24 Hours in Liverpool
Liverpool is a fantastic city to explore in the North West of England and remains to be in the top 10 of places to visit in the UK. The city has more museums and galleries than anywhere outside of London, superb shopping and holds the Guinness Book of Records for being capital of pop music - most importantly Liverpool is the home of The Beatles.
This was my first time to Liverpool in 5 years, the last time I was in this vibrant city was to celebrate graduation and now thanks to National Express I was able to reignite my love all over again.
National Express are a fantastic fleet of coaches who travel to 100's of towns, cities and airports across the country on a daily basis. Besides using them for this trip to Liverpool, we've also used them previously when going to London and we've never been disappointed in their comfortable seats and affordable price.
Popular routes to Liverpool include Birmingham, Leeds, London and Manchester. Although our trip from Leicester meant around 5 hours it was well worth it in order to have a short staycation and it started from as little as £14.00 for a one way trip. We were in good thanks though during our long journey thanks to their free app, VUER. VUER is a fantastic platform full of hit TV shows, news, sports and movies giving for plenty of on board entertainment during your trip. It was easy to contact with the coach free wi-fi in order to access the app and I definitely enjoyed a movie (or two!) during my trip.
We had 24 hours in Liverpool to get stuck into everything it had to offer so hopefully you'll be inspired by this post to book your trip.
STAY
For our whistle stop trip to Liverpool we decided to stay at the ibis Styles Liverpool Centre Dale St which I booked using Booking.com. It was super affordable and the hotel is only 10 minutes walk from the vibrancy of Liverpool, The Cavern is just 5-minutes away, meaning it was in fantastic location to get the most of our quick trip.
The style of this hotel is boutique with free Wi-Fi and each room is individually designed inspired by The Beatles. The rooms are spacious and comfortable with en-suite bathroom facilities, tea and coffee-making facilities, a desk and a flat-screen TV with Freeview. In the morning you can enjoy a varied continental buffet breakfast and it's included in your stay.
If I were going to be heading to Liverpool again, I will more than likely book this place again!
FOOD + DRINK
Liverpool is a fantastic hub for food and drink - this trip was no different in enjoying that!
On our arrival to Liverpool I booked for me and my mum to head somewhere for afternoon tea and there was somewhere with a unique experience that we had to sample, Panoramic 34. The location for this experience is 300 feet above sea level on the 34th floor of the West Tower, making it one of the UK's highest restaurants. At Panoramic 34 there's fine dining available with a Tasting Menu, A la Carte, Lunch and Afternoon Tea. Of course there's also an opportunity to enjoy some fizz or a cocktail during your visit too.
The restaurant and cocktail lounge area is encapsulated by ceiling to floor windows offering people breathtaking 360° views of the city; take in the iconic river, city and in the distance is the Liverpool Cathedral.
We couldn't wait to dig into the Afternoon Tea during our visit and at £22 per person we thought this actually quite affordable! My favourite parts of the afternoon tea were certainly the Beef Pastrami and Sauerkraut sandwiches with scones and the caramel and chocolate tart. It was extremely tasty - although my legs were very wobbly up that high!
In the evening we decided to wander along the famous Albert Dock and sought out an authentic taste of Liverpool's food scene - the Docklands Fish and Chips! The food was not only tasty with a wide range of takeaway dishes and we could enjoy overlooking the docklands but it's affordable and located near both The Beatles Story and Tate Liverpool so you can nip there in an afternoon for a bit of culture enjoyment!
THINGS TO DO/SEE
There is an incredible amount of fun things to do in Liverpool and even though we only had 24 hours in which to enjoy them we definitely found a few gems on our stay. People always flock onto a City or Beatles Tour to get an insight into some of the city's most popular/well known history and although we would have loved to have done one the city's Pride event made this quite difficult.
We decided on getting out of the rain for a few hours and exploring the British Music Experience. Priced at £14.00 per adult, the UK's museum of popular music is a fantastic storytelling experience of British Music through costumes, instruments, performance and memorabilia. Taking you through the decades you can experience a little bit of the Beatles, Bowie, Spice Girls and Queen. For huge music fans like myself this was an exceptional museum and there's interactive activities around every corner - including a booth to sing at your heart's content! I would definitely like to visit this museum again in the future!
Somehow on the weekend of our visit to the city we managed to stumble upon Liverpool's Pride weekend and it was just the treat! We braved the rain to celebrate the LGBT community in this city and seeing the community of Liverpool come out in force was excellent - it was well worth getting drenched to see this parade take place.
Liverpool overall really is a fantastic place and it was great to tick off another city on my 14 Places to Visit this year - hopefully it won't be long until the next trip.
Have you visited Liverpool before?
Don't forget to book your coach travel tickets with National Express too.
DISCLAIMER: This post is written in collaboration with National Express. They provided me with free coach travel to my destination in return for this blog post. All opinions are my own and not influenced by the hotel.