With international travel still more complex (and indeed risky) than many would like, it may be for the best to sate your desire for new places and new experiences domestically for now. The staycation remains in the ascendant as a form of holiday and a great way to spend the sort of sophisticated weekend break you might have enjoyed in Europe prior to Covid is to explore a new UK city.
Today we’re taking a look at some hot travel destinations around the UK, and the sort of things you can do to explore and create great memories even without a foreign holiday.
Find a New Angle
Even in an unfamiliar city, exploration can be routine. Guide books and online research produce a list of the top restaurants and attractions, and you check off that list. It’s one way to see a city but it can lead to a holiday that feels locked down by planning, and cities that feel somehow all the same.
Find a new angle to exploration and make your city break staycations come alive. With a scavenger hunt Manchester, Newcastle and cities up and down the UK come alive! Activities like this lever you away from the set routine of a city break, and get you exploring the city at street level, seeing it through new eyes, and taking in both the big obvious attractions and discovering your own highlights!
Spread Your Wings
When we go for a city break, it’s all too easy to remain locked in the limits of the city but it’s worth casting your eyes further afield. Your stay gives you a base for exploration in a whole new area of the country and looking just a few miles outside the city you’re visiting could reward you with hikes through beautiful natural vistas, historic homes to explore or rural pubs to sample.
Don’t confine your planning or your spontaneity to the city limits. There’s a whole world to explore that you can discover by venturing just a little further out!
Get Off The Beaten Track
On a short visit to an unfamiliar city, it’s too easy to allow yourself little to no sense of how the place connects up. We drive or get taxis between major landmarks and then back to our hotels or AirBnBs, and see little of the place at ground level.
Ditch the cars and taxis next time you’re on a city break and try public transport – build more of a mental map of the city as you watch it go past outside the windows of buses, trains and trams. If you can, walk instead! Connect up the city between the hubs of tourist activity and really get an impression of the place!
