Just go to Derby for the Beer festival week... Info on why Derby for beer... http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Lon...-ale-capital/story-15802647-detail/story.html Info on the Charter Beer festival... http://www.derbycamra.org.uk/summer-beer-festival/ Wednesday through to Sunday sorted :)
Head for Yorkshire, the lake district, peak district. Or Snowdonia - maybe go further to Scotland and the Highlands. Try the Mull of Kintyre, Fort William, maybe even John O'Groats - you're gonna meet tourists wherever you go but so what? :) Don't overlook Kent, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Norfolk if you'd rather make day trips.
Hmm, 5 days, countryside, pubs and as few tourists as possible. I've lived in London, Cumbria (the Lake District), Tyneside (Newcastle), and visited many, many places around England and a few in Scotland - Wales I can't advise on. Here's my suggestion: Make a base somewhere in Norfolk from which to travel around East Anglia. There is some lovely countryside around there and with care you can avoid the worst of the tourist traps. A nice slow drive around the coast is nice - I've done it on two wheels. There's some real little backwaters to be found and some true picture card Old English villages to be stumbled over. You could draw a line from Cambridge in the west to King's Lynn in the north to Cromer in the east to Ipswich in the south and back to Cambridge. Lot's to wander around in there plus the coast. You'll find lots of leaflets in pubs, hotels and tourist information offices that promote places of interest if you fancy some history/culture. You could rent a boat and go on the Norfolk Broads for a day if that appeals. Get an Ordnance Survey map of the area they are extremely good. That's what I would do. I might even do it this year. Oh, it can rain.
Sounds good. I'll have to do the research on the internet now. Any new postings, if you know of the good sites to use, please provide the links. Thanks. Thread highjacker Suz
Are you camping? If so use the Camping and Caravanning Club website to find campsites in the UK. Put Norwich in the search box thing and extend the search radius to whatever miles you want.
Similar type of thing here too, although it also includes independent campsites as well as the C&C Club ones. http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/calcdist.asp
Suz, If you're setting out from Leicester, then the Peak District is a must, it's just up the road. Head for stanidge edge http://www.stanageedge.co.uk/gallery.html if you want to break up your journey just yell and somebody will help you out. My wife is a great cook and you're more than welcome to call by.
So you want to meet friendly people, have a beer here and there, relax and see the country. Well, bugger the car, rent a narrow boat instead. Experience of a lifetime guaranteed. Cheers, Mark
Here's a little known fact: Fawlty Towers is actually a documentary. Seriously. They just put a few cameras in a typical B&B and built the show around the everyday goings-on.
Tourist presence is minimal in East Anglia. I'd leave out of London on the train to Norwich City (the end of the line) and then perhaps rent a car there (or not). Sure Norwich has UEA and the John Innes, but the students/scientists only add to the flavor of the city. The farming countryside may be considered a bit mundane by some, and there are certainly more picturesque beaches other than the northeast coast, but this is precisely what keeps the tourists away.
