A Summer of UK Weekend Breaks

I’ve done a lot of travelling in the UK over the past few years. It’s a great reminder about how fabulous the UK is when you need a break. From London to the Yorkshire Dales, Summer has always been all about exploring where I live and enjoying different areas of the UK. I didn’t initially plan on so much UK travel. After a family bereavement, I booked our first trip to the Yorkshire Dales because we needed a break. Then other things kept popping up & before we knew it, myself & my partner had almost every weekend booked up.

Throughout the weekends we had a mixture in the weather – Oh British Summertime! From boiling hot to torrential rain, we’ve certainly seen it all.

It’s been much needed to keep our weekends busy & also create some really nice memories, amongst a tough time personally.

The Yorkshire Dales

We started this summer of travel with a trip to the Yorkshire Dales. We stayed in the Bridge View Cottage which is owned by my friend Amy – AKA as the Girl About Yorkshire Dales. The drive to the village of Gunnerside, where the cottage is, was absolutely stunning. This was one of the weekends where we a total mixture in the weather. Friday was glorious, we could see for miles & had time to explore the picture-perfect village.

The next day was torrential rain all day long. We cancelled our walk to the pub in the next village & instead drove around a little bit until we admitted defeat & got cosy in front of the fire in the cottage. On the way home, the following day, we ventured over the famous Buttertups Pass before stopping at Hawes & then having another wonderful drive home in the sunshine!

Manchester

The following week we headed to Manchester for a business event. We stayed at the new Indigo hotel right by Victoria Station. The hotel was stunning, very Instagram worthy & had lots of details about Manchester. The Friday night we attended our event before meeting with a friend for a few hours the next day. I love Manchester, it’s only an hour by train but it feels like a little holiday. Before coming we went for Bottomless Lunch at the Foundry Project which was really good. Manchester has so maThis summer has been a little bit different with lots of UK weekend breaks. There's so much choice in England when it comes to making travel plans. From London to Manchester to the Yorkshire Dales there were lots of adventures had.ny different choices for bars & restaurants – There’s something for everyone!

Harrogate

Harrogate was the town for our next trip to celebrate both mine & my partners birthdays. It was a surprise for him, as it was the day of his birthday. We kickstarted the day with a trip to Betty’s at Harlow Gardens, unfortunately, it was raining heavily so we didn’t look around for too long. Then we checked in to our hotel, The Majestic & didn’t leave until the next day. Our stay was great, I loved the bar & we had a lovely meal & breakfast included. As the sun was shining the next day, we spent some time in Harrogate on a small bar crawl before heading home. Harrogate is a perfect little spa town with lots of nice bars.

Derbyshire

For bank holiday, the whole of the UK was blessed by glorious weather as we drove down to Derbyshire to stay with my partners brother & sister-in-law. After a little stop off in Matlock, we arrived at Burton-on-Trent, right by the river. We spent the evening in Burton going for a meal at 99 Station Street.  The next day we went into Derby, starting with a trip to the gym, it’s always fun trying a new gym plus with all the travel my workouts have lapsed so it was good to do a circuits class. We then had lunch & a few drinks in Derby.

It was so nice to be able to sit outside & enjoy the sunshine!

For the evening we went to Merica Marina another beautiful place with bars & restaurants.

This is another example of getting out & exploring an area of the UK I’ve not spent much time in.

London

Our final trip of the summer was to London, we had friends visiting from the USA so we arranged to go down whilst they were the city for the day. It’s so easy to get to London on the train from Yorkshire & I love navigating the tube, it’s such a novelty (except in rush hour). On this trip, we stayed in Clerkenwell, which is a nice neighbourhood with some small bars & restaurants. On Friday we went into central London to meet our friends as we showed them some of the tourist areas such as Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Leicester Square & Buckingham Palace. We did so many steps that day, finishing with dinner at Bill’s near Covent Garden.

The following day, we decided to not venture too far from the hotel – The Zetter – Which is a really modern hotel & one we’ve stayed at before. We booked ourselves in for a last-minute bottomless brunch at Grind which was very Instagrammable – My kind of place! I was sad to only have 1 night in London as there is so much to do & see but I am sure I will be back soon!Out of six summer weekends, we were only at home for one of them. It was good to take some breaks, recharge, explore different areas of the UK & I now feel ready to jump back into my businesses.