Nottingham - City of Robin Hood

The city of Nottingham is one of the oldest places in the United Kingdom, and remains a major tourist draw thanks to the stories of Robin Hood, which took place in the nearby Sherwood Forest. It offers a variety of different attractions to appeal to people of all ages, boasts excellent nightlife, shopping, and entertainment, and is also located close to some of the most attractive areas of natural beauty in the country, making Nottingham the ideal place from which to explore the East Midlands area.

Perhaps the best known tourist attraction in Nottingham is the castle. The buildings have been around since the middle ages, although they were extensively redeveloped in Victorian times to make them more comfortable for the Sheriff of Nottingham. The castle has played an important role in the history of the city. Aside from being an important backdrop for the stores of Robin Hood, it has also been used during the civil war as a place of sanctuary where the people of the city were able to hide in order to escape from the fighting. Close to the castle you will find the Robin Hood Experience, which is a living museum that seeks to recreate the sights sounds (and smells) of the middle ages in order to give visitors an idea about what life was like for the Merry Men.

Nottingham remains one of the most important cities in the international clothing trade, and one are of the city, the Lace Market has been redeveloped into a major nightlife area. This is where you will find the most up scale bars and nightclubs in the city, although there are also numerous other places for a night out including the area to the North of the large Market Square in the heart of the city.

During the day, Nottingham offers excellent shopping, and aside from all of the big high street names that you would expect from a major city, you will also find plenty of smaller boutique shops where you can pick up locally produced clothes alongside high fashion items from the biggest brands.

The Broadmarsh Shopping Center is one of the largest city center shopping malls in all of Europe, and is a place where you could literally spend days exploring the variety of different shops. The center offers a personal shopping service, and one of the assistants can be booked for several hours or a whole day in order to take you around the city in order to find the best deals around on whatever you are interested in, as well as advise you about the suitability of any items that you like.