United Kingdom Travel Guide

Few places cram in as much scenery, history and culture as the United Kingdom.

England's southwest is dominated by a rugged shoreline and ancient history, while the UK's sprawling and ethnically diverse capital London sits amid the rolling hills of the cosmopolitan southeast. Brash and forward, the people of the north England are among the friendliest, and the wild and windswept Northumberland coast, Peak District and Lake District are brooding and beautiful.

But it is the highlands of Scotland where true British wilderness remains - harsh, snow capped and often inaccessible. Art-drenched Edinburgh is a stunning city to explore, and the larger islands of the Hebrides attract walkers and whiskey lovers.

Enchanting Wales features energetic Cardiff and industrial Swansea to the south, and jagged peaks of the Snowdon Massif to the north.

Across the water, stylish Belfast is a forward thinking and exciting city, and Northern Ireland's countryside is every bit as intoxicating as the UK's mainland.

Geography

The British landscape can be divided roughly into two kinds of terrain – highland and lowland. The highland area comprises the mountainous regions of Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and North Wales.

The English Lake District in the northwest contains lakes and fells. The lowland area is broken up by sandstone and limestone hills, long valleys and basins such as the Wash on the east coast. In the southeast, the North and South Downs culminate in the White Cliffs of Dover.

The coastline includes fjord-like inlets in the northwest of Scotland, spectacular cliffs and wild sandy beaches on the east coast and, further south, beaches of rock, shale and sand sometimes backed by dunes, and large areas of fenland in East Anglia.

Note: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although they form one administrative unit (with regional exceptions), they have had separate cultures, languages and political histories.

The United Kingdom section consists of a general introduction (covering the aspects that the four countries have in common) and sections devoted to the four constituent countries. The Channel Islands (Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey, Sark and Herm) and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the British Crown. These are included here for convenience of reference.

More detailed geographical descriptions of the various countries may be found under the respective travel guides.