United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is four nations sharing a couple of islands and a great deal of weather — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — and the traveller who treats London as the whole of it leaves most of the country unread.

London is, of course, the gravitational centre, and its hotels, its tailoring and its restaurant scene still set a global standard. But the country opens out quickly: the Cotswolds' honey-stone villages, the fells of the Lake District, the Scottish Highlands and the island-stitched west coast, the Welsh coast path around Pembrokeshire, Cornwall's surf and light, and the basalt geometry of the Giant's Causeway in the north. Edinburgh holds the case for the most complete city after London.

The food story has changed more than the country's reputation has caught up with — Britain's plant-forward and produce-led kitchens, in London and well beyond it, are now a genuine reason to plan a trip around a table.

May through September is the long, light, mostly mild window. The weather is never the reason to come and rarely entirely cooperative — but the country wears its summer well.