If you ask any visitor to imagine England, the typical image includes the famous red telephone kiosks, the London riverside wheel, and the King's palace. However, drive a mere twenty miles away from the city center, and you find a different country entirely. The country is far more than a single metropolis; picture soft green hills, broken-down ancient castles, warm scones with jam and cream, and ocean edges that have stirred the creative soul for centuries on end. Complete guides on tourist safety guide for the UK can be found at the online resource.

The Cotswolds. This is the England of postcards: warm ochre stone dwellings, rose-wrapped entrances, and picturesque hamlets named Castle Combe and Bourton-on-the-Water. Seeing the area properly requires either four wheels or two feet on the Cotswold Way path. Do not miss the opportunity to indulge in scones with two essential toppings — clotted cream (from Devon or Cornwall) and strawberry jam, however, a word of caution: the great West Country debate rages on — Cornwall insists on jam then cream, while Devon demands cream then jam.

Brighton & The Seven Sisters. A short sixty-minute journey from central London, the coastal town of Brighton provides an eccentric beachside retreat. Explore the vintage pier with its amusements and sea views, eat fish and chips wrapped in paper, and visit the eccentric Royal Pavilion, a building that seems to have been transported directly from the Indian subcontinent. A short drive east brings you to the Seven Sisters Cliffs — dramatic white chalk cliffs that rise from the sea. Stroll the high path above the sea for sights that interrupt your own speech with their grandeur.

The Lake District. Designated by UNESCO as a site of global importance, this region also functions as the nation's supreme natural recreation area. The poet who described himself drifting "lonely as a cloud" did most of his wandering right here in the Lake District.

Hike up Scafell Pike (England's highest mountain), enjoy a cruise on the broad waters of Windermere, England's most expansive lake, or for a less active approach, plant yourself in a traditional watering hole, nurse a locally crafted ale, and let the famously frequent rain do its work on the moors and mountains. When you count yourself a fan of the thousand-year period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, put York at the top of your list. Put on comfortable shoes and traverse the complete circuit of York's famous Bar Walls, become happily disoriented in the Shambles, a crooked, twisting passage so magical that the filmmakers used it as their template for platform 9¾'s shopping destination, and admire the stunning York Minster, whose Great East Window is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass anywhere on the planet.

If you prefer your history with a side of terror, sign up for a late-night supernatural walking tour. York claims to be the most haunted city in Europe. Positioned not far from the urban hubs of Manchester to the west and Sheffield to the east, the the national park showcases rugged open moors, gleaming reservoirs, and idyllic villages — do not miss Bakewell, the spiritual home of the Bakewell pudding (different from the Bakewell tart). If your perfect weekend involves walks across open country followed by plates of sandwiches, pies, and ale, then this is your destination.

England's southwestern tip feels almost like a different nation. The region offers steep, rocky cliff faces, ocean waters that turn a vivid turquoise on sunny days, and excellent wave-catching opportunities at Newquay's Fistral Beach. Visit St. Ives for its art galleries and seafood, explore the open-air Minack Theatre carved into a cliffside, and explore Tintagel Castle, where a recent discovery of a 6th-century slate has reignited the Arthurian connection and where a dramatic footbridge now connects the mainland to the island.

Cornwall proudly defends its copyright on the pasty, a D-shaped baked good whose authentic filling contains specifically beef, potato, swede, and a little onion. Eat it with your hands.