Five stars for the cafe; two stars for the station. The chef in the cafe was charming, friendly and…read moresang while crafting my sausage and egg bap. Was boiling over with laughter, loved his friendliness. The train station is closed on the weekends for rail work, which means it takes twice as long to get anywhere on the bus. Purchased the bus tickets from the train staff inside, who kept directing a group of us to talk to the bus coordinator, and the bus coordinator was not available/missing...poor show!

The Northern end of the Severn Valley Railway nestles below castle hill with its tilting Castle…read moretower keep which leans further than the Tower of Pisa all as a consequence of Cromwell forces not using sufficient gunpowder trying to blow it up . The station itself is a bustling terminus of the steam railway taking you back to the heyday of steam trains . It hosts a great pub serving lovely real ales a great place to relax on a cold winters day with its open fires . There's the engine maintenance sheds to see too on special events .

Just outside Coleford, Perrygrove railway offers a ride on a narrow-gauge railway and more…read more On entry we were greeted by friendly staff who explained the timetable and handed out a quiz sheet to each of our children together with a key that opens the appropriate prize box once you've finished. The aim of our time at the place was to explore the whole site finding shapes and pictures to answer the clues on the sheet. They provided two different sets of questions, depending on whether you want to just take the train or wish to wander through the wooded area. Next to the entrance there's a miniature 'village' inside that the kids can explore. There's a reasonable amount of scope for them to play hide-and-seek, crawl and run about, spy on Mum and Dad sitting in the cafe and invent other games to play. The railway journey takes you to the top of a hill and you have plenty to look out for on the way. There are a several places where you can get off and explore and there's no limit to how long you spend doing so; you can get on and off as much as you like. At the to of the hill there's a small covered childrens playframe built to a very high standard. From here a series of narrow paths lead down through the wooded area back to the main 'station' at the entrance. I'd suggest that if you have a pushchair, you might struggle pushing it along these paths unless it is one that has large wheels. Once you've finished wandering about outside collecting answers to the questions on the quiz, you return to the main building and enter a miniature 'village' to find your prize. The prizes are obtained by identifying the correct locker to open with your key. Inside you'll find some sweets and some 'party-bag' gifts. The cafe provides basic hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and simple heated-up food. There was also a small selection of items for sale; postcards, toy trains etc. It is spacious and you can just about see the trains coming and going. Prices were reasonable. We found Perrygrove a good place to spend a 2-3 hours and a good choice on a rainy day as well as with good weather.

Lovely ride through the countryside! Sit on the back cars if you don't want to smell coal during…read moreyour ride. It can get a bit stuffy and warm since there is no air conditioning, so I wouldn't recommend going on a very hot day. Lots of walking at Bridgnorth. So wear comfortable shoes.

This relatively small train station is an easy walk to Downtown or the local Co-op. We came…read morearrived from Paddington in the early afternoon and only required minimal directions to get to our Hotel. We had printed out our tickets ahead of time for our return journey back to London. So all we had to do was figure out which side of the tracks we needed to be, wait in the enclosed seating area, and wait for our train. The architecture was mixed and somewhat unremarkable.

Moreton-in-Marsh is a small town in the Cotswolds, so its railway station is small compared to…read morestations in larger towns like Oxford. There is no self-service ticket machine in this station, so if you purchased tickets online and hope to use a self service ticket to print them out, you won't be able to do that here. I printed out all the tickets I purchased online months ago at Paddington Station since I knew I would not be able to do that. There is anagent from whom you can purchase tickets at certain times, so it's good to know their office hours. The ticket office also has information brochures on places of interest in the area. This station is only a few minutes from High Street, so it's very convenient for travelers or sightseers who might want to check out this town. If you don't have a car, you can take the bus going to towns like Stow-on-the Wold or Burton-on-the Water from this station.

Previous reviews note correctly that this used to be an unpleasant place to find yourself on your…read moretrain travels. However, there have been some changes since those reviews. The footbridge has been rebuilt and is now wider. There is also now a lift so those with pushchairs or wheelchairs need no longer ask strangers or station staff for assistance. Indoor waiting areas have been built on the three most used platforms so waiting for connections isn't as chilly as it used to be. The ticket lobby now has more seating and has been modernised. The branch of the Pumpkin Cafe there is pretty average for the chain: serving a range of over priced food from unenthusiastic staff with greasy tables and chairs. It's no longer a distinctly awful place to be, is just an a average train station.

