England · The northwest
Tucked into England's mountainous northwest corner, the Lake District is the country at its most romantic and most wild. Glacier-carved valleys cradle long silver lakes, green fells rise to England's highest peaks, and slate-gray villages huddle in the folds between. It is no wonder this landscape gave rise to a whole school of poetry; Wordsworth was born here and never really left.
The lakes themselves set the rhythm of a visit. Windermere, the largest in England, is ringed by wooded hills and crossed by little steamers, while quieter waters like Ullswater and Grasmere reward those who venture further in. Above them rise the fells, laced with walking routes for every ability, from gentle lakeside strolls to the long pull up Scafell Pike, the highest ground in the land.
What we love is how the cultural and the natural sit side by side. You can spend a morning walking a high ridge and an afternoon in the footsteps of the writers who made this place famous, then settle into a lakeside inn as the light fades. Give it two or three nights, pack for rain whatever the season, and let the fells work their slow magic.
