We are only about an hour and half away from some of the lovely towns of Cumbria/Lake district (I'm in Manchester) http://www.visitcumbria.com/
Howarth/Bronte country isn't too far as well http://www.haworth-village.co.uk/howarth.html and some of the lovely west Yorkshire towns - Skipton is quite a nice place too.
Yes! You could go to Bolton Abbey!
Great suggestions too! I like Bolton Abbey best on a fine - sunny, warm day. Taking a blanket & a picnic, walking around, kids splashing about in The Strid.
I **still** need to get to Yorkshire Sculpture Park - all this time & I've not yet been!
If you do go to York, watch what you say to who(m). I visited York once and a tour guide slagged off Americans to the whole group for asking why the streets are so small and that things were so "cute" and many other equally embarrassing things. He didn't know I was American and when I got off the bus I told him that he should maybe not lump us all into one category and that I was American and he said " well, love you can't help it for where you were born and that someone had to be". Soured an otherwise great experience. The York Minster is exquisite and shouldn't be missed.
Ah well, it sounds like you got a p*ss-take artist tour guide there! There's lots of Americans around this area - both tourists & who live in the vicinity, so natives are certainly accustomed to us. But like anywhere else, opinions (and your mileage) may vary. I would have laughed something like that off, or made a snappy comeback ("Likewise" or "we can't all be old, bitter & twisted" or something silly!
)
When I first went to York Minster (years ago), there was no admission fee!
But there is now - however (and unless this has changed), a 'free' guided tour of the Minster is included as part of your admission. I have been on one guided tour of the Minster that was excellent. The second one - not so much, it was an old git (unpaid volunteer) who mostly wanted to talk about the military service dedications in the church (to the exclusion of the Minster's history & architecture), his appointment for the dentist & meeting with his girlfriend immediately following his 'shift' - due to occur right after he finished wasting his time on us, and he also made rather racist comments regarding Archbishop Sentamu!
I had taken a friend from the US there & also my friend who lives in York (an MA history grad of York Univ) - she was cringing in horror the whole time! I told her that she should be doing those tours - it would certainly have been better than what we got that time. Lol!
All that aside, York Minster is indeed exquisite & an important piece of British history - definitely not to be missed!
