The story of England stretches again greater than 5000 years (and sure many extra). Which implies its not possible to escape the previous right here.

As you wander its historic city facilities, mysterious monoliths, misty landscapes and rugged coastlines and nationwide parks, you’ll uncover a rustic stuffed with unparalleled places to visit which might be are the extra compelling thanks to all those that have visited them earlier than.

As you propose a visit to England this 12 months, right here’s our record of 16 historic, thrilling and all-around fabulous highlights to contemplate.

1. The Seven Sisters 

Whereas Dover’s iconic white cliffs seize probably the most consideration, the colossal chalky partitions of the Seven Sisters are a extra spectacular affair, a four-mile roller-coaster of sheer white rock stretching alongside the Sussex shore and overlooking the waters of the English Channel. It kinds a formidable southern border to the South Downs Nationwide Park, and is most dramatic on the towering headland of Beachy Head. Hikes by means of the grassy clifftop fields present extensive sea views, breathtaking in each sense.

Native tip: Cease for a breather on the tiny seaside hamlet of Birling Hole, the place the secluded seaside is a solar entice fashionable with locals and walkers.

2. Oxford

Oxford lets guests really feel shut to the good minds and august establishments which have made this metropolis well-known throughout the globe. This rarefied world comes to life in the cobbled lanes and historic quads the place biking college students and eccentric lecturers roam. The attractive faculty buildings and gorgeous structure have modified little over the centuries, coexisting with a full of life, trendy, working metropolis. As befits a metropolis of scholars and professors, Oxford is likely one of the final bastions of the nice British pub, with irresistible previous watering holes dotted throughout its central lanes and alleyways. 

3. Cambridge

In England’s different nice historic college metropolis, Cambridge, you’ll be able to tour a faculty, and spend time marveling on the intricate vaulting of King’s Faculty Chapel. However no journey to Cambridge is full with out an try to take a punt (flat-bottomed boat) alongside the River Cam by the picturesque Backs, the leafy, inexperienced lawns behind the town’s best schools – an expertise that gives the best views of the beautiful structure. Polish off the day with a pint at one in every of Cambridge’s many rustic pubs. 

4. Tub

In a nation filled with fairly cities, Tub stands out because the belle of the ball. Based by the Romans, who established the spa resort of Aquae Sulis to make the most of the world’s scorching springs, Tub hit its stride in the 18th century, when the wealthy industrialist Ralph Allen and designers John Wooden the Elder and John Wooden the Youthful oversaw the town’s transformation right into a mannequin of Georgian structure at its most refined. Tub is awash with golden stone townhouses, sweeping inexperienced crescents and Palladian mansions, together with interesting pubs and eating places, and also you’ll take nice pleasure in plunging in. 

5. Hadrian’s Wall

Hadrian’s Wall is likely one of the nation’s most dramatic Roman ruins, a 2000-year-old procession of deserted forts, garrisons, towers and milecastles marching throughout the wild and lonely panorama of northern England. Whereas the Romans constructed the fortification to defend and management its territory, this edge-of-empire barrier additionally symbolized the boundary of civilized order in the traditional world: to the north of the Roman settlement lay the unruly land of the marauding Celts. Close to Newcastle you’ll be able to visit Segedunum, the wall’s final stronghold, for an perception into life throughout Roman instances.

Planning tip: Climbing the total 84-mile distance coast to coast alongside the nationwide path takes round every week. You probably have much less time and your personal automotive, you might have considered trying to choose from a number of of the wall’s highlights.

6. York

With its Roman and Viking heritage, historic metropolis partitions and maze of cobbled streets, York is a dwelling file of English historical past. A powerful circuit of 13th-century partitions encloses a medieval spider’s net of “snickelways” (slender alleys), each the main focus of a ghost story or historic character. On the metropolis’s coronary heart lies the immense, awe-inspiring York Minster, the largest medieval cathedral in all of northern Europe, and one of the stunning Gothic cathedrals in the world. Admire feats of engineering of a newer classic on the Nationwide Railway Museum, the world’s largest assortment of historic locomotives.

