Our England Travel Guides
We’ve spent years travelling across England — not ticking off sights, but figuring out which places are actually worth the effort.
It’s a surprisingly varied country. One weekend you’re hiking in the Lake District, the next you’re exploring historic cities or walking a stretch of wild coastline. Distances are short, but the change in landscape and atmosphere can be dramatic.
We’ve returned to many of these places multiple times, refining what works and what doesn’t. The result is a set of guides built around real trips — not just what to see, but how to plan it properly.
Expect clear, practical advice on where to go, how to get there, where to stay, and what’s worth skipping.
Start Here: Overviews & Itineraries
If you are visiting from abroad, this is a great place to start. These guides cover both inspiration for where to go and practical planning advice to help you get there.
Firstly, the inspiration guides. These cover our favourite destinations in England and the UK:
- Best places to visit in the UK — A curated list of 30 destinations across Britain to spark ideas for where to focus your time.
- Best places to visit in England — 30 of our top English destinations, perfect for narrowing down your itinerary.
Once you know where you want to go, our planning guides will help you get organised:
- 2-week UK itinerary (by train) — This is our planned rail route from London through Bath and Oxford, up to York and Edinburgh, and into the Scottish Highlands.
- 4-day London itinerary — A practical day-by-day guide to making the most of London, covering the must-sees and our favourite local hot spots.
- London Christmas itinerary — Our practical guide to experiencing London at its most festive, from markets and ice rinks to seasonal events and decorations.
What Type of Trip Are You Planning?
One of the things we love about living in England is just how much variety is packed into a relatively small country.
You can be in a bustling city, a remote moorland, or a pretty harbour village within the space of an hour. Here are some of our favourite ways to explore it.
History & Heritage
One of the obvious draws to England is the history. There’s genuinely more here than you could cover in a single trip. Roman ruins, Norman castles, medieval walled cities, Tudor palaces, and that’s before you even get to places like Canterbury with its 1,400 years of history.
Our guides should help you work out what’s worth your time and what fits the kind of trip you’re planning.
- Things to do in Bath – Roman baths and Georgian architecture.
- York itinerary – Viking heritage and medieval walls.
- Canterbury guide – Ancient cathedral and pilgrimage history.
- A weekend in Rye – One of the best preserved medieval towns.
- What to do in Northumberland – Roman ruins & crumbling castles.
- Hadrian’s Wall Highlights – See the best sections of the Roman Wall.
Hiking & Outdoors
Hiking and the outdoors is something we spend a lot of time doing in England.
The national parks alone could keep you busy for years, and the coastal paths are some of the best walking in Europe. Our guides cover everything from route details and maps to the practical stuff like parking, difficulty levels and what to expect on the day.
- How to hike Scafell Pike – England’s highest mountain
- Lake District circular walks – including Catbells and the Langdales
- Great pub walks in the Chilterns – All within 1 hour of London
- Outdoor adventures in Northumberland – Wild landscapes in England’s north
- Best country walks near London – By train or car
- Pembrokeshire Coastal Path – Stunning walks on the Welsh coast.
- Cotswolds walking routes – Gentle countryside walks in idyllic countryside.
City Breaks
England’s cities each have their own distinct character and history. Most have an old town centre, decent museums and enough to keep you busy for a long weekend.
Our guides cover the highlights but also the things that tend to get overlooked.
- What to do in London – Capital city essentials.
- Bath day trip – Georgian elegance and Roman heritage.
- What to do in Oxford – Medieval charm and Viking history.
- Cambridge Day Trip – Beautiful Gothic university town.
- One Day in Whitstable – Try the best oysters in the country.
The English Experience
If you are visiting from abroad, some experiences are just very specifically English. A Sunday lunch in a country pub, a medieval market town on a Saturday morning, a bluebell wood in April.
Our guides will point you towards the places where these things are done properly. Here are some of our suggestions for experiencing the real England:
- Best Cotswolds villages to visit – Honey-stone country beauty.
- A weekend in Brighton – Escape to a typical English seaside town.
- Hidden Gems in Cornwall – Get off the beaten track in Cornwall.
- Day trips from London – 1-day itineraries by car or train.
- Hay-on-Wye – Charming book town near the England / Wales border.
- Free things to do in London – The best experiences that cost nothing.
The Regions of England
England packs remarkable diversity into a relatively small area, with each region offering its own character and attractions. Here are the areas we’ve covered most extensively on this blog.
The Lake District
The Lake District is by far our favourite place in the UK.
It’s our go-to hiking destination in the country with beautiful glacial lakes, open fells, wooded valleys and some genuinely challenging ridge walks.
We visit every year and never get tired of it. If you’re a keen hiker, you might like our 5-day walk in the Lake District with an easy and tougher option each day.
Yorkshire & the Peak District
The Yorkshire Dales is wild, rugged and untamed, and somewhere we love going to feel away from it all. There are limestone valleys, cool waterfalls, and stone villages lost in time.
The Peak District is different again, more open and expansive, with great walking and some really good base towns for exploring.
They both see a fraction of the crowds you can expect in the Lake District.
The Wye Valley & Malvern
The Wye Valley sits on the England/Wales border and is one of those places that tends to get overlooked in favour of better-known destinations.
The river valley itself is genuinely beautiful with wooded gorges, rolling hills and a string of market towns. This region also has some of the country’s most impressive ruined castles.
We had a great time kayaking on the Wye River – one of those great outdoor experiences in England.
Jurassic Coast
The Jurassic Coast runs for 95 miles along the southern English coastline from Devon to Dorset and is one of our favourite stretches of coast in the country.
The geology is genuinely fascinating, with 185 million years of Earth history exposed in the cliffs. But even if that’s not your thing, the coastline is spectacular, and the towns along it are well worth exploring.
Our guide to the Jurassic Coast has a good overview, but here are the rest of our guides:
Cotswolds & The Thames Valley
The Cotswolds is probably the England that most people have in mind when they book their trip.
Honey-stone villages, rolling hills, country lanes and ancient churches. Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water and Castle Combe are the obvious stops, but there is so much else to see.
We actually lived in the Cotswolds for a few years, so we know the area well. Our guide to the best Cotswolds villages is a good starting point. Here are all our other guides:
Northumberland
Northumberland is about as far from the tourist trail as England gets. The coastline is dramatic, think big empty beaches, rugged cliff paths and more castles than any other county in the country.
Inland, Hadrian’s Wall is one of the most impressive Roman sites in Europe, and Northumberland National Park is genuinely wild in a way that most English national parks aren’t. If you want space and quiet, this is where to come.
Start with our top hikes in Northumberland, which has some fantastic coastal here, then read about the area below:
Devon & Cornwall
Devon and Cornwall together make up England’s southwestern peninsula and, between them, cover just about every type of coastline you could want — Atlantic surf beaches, sheltered fishing coves, dramatic cliffs and long sandy estuaries.
Cornwall has a distinct identity that sets it apart from the rest of England, and the coastal scenery in places like the Lizard and Land’s End is hard to beat. Our hidden gems in Cornwall guide has a few more exciting places.
Devon is quieter but just as varied, with two national parks in Dartmoor and Exmoor and some of the best seafood towns in the country.
Together, they’re England’s favourite holiday destination, with mild climates and coastal paths. However, they can both get very busy, particularly in the summer months.
South East England
The South East has a lot going for it beyond London. The white cliffs of Dover, Canterbury Cathedral, the rolling chalk hills of the South Downs and Brighton are all easy to reach and work well as day trips or short stops on a longer trip around England.
If you’re primarily based in London but want to see a bit of the countryside without travelling too far, the South East is a great choice.
