daleks.at.the.monaco
Vital 1st Team Regular
Fair point about us not realising how old stuff is in the UKFrom New York you could fly into Manchester and then depending on the time you get in stay around the airport or Deansgate area (in manchester). Deansgate has plenty of decent places to eat and have a drink, not a bad base for branching out.
Personally I wouldn't recommend doing more than 2 days in London (drive, stay on out skirts probably Watford Holiday Inn) and get the "tube" there and back for the two days.
Make sure you set off North and take in places like Chester, The Lakes and Hadriens wall (its not much but then you've seen it!). Just over the border in Scotland you'll find stuff like Castle Douglas, Caerlaverock Castle, Raven Stone Castle etc. You'll probably also have loads of fun just driving through little English and Scottish villages, we all take for granted, and stopping for a pint in nice looking pubs.
While in the north Lancaster has some good and short canal barge trips.
For hotels generally Holiday Inn, Travelodge, Premier Inn, Comfort Inn are gonna be decent (as long as they are newer hotels! check the pictures)
Ibis, EasyHotel, HotelF1 are generally clean, but really cheap and basic. You can use them in a pinch, but may or may not have a good experience.
If I was doing this I'd be doing a few nights in Manchester, few in London, night in Chester and then getting hotels inbetween other places you plan on going.
Wigan Premier Inns aren't bad if your not that picky. Inside Wigan trying to get to Riks and Orange House after the game would be an experience for you (not sure if they are open) especially if you can get hold of the karaoke manchine in orange house and put on some songs to sing along to (Joy Division, Gala etc).
I'm not sure what NYC is like currently, but some one here are very much over estimating how bad Wigan is compared to some of the bigger US/Canadian cities like Seattle, San Fran, Vancouver. You'll likely not see people shooting up, doing the old meth walking zombie dance or shitting in the streets, although Wigan can be a bit of a ghost down its still worth going checking out the center, menses park (rub the toe), Haigh Hall. I dont think there are any pubs on Wigan Pier now, but its worth going checking it out, even if its not much. Make sure you goto the Springfield pub in Springfield and have a pint where many people did before the short walk to the old ground (You can even park at the DW, walk over the canal bridge, under train bridge to do that its about 10-15 mins walk). If Haydock races are on while you are there it'd be worth going. Horse racing in UK is much less depressing than in the USA, but less grand.
I'd disagree on that, Southport is probably the type of place most Americans would love to go. We dont see it as impressive, they might like, especially the Victorian Pier which was built before they even had their civil war!.
But then you miss out stuff like Avebury, Bath, Cotswolds the like (yes I know there are more Georgian buildings in Liverpool than in Bath)