York’s lengthy historical past and wealthy heritage are woven into nearly each brick and beam, and the trendy, tourist-oriented metropolis – with its myriad museums, eating places, cafes and conventional pubs – is a fastidiously maintained showcase of that heritage.

Native tip: You’ll discover among the best views of York from its previous metropolis partitions, notably the bucolic part behind the Minster. 

7. The Peak District

Curiously, you gained’t discover many peaks in the Peak District. You will discover blissful miles of tumbling moorland, plunging valleys, eroded gritstone crags, lush farmland and historic pocket-sized villages. This stunning panorama attracts a veritable military of outside fanatics – cyclists, hikers, cavers and rock climbers – on summer season weekends, whereas these searching for extra enjoyable enjoyment can admire the agricultural market and well-known puddings of Bakewell, the Victorian pavilions of spa-town Buxton, and the architectural drama of Chatsworth Home – the “Palace of the Peak.”

8. Brighton

Barely an hour’s prepare experience from the capital, the seaside metropolis of Brighton has a unusual character that’s utterly its personal. Overlooking the English Channel on England’s pebbly south coast, this can be a metropolis that is lengthy been recognized for its oddball, various character. The warren of streets often known as the Lanes is an effective place to absorb the vibe, with vegan cafes, espresso bars, chaotic pubs, file shops and bric-a-brac retailers. (Browsers shall be in heaven at native establishment Snooper’s Paradise.) You will additionally discover the UK’s largest queer scene right here, and the area’s best small golf equipment. The spotlight for the sightseeing customer is the Royal Pavilion, a 19th-century social gathering palace constructed by the Prince Regent, who kicked off Brighton’s love of the outlandish.

9. Stonehenge

Mysterious and compelling, Stonehenge is England’s most well-known historic web site. Despite the fact that individuals have been drawn to this myth-laden ring of boulders for greater than 5000 years, we nonetheless don’t know fairly why it was constructed. An ultramodern makeover on the historic web site has introduced a formidable customer middle and the closure of an intrusive street (now restored to grassland). The result’s a powerful sense of historic context, with dignity and thriller returned to an archaeological gem.

Most guests gaze on the roughly 25-ton stones from behind the perimeter fence, but with sufficient planning, you’ll be able to prepare an early-morning or night tour and acquire entry to the interior ring itself. Within the slanting daylight, away from the crowds, it’s an ethereal place. That is an expertise that stays with you.

10. Stratford-upon-Avon

The gorgeous city of Stratford-upon-Avon is the place William Shakespeare was born and later shuffled off this mortal coil. As we speak, its tight knot of Tudor streets type a dwelling map of Shakespeare’s life. Big crowds of thespians and theater lovers come to take in a play on the well-known Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Bard followers will love visiting the 5 historic homes owned by Shakespeare and his kinfolk and the schoolroom the place he was educated, earlier than taking a respectful detour to the previous stone church the place he was laid to relaxation.

11. Liverpool

It’s arduous not to be contaminated by Liverpudlians’ love for his or her hometown. The love endured regardless of many years of decay and all method of social ills – discovering its expression in a famend gallows humor and an obsession with soccer. With among the most passionate crowds in the nation, taking in a recreation at both Liverpool FC or Everton FC is a ceremony of passage right here.

Outdoors of the stadium, the rejuvenated waterfront is as soon as once more the center of Liverpool. The point of interest is Albert Dock, an iconic docklands flanked by protected buildings, together with a batch of prime museums. The Merseyside Maritime Museum and the Worldwide Slavery Museum guarantee the nice and dangerous sides of Liverpool’s historical past are explored in equal measure, whereas the Tate Liverpool and the Beatles Story museum rejoice fashionable tradition and the town’s most well-known musical sons (nonetheless).

