London is the place to start.
Nowhere in the country can match the
scope and innovation of the
metropolis, a colossal, frenetic
city, perhaps not as immediately
attractive as its European
counterparts, but with so much
variety that the only obstacle to a
great time is the shockingly high
cost of everything. It's here that
you'll find Britain's best spread of
nightlife, cultural events, museums,
galleries, pubs and restaurants. The
other large cities, such as
Birmingham,
Newcastle, Leeds or
Liverpool
each have their strengths:
Birmingham has a resurgent arts
scene, for example, while people
travel for miles to sample
Newcastle's nightlife. These days
Manchester
can match the capital for glamour in
cafés and clubs, and also boasts
the inimitable draw of the world's
best-known football team.
England's ancient cathedral
cities, such as Lincoln, York,
Salisbury, Durham and Winchester
, cannot be equalled for sheer
physical beauty. Wherever you're
based, you're never more than a few
miles from a ruined castle, a
majestic country house, a secluded
chapel or a monastery. In the
southwest there are remnants of a
Celtic culture that was all but
eradicated elsewhere by the Romans,
and everywhere you can find traces
of prehistoric settlers - most
famously the megalithic circles of Stonehenge
and Avebury.
Most beguiling of all are the
long-established villages of
England, hundreds of which amount to
nothing more than a pub, a shop, a
gaggle of cottages and a farmhouse
offering bed and breakfast. Devon,
Cornwall , the Cotswolds
and the Yorkshire Dales
harbour some especially picturesque
specimens, but every county can
boast a decent showing. Then, of
course, there's the English
countryside, an extraordinarily
diverse terrain from which
Constable, Turner, Wordsworth, Emily
Brontë and a host of other writers
and artists took inspiration. Exmoor,
Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor , the North
York Moors and the Lake
District are the most dramatic
and best known of the national
parks, each offering an array of
landscapes crisscrossed with walking
routes.
