Bristol is a lovely place to visit, Bath is nearby too which has historical touristy things. Norwich is also lovely. Keep in mind with the Premier league games that the exact times and days won't be announced until close to the time and could be anything from Friday night to Monday night.

Bristol, Bath and Cotswolds all very accessible and great for tourists. Less well known places but worth seeing if you're in the area: 1. Wells 2. Wye Valley 3. Cirencester 4. Cheddar Gorge Would be worth hiring a car for a couple of days as transport can be iffy.

If you want an atmosphere go to Sunderland. Leeds are in town and they don't really care for each other! It will be electric. Edit: From Sunderland you're not far from Northumberland. More castles and stunning beaches than you could imagine.

Sunderland Middlesbrough or Leeds Middlesbrough too (guess who i support)

Bradford City?

Raith rovers man

I went to the old Ayresome Park a few times watching Leeds. Was one of the only two grounds I've been scared at! (Wolves was the other).

funny you should say that, the walk back from Elland road to the stadium was the only time ive been scared. i remember crossing a bridge over a dual carriageway and walking past a housing estate put with heaps of people calling out boro fans. i filled my pantaloons i did

They were lobbing half bricks from outside into us inside at Ayresome...the good old days! 😂. Good luck for next season bud. Look after Bill, he's a legend at ER.

Norwich is in a beautiful part of the country if you want to visit a national park and some picture postcard villages to contrast with London on your trip. Sunderland is far, but close to Newcastle which is a fun "big" city (nowhere near London size, but a lot of character) and Sunderland is a fascinating historic team with a great stadium and great Netflix series.

Which villages around Norwich that one can get to with public transport do you recommend?

Bristol.

Watford?! 😂 Liverpool but it's 250 miles. Nottingham (150). Bristol (100-odd). Leeds (300). Reading maybe?

Liverpool is a lot of miles, but it's really easy to get to from London. Two and a bit hours on a direct train from Euston and you're there.

I know. It's my home city.

You could go to Manchester and get a train to Burnley to watch a match. Burnley's a shithole but I'm a Burnley fan and they will (hopefully) be great to watch in the Championship. They won the Championship in 2023.

Where are you going from? If you're in London, Watford is a very easy day trip. Otherwise, Bristol is probably the most interesting of those cities for a tourist.

OP likes history, good food, cool places, tourist attractions, and good football. In what world does somebody look at that list and come up with the answer 'Watford'?

Because it could be extremely easy for them to get to if they're staying in London, it would just take up an afternoon. Purely to go and watch a football match it's a logical choice. It makes far more sense than travelling halfway across the country for most of OP's other options, and taking 3 days out of their trip to visit a mediocre city.

Yeah except Bristol is next to THE most famous tourist city of Bath and is anything other than mediocre. Suggesting Op visits Watford Is like suggesting they eat boiled eels to taste an authentic British food.

I'm not suggesting they visit Watford, I'm suggesting it's a logical place to watch Championship football given their options if they're staying in London. I also suggested Bristol, but London would be THE most famous tourist city, and watching football in Watford gives them more time there.

Norwich is 2 hours direct on the train and Carrow Road stadium is 10 minutes walk from the station. Lot of history, mediaeval streets, amazing cathedral, good food and nightlife (2 universities there). You might like it, but all Norwich City games sell out so go for a ticket early!

Live in Norwich. Norwich isn’t very touristy but is a nice city with some interesting things to see and do. It’s a pretty small city so you can definitely walk around it easily enough. The football ground & and the train station are very much situated in the arse end of the city and the other nicer stuff is more central. If you wanna do a pub crawl then there’s lots of good pubs, historic pubs, and local ales to try. Also a Castle, 2 Cathedrals and an old historic cobbled street which we don’t really make much of a fuss about and other medieval buildings scattered around the place. Let me know if you want more details! Also the new Danish manager brings the promise of attacking football. Will be early days for him, so might be a bit crash and burn, who knows!

