Lincoln is well-placed for several quite different day trips. Nottingham is an hour by direct train and packs a city centre, the castle, and the Robin Hood-themed Sherwood Forest. The Lincolnshire coast — fishing villages, big sandy beaches, faded resorts like Skegness — is an hour east by car or slow train.
The Lincolnshire Wolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty north of the city, offer rolling green hills and Tennyson's birthplace at Somersby. Newark-on-Trent, twenty minutes by train, has its own ruined castle (where King John died), a fine Georgian centre, and an excellent antiques market. Boston, the inland port that gave its name to the American city, is forty minutes south by road and has the soaring tower of St Botolph's parish church ("Boston Stump") visible across the fens.