Country guide
United Kingdom
London plus castles, Cotswold villages, Highland lochs and a coastline of surprising beaches, best explored slowly.
Currency
GBP
Language
English
English
Everywhere
Payment
Cards everywhere
Power
Type G
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+44
Destinations
Bath
Britain's only natural hot springs, wrapped in a Georgian city so complete the whole of it is World Heritage listed.
✓ best Apr-OctBelfast
The city that built the Titanic and lived through the Troubles, telling both stories straight - with the Giant's Causeway an hour up the road.
✓ best May-OctBrighton
An hour from London the coast turns into England's most cheerfully unbuttoned city - Regency crescents, the Royal Pavilion and a pier over a pebble beach.
✓ best Apr-SepCambridge
The most concentrated stretch of college architecture in Britain, with punts working the river directly behind it.
✓ best Apr-OctCardiff
A capital you can cross on foot, with a Norman castle, Britain's densest run of Victorian arcades and a 70,000-seat stadium all in the same few streets.
✓ best May-SepCornwall (St Ives)
Britain's westernmost county: Atlantic surf on one coast, subtropical creeks on the other, and an entire coastline you can walk.
✓ best May-SepCotswolds (Bourton-on-the-Water)
The wool money that built these villages drained away five hundred years ago, which is precisely why they still look like this.
✓ best Apr-OctEdinburgh
A medieval fortress town and a Georgian new town facing each other across a drained loch, with an extinct volcano at the end of the high street and the world's biggest arts festival every August.
✓ best May-SepGiant's Causeway (Bushmills)
Forty thousand hexagonal columns stepping into the Atlantic, at the centre of Northern Ireland's only World Heritage Site.
✓ best May-Jul, SepGlasgow
A UNESCO City of Music with world-class free museums, Victorian swagger and none of the fuss.
✓ best May-SepIsle of Skye (Portree)
Scotland's wildest scenery with a road bridge to it: the only summit in Britain you cannot reach without a rope, a thirty-kilometre landslip of pinnacles and hidden plateaux, and sea cliffs at the end of half the roads.
✓ best May-JunLake District (Windermere)
England's highest ground, deepest lake and longest lake sit within an hour of each other here, in the farmed valley landscape that produced the Romantic poets, the National Trust and the British habit of walking up hills for fun.
✓ best May-JulLiverpool
England's great port city: free national museums, the Beatles pilgrimage and more swagger per square mile than anywhere else in the country.
✓ best May-OctLondon
Two thousand years of capital stacked on the same ground, where the national museums are free to walk into and the theatre is the best in the English-speaking world.
✓ best Apr-SepManchester
The city that built the modern industrial world, then set it to music.
✓ best May-SepOxford
Nearly a thousand years of the English university, packed into a medieval mile you can walk in an afternoon.
✓ best Apr-OctPeak District (Bakewell)
Britain's first national park, where the right to roam was won on Kinder Scout: limestone dales, gritstone edges and Chatsworth, all within an hour of two big cities.
✓ best Apr-OctScottish Highlands (Inverness)
Britain's largest and emptiest landscape - deep lochs, single-track roads and low mountains that punch far above their height - with one compact riverside city as the way in.
✓ best May-SepSnowdonia (Betws-y-Coed)
The highest mountains in Britain south of the Highlands, in a park you can cross in ninety minutes, with a rack railway to the summit and World Heritage slate underneath.
✓ best May-OctYork
The most complete medieval city in England: walls you can walk, York Minster and half the country's surviving medieval glass, a Roman fortress and a Viking town under the shops.
✓ best Apr-OctThe sweet-spot windows
Good weather, thinner crowds, better prices: the windows worth aiming for.
| Where | When | Why it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | May-Jun, Sep | Driest, warmest, long days, gardens. Shoulder of summer | Weather always a gamble |
| Scotland | May, Sep | May: driest, pre-midge. Sep: autumn color, midges gone | Jun-Aug midges. Wet year-round |
Climate zones, month by month
United Kingdom has 20 distinct climate zones. The right month depends on where in the country you're going.
Bath Somerset →
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Belfast Northern Ireland →
✓ Best May-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Brighton Sussex →
✓ Best Apr-Sep
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Cambridge →
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Cardiff Wales →
✓ Best May-Sep
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Cornwall (St Ives) Southwest England →
✓ Best May-Sep
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Cotswolds (Bourton-on-the-Water) →
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Edinburgh Scotland →
✓ Best May-Sep · ✗ Avoid Dec-Feb
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Giant's Causeway (Bushmills) Antrim Coast →
✓ Best May-Jul, Sep · ✗ Avoid Jan
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Glasgow Scotland →
✓ Best May-Sep
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Isle of Skye (Portree) Inner Hebrides →
✓ Best May-Jun · ✗ Avoid Dec-Feb
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Lake District (Windermere) Cumbria →
✓ Best May-Jul
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Liverpool →
✓ Best May-Oct
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London →
✓ Best Apr-Sep
Conditions Jan Cold & grey · Feb Cold · Mar Mild · Apr Spring · May Mild · Jun-Aug Warm · Sep Mild · Oct Cool autumn · Nov Cold & wet · Dec Cold & grey
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Manchester →
✓ Best May-Sep · ✗ Avoid Dec-Feb
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Oxford →
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Peak District (Bakewell) Derbyshire →
✓ Best Apr-Oct · ✗ Avoid Jan
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Scottish Highlands (Inverness) Scotland →
✓ Best May-Sep
Conditions Jan Cold & wet · Feb-Mar Cold · Apr Spring · May Mild · Jun Long days · Jul Mild, midges · Aug Mild · Sep Cool · Oct Cool & wet · Nov-Dec Cold & wet
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Snowdonia (Betws-y-Coed) North Wales →
✓ Best May-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
York Yorkshire →
✓ Best Apr-Oct
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