Three Day Break

[ethandron]

Looking for somewhere in England, not the coast, for the above. Somewhere which has a bit of interest to mooch around, maybe a short drive to other interesting places. A nice interesting hotel or b&b but not one of your fancy pants ones. Maybe a market town or something like that? Saw Ludlow mentioned on the tv and thought that looked nice. Or maybe the welsh English border?
Done the Cotswolds, Oxford, London, Bath, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester.
Any personal recommendations please?

[ethandron]

Gosh, thanks everyone, so many I’d not thought of.
Know Brighton really well and love the place.

[hc4361]

Harrogate
Ludlow is fab

[Buenchico]

Much as we Suffolk people hate to admit it, Norwich is a superb tourist destination. It's got a vibrant might-life, with several excellent theatres, loads of antique centres for browsing around, tons of history, an excellent covered market, superb pubs and restaurants and just about everything else you might look for in a short-break destination.

So I'll give my backing to Rockrose's suggestion.

(Living just down the road from Bury St Edmunds, which is a lovely town, I'd be happy to recommend it as a base to explore from but, in itself, it doesn't offer anywhere near as much as Norwich does. I've never found much to interest me in Ely though; there's not a great deal there other than the cathedral).

PS: If you do decide on Norwich, please post again and I'll be happy to point you towards some of its hidden gems.

[hereIam]

I have to agree with others on here, Ludlow is a lovely place and so is Norwich, recommend them both ...

[DTCwordfan]

Ely has the Cromwell House.

Harrogate - look at Ripley and the Boar's Head, 3 miles north of the town. Also home to Betty's in Harrogate and if you can afford it, there's a wonderful place out in Nidderdale, up from Pateley Bridge, the Yorke Arms, a 1 star Michelin and owned (now in part) by Frances Wilson - she's been on the box and very approachable.

[Captain2]

Helmsley, North Yorkshire is well worth visiting (and that's from a Lancastrian); can recommend The Feversham Arms Hotel.
Can go to Rievaulx Abbey, Pickering (steam railway) and, a nice drive away is, Whitby (Mrs O's abode?) among many others.

http://www.visithelmsley.co.uk/see-and-do/

[ethandron]

Thank you so much everyone, that’s really helpful.
I reckon we’ll give Ludlow a go, just the two of us, and then have a week in a cottage somewhere near Norwich so we can take the dog next time we do a cottage holiday.
We used to have a touring caravan and thought we’d visited a fair amount of England and Wales, obviously not!

[Eve]

There are some lovely places in Shropshire, I'm a bit biased as it's my home county though! Carding Mill Valley is lovely, which isn't too far away up the A49.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/carding-mill-valley-and-the-long-mynd

It's a nice drive up and over the Longmynd but it can be a little bit hair raising driving up at some points! The Burway is definitely an experience but it can be quite dangerous so if you fancy heading up there, especially at night to see the stars, be careful which way you choose.

Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth are lovely. Blists Hill (a Victorian town) is good and the area around Ironbridge is lovely but probably a good hour away from Ludlow. There's Acton Scott, which is much closer, which is a historic working farm.

[Caran]

Try travel zoo, they come up with brilliant offers. We have had a couple of days away at leamington spa, and Telford withnthem.

[Togo]

If You do visit Ludlow it may be worth a little drive up to Bridgnorth and Ironbridge. The Iron Bridge itself is a wonder as is the accompanying museum and history of Coalbrookdale museums.