A first week that leaves London

Three nights in London, then four in one other place, beats seven cities in seven nights. The other place should be a real change of grain: Edinburgh if you want a capital with weather and a close; York or Bath if you want England on foot; the Lake District if you want hills and are willing to be rained on with dignity.

Do not try Cornwall, the Highlands and Oxford in the same week unless you enjoy motorway service stations. Distance on a British map is a liar. The Lake District is not “near” Manchester in the way a visitor hopes, and Skye is not a day trip from Edinburgh.

Days 1–3, London, sleeping in one neighbourhood. Walk more than you Tube. One great museum on a free general-admission ticket, one market meal, one evening that is not a West End show unless you already love the West End. Leave one afternoon unplanned.

Days 4–7, the train north or west before breakfast. Edinburgh rewards four nights: the Old Town in the morning, a Forth-side or Arthur’s Seat hour, a half-day to Glasgow or North Berwick, and a long dinner. York is tighter and just as good for a first trip: walls, streets, the Railway Museum if you care about machines, and the Yorkshire countryside on a local train to Scarborough or Whitby if the weather is kind.

Stonehenge at peak coach hour, unless the stones themselves are the point of the journey. A changing-of-the-guard timetable that eats a morning. Any “UK in a day” coach that promises Windsor, Oxford and Stratford before supper. You will see car parks.

Book the long-distance trains when you book the flights if you are travelling in school holidays, around Edinburgh in August, or into Cornwall on a Friday in July. The rest of the year, the railway is a pleasure and not a siege.