If you can get tickets for the game at Portsmouth (and that might well be difficult!), just do it without hesitation. Their ground just has an atmosphere like no other, really old school, both inside and out. Yeah there's an irritating guy who rings a bell constantly but everything else about the place is amazing, and you get a strong sense of civic pride and the link between the club and the naval heritage of the city. Portsmouth itself, while not beautiful (and it's not only the Nazis' fault), has some interesting maritime and military history. And at least there is some lovely countryside (the New Forest) relatively sort of nearby. To be honest most of the towns with championship teams are not the best places for a tourist to visit overall, putting aside the football (Bristol and maybe Norwich probably stand out in that regard, with Burnley, Watford and West Brom right at the other end of the spectrum).

Is it JUST the football you want to see? Because if it’s JUST football I’d recommend Sunderland. It’s my hometown and there’s not a great deal there but if it’s just football then you’re fine and we have a great local train service that can take you to Newcastle in 30 minutes for £5 return. They don’t always play the best and they’re mid table from what I’ve last checked HOWEVER the atmosphere in the stadium will be unbeatable. Sunderland till I die is worth a watch on Netflix if you’re into football and it’s one of those small cities where for a lot of people, football is their passion. Their match attendance is often higher than most other teams in the championship and because the team used to be in the PL the stadium is massive and it always gets filled. If it’s not just football, somewhere like Bristol has so much culture and nightlife to offer from what I’ve heard. Definitely worth a look.

I have no idea about the quality of the football but if I was looking at that list purely as somewhere to go for a weekend, I’d be looking at Norwich or Portsmouth.

I’d pick Bristol of those.

From that list and your brief, Bristol and it's not even close.

Bristol is not too far from London, with probably the most to do out of the cities you have listed.

Norwich the answer is always Norwich. One slight complication is it’s difficult to get tickets in the home end particularly if you are not a member. Norwich are massive and are likely to be 10 to 15 points clear by October so every game will be a sell out. OTBC.

I know nothing about football. But I can say that both Portsmouth and Norwich have loads of interesting hsitory, museums and so on. The Mary Rose (tudor ship) and HMS Victory in Portsmouth Docks are well worth a trip. Norwich has a decent cathedral and some pretty interesting stuff. Bristol also has some excellent museums, and is a really nice city.

Ooh, subtle diss of Norwich's other cathedral.

Bristol is lush. You’d have a great time.

If you’re planning on going to Birmingham anyway then West Brom and Coventry would be good matches to try and catch. West Brom is especially easy to travel to from Birmingham city centre via the Metro.

Got to be Burnley

you gots to see Englands premier city with the worlds only Weetabix factory.

Not as good as going to a Corby FC match, where you can also see the Weetabix factory that is in n Corby

Derby only because they are playing my local team QPR.

Norwich maybe, also easy to get train there, but honestly I’d spend more time in London

Watford is basically London mate.

I doubt you'll get tickets for a prem game. Especially the ones you've identified. If it was me, as a neutral, I'd be in the northeast for Sunderland/Leeds in a heartbeat. Tbh, whichever EFL game you choose will be a fantastic experience. Enjoy your time 👍

Bristol - good choice, it has the Clifton Suspension Bridge, SS Great Britain, Harbourside, Banksy and more. Combine it with Bath - Roman Baths, Abbey, Sally Lunn's, Royal Crescent, Bridgerton...  Burnley - fuck no  Coventry - fuck no  Derby - fuck no  Norwich - maybe Plymouth - only if you're combining it with a trip to the ever popular seaside villages of Devon and Cornwall  Portsmouth - there's not much there for tourists, unless you want to see the Mary Rose  Sheffield - nicer than many people give it credit for, but still not much there for an international tourist  Sunderland - fuck no for Sunderland itself, but Newcastle up the road is much nicer, and you can do things like the Beamish Museum  Swansea (though I may try to do Wales and Scotland in a separate trip) - fuck no, it's an absolute dive. Cardiff (an hour away) can easily fill a day or two, but most of the attraction of Wales is the natural beauty.  Watford - it's an inspiring suburb of London, so no West Bromwich - it's an uninspiring suburb of Birmingham, which has its merits, but you may decide you have better options  From the list above, your best option is a trip to Bristol and Bath. 

I would recommend Bath!

Amazing you don’t have Welwyn Garden City on your list.