In mid-October, I'm heading to York by train and will stay in town for several nights. Then I plan to get a rental car and spend 3 nights sight-seeing and will return the car to York. I'm looking for ideas of where to go and what to visit during those three days. I don't want to drive too many hours because it will be my first time driving in the UK so I imagine there will be a certain level of stress as I adjust to the change. I'm up to visit/stay most places - nature, castles, history, etc. If you had three nights, where would you go?
**** UPDATE
I wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions and update you on what I ended up visiting.
I picked up a rental car from Enterprise near the York train station. Even though I can easily drive a manual, I opted to rent an automatic for this trip. Glad I did just so I had less to think about. My goal that first day was to get to Durham where we would stay the next 3 nights at Farnley Tower Guesthouse. We stopped at the town of Thirsk along the way and visited the James Herriot museum for several hours and ate lunch at Upstairs Downstairs before proceeding the remainder of the way to Durham. The next day we headed to Housesteads (and Hadrian’s wall) and Vindolanda, Roman forts not far from Hexham. Both were really fascinating but Vindolanda had a stellar tour guide that day.
The next day we visited Durham - cathedral tour, the library, the castle, the tower, the botanical gardens and the Oriental Museum (it was open late that day). 8 miles of walking on a gorgeous autumn day.
The last day, we needed to catch a train at 2pm from York back to London so we looked for some place close to York for sightseeing. We opted to see the castle ruins at Knaresborough. There’s a small museum in addition to the ruins as well as a lovely view of the river below. The town is quite cute as well. I wish we had had another hour or two to spend there. But we had a train to catch.
Overall - I achieved my main two objectives. I wanted to see Hadrian’s wall and I wanted to try driving to see if we can venture forth more into the countryside on future trips. Yes to the last part. It’s a little stressful to drive on the opposite side of the road but manageable. There’s so much more to see in that part of England that I can’t wait to go back!