Wales and England

Oxford instantly conjures its dreaming spires, home to the oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of England's most enchanting cities. Its forty-odd colleges follow one another in a maze of quadrangles, cloisters and libraries: the rotunda of the Radcliffe Camera, the solemn Bodleian Library among the world's greatest, Christ Church College with the dining hall that inspired Hogwarts and its cathedral-chapel. Climbing the tower of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin takes in a panorama of golden pinnacles. The city holds treasures such as the Ashmolean Museum, Britain's first public museum, and the Bridge of Sighs recalling Venice. Along the rivers Cherwell and Isis visitors go punting, gliding in flat-bottomed boats between meadows and willows, while historic pubs like The Eagle and Child evoke Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Among antiquarian bookshops, cafés and bicycles everywhere, Oxford breathes a timeless, intellectual air. A short way off await the sumptuous Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the honey-stone villages of the Cotswolds. Oxford is a city that makes you fall in love with learning, suspended between academia and beauty.

Cardiff presents itself as the young, dynamic capital of Wales, a city that has reinvented itself around its harbour and Celtic identity. Its historic heart is Cardiff Castle, a Roman and medieval fortress turned into a Victorian mansion with the lavish interiors commissioned by the Marquess of Bute. All around open the covered Edwardian arcades, full of independent shops, and the National Museum Cardiff with its impressionist collection. On the waterfront, the old docklands of Cardiff Bay are now a lively promenade with restaurants, the futuristic Wales Millennium Centre devoted to the arts and the historic Norwegian Church. Sports fans thrill to rugby in the great Principality Stadium dominating the centre. A short way off await the fairytale Castell Coch, the coasts of the Gower Peninsula and the history-laden mining valleys. Among welcoming pubs, Welsh cooking and music festivals, Cardiff offers a warm welcome. It is a capital on a human scale, where national pride and contemporary energy blend with ease.

Bristol blends a maritime past with creative fervour, a south-west English port city that has become an icon of independent culture and street art. Its centre revolves around the Floating Harbour, an old port turned into a lively area of museums, restaurants and boats, where the SS Great Britain is moored, the steamship designed by the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Brunel also designed the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge, a daring span across the Avon Gorge and the city's emblem. Bristol is the home of the artist Banksy, whose murals dot the city's walls in an open-air gallery. Districts like Stokes Croft and Clifton offer cafés, markets and bohemian atmospheres, while the cathedral and medieval quarter tell the older story. Each year the city brightens with the spectacular hot-air Balloon Fiesta. A short way off await Bath, the Cheddar Gorge and the Somerset coast. Bristol is a young, rebellious city where tradition and innovation dance together.

London is one of those metropolises that defies summary: a millennia-old capital of the United Kingdom, it spreads along both banks of the Thames and changes character with every district. Its monumental heart turns around Westminster, where the Palace of Westminster and the Big Ben clock tower face the Gothic Westminster Abbey, setting for royal coronations. A little further on lies St James's Park and, at the end of the Mall, Buckingham Palace with its famous Changing of the Guard. Heading east you reach Christopher Wren's domed St Paul's Cathedral and, on the river, the medieval Tower of London guarding the Crown Jewels, flanked by the iconic Tower Bridge. On the opposite bank, the South Bank lines up the London Eye, the Tate Modern set in a former power station and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The great museums are free and astonishing: the British Museum with the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon marbles, the National Gallery overlooking Trafalgar Square, the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert in South Kensington. Shopping has its temples along Oxford Street and at Harrods and Liberty, while Covent Garden, Soho and Camden Market reveal a younger, more creative London. The West End lights up its musicals each evening and Notting Hill smells of vintage stalls along Portobello Road. The food is an atlas of the whole world, from the curries of Brick Lane to pubs serving fish and chips and a pint of ale, not forgetting the ritual of afternoon tea. Getting around is easy thanks to the Underground and the red double-decker buses. Within easy reach await unforgettable excursions: the royal gardens of Kew, Windsor Castle, Greenwich with its zero meridian. London is a city forever reinventing itself, suspended between royal tradition and contemporary energy.