Northern Europe
Old stone, great museums, and the pub as a way of life.
The UK packs an improbable amount into a small, damp island — a capital that's one of the world's great cities, countryside an hour from anywhere, and a habit of doing history casually. It rains, the food has quietly got very good, and everything worth seeing is a short train ride from everything else.
What things cost: Expensive, London especially — but the big national museums are all free, which takes the sting out.
Sometimes the event picks the city for you.
The biggest arts festival on earth — three weeks when every hall, cellar and back room in the city becomes a stage for comedy, theatre and cabaret, and the Royal Mile fills with free street shows. Overwhelming, electric, and best dived into at random.
Edinburgh · Citywide
Massed pipes and drums, military bands and a lone piper on the ramparts, staged on the castle esplanade under floodlights each August night. Spine-tingling stuff, and it sells out months ahead — book early.
Edinburgh · Castle Esplanade
Europe's biggest street party — Caribbean sound systems, feathers and jerk chicken taking over the streets of Notting Hill for two days. Loud, packed and joyous.
London · Notting Hill, W11
The world's most famous New Year — a torchlight procession through the old town, a huge street party down Princes Street, and midnight fireworks off the castle. Book tickets and a bed well ahead; the whole city celebrates.
Edinburgh · Princes Street & the Old Town
The countdown fireworks launched off and around the London Eye, with the Thames as the front row. Ticketed viewing areas sell out — or watch from a bridge further along.
London · The South Bank & the Thames
Forty thousand runners and a million spectators, from Greenwich past the Tower and along the river to the Mall. The best free day out in the city if you're not running.
London · Greenwich to The Mall
