Your favourite place to visit in England
As it's English Tourism Week this week we wanted to hear from you on where your favourite place to visit in England is and why? Top of my list is Norfolk. I love the Norfolk Broads. The wildlife is one of the reasons why I love the Broads and we were lucky enough to see, what we later identified as a rare Swallowtail butterfly. We stayed at the Norfolk Broads Club Campsite when we last visited in 2022 and I'm hoping to go back this year. Here are some of my photos form the trip.
Let me know where you love visiting in England and why and if you have any photos please share them here too. 🙂
Comments
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Rowena
We were always drawn to Norfolk. My first holiday was on the Norfolk Broads on a boat from Potter Higham. Your first picture looks like Wroxham? Its its where I think it is there is a nice cafe near there.
Difficult to pick one place as there are so many good places to stay in the UK. I do quite like towns and cities as I like the buzz.
David
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Like David, I find it extremely difficult to pick one place. For me, the reasons would be the scenery, the facilities, the tidiness and cleanliness of the place and the history. These are the really important things. If I had to select one town or city, it would have to be York - for the history, the things to do, the lovely people and the great bakery shops. If I selected one rural location then I think it would be the Kent coast, between Dungeness and Folkestone - for the views, the sea, the sandy beaches and the wonderful countryside. Both these locations have excellent club sites in the vicinity and both of which afford great cycling as it is mostly flat - another reason why I favour them!!
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For me it is Cornwall especially the Penwith peninsula. I have strong ties with the area and I love the wild ruggedness of the coastline, the beaches and the fishing villages. Interest and beauty abounds. It is just a little too remote or was (communications links have improved in the last 50 years) and it gets overwhelmed with summer tourists, otherwise I may well have retired there. I visit most years, usually out of season.
peedee
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It was Wroxham @DavidKlyne We took a boat on the Broads from there and had a lovely day. 🙂
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Plymouth - Ocean City -and my goodness, how it has improved in recent years.
Still has historic Barbican quarter but revamped city centre too, plus big modern museum, indoor shopping, Theatre Royal, and national marine aquarium. Close by to Dartmoor, two NT properties, and Mount Edgcumbe country park with coastal walks just across the estuary by passenger ferry.
Plymouth Sound Club site is basic and unreformed but might perhaps survive the current cull - though alternatives in the private sector are available. More visitors should come.
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There are just so many places in the UK that we love, and for different reasons. Northumberland possibly ticks the most boxes, mainly because of all the history, Roman, Medieval, Battles, the fabulous inland and coastal scenery, the food, the culture, and a huge plus in that it’s still possible to find relatively uncrowded beaches, not overly busy places of interest. Plenty of nice gardens to visit as well, and some great wildlife spotting.
Dartmoor is another place we love, you really can get lost on Dartmoor. We used to horse ride every year in the late 80’s, and 1990’s which gives a totally different perspective. Again, lots of history, archeology, a real connection with the past. Brilliant cycling as well.
Cornwall…….scenery that’s as fabulous as anywhere in the World, again history, wildlife, gardens, food, superb crafts. I feel a little bit sad though when I think back to our early holidays down there, they were just so lovely, but it’s a victim at times now of it’s beauty and popularity. It’s possibly the place that seen the most change of all the places we love. Some for the better, but some sadly not so good.
Warkworth Castle, Northumberland. Home to Hotspur and the rest of the Percy’s.
The Hound’s at Hounds Tor Ancient Village on Dartmoor
A very old photograph🤭 Back from a Dartmoor ride up to Widgery Cross
from stables near Lydford. Boot washing in a river, it was February.
Looking across the River Fowey to Polruan. We used to spend weeks down here in the 1990’s, even zipping down for weekends. Walked a lot of the SW coast path in Cornwall.
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There are many areas we love including Northumberland and Cheshire where we spent a lot of time but our favourite area has to be south Devon. We are regular visitors to Hillhead Club site. Love the whole area Paignton Torquay and Brixham are great as is Dartmoor and Dartmouth. Lovely area and we try to get there every couple of years
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I think our happiest memories were to be found in the Peak District but to be honest we have always found something to captivate us wherever we have wandered in both England and the rest of the UK.
For us it has everything from mountains to lakes to walkable easy access countryside to great seaside to fabulous nature to Industrial Heritage as well as oodles of History plus some the best (worst) Pot holes to be found anywhere in Europe.
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Similar to @Wherenext we have not one specific place in England that we like more than anywhere else, as we can always find something new and interesting wherever we go. But I do wonder why @Rowena has limited the favourite places to England as, for us and I guess others, Scotland and Wales will also have favoured locations.
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@nelliethehooker But I do wonder why @Rowena has limited the favourite places to England…
If you look at the opening sentence of the Rowena's post it says:
As it's English Tourism Week this week we wanted to hear from you on where your favourite place to visit in England is and why
Mine is definitely the Lake district, mountains, their stunning locations, all the possible routes that even if you visit them over and over the magic just never fails.
