Britain, from the Tower to the Highlands.
Which Stonehenge trip gets you inside the circle. Whether the studio tour justifies the coach fare. What a Highlands day out of Edinburgh really costs. Every tour in Britain, reviewed.
The days most British trips get built around.
A soundstage in Hertfordshire, a stone circle on Salisbury Plain, a loch that gives nothing away, and tea at four. The handful of days people fly in for, and the best version of each.
Half of Britain’s best days out happen inside the M25.
The Tower opens at nine and the Crown Jewels queue starts before it. Westminster shuts for services. The Eye sells timed slots. London runs on tickets bought in advance, and these are the ones worth holding.
The Tower queue, the studio sets, the Glencoe road.
Every review →More travellers take these than anything else in Britain. Each one is here because it holds up on the day, not because it is famous.
1
The London Eye Entry Ticket
Ride the London Eye for classic skyline views from 135m, 30 minutes in glass capsules, with standard or fast-track entry around the Thames.
From · $39
Read our review →
2
Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition Ticket
from $48
3
Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour
from $117
4
Magical London: Harry Potter Guided Walking Tour
from $20
5
Madame Tussauds London
from $36
6
Warner Bros. Studio Harry Potter Tour & Branded Bus
from $151
7
Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands Tour
from $62
8
Tower Bridge Entry Ticket
from $21
Wizards, a monster and tea at four.
Castles and cathedrals turn up all over Europe. A film backlot in Hertfordshire, a loch that keeps its secret, and a trolley of scones at four o’clock belong to Britain alone.
The Wizarding Pilgrimage
Almost all of it was made within an hour of London. The Great Hall, Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express sit on a soundstage at Leavesden; the trolley through the wall is at King’s Cross; Christ Church in Oxford lent its staircase. Studio tickets are released in blocks and disappear, while the walking tours need no ticket at all.
- 1Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 26,588 reviews
- 2Magical London: Harry Potter Guided Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 22,044 reviews
- 3Warner Bros. Studio Harry Potter Tour & Branded Bus★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 19,194 reviews
Loch Ness and Glencoe
A Loch Ness day out of Edinburgh runs about eleven hours and most of that is the drive, which is rather the point. Glencoe’s valley walls, Rannoch Moor, the Great Glen, then a boat on twenty-two miles of peat-black water more than two hundred metres deep. Nobody ever finds anything. Everybody still goes.
- 1Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 17,446 reviews
- 2Loch Ness, Glencoe & Scottish Highlands Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 11,381 reviews
- 3Loch Ness: Urquhart Castle Round-Trip Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,070 reviews
Afternoon Tea
The Duchess of Bedford is blamed for inventing it in the 1840s, on the grounds that dinner was too far away. Two centuries on it is a reservation: finger sandwiches, warm scones, clotted cream and a regional argument about whether the jam goes on first. Hotel rooms book out; the Thames boats leave from Westminster Pier.
- 1Afternoon Tea Cruise on the River Thames★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,274 reviews
- 2Afternoon Tea Bus with a Glass of Prosecco★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,853 reviews
- 3Great British Afternoon Tea Bus Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 616 reviews
From a $6 walking tour to a chauffeured day at Stonehenge.
Everything on the site falls into three price bands. The cheap end is often the best end: two hours with a good guide beats a coach seat most days.
Walking tours, ghost walks, cathedral entry and museum extras. Most of London’s best hours cost less than a pub lunch.
- 1The London Eye Entry Ticketfrom $39
- 2Magical London: Harry Potter Guided Walking Tourfrom $20
- 3Madame Tussauds Londonfrom $36
The full-day standards: Stonehenge and Bath, the Cotswolds loop, Windsor, a Thames cruise with tea served on board.
Studio tours with transfers, Highlands days out of Edinburgh, private drivers, and small groups that skip the coach entirely.
Edinburgh, and the road that leaves it.
The Old Town closes over your head: vaults, wynds, a castle on a plug of dead volcano. Then the road goes north through Glencoe to the lochs and the day gets very long. Most Highlands coaches pull out of Waverley Bridge around eight.
All 92 Edinburgh tours →
Book these before you land in Britain.
Most of Britain can be sorted from the hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on ticket releases, summer-only openings and timed slots that go weeks ahead of the date on your boarding pass.
- 01Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio TourStudio tickets are released in blocks and sell out weeks out. There is no walk-up gate at Leavesden.
- 02Buckingham Palace: The State Rooms Entrance TicketThe State Rooms open only across the summer, while the King is in Scotland, and the timed slots go early.
- 03Stonehenge Admission TicketEntry runs on timed slots, and standing inside the circle itself is a separate dawn or dusk booking.
- 04Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition TicketThe Crown Jewels queue is at its worst after ten. A timed morning ticket is the difference between twenty minutes and ninety.
When the drizzle sets in, Britain moves indoors.
A grey forecast is not a reason to cancel anything. The great museums are free and enormous, the cathedrals are dry, the distilleries are warm, and the ghost walks are frankly better wet. None of this cares what the sky is doing.
Two hours out of Euston, a completely different country.
Liverpool made the Beatles and has never once let it go. York kept its walls. Bath kept its baths. Oxford opens a few college staircases a day, and the Cotswolds sit in between looking exactly like the postcard.
- 1Liverpool Football Club Museum and Stadium Tourfrom $33
- 2City & Beatles Tour with Live Guide & Live Musicfrom $29
- 3University and City Walking Tour with Alumni Guidefrom $40
By place — where are you based?
London732 tours
Edinburgh92 tours
Liverpool73 tours
Inverness & the Highlands87 tours
York & Yorkshire35 tours
Oxford28 tours
Bath44 tours
Glasgow49 tours- Browse every review →
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