Where is it? The north of England
What currency is used? Pound Sterling
How do I get there? If you’re travelling from within the UK Liverpool is easy to access by train into Liverpool Lime Street, which brings you directly into the centre of the city. If you’re travelling from outside of the UK the nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, you can then get a train from Liverpool South Parkway into the city centre.
What is there to do? Liverpool is a vibrant city, overflowing with different activities to do and hundreds of sights to see. For an easy way to see all of the highlights of the city I would recommend hopping on an open top tourist bus; the company we used was City Explorer, but there’s a few different options situated at Pier Head. It allowed us to see lots of the iconic spots in Liverpool, such as the Cavern Quarter, Albert Dock and both of the cathedrals, with ease, and it was definitely a great way of seeing everything on our list; to see everything we got up to carry on reading to see my travel diaries. There are countless things to do in Liverpool, there are numerous museums and galleries, including the Tate Liverpool, hundreds of bars and pubs, lots of which play live music, and an endless stream of tourist spots dedicated to The Beatles. Another iconic activity is taking a ferry across the Mersey, we got a joint ticket with our open top bus tickets, and although we didn’t find much to do on the other side of the river it was worth it for the ferry experience.
Where should you stay? We stayed in a family weekend away go-to, a Travelodge, and whilst it may not be the coolest or fanciest place to stay I must say it was positioned perfectly. We stayed in Travelodge Liverpool Central Exchange Street, which was only 15 minutes walk from Liverpool Lime Street and based right in the city centre. The docks, and the first stop of the open top bus, was only five minutes down the road, and round the other corner you found the Cavern Quarter.
Where should you eat? For the most part we actually went for chain restaurants as we were walking around exploring the city and just quickly grabbed a Costa (sorry!). However, one place that we actually ate at twice on our weekend getaway, for dinner on Friday night and also for an Easter Sunday roast, was The Railway. It was a pub, only a thirty second walk from the Travelodge we were staying in and served classic pub grub in a gorgeous old fashioned pub (there’s some photos below!). I had their fish and chips on Friday night, as it was Good Friday so I couldn’t eat meat, and it was absolutely delicious. Their three course Sunday roast (which was only £11.95!) was also scrumptious, and they were so accommodating for my nut allergy and even created an ice cream sundae for me, which wasn’t on the menu, as I couldn’t eat the other desserts they offered.
What night life is there? Liverpool is renowned for its vibrant night life, particularly within the infamous Cavern Quarter, and although I didn’t go on any mad night outs (I was away with my family after all!) we did have a few drinks in some of the bars and the atmosphere was fantastic.
TRAVEL DIARY
We set off for Liverpool on Good Friday to spend Easter weekend away in this iconic city; we were celebrating both Easter and my dad’s birthday, which happened to fall on Good Friday this year. We took the train from Birmingham New Street into Liverpool Lime Street, which took about two hours, and we arrived into Liverpool in the early afternoon. The weather, as you know if you’re from the UK, was absolutely glorious this bank holiday weekend (which is a miracle in itself) and it made for perfect weather for exploring the city.
After dropping off our cases at our hotel, we stayed here, we walked to a different train station, Liverpool Central, and hopped on a train to Hall Road, the nearest train station to Crosby beach, to soak up the sun. Crosby beach, famous for its iron men scultpures, an art installation by Sir Antony Gormley, is only a twenty minute train ride from Liverpool city centre and gave us a chance to see the sea. However, other than the iron men, which are tall metal sculptures of men dotted across the beach, there isn’t much else to do in Crosby. In fact, we had to walk a mile and half from the sea front just to get a drink, which wasn’t fun in the heat, particularly as my espadrilles were rubbing my feet. So, unless you’re desperate to see the sculpture, I wouldn’t particularly recommend making the journey out there. Instead, simply stay in the city centre and go for a walk along the Mersey for a similar waterside experience, or take the train out to Southport for a more traditional seaside experience.
