A little while ago, I noticed a trend in the travel world: the extreme day trip.
There’s no official definition but the general idea is to travel, experience a destination and depart all within the same 24 hours or so.
I decided to give it a go with a day trip from my home in Belfast to Liverpool. It’s a city I’ve wanted to visit for a while, fuelled by fond memories of Brookside and a bit of a fascination with the Royal Liver Building and the famous Liver Birds.
Extreme Day Trip to Liverpool: The Plan
One day, destination Liverpool, the plan as follows:
Fly out of Belfast City Airport at 08.20, landing in Liverpool John Lennon Airport at 09.05.
Local bus service transfer into the city. Taxi isn’t much faster but is a lot more expensive. A single journey for one adult and one child cost just £3.30.
Spend the day enjoying as much of Liverpool as I could, getting the most out of my day by sailing home with Stena Line from the nearby ferry terminal at Birkenhead.
The night sailing allows foot passengers to check in up to 21.00, meaning I could max out my time in the city. Overnight onboard and back into Belfast by 06.30 the next day.
1 Day in Liverpool: Suggested Itinerary
The Royal Liver Building & Waterfront
There’s no better way to begin exploring Liverpool than by taking a tour of the Royal Liver Building. This instantly recognisable city icon has watched over the waterfront for more than a century. It’s also where you’ll find the famous Liver Birds, Bella and Bertie.
Most visitors to Liverpool are familiar with the outside of the Royal Liver Building, but to really get behind the scenes and get a whole new view of Liverpool (literally!) you need to book the RLB 360 Tour.
You’ll go behind the scenes to discover some of the building’s secret history, enjoy an immersive audio-visual experience and get access to the 15th floor for panoramic views of Liverpool and an up-close look at those lovely Liver Birds.
The whole experience takes about 90 minutes.
Find My Full Review of The RLB 360 Tour here.
The Beatles Statue
The famous life-size bronze statue of The Beatles at the Pier Head is just a few minutes walk from the Royal Liver Building. There’s often a small group around this Liverpool landmark, you might have a short wait to get your shot! More on The Beatles in a minute!
The Museum of Liverpool
If you want to get a feel for Liverpool, this is the place to do it. Thousands of objects are used to bring the culture and history of Liverpool to life. The museum is also keeper of an award winning window. Yes, really!
The view from the skylight galleries across to trio of buildings on the Waterfront known as, ‘The Three Graces’ actually won the award for ‘Best window with a view’. Worth calling in for that alone.
The Royal Albert Dock & An Afternoon Tour
It’s a short stroll from the Water-font area down to the Royal Albert Dock. This is a great place to stop for a bite to eat as there are plenty of options, from street food style places to sit down restaurants.
The Royal Albert Dock has two excellent museums- The Maritime Museum and The International Slavery Museum- and I’d usually suggest one or both as an option here. Unfortunately, both are currently closed for redevelopment
Exploring Liverpool: An Afternoon Tour
Time to see a bit of the city. Opting for the overnight ferry home meant we had plenty of time to fit in a bus tour of Liverpool. We opted for the Beatles & City Tour with Liverpool City Sights.
If you’re keeping one eye on the clock, it’s the perfect tour. The lively 90 minute tour whisked is through the heart of the city and out into the leafy suburbs. The passionate and friendly guides have you feeling like a Liverpool local while you explore the history of the area and get to know the people and places that made four local lads famous as The Beatles.
The tour includes a few quick photo stops along the way including Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and some of the band members childhood homes. Being a Beatles themed tour, there’s also lots of music. Singing along optional, but difficult to resist.
Liverpool City Sights also offer a hop on, hop off city tour option. Find details, timings and prices here.
Find my full review of the Beatles and City Tour here
Liverpool: The Evening Options and Liverpool Central Library
You’ll never be bored in Liverpool. There’s a lot going on. If you have time to kill in the late afternoon of evening, there’s loads of places to eat and drink plus family friendly entertainment like escape rooms and indoor golf.
There’s also Liverpool Central Library. It’s a magnificent building and a great EDT option because it’s open until 8.00pm and also located right by Lime Street Station. If you’re going to visit this one, towards the end of the day is a good time to do it.
Liverpool Central Library is a building of many aspects- the ultra modern atrium, the historic reading rooms, there’s even a riddle embedded into the pavement at the main entrance. Like most libraries, it also has a small cafe, comfy seating toilets and free WiFi. An impressive place, and not a bad way to end a day in the city.
Find a full post dedicated to Liverpool Central Library here
Getting to the Stena Line Terminal Birkenhead from Liverpool
All too soon our day was coming to close and it was time to head to the ferry terminal to check in.
The easiest option to get from Liverpool city centre to the Stena Line terminal at Birkenhead is by taxi. It takes around half an hour and should cost £15/20
Alternatively, you can take the Merseyrail service from Lime Street Station to Hamilton Square. The journey costs around £4 and takes around ten minutes. It’s a 15/20 minute walk or a short taxi ride to the terminal. Taxi’s available at Hamilton Square Station.
We sailed home with Stena Line using the Hygge Lounge as there were no cabins left to book. Full details and review coming soon.