A tatty and run down railway station. God knows what any visitors to Gloucester think. Booking area…read morealways seems dusty and the staff never seem very happy. Mind you I don't blame them, thsy will answer any questions though, but it seems a bit of a effort to do so. Not sure what the cafe is like, but looks a bit blah. Small Taxi rank outside door, but the main taxi rank is 2 minutes across the road.

Bristol Parkway station is located at the intersection of the lines from London (Paddington) to…read moreSouth Wales and the main line from Bristol to Birmingham, providing a major interchange between the two. It was one of the first 'Parkway' stations to be built, in 1972, to attract car users to trains by providing ample car parking at locations with good road links, close to urban areas. This site was chosen both because of the interchange it offered, and because of its proximity to the M4 and M32, just north of Bristol. When opened, shelter was fairly meagre, with 'bus stop' shelters on the platforms and a small waiting room and ticket office by the entrance to the car park. Because of its exposed and windy position, additional long platform shelters were erected, but it still had a reputation for being a cold place to wait for a train. Over the years, substantial suburbs have developed around Stoke Gifford, and in 2001, a new and much larger station building, with a dramatic curved roofline, was built in recognition of its growing importance. In 2007 an additional platform was constructed on the London-bound (north) side, to provide additional capacity. The station is now used by over 1.75 million passengers a year, with in excess of half a million passengers changing trains here. The station now has heated waiting shelters on the platforms, and the main building has a small shop, cafe and ticket office. Other facilities include a taxi rank, payphones, cash points and bus stops for local bus services (including to Frenchay hospital and Bristol city centre). The station has level access (via lifts to the platforms). The station is served by all long distance trains on the London-South Wales main line and the cross-Country main line from the South-West to Birmingham and the North. It is also served by local services from Gloucester, Westbury and Weston-super-Mare.

This is a great, modern, functional station on the North side of Bristol. It's close to the M4/M5…read moreintersection, so it's a far better place to collect someone from than Bristol Temple Meads (in the centre of the city) if you're located to the north of the city. However, there are a few things to be aware of: 1. Parking is £5 a day. The payment meters are awkward to operate, and if you don't pay you will get clamped & fined. 2. The car park gets full by 9:30am most days, and if you park outside an official space, you will get clamped (even if you've paid for a ticket). 3. Traffic in the area is hellish at peak hours. Journeys from the motorway to the station can take in excess of 45 mins between 7:30 - 9:00 and 16:00 - 18:00 for the 2 mile journey. The station is fairly new with good facilities: clean toilets, a small newsagent, a coffee shop and a sandwich shop. There are also lifts to all platforms for the disabled.

Shrewsbury Railway Station is the busiest station in Shropshire, serving Shrewsbury town centre,…read moreit's a short walk up the hill to the main shops in the town. The station is classed as a C1 station and is managed by Transport For Wales, of which I travelled with on my journey to and from Manchester. While it is also served by Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway, it is mainly served by TFW. The majority of services pass through Birmingham New Street which is just over 40 miles from the station OR goes into Wales which is also a short distance from here. Only two trains a day into London, so if you're heading into the capital you might want to go into Crewe or Wolverhampton. Crewe is a pretty decent stop to head too if you are travelling further as this can be the stop along the way if heading to many cities including London, Liverpool or even Edinburgh. The station doesn't have much in terms of facilities, it does have a Starbucks alongside Platform 4 which is shut due to COVID-19 (Most Starbucks' locations in train stations seem to be shut so this is nothing new based on Manchester/Stockport/Liverpool etc), it has a waiting area right next to the lift, where it's a little warmer than the platform. Most of the station staff seemed a little friendly, there was one exception who seemed disinterested when I was struggling to scan my ticket at the barrier, but the platform staff were great. The layout can be a little confusing at first, I did struggle to find the Information Desk and this is one of the few stations to use letters in platforms (such as 4A/4B) FUN FACT: Despite having 5 platforms, it doesn't have a platform 1 or 2, the platform numbering goes between 3 and 7 - would love to find out why! Decent old station providing a useful purpose, satisfactory facilities, certainly not a bad station considering the population of Shrewsbury is just over 70,000. 3*

Twee enough building, but I really wasn't impressed with the staff. Yes, we'd all had a few, but we…read morewere 15 minutes early, and in no way unruly. There was a lot of I am big man from the station guards, and one made a comment on what I was wearing, and "Are you you sure you don't mean "blah" station love because you're friend is getting off at a diffferent one". There were a lot of cancelled trains, so they possibly had a lot of rubbish from annoyed people, but you'd hope it wasn't carried across!