12. The Cotswolds

A tangle of impossibly quaint villages of rose-clad cottages and honey-colored stone, The Cotswolds is a area that spreads over six English counties. It’s a designated Space of Excellent Pure Magnificence, and its most fantastic high quality is that irrespective of the place you go or how misplaced you get, you’ll nonetheless find yourself in a spot with an enthralling village inexperienced, a pub with sloping flooring and wonderful ales, and a view of the plush inexperienced hills. Crisscrossed by long-distance trails together with the 102-mile Cotswold Approach, these light but dramatic hills are excellent for strolling, biking and horse-riding.

Native tip: It’s simple to depart the crowds behind and discover your very personal slice of medieval England right here – and among the best boutique lodges in the nation.

13. Whitby

Slightly bizarre, sometimes weather-beaten and all-around fantastic, the traditional northern seaside city of Whitby has haunted lanes, fossil-hunting and arguably England’s best fish-and-chips. The huddle of 18th-century fisher’s cottages alongside the East Cliff are testomony to its longtime position as a busy business and fishing port: it was right here that 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook dinner earned his sea legs. Atop the West Cliff, a sandy seaside, amusement arcades and promenading holidaymakers present Whitby’s beach-resort facet.

Protecting a watchful eye over the city and the River Esk that divides it’s an atmospheric ruined abbey, the inspiration and setting for a part of Bram Stoker’s Gothic horror story Dracula. However tales of witchery and ghostly legends have haunted Whitby ever since Anglo-Saxon St Hilda landed right here to discovered a monastic group in 657 CE.

Planning tip: The city embraces its pseudo-sinister status, which culminates in two vastly profitable Goth Weekends every year.

14. The Lake District

William Wordsworth and his Romantic buddies have been the primary to champion the charms of the Lake District – and it is not arduous to see what stirred them. Already the UK’s hottest nationwide park, the Lake District additionally turned a UNESCO World Heritage Website in 2017, in recognition of its lengthy historical past of hill-farming. However for most individuals it’s the prospect to hike the humpbacked fells and drink in the attractive surroundings that retains them returning 12 months after 12 months.

The area is stuffed with outside pursuits, from lake cruises to mountain walks – excursions that assist reveal why the area has such deep literary connections. As well as to Wordsworth, writers who discovered inspiration right here embody Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arthur Ransome and Beatrix Potter.

15. The Eden Undertaking

A cross between a lunar touchdown station and a James Bond villain’s lair, the big hemispherical greenhouses of the Eden Undertaking have turn into a logo of Cornwall’s renaissance. Constructed in an deserted clay pit close to St Austell to mark the beginning of the brand new millennium, and now thought of one in every of Britain’s trendy architectural wonders, the Eden Undertaking goals to discover problems with surroundings and conservation, and level the best way to a cleaner, greener future for us all.

Displays cowl the whole lot from world warming to rubber manufacturing and chocolate-making. The glass-domed “biomes” recreate main world local weather techniques in microcosm, from the plush jungles of the Amazon rainforest (full with treetop walkway winding by means of the cover) to the olive bushes, citrus groves and colourful flowers of the Mediterranean, South Africa and California. It’s extremely spectacular – not to point out instructional, and galvanizing, too.

16. London

Shoulder-deep in historical past, London’s wealthy seams of eye-opening antiquity seem at each flip. Town’s structure pens a beguiling biography, and a large number of buildings – the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Huge Ben – are internationally recognizable landmarks. It’s additionally a tireless innovator of artwork and tradition, a metropolis of concepts and creativeness. This legacy is enshrined at world-class establishments such because the British Museum, Pure Historical past Museum and the Science Museum, in addition to such world-leading artwork galleries because the Tate Trendy, Tate Britain, the Nationwide Gallery and the not too long ago reopened Nationwide Portrait Gallery, all of that are free to visit. 

Native tip: Nevertheless you price range your money and time in London, ensure you take in a present. Huge names carry out on the West Finish (London’s equal of Broadway), and on the South Financial institution at the Nationwide Theatre and the Previous Vic. Smaller theaters from the Almeida to the Lyric Hammersmith are places to uncover up-an-coming expertise.