Help me (not) sleep under a bridge

[dhampyresa]

I am most likely going to spend about three weeks/a month in Great Britain this August.

It'll be just me.

I have no idea what I'm doing yet. I want to go Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, possibly more places, and will likely spend a couple days in London, if only to get over the massive jetlag of going from a French to British timezone. A whole hour, the horror.

I may also see some people. Both from RL and fandom -- definitely lunik_the_bard for sure.

I'll probably go to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, likely in the first half of the month, as apparently that's when most the shows I want to see are. But nothing's set in stone.

Literally nothing is set in stone.

I don't want to do super touristy stuff for this trip, I'm looking for more unusual stuff like stuff I wouldn't find out about if someone didn't tell me about it. But anything interesting will do. Nothing is too weird! (I will totally sleep under a bridge if that's an option.)

TL;DR: Rec me stuff to see/do in Great Britain. Assume I know nothing.


EDIT: I will not be using a car, I will also be doing England and I will basically take any recs, nevermind how touristy.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Not sure what sort of thing to rec... If you are going to North Wales, then a stop in Chester maybe? it's a surprisingly beautiful Roman/medieval town and seems to be a bit off the usual tourist tracks. Caernarfon is interesting but I always think it feels a bit Iron Fist of the Normans even now.

Wales is not designed to get from North to South in. Basically all the roads are for the English to invade along and run East-west, and the railways tend to follow their example. :-D

I've not been to Harlech in years, but I remember that as the most beautiful of the castle-towns, and it's more Welsh and less Norman stomp-face-y, if that makes sense.

Cornwall... did you know that there's a direct ferry Roscoff-Plymouth, you don't *have* to go round via the Great Wen both ways... I'm assuming you aren't bringing a car?

If you fancy a small boat trip, you can get across from Plymouth (which is worth a visit in itself) to the Rame Peninsula on the Cremyll ferry. I rather love the Rame, it's a bit of a forgotten corner. And there's the Tamar Valley line upriver to Calstock .

Or you could go further West to Falmouth and explore around there, there's a ferry across to St Mawes...

I think personally I'd probably go to Falmouth over Penzance, unless you have a reason to go to Penzance particularly (like you are going to the Scilly isles or the Minack theatre).

Newquay is trendy and surfy but personally I think it's a bit less characterful. Do NOT go to Land's End, I'm pretty sure you'll hate it. Most people do.

St Ives is great (and has a station) if you fancy bingeing on art, I don't like the Tate Modern much, but wandering round all the commercial galleries (mostly small and run in a rather amateur and unintimidating way) and seeing all the wildly contrasting styles is much more fun in my book :-D

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for all the recs! :D And the advice about the railways/roads in Wales.

I will indeed not be using a car.

I definitely want to go to the Minack theater ever since you mentionned it, it looks amazing!