Start your journey in Liverpool. Liverpool is a city in Merseyside, England, within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire, famed for its football teams, the Grand National horse race, music (including The Beatles), vibrant nightlife and its links with the arts and culture. The city served as one of the leading ports linking Europe to the Americas, expanding to become England's second most populated city by the census of 1861, before slowly declining after 1921 as levels of transatlantic shipping dropped. Before airline travel, many Europeans migrating to the New World passed through the city, particularly the Italians and Irish; to this day the city enjoys a large Irish community, with impressive cathedrals for the Anglican and Roman Catholic faiths. In the 18th and early 19th century the port also acted as a gateway for the slave trade, with echoes of this period still evident in places around the city. A comprehensive regeneration of the city centre has caused an influx of new shops, boutiques, and large performance/conference arenas near the waterfront; this has resulted in an upturn in population figures. The regenerated city now plays regular host to national and international conference, media and music events; examples include major political party conferences, the BBC Worldwide Showcase, the MTV Europe Awards, and the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.

Starting in Liverpool, you can be in Sheffield in just 3 h 50 min with . Book today from just £8.30 with easyBus.com.. The original Steel City, Sheffield is one place most have heard of, but isn't usually on many travellers' bucket lists. If this is you, you're missing out. It's true, Yorkshire's second city has a bit of an image problem. Its cutlery may be in kitchen drawers the world over, but Sheffield hasn't necessarily reinvented itself in the way that other northern English cities have managed to do. That being said, first-time visitors are more often than not surprised by what they find. Many remark on how they wish they'd discovered the place sooner, and wonder why nobody told them it was here. Why? Sheffielders are too modest; they know their city is wonderful, but they won't tell you so, even though that means getting overlooked more often than not. When pushed, they might mumble something about metal and hills, but they won't tell you about their creative talents, or their museums and art galleries. If the locals mention the city's two universities, they won't brag about their size (30,000 students apiece) or successes (world leaders in industry, engineering and the sciences). They certainly won't talk about the fact that Sheffield is England's National City of Sport, nor that it has a credible claim to being the real ale capital of the world, nor even that it is home to Britain's biggest and best theatre scene outside London. As for telling you how many trees Sheffield has (three times the number of people), or just how close it is to the Peak District (one third of the city lies within this national park, the UK's oldest), you can forget it. But now you're in the know, there can be no more excuses - you'll find there's plenty to discover in "England's largest village".