Preston [1] is a city in Lancashire, England.

Understand

Preston is the largest city in the county of Lancashire, and historically was a major port and industrial centre. It is one of the few cities that has an "old northern" culture, with many words of Lancashire dialect still in use.

Get in

By plane

Nearby Blackpool Airport has flights to London, Dublin, Isle of Man, France and Spain, while Liverpool and Manchester airports offer a world-wide service. Local airlines include Jet2 [2], and British Airways [3]

By train

Preston is a major terminal on the WCML "West Coast Main Line", and services to and from most major cities around the UK are offered by Virgin Trains [4] the Virgin website sells tickets between any two stations in the National Rail network, so getting to preston by train should be easy, wherever you are!

By car

Preston is well linked to the motorway network (M6, M61, M62, M60, M65) and has many reasonably priced taxi firms, notably Walton Swift.

By bus

National Express [5] offer intercity coaches from most towns and cities in the UK, and many in France and Spain, while Megabus [6] offers extremely low cost (£1 one way) bus travel to and from London. Other bus companies are available, and can be booked via the UK public transport gateway transportdirect [7] which is a database of all British Public Transport, and can effectively link any two buildings in the UK with Public Transport using Postcodes

Get around

Preston has an extensive local bus network operated by Stagecoach Northwest, Preston Bus and JFS (Fishwicks), details of which can be found via transportdirect.

See

Preston has several cultural attractions worth visiting, such as the city museum, Minster Church and the UK's National Football Museum [8].

Do

• Football - visit the National Football Museum [9] (free entrance); see Preston North End FC play at the 25,000 seater Deepdale Stadium [10]
• Shopping - Preston has several shopping centres.
• Rail - visit the Ribble Steam Railway [11] on the docks.

Learn

Preston is the home of the university of central lancashire [12] with over 30,000 students.

Buy

Preston City Centre has a wide range of shops.

Eat

Sleep

Budget

• Travelodge Preston [13] offers room rates from GB£20 per nite

Mid-range

• The Novotel Preston South [14] is a mid-priced hotel with restaurant, room rates from GB£45

• The Hotel Barton Grange [15] Rooms from £55. This is an exquisite four star hotel north of preston, with several restaurants and a swimming pool with spa, Barton Grange is the perfect place for a high class stay in Preston.

Splurge

Contact

• The area dialling code for Preston is 01772. From overseas, dial +44 1772 XXX-XXX

Stay safe

Preston is relatively safe compared with larger cities like London or Manchester, but still you need to keep aware.

Preston Police are available on +44 1772 203-203 for non-emergencies, in Emergencies Only dial 999 or 112 from any phone for fire, police, or ambulance