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For obvious reasons, I quite like visiting places where I can take my classic car. I enjoyed visiting the CAMC’s pop-up site at the Beaulieu Motor Museum a couple of years on the bounce. The New Forest is one of my favourite parts of the country, and I don’t think you could get any more immersed in it than on that pop-up site. It was great to offload the caravan on site and then just head out to the beach for a drive. It was also fantastic to make the most of the member offer to enjoy a free return museum ticket for the duration of your stay.
We’re probably most drawn to the North of England - particularly Yorkshire (where we live) and Northumberland. It’s so pretty and it’s an easy run from home with us, particularly if we take the classic car. We’re getting more into exploring Scotland too. We stayed at River Breamish CAMC site near Alnwick last summer, which was a perfect antidote to our busy life in the city. It is so immersed in nature and offers complete peace and tranquility, with a dark night sky as a nice bonus. From exploring the rocky river beds from the back of the site to finding the secret beach, it’s an incredible place to stay and we came home feeling really relaxed and reset.
We also seemed to explore a lot of city breaks in 2024 with the caravan. We stayed at York Rowntree Park, Abbey Wood in London and Edinburgh Club Site (pictured below). It’s actually a really cheap way of exploring a city, with the comfort of your own caravan to return to after a long day trekking around a busy city.
I didn’t really answer the question very well… in short, we like exploring EVERYWHERE! That is the whole point of having a leisure vehicle, isn’t it?
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@CameronBurns now that is one stunning pair! Beautiful caravan, and a lovely car to tow it with. Is it a Cheltenham? We hand a Rover 3.5, that lovely almond colour.
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We too had a V8 3.5 Rover. Ours was L reg in bronze/brown with the spare wheel mounted on the boot lid. That one of yours, Cameron, bears an old style Plymouth reg. A Cheltenham too! Two doors but you had to remember to lock the o/s one when using the Porta Potti😂.
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@Takethedogalong @Tinwheeler yes it is a Cheltenham, a 1964 Puku 4 to be exact. It was a bit of a mess when I got it, but have fully restored it and modernised it a little bit inside in places, whilst trying to keep the look and feel of the original interior. There’s more information about it on my website:
I’ve had my P6 for many years and it’s been all over Europe, usually with a caravan in tow. Last December I was fortunate enough to buy the larger P5b Coupé, which has always been a dream car of mine. I’m itching to get the Cheltenham hooked up to it this spring!1 -
Well done, Cameron!
My step father had 2 Cheltenhams but I can’t remember the model names. The first was a 15ft van and the second a 12/13ft. He too towed with a big Rover but it was the previous model of 1967 vintage.
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What a fabulous resto project👏👏👏 You made a superb job of it, managing to retain the period look of the van, but making it more usable. I love the felted walls idea. We are no slouches when it comes to buying and restoring/keeping going older outfits, but yours is a lovely project. We have just made the decision to sell our much loved Cotswold Windrush caravan, which is mid point through a second resto (we bought it in 1996), but once I show my OH your resto website he will be humming and raring to go again🤣 You bought a very good base, and they are much loved, we have met up with a few Cheltenham owners who treasure their outfits.
Aware that this isn’t a thread about outfits, but about places to visit, I will add that we like to do Classic car shows and Museums up and down the country, and one of our more recent short tours took in Gaydon Motor Museum. Best exhibit for me though wasn’t a car………..it was a vintage Caravan!😁
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@Tinwheeler The 12/13ft one was likely a Sable, which was the most popular model at the time. If it was 15ft and a two berth, it would have been a Puku 2, if it was a four berth, it could have been either a Puku 4, Nyala, Roebuck or Oribi.
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@Takethedogalong thank you so much for your lovely comments. I bet your Cotswold Windrush is worth restoring now, they’re becoming rarer in good condition. I think they’re very pretty caravans.
I think Cheltenham owners treasure what they have because little else compares. When the company first went out of business in 1974, there was such demand for them that a private firm bought the name and tooling and re-started production. Sadly, the recession of the early 1980s pushed them out of business for good, so two Cheltenham Owners Club members set up shop restoring and modernising Cheltenhams for owners who wouldn’t change their caravan for anything else. Believe it or not, they were kept busy right up until their retirement in 2004! I have to confess, once we added a few mod cons to ours, we sold our modern caravan. The Cheltenham is lighter, easier/better to tow, easier to use, more comfortable, more practical and it’s SO pretty! We absolutely love it.
I love visiting Gaydon as a self-confessed British Leyland/Rover nut, it’s a great place to explore. The 1930s Winchester they have on display is magnificent, but for me the highlights are the prototype Rover P6 variants including the gas turbine engined model and the prototype sports car. It’s also cool to see Harold Wilson’s P5b saloon, complete with additional ashtrays in the rear and shagpile carpets!0 -
Thanks, Cameron. The larger van was a 2 berth but I really can’t recall the model.
Talking of TDA’s Cotswold, we had a Shire Royalty built by the folk who resurrected the Cotswold build type. It was a great van. I don’t think Shire survived for many years.
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