oh. hard one with regards to public transport. will he be sticking to main towns. Bath and sailsbury are two i can think of. what about cambridge? they're all reaped in history. how far does he want to travel. many coach companies do short breaks to the cotswolds. medot.xx

What about York? Train links are direct and fast.

It might be worth checking out the low cost airlines too as sometimes you can get good deals and then places like Dublin or Edinburgh could be possible

If he's a kiwi, you probably can't show him countryside that's any better than at home so I agree with Jan400 that low cost flights to towns and cities may be an answer. Besides Dublin and Edinburgh, he may be able to get some European capitals.
There's a Stansted-Blackpool flight every day. Good links from Liverpool Street to Stansted on the Stansted express. He certainly won't have seen anything like Blackpool in NZ and there's loads to do there. Blackpool airport is close to the centre of town with good transport links.
Newcastle is a great party town, if that's his style. The east coast mainline is fast and you can get deals if you book far enough in advance.
I'll carry on thinking.....

If your friend would like to visit Windsor then he could catch the coach from Hyde Park Corner. It is about £9/10 return.

Hi,

Others have already suggested Edinburgh (and there can be few Kiwis around without a Scots connection unless they're Maoris because so many Scots emingrated to New Zealand!) but I would suggest he consider travelling on the overnight sleeper service from Euston. It leaves at around 9.00pm and arrives in Edinburgh early on the morning and coming back it leaves Edinburgh around midnight and gets you back into Euston for around 7.00am in time to freshen up and go straight to work. So you get 2 really full days in the city but only have 1 night's hotel costs on top of the train fare. So though the sleeper does usually cost more than you can get a cheap no-frills flight it means that you do save on accommodation costs and can work out cheaper overall. If his days off are sometimes mid-week he'll find the service not too busy and cheaper to use than travelling up on the Friday and back down on the Sunday night - it doesn't run on a Saturday but does run every other night.

I often use it in reverse for going down to London and love it. Apart from anything else the sleepers to Scotland from Euston are the only sleeper service still operating in the UK and are an experience in themselves. It also serves Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness so makes a weekend in the West Highlands with 2 full days for walking etc really easy for London-based people who can't make a long weekend of it.
SM

Would second York - GNER is fairly quick and theres plenty of hotels or the travelodge to stay in. He needs to see the seaside too!

Loclaay ish to me Stratford and Warwick are good - both with train stations.

Alison

How about Chester? Direct rail link from Euston (Virgin Rail to Holyhead - if it's one of the Pendalinos it only takes about 2 hours). Great little city plenty of history (Romans) bars, restaurants, B&Bs, a river. Liverpool is easily reached - and if he gets homesick he could pop over the border into N Wales & look at some sheep.

I would suggest a weekend or day trip to Brighton. Maybe a train trip/flight to Newquay. so he sees a bit of Cornwall.

York, then Livepool and on to Chester (as a day-trip from Liverpool), all easily reached by train. Liverpool is an excellent cantre for the Lakes, Southport, the Wirral and Chester as well as having plenty of attractions itself

North wales via Liverpool.

I'm going to suggest something that people will say 'you are joking' but your friend will have a good time fairly cheaply and see some history and meet those folks who speak the closest to olde English that is left in the UK and it's only an hour and half from London!

Come to the Black Country and also to Birmingham. Stay in Brum, plenty of cheap accommodation if you look and there are on your doorstep is the really good night life of Broad Street. Then during the day travel over to Dudley and the Black Country Living Museum and meet those olde English speakers. Eat chips they way they made 150 years ago, I swear you will never taste a better chip in your life and then wash it down with a proper pint of old Ale in the pub. The pop out and buy your 19th century style cakes and sweeties made form original recipes. See the hundreds of trades that were part of Black Country Life and the different styles of housing. It's a fantastic day out. Then nip on a bus to Walsall and visit it's world famous and award winning new art gallery, the Leather Museum and then get the train back to Brum. Or pop into the famous Tipton Pie Factory or Desperate Dan's Pie Factory and eat a pie that will last you a week accompanied by proper beer.

Day 2. Half an hour by train to Stratford on Avon. Do some Shakespeare culture vulture stuff. Or visit Aston Hall, the finest surviving purely Jacobean House left in England. Or there is the Think Tank, which is a cross between a science museum and a natural history museum. It is very very good.

Or does he like Tolkien? Go on the Tolkien Trail to Sarehole Mill where Tolkien originally found his inspiration for his books. Or do the jewellery quarter trail and visit the museum. Or just chill in Brindley Place sipping a coffee or a pint and watch the world go by.

There is a lot to see and do and your friend will have a fantastic time and oh they have bushthingy type antipodean pubs in Brum now!!!!

manchester is a good weekend, would also recomend oxford and surrounding villages. Suffolk (esspecially the coast can be nice) norfolk, think bath has already been mentioned, Brighton is not to bad, portsmouth, devon (durdle door/lulworth cove, i highly recomend.
think that loads so wont go on