My Tips for an Extreme Day Trip
- Pick a destination as close as possible to the port/airport. Less time travelling is more time exploring!
- If booking with a low cost airline, double check which airport they fly into. Some places have more than one airport, but only one you’ll really want to be using.
- Be sure to include everything in the plan and budget- transfers, tickets, coffee stops, food on the go etc. It all eats up time and money.
- Do your research, make a plan… then be prepared to pivot. Flight delays, changing weather etc might mean Plan B is required.
- If you’re going somewhere totally new, consider a short guided tour first thing to get an overview, or include a ho-ho tour for an easy route around the main sights.
Liverpool was fabulous as a day trip. As well as beautiful architecture and a rich history, there’s a great atmosphere and some quirky touches. False eye lashes from a bright pink vending machine, anyone?
Have I inspired you to take the idea of a day trip just that little bit further?
If you like the idea of a bite size city break you might also enjoy reading about how to spend 24 Hours in Luxembourg
Helen x
Bravo Helen
Than you Sheree 😊
Um – no! The proportion of travel (and its attendant annoyances) to actually doing stuff would be out of kilter for me – including the chance of two transport failures in one day. But you have increased my desire to see Liverpool!
Liverpool is fabulous and I only lightly scratched the surface. I will go back, possibly add on an overnight this time.
The time you have to build around travel is a bit tricky, especially when there’s a delay. I don’t think I’d day trip so hard all the time, but enjoyed the adventure on this one.
*cue in “Day Tripper” by The Beatles* 🎶
Liverpool really does love its famous sons! Your post reminded me of an Instagram acquaintance of mine from Germany, who visited the city during its Beatles Week celebration.
“Day Tripper” is the perfect recall for this one! 💯
It really is!
Yep, The Beatles are the pride of Liverpool! And rightly so. I do remember a Beatles connection in Hamburg. Trying to explain ‘Yellow Submarine’ to my 13-year-old son was fun, he had no idea who they were.
Yes, the four have a connection to Hamburg! They were originally a five-piece band (the JPG boys with Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best still included).
Some of their friends there included Astrid Kirchher (Sutcliffe’s fiancee) and Klaus Voorman (of Manfred Mann fame). Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his art studies, and later died of a brain bleed in 1962.
An interesting concept but I’m not sure it’s for me. While I enjoy travelling I also enjoy exploring and would get frustrated with so little time in one place when that place has as much to offer as Liverpool (we easily filled two full days and could have done more!) And I think my conscience would prick me about flying anywhere for such a brief visit although that’s a bit hypocritical given how much and how far I fly in a year 🥴
I definitely could have filled another day in Liverpool so I guess that could be extreme day trip round 2?
The flight was a novelty for my son and I as we are usually rail or road trippers. It was fun, first flight since pre-Covid days. I’d forgotten how much fun flying can be, and airports are good for people watching.
Oh yes, I love airports for that!
Despite your enthusiasm, this isn’t for me. My extreme age may have much to do with this, but I’ve never been one for packing too much into one day’s sightseeing. ‘Museum foot’ is an actual complaint, I think! But well done you!
Fascinating post. We visited Liverpool fairly recently but missed the Liver Building tour – will add that to the itinerary should we return. We then crossed to Belfast on the Stena Line, but stayed in one of the 4 double bedded cabins. As we had a car couldn’t access this until close to midnight (sad as it was lovely for boat accommodation) but we did get some sleep once the car alarms died down). Can’t imagine sleeping on those not quite reclined seats you booked but then I am quite a bit older than you!
The timings of it do get you on board a bit late, don’t they? When travelled from Germany we used to make a little minicruise of the sailing home but Stena is all business.
The not quite reclined seats were fine for one night and one night only 😂
I would love to go to Belfast actually ( perhaps from Liverpool) but think I would prefer to stop over. Not sure about those unreclining seats…..
Could always fly, or book a dog cabin in sailing with the pooch. The seats had me puzzled, neither up nor down and unable to adjust them. Designed by someone who didn’t road test them, I think.
Interesting travel Helen. I like the idea of traveling for a short break but I need to sleep 🤣. So these chairs wouldn’t be for me.
I think the chairs are better than sleeping in the cafe seating, but definitely not as comfortable as a bed in a cabin! It was fun to try. Thanks for reading and commenting, appreciate it.
A fun filled day out Helen. Too bad that your flight was delayed two hours though resulting in less time to get around. On our recent weekend stay in Liverpool One we checked parking options in advance as the hotel didn’t have a car park. For 48 hours city centre parking was expensive so we looked on Google maps and left our car on a residential street across in Birkenhead near to a station and caught the metro in which worked well.
The flight delay was a bit awkward but we worked round it! It has left me with a list of things for a return visit though.
Great tip about parking, especially if we take the van over. Finding parking that is affordable and not height restricted is a challenge.
I love that flight from Liverpool to Belfast (and vice versa) – so quick! Because of your posts inspiring a possible return to my roots, The Young Man and I are in discussions about visiting next month during half-term.
Also, fun fact: Liverpool’s Chinatown is the second oldest in the country after London.
That would be a good time to visit, have you read about the River of Light festival? It looks great. We missed Chinatown, timed out, but I think if/when back we might jump on a tour and see all the sights.