Europe
The United Kingdom is an island country in north-west Europe. Its capital is London, and Wikidata records English as its de facto official language.
Destinations covered
12
Published guides
26
Region
Europe
Explore United Kingdom
Discover cities, regions and experiences worth building a trip around, then go deeper with practical guides and local context.
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11 destinations
Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland; Belfast City Hall on Donegall Square, in the city centre, is the city council's civic building. XTOUR maps Titanic Belfast, the Ulster Museum, City Hall and Crumlin Road Gaol in the city, and treats the Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle on the Antrim coast as places reached from Belfast, not as part of it.
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Cambridge is a city and county town in Cambridgeshire, England; Visit Cambridge, the city's visitor guide, says its architecture was shaped primarily by the University of Cambridge. XTOUR maps King's College Chapel, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Kettle's Yard, the University Botanic Garden and the Mathematical Bridge in the city, and keeps IWM Duxford, which lies outside it, apart.
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Canterbury is a cathedral city in Kent, England, where Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church are parts of the Canterbury World Heritage Site. XTOUR maps those three places in the city and treats Dover Castle, in Dover, separately.
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Cardiff (Caerdydd) is the capital city of Wales; its official tourism body, Visit Cardiff, is part of Cardiff Council. XTOUR maps Cardiff Castle, National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans National Museum of History, Llandaff Cathedral and Castell Coch within the City and County of Cardiff, and treats Caerphilly Castle, in Caerphilly County Borough, as a place reached from Cardiff.
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Edinburgh is Scotland's capital city. Forever Edinburgh, the City of Edinburgh Council's destination marketing service, lists Leith, a historical port, among the city's own neighbourhoods and Midlothian among its day trips outside Edinburgh.
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Glasgow is a city on the River Clyde in west central Scotland, as VisitScotland describes it. XTOUR maps Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Riverside Museum, the Burrell Collection, the Hunterian, Glasgow Cathedral and the Glasgow Necropolis in the city.
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Inverness is a city in the Highlands of Scotland, which VisitScotland calls the capital of the Highlands. XTOUR maps Inverness Cathedral in the city and treats Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, the Clava Cairns and Fort George as places reached from Inverness, not part of it.
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Liverpool is a city in Merseyside, England, whose waterfront on the Mersey includes the Royal Albert Dock, opened in 1846; the Metropolitan Cathedral's history page calls mid-19th-century Liverpool a thriving port.
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London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. XTOUR maps the museums, galleries, churches, palaces, parks and markets that lie inside Greater London or the City of London, and keeps places that are only reached from London, such as Windsor Castle, apart from the city.
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Oxford is a city in Oxfordshire, England, where the University of Oxford's museums, libraries and botanic garden stand. XTOUR maps the Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers museums, the Bodleian Old Library, the Radcliffe Camera, Christ Church Cathedral and Oxford Botanic Garden in the city; Blenheim Palace at Woodstock is reached from Oxford and is not part of it.
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York is a city in North Yorkshire, England, which its tourism organisation Visit York describes as a city with Roman roots and a Viking past where ancient walls surround the centre. XTOUR maps York Minster, Clifford's Tower, the JORVIK Viking Centre, the National Railway Museum, the Yorkshire Museum and the City Walls in the city, and treats Castle Howard as a place reached from York, not part of it.
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The Roman Baths are a council-run museum and archaeological site in the centre of Bath, entered by timed ticket, in a city that carries two World Heritage inscriptions. This guide sets out what the Roman Baths ticket covers in the operator's own words, and what each of Bath's two inscriptions is for.
Cambridge's colleges each decide for themselves what a visitor may see, what it costs and who may lead a group. This guide sets out what King's, Trinity and Queens' say on their own visiting pages, including where one college's residents' card is accepted and where it is refused.
Canterbury's World Heritage Site is three places with three different keepers: a working cathedral, an English Heritage abbey ruin and a parish church. This guide sets out what each one's own pages say about entry, how the cathedral's year-long ticket works, and where the official accounts differ.
Changing the Guard is the handover between the soldiers guarding the King's residences, staged at Buckingham Palace and at Windsor Castle on different days. This article sets out what the Household Division, which runs it, says about the ceremony, its schedule, how it can change at short notice, and where its own pages disagree.
Edinburgh Castle is a ticketed Historic Environment Scotland site at the top of the Royal Mile; the Royal Mile is the Old Town street that runs from the castle down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. This guide sets out what the castle holds, what its own ticket pages say about timed entry, flexi tickets and passes, where those pages disagree, and how both fit the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site.
Edinburgh in August is several festivals run by different organisations, and what separates the International Festival from the Fringe is who chooses what is on stage. This article sets out, in each organiser's own words, what the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, the Book Festival, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Edinburgh's Hogmanay are, and which dates had been published when XTOUR checked on 11 October 2026.
Four castles and two sets of town walls built for Edward I in north Wales form one World Heritage Site, and Cadw, whose pages are signed as part of the Welsh Government, sells the tickets for all four castles. This guide sets out what Cadw's own pages say each castle is, how their tickets work and where Cadw's pages disagree with each other.
The United Kingdom is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland, Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales, and England is one of the UK's four countries. This article sets out those definitions from UK legislation and government pages, shows where the difference turns up on food labels, number plates, heritage bodies and maps, and says how XTOUR files its UK destinations.
Hadrian's Wall is not one attraction but a frontier across northern England with separately ticketed sites along it. This guide sets out the four sites English Heritage names, what each one's page says it holds, how the Wall fits the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, and where the official descriptions differ.
Highland games are Scottish competitions of heavy throwing, running, jumping, dancing and piping, held in towns and villages across Scotland through the summer. This article explains the events and the governing association, then sets out what the Braemar Gathering's organiser says about its history, its tickets and its day, including the places where its own pages disagree.
London's blue plaques mark buildings where notable people lived or worked, under a scheme English Heritage has run since 1986 and which began in 1866. This article explains who decides, the rules a plaque must meet, how to tell an official plaque from the many others on London's walls, and why some official ones are not blue.
The permanent collections of London's big national museums are free to enter, but special exhibitions are not, and each museum handles free tickets differently. This guide sets out what the National Gallery, the Natural History Museum, the V&A and the two Tates say on their own visit pages, and what XTOUR could not read.
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