxi.
The bus stops at the end of the house drive, 800 yards long, unlit at night.
HF suggest a taxi company and will organise it for you on request.

With your limited time, I would suggest basing yourself closer to London (much as I love Yorkshire and Whitby) - there's plenty of good countryside to explore

Kent and Sussex are on the doorstep. Dorset is a bit further afield. Canterburym Winchester, Salisbury would all make suitable bases. If you wanted somewhere smalle but with a lot of character, there is Rye.
There is also the Cotswolds which seems to feature on nearly everyone's tick list and does get very busy.

Thank you all very much! Definitely helps narrow my research. We don't have the option to fly into Manchester or anywhere else and fly our of London, it's ridiculously expensive! I like the idea of staying closer to London so we spend more time out and about and less on buses/trains, good point. Does anyone know how to go about getting tickets for a WSL game in October? Would love to catch a women's West Ham game... haven't put any research into that either yet. TIA!

It’s way too early to be able to get tickets for any football in October. The current season doesn’t end until May, so the fixtures won’t be out for a while after that, as the authorities don’t know which teams will be in which divisions. West Ham are probably safe from relegation from the WSL but nothing is guaranteed. The women’s team play their games at Dagenham & Redbridge’s ground well out to the east of central London. They may play the occasional game at the London Stadium as well. It should be straightforward to get tickets.

The EPL is a whole different level of difficulty to get tickets for. You have the same issue in that fixture lists won’t be announced until June and even then you will need to wait until the TV companies have made their selections for live coverage. Games can happen any time from Friday night to Monday night. If your trip is over 12th/13th October weekend there will be no Premier League games as it’s an international weekend.

Tickets for EPL are hard to come by and the most reliable source is through hospitality but that can be anything from very expensive to “how much?” One or two clubs have season ticket resales that you can access via club membership.. You can also consider the Championship, the next level down, where tickets are much easier to get and many, including me, would say the atmosphere is better.

If you book it as a multi city, not as two singles, airfare to City a, back from City b should not be significantly more expensive than a return to City a.

Tickets for West Ham Women- https://www.whufc.com/tickets/womens-team-matches

(Clearly only this season's fixtures are currently on sale)

Thanks for the West Ham info! I should have mentioned I realize the schedule isn't out yet. We follow EPL pretty closely as well as WSL but never gave thought to seeing them live, but if we execute the trip right it would be really great. The October 5/6 weekend is looking most likely. The multi-city tickets seem to force a layover a Stockholm, and carry on luggage makes it very expensive for some reason, so likely sticking with roundtrip nonstop in/out of London directly.