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Country guide
The United Kingdom is 244,376 km² holding 69,281,437 people, and it is four countries rather than one: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast as their capitals. Three of the four run parliaments of their own over devolved matters, and the law splits three ways — England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland. A visitor meets that in small practical things rather than at a border. London alone holds about 9.1 million of the total, which is why so many trips never leave it, and why the ones that do feel like arriving somewhere else.
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Ilya Grigorik · CC BY-SA 3.0
Photograph · 瑞丽江的河水 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · 瑞丽江的河水 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Daniel Nisbet from Manchester, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
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The British Museum in Bloomsbury holds the largest permanent museum collection in the world and charges nothing to see it.
The Victoria and Albert Museum is the national museum of art, design and performance at Cromwell Road in South Kensington, and its permanent collection of more than 2.8 million objects makes it the world's largest museum of applied and decorative…
The Natural History Museum in South Kensington holds around 80 million specimens across botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology, and it holds them in a building that is itself one of the exhibits.
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London displaying lifelike figures of celebrities, historical figures, and cultural icons. Founded by Marie Tussaud, it has become a major tourist attraction.
The Science Museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington is Britain's national museum of science, technology, engineering and medicine, founded in 1857 and independent since 26 June 1909.
The Royal Observatory stands on the hill in Greenwich Park where Charles II commissioned it in 1675 to fix longitude at sea, and it is the reason the world sets its clocks from a line drawn through south-east London.
Kelvingrove is Glasgow's civic art gallery and museum, a red sandstone building on Argyle Street at the western edge of the city centre, run by Glasgow Life on behalf of Glasgow City Council.
Apsley House is a historic townhouse in London, England. It stands at Hyde Park Corner and is also known as Number One, London due to its prominent position.
The Freud Museum London is the former home of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, who lived here briefly after fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938.
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it operates as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects.
Sir John Soane's Museum occupies the former home of the neo-classical architect John Soane at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields in London.
The Imperial War Museum London is a major British museum dedicated to the history of conflict from the First World War to the present day.
Cutty Sark is a historic British clipper ship preserved in Greenwich, London. Launched in 1869, she was among the fastest tea clippers built for the China trade route.
The Horniman Museum is a museum and gardens in Forest Hill, south London. It was founded by Frederick Horniman, a Victorian tea trader and collector, and opened to the public in the late nineteenth century.
The Charles Dickens Museum is a literary museum in London dedicated to the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens. It occupies 48 Doughty Street, the only surviving London residence where Dickens lived.
Chiswick House is a Palladian villa in West London, constructed in the early eighteenth century. The building was designed by Lord Burlington, who was deeply influenced by the architecture of Andrea Palladio and the buildings of ancient Rome.
The National Maritime Museum is a major maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It forms part of the Royal Museums Greenwich, which also includes the Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark, and the Queen's House.
The Design Museum is a museum in London dedicated to contemporary design in every form, from architecture and fashion to graphics, product and industrial design.
The Churchill War Rooms constitute a museum housed within the original Cabinet War Rooms, the underground headquarters where Prime Minister Winston Churchill directed British military operations during the Second World War.
The National Museum of Scotland is the national museum on Chambers Street, combining collections that range across Scotland, the natural world, science, technology, art and design.
The Burrell Collection is a civic museum in Pollok Country Park, three miles south of central Glasgow, built to hold the roughly 9,000 objects that Sir William Burrell spent seventy-five years buying.
HMY Britannia is the former Royal Yacht, launched in 1953 for the British Royal Family and preserved in Leith by The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust.
London Museum Docklands is a museum located in the Docklands area of East London. It occupies a former warehouse building at West India Quay, a heritage site that reflects the area's maritime and commercial history.
People’s History Museum calls itself the national museum of democracy and traces how people in Britain organised for political and social change.
The Wellcome Collection is a museum and library in London devoted to health and human experience. Established through the will of pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry Wellcome, it explores the connections between medicine, life and art through permanent and temporary exhibitions.
Museum of the Home is a museum in London exploring domestic life and interiors through the centuries. Formerly known as the Geffrye Museum, it occupies restored almshouses built in 1714 with funding from Sir Robert Geffrye.
