INTRODUCTION
There's a decidedly upbeat air about Britain today. In the vibrant music scene, in its fashionable new restaurants, bars and clubs, and in a burgeoning film industry, there's a buzz, a "feel-good" factor, heralded by the press as "Cool Britannia". And yet in many respects, this cool new world isn't so new: Britain has maintained its creative momentum consistently from the "Swinging Sixties" to the present day. From The Beatles to Oasis, from Hockney to Hirst, there's always been an innovative flair to British popular culture, which contrasts sharply with the bucolic view of Britain that many of us favour. The countryside may yield all manner of delights, from walkers' trails around the hills and lakes, through prehistoric stone circles, to traditional villages and their pubs; but Britain's urban culture - amongst the most characterful and multi-ethnic in Europe - is fast becoming as popular a draw as its countryside and its history have ever been.
Yet the monuments to the past are still a major part of Britain's attraction - in the cities and in its many ancient towns, especially in England, the dominant and most urbanized member of the British partnership. Virtually every town bears a mark of former wealth and power, whether it be a Gothic cathedral financed from a monarch's treasury, a parish church funded by the tycoons of medieval trade, or a triumphalist Victorian civic building, raised on the income of the British Empire. In the south of England you'll find old dockyards from which the navy patrolled the oceans, while in the north there are mills that employed whole town populations. Britain's museums and galleries - several of them ranking among the world's finest - are full of treasures trawled from Europe and farther afield. And in their grandiose stuccoed terraces and wide esplanades the old resorts bear testimony to the heyday of the British holiday towns, when Brighton, Bath and diverse other towns were as fashionable and elegant as any European spa.
In Wales and in Scotland - the two other countries which, along with Northern Ireland, constitute Great Britain* - there is a marked contrast with their English neighbour. As soon as you cross the border into predominantly rural Wales, you are aware that you have entered a Celtic land; and in Scotland - a land whose absorption into Britain was a rather more recent event - the presence of a profoundly non-English worldview is just as striking. In both countries there are areas in which the ancient language predominates, and in both there's an active nationalist movement striving to convert a cultural identity into political terms. In 1997, nationalist feeling finally held sway when both the Scots and the Welsh voted for a devolution of power from the London-based British government. As yet it is unclear exactly how much power will move to the two new legislative bodies: although the Scots have always retained a separate legal and educational system, and will now have the power to levy Scottish taxes independently of London, little seems likely to change for the Welsh, who will remain - despite devolution - more securely subservient to a country that's been in control for some seven hundred years.
*Northern Ireland, constitutionally part of the United Kingdom, is a region to explore in conjunction with the rest of the island of Ireland. If that's your destination, you'll want a copy of The Rough Guide to Ireland, the most comprehensive guidebook to the Republic and the North.
Where to go
To get to grips with England, London is the place to start. Nowhere else in the country can match the scope and innovation of the metropolis, a colossal, frenetic city, perhaps not as immediately attractive as its European counterparts, but with so much variety that lack of cash is the only obstacle to a great time. It's here that you'll find England's best spread of nightlife, cultural events, museums, galleries, pubs and restaurants. The other large cities, such as Birmingham, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, lack the capital's glamour, but each of these regional cities has its strengths - for example, a resurgent arts scene in Birmingham, or the brilliant clubs in Manchester.
To be honest, though, the regional centres don't rank among the most alluring of destinations for many tourists, and they come a long way behind ancient cities such as Lincoln, York, Salisbury, Durham and Winchester - to name just those with the most celebrated of England's cathedrals - for sheer physical beauty. Left adrift by the industrialization of the last century and spared the worst of postwar urban development, these cities remain small-scale and manageable, more hospitable than the big commercial and industrial centres. Most beguiling of all are the long-established villages of England, hundreds of which amount to nothing more than a pub, a shop, a gaggle of cottages and a farmhouse offering bed and breakfast - Devon, Cornwall, the Cotswolds and the Yorkshire Dales harbour some especially picturesque specimens, but every county can boast a decent showing of photogenic hamlets.
Evidence of England's pedigree is scattered between its settlements as well. Wherever you're based, you're never more than a few miles from a ruined castle, a majestic country house, a secluded chapel or a monastery, and in some parts of the country you'll come across the sites of civilizations that thrived here before England existed as a nation. In the southwest there are remnants of a Celtic culture that elsewhere was all but eradicated by the Romans, and from the south coast to the northern border you can find traces of prehistoric settlers - the most famous being the megalithic circles of Stonehenge and Avebury.
Then, of course, there's the English countryside, an extraordinarily diverse terrain from which Constable, Turner, Wordsworth, Emily Bront and a host of other native luminaries took inspiration. Most dramatic and best known are the moors and uplands - Exmoor, Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, the North York Moors and the Lake District - each of which, especially the Lakes, has its over-visited spots, though a brisk walk will usually take you out of the throng.
Although the Welsh capital, Cardiff, boasts most of the national institutions, including the National Museum and St Fagan's Folk Museum, the essence of Wales' appeal lies outside the towns, where there is ample evidence of the warmongering which has shaped the country's development. Castles are everywhere, from hard little stone keeps of the early Welsh princes to Edward I's incomparable fortresses such as Conwy, Beaumaris, Caernarfon and Harlech. Passage graves and stone circles offer a link to the pre-Roman era when the priestly order of Druids ruled over early Celtic peoples, and great medieval monastic houses - like ruined Tintern Abbey - are not that difficult to find. All these attractions are enhanced by the beauty of the wild Welsh countryside. The backbone of the Cambrian Mountains terminates in the soaring peaks of Snowdonia National Park and the angular ridges of the Brecon Beacons, both superb walking country and both national parks. A third national park follows the Pembrokeshire Coast, and much of the rest of the coast remains unspoilt, though long sweeps of sand are often backed by traditional British seaside resorts: the north Wales coast, the Cambrian Coast and the Gower Peninsula are home to many.
The majority of visitors begin their tour of Scotland in the capital, Edinburgh, a handsome and ancient city famous for its magnificent castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, as well as for the excellence of its museums - not to mention the Edinburgh International Festival, a world-acclaimed arts shindig held for three weeks in August and early September. From here it's just a short journey west to the capital's rival, Glasgow, a sprawling industrial metropolis that was once the second city of the British Empire. Though its industrial base remains in decline, Glasgow has done much to improve its image in recent years, making the most of the impressive architectural legacy of its late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century heyday - a rejuvenation that has generated a brisk tourist trade.
Southern Scotland, often underrated, features some gorgeous scenery, but nothing quite to compare to the shadowy glens and well-walked hills of the Trossachs, nor to the Highlands, whose multitude of mountains, sea cliffs, glens and lochs cover the northern two-thirds of the country. Inverness is an obvious base for exploring the region, although Fort William, at the opposite end of the Great Glen close by Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest peak, is a possible alternative. Britain's most thrilling wilderness experiences are to be had here and on the Scottish islands, the most accessible of which extend in a long rocky chain off Scotland's Atlantic coast, from Arran, through Skye (the most visited of the Hebrides) to the Western Isles, where the remarkably hostile terrain harbours some of the last bastions of the Gaelic language. At Britain's northern extreme lie the sea- and wind-buffeted Orkney and Shetland islands, whose rich Norse heritage makes them distinct in dialect and culture from mainland Scotland, while their wild scenery offers some of Britain's finest bird watching and some stunning archeological remains.
