Guest Post: 5 Places You Must See in England and Wales

Most visitors to the UK tend to visit London and confine their visit to London only. Well, London is a fantastic city and I highly recommend visiting London to anyone who wishes to visit the UK. While visiting London, it is highly recommended that you visit at least a few of the fantastic towns and cities in the UK, most of them a short drive or train ride from London.

 

Coming to London and not visiting other parts of the United Kingdom is like having a delicious double chocolate cake with tasty icing and just licking the icing without having at least a slice of the cake, that is a huge waste! This article brings you brief information about five outstanding places in England and Wales you should definitely visit next time you are in London or any major UK city.

 

Introducing Temi Odurinde

Hi, I work for www.travelfriendz.com , a social networking site for people who love to travel. And frequently contribute to Travel Friendz blog and their social networking sites.

Malvern Hills 

A visit to Malvern Hills is an opportunity to see three English counties at onece because Malvern Hills range covers the three beautiful counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. Unlike many of the attraction in cities, you can actually drive to and park easily when you visit Malvern Hills. If you are not driving, it is easily accessible by Great Malvern railway and other train lines. A short taxi ride from Malvern train station will take you to these breathtaking hills.

For a fantastic panoramic view of the surrounding area, head for the highest summit of the hills, where you are said to be able to see a many as thirteen English and Welsh counties including Herefordshire, Worcestershire, the Welsh mountains and the Severn valley.

Depending on how active you are, walking the length of the Malvern Hills could be fun and tiring, but you will be rewarded by fantastic views and you may come across the odd flock of sheep.  There are refreshment at the base of the hills including dog friendly hotel and restaurant.  Currently, there are rumour that cable cars may be introduced to Malvern Hills soon, it is hopped it will give visitors an even more spectacular experience.

Symonds Yat

Just as Malvern Hills straddle multiple English Counties, Symonds Yat,  which is located in the Forest of Dean with part of it in Herfordshire and the other part in Glucestershire. It is a few miles from the historic market town of Ross-on–Wye and a walking distance from the county of Monmouthshire. The main attractions of Symonds Yat is the fantastic picturesque river and the houses on its bank. A boat trip on the river on a visit to Symonds Yat is highly recommend, as well as a visit to Yat Rock where you will not just have a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside but also the opportunity to see one of the very few place Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird in the world, nests.

Ross-on-Wye
Known by local and other countries around it simply as Ross, Ross-on-Wye punch well above its weight in terms of visitors it attracts. With a population of just over 10,000, this market town is said to be the birthplace of British tourist industry. The rector of the are in 1745 Dr John Egerton was said to be fond of taking friends on boat trips from his rectory to Ross, where the river scenery was very popular. The word spread about Dr Egerton’s boat trips and visitors come from far and wide, books were written about the trip which brought even more visitors to Ross-on-Wye, back then and to this day, visitors from all over Britain and across the world are still coming to Ross.

Apart from the spectacular scene in and around Ross itself, its is very close to many other beautiful landmarks such as Symonds Yat and Malvern Hills.

The Black Mountains

If you are looking for pure breath of fresh air, literally speaking, you got to head for the Black Mountains. As with almost all the other locations choose for this article, Black Mountains occupies more than one country. It straddles the two Welsh counties of Powys and Monmouthshire with it extending into the county of Herefordshire in England.  Defining the hills that actually constitutes the Black Mountains is quite confusing because of the way local use the word ‘Black Mountains’ fo many part the Black Mountains and areas within and around. A rough definition of the Black Mountains is areas within a triangle defined by the towns of Abergavenny, Hay-on-Wye and  Llangors.

Regardless of how its defined, the best way to see the Black Mountains is on horseback. On the Hay-on-Wye side of the Mountains, you can hire horses and a guide to show you this spectacular wild natural space.

The City of Hereford in Herefordshire

The final place on the list of  five places this post recommends is the City of Hereford, in Herefordshire. Hereford is worth visiting for many reasons, one of them being the fact that it is the most rural county in England, withing a few minutes drive in any direction from the city, you are in open countryside. For those into agriculture, it is the home of the popular Hereford Bull, a breed of beef cattle popular with beef farmers around the world.

Though Hereford is designated a city, because it has a cathedral, but in terms of what the word ‘City’ conjure up in one’s mind, Hereford is not like that. You can walk the length and breath of the City of Hereford in under one hour. The size of Hereford is part of the attraction, the people of the city, when compared with say cities like London or Manchester are very chilled out, nice and friendly.

One of the sights you must see when in Hereford is the Mappa Mundi, a map created in 1300, which some described as “an outstanding treasure of the medieval world, it records how thirteenth-century scholars interpreted the world in spiritual as well as geographical terms.”

So for visitors to London and even Londoners who never travel past Watford, the above places should inspire you to explore the border towns and cities around parts of England and South Wales.