Work trip to Leeds - need weekend trip suggestions

Why not stay in Leeds and see Yorkshire?

I think it would be better to go straight from Heathrow to London and spend that weekend in London. With your current plan you lose a whole day to travel on your first Friday.

For your weekend after working, you could go to Edinburgh or back to London to see more. If you go to Edinburgh, if possible book a flight home from there. This will involve a connecting flight somewhere but should maximise your sightseeing time.

Or York - loads to do there for a weekend! Chose a hotel in the centre of York and everythibng is walkable.

Thanks for the suggestions!

We recently visited Ireland earlier this year and found that the early morning landing on a trans-Atlantic flight left us very tired and didn't have much to do for a few hours until places opened up and we could check into out hotel. We landed in Dublin at 6:30AM on a Saturday. Lots of places were closed, really would have liked a place to unpack, shower and relax for a few hours before hitting the city. My reasoning for traveling to Edinburgh on Friday was to use that morning time to ride a train and relax after the flight. We also won't have to store our luggage anywhere (aside from on the train). It's about a 4.5 hour trip by train so we should be able to check right into our hotel in Edinburgh when we get there. I may splurge on a 1st class rail ticket to add to the rest. Yes, we could store our luggage, land later in the day, or restructure our itinerary a bit but after 20 years of traveling with my wife, I think this will end up being the best way to start the week. We've found that as we get older, if we pack too much into one day, it exhausts us for the next.

I hadn't considered York, I may have to look deeper into that. We really like the small to middle sized cities where you can spend 1.5-2 days there and see it all. If we end up spending some time in London, we'll likely pick just one big things to see each day and fill the rest of the time exploring neighborhoods. Our favorites for this trip would be Buckingham Palace and the British Museum. Maybe Kew Gardens if the weather is good. This could end up being an "every other year" work trip so I'm confident we'll be back at some point.

Thanks again for everyone's suggestions. Keep them coming.

Your wife may like to take a trip on the Leeds to Carlisle rail line via Settle. Best to choose a clear day for the views.https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/plan-your-visit/the-dales-by-train/settle-carlisle/

I strongly disagree, being a very regular user of the line, that a clear day is best for the Settle to Carlisle route. The days of bad weather are often the days when you appreciate the really dramatic, remote landscape and scenery the best. And the weather can vary tremendously along the route. In particular it is surprising how often the Cumbria/Yorkshire county line is marked by a change in the weather.
What the weather is in Leeds is unlikely to be the same all the way to Carlisle. And don't believe the forecasts either.
I took someone from this forum down the line last year on what turned out by chance to be an epically terrible day, totally not what I wanted for them. They even had the walk to the shanty towns at Ribblehead and to see the steam train over the viaduct planned.

The day and time was chosen specifically for the steam train and a heavy stone freight train as well. Yes even the freight was planned.

To my great surprise they went ahead with the walk (in curtailed format), and did not regret the day one bit. In fact they said it added to the experience. I totally wrecked a pair of shoes that day but it was 100% worth the 3.30am alarm call for me to make the very early meet up with them.

I agree with your approach to use your arrival day to get the travel out of the way, as the first day isn't usually that productive anyway.

In addition to Liverpool and Birmingham, Manchester has recently received a good amount of favorable coverage here as a worthwhile destination. York is probably the no-brainer if you haven't been - both the city and the surrounding area. If you were willing to backtrack a bit, there are Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne - each has a rather unique profile that may or may not appeal. And then the coastal area around Scarborough.

Do you arrive at Heathrow early Friday morning? Something you could do is pay for an extra night of hotel accommodation (Thursday night even though you won’t sleep there) so that you can access your room very early on Friday. I agree that hanging around in the city all day waiting to check in is very miserable.

It isn’t efficient to fly to London even with a direct flight if your destination is a weekend in Edinburgh. And the same coming back. I would leave Scotland and London for other trips where you have time to do them justice, and instead fly round trip to Manchester. It’s much closer to Leeds, and for your weekends, pick any combination of Manchester, Liverpool, Chester or York, all of which are great and not far away. Chester and York are beautiful historic cities with plenty to see, Manchester and Liverpool bigger cities also with a variety of interesting sights but less overwhelming than trying to do London in a weekend. Manchester, Liverpool and Chester are all in day trip range of each other as well.

Definitely York. Not far away and lots to see.

Thanks for everyone's input!