Jenbel

Perhaps because I'm getting jaded reading the 'it's Wednesday so it must be Inverness/Cork" type itineraries we are being hit with at the moment, and the seeming desire of so many to spend as much time as possible driving in my country as possible, rather than actually enjoying it... what would be the holiday you would recommend most within your country?

I've got a few depending upon people want town/island/country...

Island has to be Shetland. Easy to base out of and a very different group of islands than any other. Plenty of driving for those that MUST drive, but plenty to see and do as well. Go to the smaller islands from mainland (Yell and Unst from preference, although Fetlar is a wee green gem covered in birds and Shetland ponies). Visit the north cliffs and the sea bird colonies. Eat the mussels. Feel the slower pace of life and relax into it.

Town - base in Edinburgh for a week. Be prepared to use public transport to visit Glasgow and Stirling. Get some eating recommendations (which does not include Chinese buffets on Waverley Bridge ). Go to the Borders and St Andrews. If you really must, go to Pitlochry to see the Highlands but there are more to Scotland than the Highlands and there are some bits of southern Fife/Tayside with stunning scenery (I was on a hill top recently near Stirling we we could see Ben Lomond, Schiehallion and Lochnagar - was amazing )

Country - this is the difficult one. Can I cheat and do two? Forget those 'drive like mad to see the spots everyone else sees). Within most parts of Scotland, there are places most visitors don't go to which are just as iconic and breathtaking, but without the associated crowds. So forget them. You aren't going to see Nessie anyway, and having grown up in Perthshire and holidayed on the west coast, I was rather disappointed with the scenery around Loch Ness - you need to get well to the south and west before it gets good. So two options would be Gairloch and Torridon or Perthshire - Dunkeld/Pitlochry way. The latter if more into sightseeing and the former if more into walking, remoteness, beauty and getting away from it all.

Swanhunter

Nice idea.

Island. A three way tie between Islay (whisky and some stunning beaches), Skye (brooding hills and Talisker) and the Isles of Scilly (very remote and quirky).

City. London, obviously. Arguably the most diverse city on Earth, world class art, culture, sport, dining, drinking but still an eminently walkable experience. Edinburgh would be my second pick for location, architecture and sense of place.

County. North Norfolk coastline is stunning with wide beaches and dunes but my home country of Cornwall just edges it. Enormous cliffs, beaches, moorland plus a fascinating industrial/mining heritage going back to the Phoenicians.

Swiss Tony

Island - Herm, a short ferry ride from Guernsey. One hotel which has no TVs or telephones but decent food and very quiet (although the island does have mobile reception these days). Can get a little busy during the day especially on holiday weekends, but once the last ferry leaves in the evening it's bliss.

Countryside - Northumberland. Most underrated part of England without a doubt. Castles, rich industrial heritage, unspoilt coastline, vibrant cities. Just make sure you wrap up warm....

lhrsfo

Island: Isle of Wight, with its diversity, its produce, its beahes and its sailing.

City: it could only be London but I live there so it's not a holiday for me. Any other city in the UK, however, would simply be second-rate in comparison.

County: Dorset is the winner here. No suggestion of suburbia, wonderful scenery, superb pubs and restaurants, beautiful and unspoilt towns and villages. It's a microcosm of what makes England special.

HIDDY

I'm not local any more but I don't care.

Very hard this as all of Scotland is nice.

City.
Have to say Glasgow just keeps on improving plus the accommodation is far cheaper than it is in Edinburgh.

Island.
Despite knocking Skye over the years after our recent visit I have fallen in love with it again....it has everything. Plus the B&B we stayed at was just superb run by a lovely couple who wanted to make us as comfortable as possible. We liked it so much we stayed another night.....their lazy cat was a bit of a character as well.

Region.

West is definitely best...no doubts about it. Anywhere will do.

Kettering Northants QC

Island: The Isle of Purbeck (yes I know it's not an island) - brings back many happy memories of holidays in that area

City: London

County: Shropshire - great (ok maybe not spectacular) scenery, low population density, great market towns that haven't been taken over by the usual crap foumnd on British high streets, some of the best food outside London (Ludlow)

stut

It's hard to narrow it down to one, so I'll go for a handful... First, coast.

East Anglia has some wonderful coastline, that feels almost hidden beyond saltmarshes and dunes. You can never really travel along it, just to and from it, and it makes the arrival all the more special. Some beautiful little backwaters, sweeping bays, huge skies, beach huts, and wonderful, fresh shellfish, from oysters to crabs. Aldeburgh, Southwold, Dunwich, Thorpeness, Walberswick, Cley, Blakeney, Wells, Holkham... And, of course, our own little Lourdes just inland at Walsingham.

