The United Kingdom is large and varied: it is impossible to see everything in one holiday, and it is better to choose one region and explore it at leisure. Here are some tried-and-tested itineraries, to be adapted to your interests and the time available. All can be done by public transport, but for the countryside, Scotland and Cornwall a car gives more freedom.
Themed itineraries
Themed trips with route map, day-by-day plan, indicative costs and practical tips:
- Jane Austen itinerary: Six days in the England of the novels, from the house at Chawton to the Cobb at Lyme Regis.
- Literary itinerary: From London to the Lake District through the homes and landscapes of England's great writers.
- Scottish castles: A grand loop of royal fortresses, fairy-tale towers and ruins by the sea.
- King Arthur itinerary: From the Round Table to Avalon, from Tintagel to Merlin's dragons.
- Castles of Wales: From Chepstow to Edward I's iron ring, in the land of six hundred castles.
- Harry Potter itinerary: From Platform 9¾ to the Hogwarts Express viaduct.
- In the footsteps of the Romans: From Londinium to Hadrian's Wall, four centuries of Roman Britain.
- Ghosts, witches and Dracula: From the Tower of London to Loch Ness, among ghosts, witches and vampires.
- Whisky itinerary: From the Spey valley to the peaty whiskies of Islay.
- English gardens: From Kew to Cornwall, in the art the English have mastered.
- Beatles and British music: From Abbey Road to the Cavern Club and on to the Smiths' Manchester.
One week: London and classic England
- Days 1-3: London, with Westminster, the Tower, the great free museums, the neighbourhoods and an evening at the theatre (see London itineraries).
- Day 4: Oxford and its colleges, with a stop in a Cotswold village.
- Day 5: the Cotswolds, among Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury and Chipping Campden.
- Day 6: Bath, with the Roman Baths and the Royal Crescent.
- Day 7: Stonehenge and Salisbury, before returning to London.
Alternatively: a day trip to Windsor, Cambridge, Brighton or Canterbury instead of the Cotswolds.
Ten days in Scotland
- Days 1-3: Edinburgh, with the castle, the Royal Mile and Arthur's Seat.
- Day 4: Stirling and its castle, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.
- Days 5-6: Glencoe and Fort William, at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles, with the steam train over the Glenfinnan Viaduct.
- Days 7-8: the Isle of Skye, with the cliffs and rock formations of the Quiraing and the Old Man of Storr.
- Day 9: Loch Ness and Inverness, through the Highlands.
- Day 10: return via the Speyside distilleries or by train to Glasgow.
Two weeks: the grand tour of Britain
London (3 days), Cambridge, York (2 days), the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District (2 days), Edinburgh (3 days), then south towards Liverpool or Manchester, North Wales with Snowdonia and the castles of Conwy and Caernarfon, and finally Bath and Oxford before returning to London. It is an intense itinerary, ideal by train with a hire car for the national parks.
One week in the south-west: Cornwall and Devon
Bristol and Bath, then Exeter and Dartmoor, Plymouth, the fishing villages of Cornwall's south coast, St Ives and Land's End, the westernmost tip of England, and back along the north coast via Tintagel. Along the way there are subtropical gardens, surfing beaches and the South West Coast Path. Lovers of Arthurian legend can add Glastonbury.
The north of England
York, the Yorkshire coast with Whitby and its abbey, Hadrian's Wall, the Northumberland coast with the castles of Bamburgh and Alnwick, Alnmouth and Holy Island, and Newcastle. An alternative is the Lake District, with its lakes and the homes of the Romantic poets.
Wales and Northern Ireland
Wales can be toured in a week between Cardiff, the Pembrokeshire peninsula, the mountains of Eryri and the castles of the north (see Wales). Northern Ireland can be discovered in four or five days between Belfast, the Causeway Coastal Route, the Giant's Causeway and Derry.
See also trains and transport, when to go and British cities.