Okay, while this station doesn't have any lockers, it turns out that if you look around a bit you…read moremight find some other place that will store your bags. However, it doesn't help when the station isn't all that close to the centre of town. However, this station was still rather nice, and a little touristy as well. Yeah, it was cool.

Occasionally, I happen across some ne'er-do-well chuntering on about Stratford-upon-Avon being a…read more"one-Horse town." "Well kind sir," I respond, "if Stratford-upon-Avon is indeed a 'one-horse town,' that horse is bloody Secretariat." To be or not to be ... that is NOT the question. To be here a few hours or to stay the night, THAT is the question. I have "long weekended" in Stratford, and 3 days was a bit much, even for this two-degreed English major. I've also "day toured" on a motor coach starting the day in London ... they gave us about 2 hours in Stratford betwixt Warwick Castle and Oxford, and that was not enough. The third proverbial bowl of porridge was driving in: Two days, one night ... just right! Yes, indeed, SuA is the town where William Shakespeare spent most of his life. His memory oozes from every pore of the town ... as, indeed, it should. Not only is it the epicenter of his life, but other Shakespeare meccas like London have too many literary (and historical) distractions ... its dribs and drabs (albeit great dribs and drabs) of Shakespeare are scattered around while Stratford is door-to-door, all Shakespeare, all the time. Well, that's not totally true. Stratford's Church of the Holy Trinity is a beauty inside and out. And if you happen across it when the 170ish-year-old "Great Organ" is being piped by Benedict Wilson, you're in for a treat. Then there's Anne Hathaway's cottage (not the actress), a beautiful 15th-Century house with an amazing cottage garden. But, then again, the church was where Shakespeare was baptized and has the chancel and sanctuary where The Bard is buried. And Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare's wife. As someone who has been to the town as a child (10 years old) and an adult (mind-your-own-business years old), I must say, SuA is WAY MORE family friendly than in the days of yore. The Stratford Butterfly Farm came in 1985 and has developed into a kid's (and lepidopterist's) paradise. Started in 2012, the MAD (Mechanical Art & Design) Museum is replete with mechanical do-dads and whirligigs, buttons that are encouraged to be pressed, flickering lasers, and rolling-ball machines. Both the Farm and MAD are kids' paradises. Most people are so Shakespeare-stuck they miss a golden opportunity to take advantage of the River Avon ... I mean, the town is called Stratford-UPON-AVON for a reason. Whether just taking an amble down its lovely towpath, you end up rolling on the river (I recommend taking a tour from Canal River), or hire a rower for a view hour, River Avon is a beauty. You'll likely find yourself strolling down Henley Street during your time in SuA: Great atmosphere, great bustle, great cafes along the way. Also of note is The Jester Statue: A relatively new addition (1994), this bronze beauty is Touchstone from The Twelfth Night. I've actually Yelp-reviewed this statue, so either enjoy or roll your eyes. And now to the two biggies: Shakespeare's Birthplace and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Staying the night really lets you drink in Shakespeare's Birthplace ... not only see everything inside, but also to enjoying the performers out in the courtyard who actually take requests. And the intellectuals who always seem to be milling about request Timon of Athens or Cymbeline when most people want a little R&J or Hamlet. But I digress: The young thespians are awesome ... and game for whipping out any Shakespeare the audience so desires. Speaking of performance, the biggest reason to stay at least one night is so you can see a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre by the RSC. There's always a Shakespeare play going on, but I HIGHLY recommend planning in advance so you can see what will be on when you're there. As well, there are a lot of contemporary plays, musical, and other performances worth considering at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I have broken the covenant of two great Shakespeare quotes: "Brevity is the soul of wit" and "Men of few words are the best men." But with a town this great, how can I not write on ... and on ... and on?