Liverpool – it’s about so much more than football and the Beatles!

Football fans need no introduction to the delights of Liverpool – after all, it’s home to two of the Premiership’s most famous clubs and their arch enemies are half an hour down the motorway in Manchester – but there’s so much more to this part of the north west of England.

If the city is synonymous with football, it’s just as indelibly linked to the Beatles – and there are bus, taxi or walking tours as well as at least three separate museum experiences all dedicated to the life and times of the Fab Four.

So that’s sports and music fans catered for, but suggesting that is the extent of Liverpool’s attractions does the city a serious disservice.

This was the European Capital of Culture in 2008 – an honour Galway is now seeking to grow its own reputation – and that year saw 15 million visitors fly in to share the experience.

The past decade has seen capital investments of over £5 billion pour into the city – but despite the massive regeneration, the planners also managed to retain the best of the old at its heart.

Those who remember Liverpool from the sixties and seventies will recall a drab city, so downtrodden that Margaret Thatcher gave serious consideration to allowing it to run into the ground.

But this renaissance has been nothing short of spectacular – the balance between residential and entertainment around the Albert Dock moves seamlessly through the new commercial heart of Liverpool One (one of the biggest shopping areas in the UK) and on into the old heart of Liverpool, with its nightlife around Mathew Street, home to the world famous Cavern Club.

Culture vultures have the Tate Liverpool on Albert Dock, the new £72m Liverpool Museum that focuses on the history of the city through sport, music, its port and how the Irish, like the Welsh, played their part in the development of this friendliest of places.

Those who know it just for its football are missing most of the point – and the regeneration of Liverpool has seen a plethora of attractions spring up all over the city.

There are a variety of ethnic restaurants, for example, that stretch from Cuban to Catalonian – indeed Lunya, the UK’s only Catalan deli and restaurant is owned by Peter Kinsella, a man whose enthusiasm and passion would probably convince vegetarians to eat succulent pork!

The Indigo Hotel houses a Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and Grill; the Hard Days Night Hotel has the emphasis on all things Beatles – but there are eateries to suit all budgets and tastes.

Suffice to say that you’d have no problem filling a week’s holiday with all there is to see in Liverpool – and most of it is accessible on foot.

But if you want to stretch your scope just a little, Cheshire – and the Roman city of Chester – are half an hour up the road. And if it’s history you’re after, Chester has it in spades, tracing 2,000 years from its foundation as a Roman fortress to its present role as a thriving centre of commerce and home to 120,000 citizens.

Much of the city centre was rebuilt in the 19th century and its tradition shop fronts are still prevalent today; that’s because the last half century has seen a huge emphasis and preservation and restoration to recreate an era that you simply won’t find anywhere else.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.