The Riverside Museum is Glasgow's transport and technology museum, standing where the River Kelvin meets the Clyde in Partick, about two miles west of George Square.
The Queen's Gallery is an art gallery located at Buckingham Palace in London. It displays works of art from the Royal Collection, which is one of the largest and most significant art collections in the world.
Manchester Museum is the University of Manchester’s museum of human cultures and the natural world, housed in its Oxford Road neo-Gothic building.
Provand's Lordship stands as Glasgow's oldest surviving house, a rare medieval building in a city transformed by Victorian and modern development.
Scotland Street School Museum is a former school building in Glasgow, now operating as a museum. Designed by the renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, it stands as one of his significant public commissions in the city.
Manchester Jewish Museum occupies a former Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in Cheetham Hill, one of the most architecturally significant Jewish buildings in Britain.
National Football Museum uses four floors of the Urbis building at Cathedral Gardens to tell the history and culture of the English game. It is not organised by club allegiance.
IWM North is Imperial War Museums’ branch at Trafford Wharf, opened in 2002 as the family’s first museum outside south-east England.
The People's Palace is a museum and public glasshouse situated in Glasgow Green, the city's oldest park.
Glasgow Science Centre sits on the south bank of the Clyde at 50 Pacific Quay, a titanium-clad crescent facing the SEC and the Armadillo across the water.
The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery is Scotland's oldest public museum, founded in 1807 following the will of Dr William Hunter, a pioneering anatomist and collector.
Science and Industry Museum occupies part of the former Liverpool Road railway complex, where Manchester’s industrial past is interpreted through working machinery, experiments and locally made technologies.
Dennis Severs' House is a historic house museum located in Spitalfields, London. It was created by the American artist Dennis Severs, who lived in the property from 1979 until his death in 1999.
The David Livingstone Centre, locally known as the David Livingstone Museum, commemorates the Scottish missionary and explorer born in Blantyre near Glasgow in 1813. The centre occupies the former textile mill tenement where Livingstone spent his childhood.
Trinity House of Leith is a historic maritime building in Edinburgh's port district of Leith. The structure served as the headquarters for the Incorporation of Masters and Mariners, a guild governing seafaring activities.
Elizabeth Gaskell's House is a literary heritage house museum in Manchester. It was the home of the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, author of Cranford, North and South, and Wives and Daughters.
The Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archives occupies a former police station in Manchester's Northern Quarter. It preserves the history of policing in the region through collections and displays.
The Writers' Museum is a literary museum in Edinburgh dedicated to Scottish writers. It celebrates the lives and works of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Holmwood House is a historic villa in Glasgow, designed by Alexander 'Greek' Thomson and completed in 1858.
The King's Gallery is a royal art gallery located in Edinburgh, Scotland. It forms part of the Palace of Holyroodhouse complex at the foot of the Royal Mile.
The National War Museum is a military history museum located within Edinburgh Castle in Scotland's capital city. It occupies a former storehouse building within the castle complex, which sits atop Castle Rock, a volcanic plug dominating the city skyline.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·
Ten to fourteen days can cover four or five days in London, two in Manchester, and two or three each in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Highlands, Lake District, or Welsh national parks need dedicated nights and should not be squeezed into London day trips.
UK document rules depend on nationality and trip purpose, and many visitors now need an Electronic Travel Authorisation before boarding. Check the linked UK government visa service for both visa and ETA status shortly before travel.
Intercity rail is the practical spine between London, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, with advance fares usually distinct from flexible tickets. Each city runs its own local fare system, so London's contactless cap is not a nationwide travel pass.
May to June and September are useful planning windows for this route, but conditions vary between southern England and Scotland. Festival dates in Edinburgh and rural transport in national parks can matter more than the national seasonal label.
The United Kingdom uses pound sterling (GBP). Contactless payment is widespread in major cities, but keep another payment method for rural services or terminals that do not share London's payment arrangements.
Use 999 or 112 for emergencies in the United Kingdom. Type G sockets supply 230 V, and mains tap water is recorded as safe; save rail disruption information as well when the itinerary depends on several city-to-city journeys.
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