The Best Things to Do in the UK: London, the Cotswolds, the Lake District & Edinburgh

Mention a British holiday and people tend to picture grey skies and a queue. Well, we’d like a word. On this magnificent island, it’s possible to enjoy medieval alleys and Michelin kitchens, fells that swallow the horizon whole, and markets that have been haggling since the rag-and-bone men – and most of it is within a few hours’ train ride of the next thing.

We’ve kept this guide to four of our favourite destinations within the UK – London, the Cotswolds, the Lake District and Edinburgh – and this is what we’d genuinely send you to do. Some are the classics (earned, not inherited) and some are a little quieter. And because nobody enjoys a nasty surprise, we’ll tell you when to turn up early, when to splash out and when to let the crowds have it. Kettle on? Let’s go!

London

Everything funnels through the capital, so we’ll start here.

1. Lose a day in London’s art museums

The capital’s great national collections are, gloriously, free, which means you can wander into the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, stand nose-to-canvas with Van Gogh’s sunflowers and Turner’s squalls, and walk out again having spent nothing but time. Across the river, the Tate Modern fills a hulking former power station, where all manner of art colours the walls, while upstream, the Tate Britain houses five centuries of home-grown art. The catch is the predictable one: free and famous usually means busy, especially at weekends. For Old Masters without the elbows, the Wallace Collection and the Courtauld are the pick of those-in-the-know.

Top tip: Several of the nationals throw open their doors one evening a week: the National Gallery is on Fridays, and the Tate is on the last Friday of the month. You’ll have the Impressionists practically to yourself, often with live music and a glass of something in hand.

2. Enjoy afternoon tea at Claridge’s

Afternoon tea in London is a competitive sport, and Claridge’s has been winning at it for over a century. It’s served in the hotel’s Foyer & Reading Room beneath Dale Chihuly’s ‘Gilded Dawn’ chandelier, a froth of 800 hand-blown glass pieces that are cleaned, one by one, in the dead of night. The ritual hasn’t budged in 150-odd years: finger sandwiches (two-thirds bread to one-third filling, since you ask), scones, still warm, and plenty of clotted cream, dainty pastries, and a choice of two dozen teas poured by a sommelier who knows their oolong from their Assam. Oh, and there’s an option to add a glass of something sparkling for an extra special occasion.

Top tip: Bookings open exactly 89 days ahead and weekend tables vanish within the hour, so set an alarm and pounce the moment the window opens. And when you can’t finish it all (you won’t), ask them to box up the leftovers.

3. See a West End show

London’s theatreland is the real deal and you’ll find long-running giants like The Lion King, Les Misérables and Phantom rubbing shoulders with whatever’s just opened. Prices, however, swing like airline seats. The same stalls ticket on a sleepy Tuesday can cost half of what it does on a Saturday night, so choose wisely… For seats at the eleventh hour, sidestep the touts and head for the official TKTS booth in the clocktower on Leicester Square, run by the not-for-profit Society of London Theatre, which usually has a selection of unsold seats for that day at reduced prices.

Top tip: Chasing a sold-out hit? Try the daily online lotteries through the TodayTix app – Hamilton runs a £10 draw and the Harry Potter plays go for £40 for the pair. And if you do fancy the booth, the lesser-known one out at Canary Wharf sells the same tickets with none of the Leicester Square chaos.

4. Haggle along Portobello Road

Notting Hill does pastel-fronted terraces and film-set good looks, but its beating heart is Portobello Road, the largest antiques market on the planet at more than a thousand stalls deep. It shape-shifts by the day: expect fruit and veg early in the week, and silver, old maps and curios on Saturdays (the full technicolour experience). Of course, there’s the famous blue door in the film of the same name, and the ‘travel bookshop’ (now a souvenir shop), but the real magic is in the stalls.

Top tip: Arrive between eight and half-nine on a Saturday for first pick before the crowds thicken, carry cash (it loosens the dealers and sharpens your bargaining), then drift north to Golborne Road and the Portobello Green arcade, where the food stalls sizzle.

The Cotswolds

Two hours west, the pace drops and the stone turns the colour of honey.

5. Walk a stretch of the Cotswold Way to a pub lunch

The Cotswold Way runs 102 miles from Chipping Campden to Bath, but the trick the locals know is to walk a single morning’s section and time your arrival for a pub at lunch – boots off, fire crackling, something slow-braised on the menu. The Chipping Campden to Broadway leg is a beauty, climbing past Broadway Tower, a hilltop folly from which, on a clear day, you can count thirteen counties. Be warned, however: this is proper walking with proper ascents, so leave the plimsolls at the cottage.

Top tip: A handful of hotels will ferry your bags ahead between villages, so you can amble unburdened and still make the table you booked at a Michelin Bib Gourmand pub like the Kingham Plough. Ask us and we’ll let you know if it’s possible when you book.

6. Beat the crowds to Bibury’s Arlington Row

William Morris once described Bibury as the most beautiful village in England, and Arlington Row, a line of weavers’ cottages from the 1380s leaning companionably over a water meadow, was the reason. It really is lovely, but by mid-morning in summer, it’s anything but peaceful so time your visit accordingly…

Top tip: Come at first light or in the gilded hour before dusk, when the coaches have rumbled off and the row is yours. While you’re there, the trout farm next door lets you catch your own supper – a daft, brilliant little detour the photo-snappers tend to miss.

