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England is a most beautiful and wonderful nation to visit for a vacation. There are a large number of| visitor attractions well worth visiting which cater for all tastes. For instance|One such place is the historic city of York which has been inhabited since the days of the Roman Empire, Torquay (referred to as the English Riviera) and Liverpool (2008′s European City of Culture). Possibly the most famous place to visit is London the capital city of the United Kingdom of Britain

London is an astounding destination to visit, maybe for just a weekend or, hopefully for longer. You may be surprised at the number of people living in England who have not visited London, even more surprising when you are mindful of the fact it is commonly top of most visitors lists (of the most enjoyable places they went to).

There are so many things to see and do in London that it is almost impossible to recall them all at once. Surprisingly one of the newest attractions in London also happens to be one of the most popular – The London Eye. Another popular attraction nearby to the London Eye is the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. However, one place which must not be missed is Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace is England’s most famous Royal residence, maybe because it is home to Queen Elizabeth II of England. Buckingham Palace is positioned right in the very heart of London which makes it the perfect focus for visitors. The daily pageant of ‘Changing of the Guard’ is incredibly interesting to see and quintessentially English.

Buckingham Palace was originally named Buckingham House. It was originally a large townhouse, constructed in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham. It is actually the town house that forms the main core of the palace as we are familiar with today.

Throughout the following 3 quarters of a century Buckingham House was made larger by the addition of 3 wings around a central courtyard. The main architects responsible for these constructions were Edward Blore and John Nash. John Nash was also responsible for the interior design of the monumental staterooms.

The well known architect Aston Webb was responsible for the building of the principal facade of Buckingham Palace which he re-designed in 1912. Webb along with Sir Thomas Brock (the sculptor) were the winners of a competition to design a memorial to Queen Victoria. This memorial is still seen today.

The Queen has many other royal residences besides Buckingham Palace. Annually the Queen spends Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk. Sandringham House is one of the Queen’s private royal residences.

Another private residence is Balmoral Castle, found in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The Queen was at Balmoral Castle when she was informed of the shocking incident involving Diana, Princess of Wales.

If you would like to take a break in the U.K. then you may be pleased to learn that it is possible to find cheap hotels in London without any great effort, on the other hand you may want to stay in more luxurious accommodation and the small selection of boutique hotels in London should be more than satisfactory.

This article was contributed by Barbara James of New Orleans.

We’re just back from a visit to the UK, our second trip to that area in recent years and I decided to write about some of the great uk hotels where we’ve stayed during our latest trip. The cities of the British Isles offer so much to the visitor, those guys really do comprehend the meaning of the word tradition. Add in the other advantage that they converse in a language similar to our own and that a museum or art gallery can be enjoyed in case of inclement weather and we have the ingredients of a truly memorable visit. We’re certain that you’d enjoy a visit to the UK, but would always suggest that U.S. citizens check with the U.S. Department of State Advice to Travelers website before undertaking international travel.

Edinburgh, Scotland

You can be confident of a warm welcome in the wonderful city of Edinburgh. This friendly east coast city consists of the Old Town including the Royal Mile and the New Town, with the two halves separated by the line of Princes Street. Edinburgh University dates back to 1582 and its colleges, museums and galleries are spread around the city. There are many exhibits open to the general public, check the web site for opening and closing times.

During the Summer Edinburgh opens its doors to thousands of tourists to its festivals. The Edinburgh International Festival runs for 4 weeks and showcases music, dance, theatre and opera. Running at the same time is the world renowned “Fringe”, which typically offers over 25,000 performances in over 250 different venues all over the city. With that many different shows to choose from (with a very high percentage of world premieres) including theatre, comedy, ballet, shows for the children and many musical concerts there is something for everybody. There is in addition, the Literary Festival, the Blues & Jazz Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival that run throughout the summer here.

Because we only had two days in the city we decided to pamper ourselves and stay in one of Scotland’s most celebrated hotels, The Scotsman on North Bridge. This luxurious old hotel is situated right in the middle of many of Edinburgh’s finest attractions and places including Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood House, The Royal Mile and the National Gallery of Scotland are all within easy walking distance. As I mentioned earlier we had decided to pamper ourselves with a stay at this astonishing hotel and everything that we had expected for became reality.

Birmingham, England

One of the main highlights of our latest visit to Britain was a planned visit to the Crufts Dog Show which is held in the National Exhibition Center Arena in Birmingham, the UK’s second city. Spread over 4 days, it’s the most famous dog show in the world. Last Year 143,000 visitors witnessed competition between a total of over 25,000 dogs from 26 countries taking part. A further crowd-puller at Crufts is the section labelled “Discover Dogs” where examples from 190 different breeds of dog are there with their owners, giving all and sundry the chance to question the owners and find the dog that will be right for them. Because we were only visiting Crufts, rather than exploring the city of Birmingham we took the decision to book a hotel near to the NEC, Birmingham. On this occasion we were not looking for unashamed luxury, more a place to lay our heads after an exhausting day walking miles inside the vast NEC complex. We settled on The NEC Crowne Plaza which is situated inside the grounds of the UK’s largest convention center. The hotel was exactly what you’d expect, bright, clean and totally impersonal. There was nothing to complain about and we’d happily use it again for any concerts or exhibitions at the NEC.

London, England

London was the final port of call on the latest trip. If you’ve never seen London you honestly do need to appreciate the immense size of the city. It has grown and grown out in all directions over the years and it’s essential that you decide precisely what you intend to see during your trip otherwise you’ll be spending all of your time traveling on buses and the London underground and I can tell you, that is not a pleasure that you should should look forward to. Our agenda for the last few days of our trip was to get in some retail therapy i.e. shopping. To that end we decided to stay in the Knightsbridge area with its vast array of chic, world famous stores such as Harrods. We booked into the Sheraton Park Tower in ultra-stylish Knightsbridge. The Sheraton Park Tower is one of the capital’s most famous hotels, known for its “One-O-One” restaurant, London’s best fish restaurant.  The hotel boasts tremendous views over the London skyline with many rooms overlooking Hyde Park In addition to the plethora of amazing shops, you will find many of London’s best landmarks and museums within a short distance of the hotel.