On the Friday night we had dinner in The Railway, a pub which was a short walk from our hotel, and then wandered down to the Cavern Quarter to get drinks. I imagine would be a great place to do a pub crawl, or for a serious night out, as it was also right next to a strip of night clubs and the gay quarter, but we stuck to a quieter bar as we were out as a family.
On the Saturday we headed off on our open-top bus tour, which we began at Pier Head, which is slightly further along the river from Albert Dock. We initially intended to do one full route of the bus tour, and then head back to the spots we really wanted to see, but after about twenty minutes of the hour tour we decided to get off and look around the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Catholic cathedral in Liverpool.
I’d never seen a church quite like this one, it looked almost like a spaceship! With its futuristic design and absolutely gorgeous interiors this cathedral is a must see, even if you’re not religious. I was fascinated by all of the miniature chapels connected to main central church and all of the beautiful artwork within every part of the church. The clever positioning of stained glass meant that the entire church was showered in a rainbow of light and it was a truly magnificent sight, especially on Easter weekend.
After visiting the cathedral we walked further down the road and had a quick look at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms, which was absolutely gorgeous. We then stopped for lunch at Costa across the road, which was a more budget-friendly option, before carrying on down to the Anglican Cathedral. This is a much more classic cathedral, which was also absolutely stunning inside, and I was blown away with all of the gorgeous architectural details. I think there is something just so beautiful about old churches, that’s a fascination I’ve definitely picked up from my mom, and this cathedral was truly magnificent. On the walk down from the cathedral we also spotted the infamous Chinese Arch, which is the largest outside of China!
Next we headed to Cains Brewery Village, an area of Liverpool full of different bars, including the renowned Peaky Blinders Bar. I’ve actually never watched Peaky Blinders (as a Brummie that’s probably quite a crime, but it’s on my watchlist I promise!), but my dad is a fan, so a visit to this bar was a must. This place is very much thriving off the notoriety of Peaky Blinders and is in fact a very basic, and somewhat dingy, pub; in fact I don’t think I’ve ever been in a darker pub! However, there were some other lovely (and prettier) pubs and bars within Cains Brewery Village, included one modeled on The Yellow Submarine and another with a very chilled out, ‘hippyish’ vibe, which I’d definitely recommend exploring.
Another fabulous part of Cains Brewery Village was their massive vintage market, which was overflowing with vintage clothes, homeware, fabric patterns, accessories, records and so much more. I found some gorgeous authentic 50s and 60s dresses, which I was so tempted by, but instead I opted to just wander around whilst my parents had a drink in the Peaky Blinders Bar.
After strolling around Cains Brewery Village we headed back to Albert Dock, which was about a fifteen minute walk, and had a look over the Mersey. There is a large ferris wheel just inside Albert Dock, but at over £30 for all of us for only a short ride we decided against it, and so we hopped on the bus again and got off in the centre of town to have a stroll around the shops.
On Easter Sunday we attended Mass at Liverpool Parish Church Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, which was luckily right next to our hotel. This church, which has been the site of worship since 1257, was so warm and inviting and the service was absolutely lovely. After Mass we checked out of our hotel and walked down to the docks, where we boarded a ferry across the Mersey. It was delightful watching all of the great sights of Liverpool from a boat sailing along the river, and although we didn’t find much to do on the other side of the river, we enjoyed the short ferry journey.
Once we’d got off the ferry back in the centre of Liverpool we were quite peckish so we walked back in the direction of the hotel and ate our Easter Sunday roast at The Railway, which we’d eaten at on Friday. They had an offer for a three course roast dinner for only £11.95, which was fabulous, and the food was so yummy. I opted for a delicious lamb roast and the food was delicious!
After dinner we walked up to the World Museum, one of Liverpool’s many museums, and nipped in to have a look at their Egyptian exhibition. All of their artifacts were so fascinating, and I wish we’d had longer to explore the rest of the museum. Sadly, the museum was about to close so we had to leave and decided to head home.
There was so much to do in Liverpool that we didn’t even get the chance to begin exploring, and I’d definitely love to come back at some point and carry on looking around this beautiful city.
Have you ever been to Liverpool? What is your favourite thing to do there?
Love Chloe x
Great weekend x