7. Roll up your sleeves at a Cotswolds cookery school

With farm shops, walled kitchen gardens and cheesemakers down every lane, The Cotswolds really is one big larder. It’s little wonder, then, that the region has become a hotbed for cookery courses. Knead and simmer your way through a day at Thyme in Southrop or at Daylesford Organic: they both follow the same happy rhythm of picking from the garden, cooking by lunch, and eating your creation before you leave. For something extra special, try the Raymond Blanc Cookery School at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, just over the Oxfordshire border. It was the first Michelin-starred kitchen in the country to open its own school, and you’ll forage in Le Manoir’s eleven gardens before cooking the rustic French dishes of Raymond’s childhood in the afternoon. There’s even a masterclass in bread-baking from Benoit Blin.

Top tip: Le Manoir is closed for a top-to-toe redevelopment, and the cookery school won’t reopen until summer 2027. If you can’t wait, book Thyme or Daylesford now. If you can, time a future visit for Le Manoir’s reopening and stay the night, so the only thing between you and breakfast is a flight of stairs.

The Lake District

Northwards again to the fells, where the weather writes its own itinerary…

8. Earn your views on a proper fell walk

No trip to the Lakes is complete without getting your boots muddy, and the joy is the sheer range of places to do so. Catbells above Derwentwater is a short and sharp classic, while the loop around Buttermere is a gentle two hours beneath Haystacks, the fell Alfred Wainwright loved so dearly he had his ashes scattered there. For the surefooted, Helvellyn’s Striding Edge is a knife-ridge with the drama to match, and Scafell Pike is England’s rooftop. A word to the wise: the weather here turns on a whim, and Scafell sits where three microclimates collide, so go prepared or don’t go high.

Top tip: You don’t need a summit for stunning views. Little Latrigg, a 20-minute amble from Keswick, offers Derwentwater and the great rounded bulk of Skiddaw for almost no effort at all and is loveliest at first light or last.

9. Follow Wordsworth to Dove Cottage & Grasmere

In the village of Grasmere is Dove Cottage, the modest house where William Wordsworth wrote his finest verse (and, by all accounts, walked off a great deal of the rest). The museum next door brings his world to life, and it makes a restful half-day, conveniently ideal for when the famous Lakeland drizzle decides to set in.

Top tip: Pay your respects at his grave in St Oswald’s churchyard, then duck into Sarah Nelson’s Grasmere Gingerbread, sold from a pocket-sized shop that was once the village schoolroom where Wordsworth himself taught.

10. Explore the Lakes by steam and by steamer

For a slower, soot-scented day, ride the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, a restored steam engine that hauls 1950s carriages three and a half miles through the greenery of the Leven Valley. At the far end, it’s a two-minute stroll to the pier, where one of Windermere’s grand old launches (choose the Swan, the Teal, or the Tern) will carry you up England’s largest lake. Add in a stop in pretty Hawkshead village and you’ve made a proper day of it.

Top tip: Rather than just bobbing across to busy Bowness, get the Freedom of the Lake ticket (24 hours of unlimited cruising plus the train) and sail all the way north to Ambleside, the quieter jetty with the best of the high fells laid out before you.

Edinburgh

North of the border, to a city built on a volcano and stuffed to the rafters with ghosts.

11. Climb Arthur’s Seat at golden hour

Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano that rises 251 metres out of Holyrood Park in the heart of Edinburgh, is quite the offering! The walk to the top takes about three-quarters of an hour, with a choice of routes ranging from gentle to genuinely puff-inducing. From the top, you’ll see the whole city below, the Firth of Forth glinting beyond, and the castle squatting on its crag like it owns the place. Which, historically, it rather did.

Top tip: This far north, the summer sun lingers until around half-ten at night, so a ‘golden hour’ climb is a leisurely evening affair rather than a dawn raid. Start from the Dunsapie Loch car park on the eastern flank and you’ll cut out some of the climb, too.

12. Go underground at the Real Mary King’s Close

Beneath the Royal Mile lies a buried warren of closes, the narrow tenement alleys where Edinburgh’s residents once lived, traded and, often enough, died. Sealed off for centuries, they’re now open for guided, costumed tours that are equal parts history lesson and shiver down the spine. It’s a side of the city you simply can’t see from street level and absolutely fascinating.

Top tip: The tours sell out well ahead, so book before you arrive and pick an early slot. Fair warning, too: it’s tight and underground throughout, so give it a miss if close spaces aren’t your friend.

13. Walk the ‘Royal Edinburgh’ trail

For the full regal sweep of the city, start at Edinburgh Castle and its Crown Room, where the crown, sceptre and Sword of State, the Honours of Scotland, sit behind the glass. They are the oldest crown jewels in the British Isles and were first used together to crown a nine-month-old Mary, Queen of Scots in 1543. From there, wander down the Royal Mile to Canongate Kirk, the monarch’s parish church in the city, and on to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where Mary’s secretary Rizzio met a famously grisly end. For a more modern glimpse into Scotland’s history, the Scottish parliament is just across the street.

Top tip: In the kirkyard you’ll find the grave of Adam Smith, father of modern economics, and even locals can’t resist a photo behind the headstone of the man who dreamt up the ‘invisible hand’. Time your visit for late June or early July and the city dons full ceremonial dress for Royal Week, though note that Holyroodhouse shuts to visitors if the King is in residence.

It might be small, but the UK offers a host of experiences in all four of its corners. Combine them over a fortnight’s trip, or pick a single region and dig deep – there really is no wrong way to go about it. Whichever way you lean, this is exactly the sort of trip we love piecing together and we’d love to help build yours!