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| London is the place to start. Nowhere 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 the only obstacle to a great time is the shockingly high cost of everything. It's here that you'll find Britain's best spread of nightlife, cultural events, museums, galleries, pubs and restaurants. The other large cities, such as Birmingham (Birmingham Hotels), Newcastle (Newcastle Hotels), Leeds (Leeds Hotels) or Liverpool (Liverpool Hotels) each have their strengths: Birmingham has a resurgent arts scene, for example, while people travel for miles to sample Newcastle's nightlife. These days Manchester (Manchester Hotels) can match the capital for glamour in cafés and clubs, nd also boasts the inimitable draw of the world's best-known football team.
Since the distances involved are so small, internal flights are not the most obvious choice for getting around Britain. However, with several regional airports - including Birmingham (Birmingham Hotels), Bristol (Bristol Hotels), Manchester (Manchester Hotels), Glasgow (Glasgow Hotels) and Edinburgh (Edinburgh Hotels) - well served by low-cost airlines - flights can be a cost-effective as well as time-saving way of travelling. You can fly to Scotland's main airports - Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen (Aberdeen Hotels) - in an hour or so from London (London Hotels), as well as from various provincial airports. There's usually a confusingly wide range of fares. The best deals are special-offer tickets , sold at least three days in advance on specific flights; these tend to fly at less social hours and are subject to availability and certain restrictions, but the savings can make the extra effort well worthwhile. The next cheapest seats are Apex tickets, available on all flights, at about half the price of a full-price economy-class ticket. The full amount for Apex must be paid at least two weeks before departure, and only half of the price will be returned if the booking is cancelled. Anyone under 26 should also check out a specialist agency such as Campus Travel or STA Travel, as they offer special youth deals, including Domestic Air Passes (aka "Skytrekker Passes") on British Airways flights, which can get you to Inverness and the Hebrides for a fraction of the published fare. We've listed addresses for discount agents. As a broad guide to what you're likely to pay, reckon on £30 for a rock-bottom one-way ticket from Luton Airport (Luton Airport Hotels) or Stansted Airport (Stansted Airport Hotels) to Edinburgh or Glasgow with Easyjet. BA also flies from Cardiff (Cardiff Hotels) to Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. England's ancient cathedral cities, such as Lincoln, York, (York Hotels), Salisbury (Salisbury Hotels, Durham and Winchester , cannot be equalled for sheer physical beauty. 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. In the southwest there are remnants of a Celtic culture that was all but eradicated elsewhere by the Romans, and everywhere you can find traces of prehistoric settlers - most famously the megalithic circles of Stonehenge and Avebury . 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 (Cotswolds Hotels) and the Yorkshire Dales harbour some especially picturesque specimens, but every county can boast a decent showing. Then, of course, there's the English countryside, an extraordinarily diverse terrain from which Constable, Turner, Wordsworth, Emily Brontë and a host of other writers and artists took inspiration. Exmoor, Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor , the North York Moors and the Lake District (Lake District Hotels) are the most dramatic and best known of the national parks, each offering an array of landscapes crisscrossed with walking routes. | |
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