Then there's Cornwall. It's incredibly popular and hence incredibly busy, but you can still manage to alternate between crowds and solitude all round here. For crowds, there's something magical about the quality of light (and quality of art) around St Ives Bay on a sunny day, or Foweypronouncedfoy at regatta time. You can watch the surfers at Gwithian, or the seals at Gweek. You can explore tiny villages and coves around the Lizard, but best of all, you can head out to the closest we have to a little tropical paradise: the Isles of Scilly. Remote, isolated and beautifully tranquil (especially the car-free islands).

Further north, there's the Northumberland coast, with more castles, kippers and crabs than you can shake a stick at. It seems like it's one gigantic sweep of sand and dunes from Newbiggin to Berwick (it's not, but that doesn't matter), with perfect little villages like Alnmouth, imposing ruins like Warkworth, and then there's that causeway over to Lindisfarne, and boat trips to see the wonderful bird life on the Farne Islands. Often overlooked (not least because of the cold weather), this is one of my favourite stretches of coast in England.

stut

How about a slightly less obvious one? Canal boating.

For those who are unaware, Britain is criss-crossed by a network of navigable canals, maintained by the Waterways Trust. They're in great shape, and go through some fantastic backwaters of the country. The traditional way to explore these is by narrowboat - a narrow, long houseboat that splutters along at barely more than walking pace, often very homely and traditionally decorated (there are quite a few people who live permanently in such boats, and you can see a number of long-term mooring spots).

The big hub for canal boating is the West Midlands, due to the sheer number of waterways there (industrial + inland = canals). Personally, my experience is around Cheshire and Yorkshire. I've long since wanted to boat over the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, but to date, I've had to settle for walking over it.

It's wonderfully laid-back, friendly, and alternately relaxing (cruising along, eating lunch at a canalside pub - of which there are plenty) and involving moderate exertion (those lock gates don't open themselves, you know, and you can kid yourself that it's a form of exercise). Canals seem to pass through interesting spots that you'd otherwise miss, mostly surrounded by green countryside, but also through the forgotten parts of cities. Thoroughly recommended to get a different view of the country!

Kettering Northants QC

We tried so hard to enjoy our two canal holidays - we did the Leeds and Liverpool canal one year from Sowerby to somewhere or other , and the following year did the four counties from Wolverhampton.

Try as hard as we did, the narrowboats just weren't for us. We found other boat users fell into precisely two categories very friendly or openly hostile, keen to tell you off for any minor breach of their etiquette. The pubs we found along the way were generally poor offering the usual microwaved junk (one or two exceptions like The Owl at Rodley) and many if the overnight stays were in fairly bleak mill towns and the like. We never had glorious weather which I'm sure makes a different. I recall one night mooring up next to factory producing ladies sanitary products, it pouring with rain the whole night and there being one chip shop in town that only opened at lunchtimes!

We much preferred the wider boats on the Thames and stays in places like Marlow and Henley much more preferable to Brighouse and the like.

I still have yearning to do the welsh canal into Llangollen but know that after 2-3 days I'll be ready to jump ship

HIDDY

That's a canal holiday scrubbed off my must do list then.

Antonio8069

I don't live in the UK, but I want to revive a 2013 discussion thread..........

I agree with stutt. A canal boat tour sounds like a delight! What are the negatives, Kettering?

The Daily Telegraph (June 7, 2014) had a wonderful article on the growth in canal travel:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/...t-Country.html

The DT also has a list of recommended itineraries:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cr...al-routes.html

The June 7 article recommends a book, Cool Canals, written by Philippa Greenwood & Martin O'Callaghan.

xooz

Had not considered the canal infrastructure as fodder for a trip, but now I am looking at biking along canals (e.g. Leeds-Liverpool). As an old geezer, I am more inclined toward flat trips, with ample pubbage along the way. I've done similar in Belgium and Germany so if anyone has experience with bicycling along canals, I'd be interested to hear about it.

alanR

County Durham is even more underrated - fortunately

alanR

British canals aren't flat - for example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingley_Five_Rise_Locks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel

1010101

Agree with the recommendations about avoiding the canals. I've been on two boats, neither of which were fast enough to outrun their own exhaust fumes, meaning everyone who drove them had a splitting headache within half an hour or so.

I'd head to the Lake District and hire a small boat for a weekend instead, if you really want to do something nautical.