I have family in Carlisle and had always wondered about making the trip between West Yorkshire and Cumbria by bus.
The opportunity arose with the Northern Rail 10p ticket offer meaning I could travel to Carlisle for a short visit, I would normally drive.
I bought a three day North West Megarider ticket which enabled me to have a first day around West Cumbria, a train trip to Edinburgh in between, and then the main event which was the trip home.
Carlisle-Penrith-Keswick-Grasmere-Windemere-Kendal-Lancaster-Preston-Blackburn-Burnley-Keighley-Bingley-Shipley (The last four legs on a day tripper).
It was planned in advance and took around 12 hours to complete but was very enjoyable. When planning you need to be very conservative in your connection times or use high frequency routes where possible. I did have the contingency plan to travel Lancaster-Skipton-Keighley if things went wrong early on.
It was very nearly disaster at the first hurdle as if I had caught the bus I had planned between Carlisle and Penrith, despite a planned 12 minute leeway, I would have missed my connection. Luckily I was in Carlisle early so caught the bus before, fortunately avoiding an enforced hour's delay
Pre Covid I would often drive somewhere, park up, and buy a local day ticket. These are mainly photographic excursions although it's sometimes hard to get the balance right between time spent riding buses and time available to take photos of them.
Examples of such days
Chester-le-street-Stanley-Consett-Metrocentre-Gateshead-Chester-le-Street
Stockton-Middlesborough-Billingham-Stockton
Ashton-Hyde-Stockport-Manchester Airport-Wythenshawe-Manchester-Ashton
Whitefield P&R-Bury-Rochdale-Bacup-Rawtenstall-Haslingdon-Ramsbottom-Bury-Whitefield
I've always fancied doing Merseyside but can never seem to find the right place to park.
I did manage St Helens-Wigan-Warrington-Runcorn-Widnes-St Helen's on one occasion.