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City Break UK: Top 5

In the scramble to escape to 'The Continent' Britons often overlook the delights on their own doorstep. However, a growing number of people are starting to look closer to home and discovering that UK city breaks rival the best that Europe has to offer. Admittedly the weather can’t always be guaranteed, but the country’s a rich collection of museums and galleries means that time indoors is well spent. Throw in some of the best nightlife on the planet and a burgeoning café scene and you may never need a foreign language phrasebook again.

London
Judging by the excited hubbub of weekend revellers in Soho’s Old Compton Street London hasn’t stopped swinging since the sixties. Samuel Johnson wrote that ‘when a man is tired of London he is tired of life,’ and he wasn’t kidding - England’s capital has a phenomenal amount to offer. With more than 8500 restaurants, 3700 pubs, 159 theatres, 70 cinemas the only difficulty you’re likely to face is working out how to cram everything in. London’s collection of museums and galleries is second to none with The British Museum attracting 5.5 million visitors annually and Tate Modern the talk of the global art cognoscenti. For a bird’s eye view of London take a flight on the London Eye where a jigsaw of architectural styles, civic monuments and public parks outlines the history of one of the world’s truly great cities.

Manchester
Manchester first swaggered to national attention in the early 1990’s as a new generation of musicians bought dance music to the masses. While the heady days of ‘Madchester’ are long gone a Manchester city break still has more to offer than you’ll be able to squeeze into a weekend. Jump on the Metro to Salford Quay and you’re greeted by a showcase of stunning new architecture and Victorian loft-conversions that would be unrecognizable to the ‘matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs’ that Lowry painted just half a century ago. Its centerpiece is the Lowry museum (which has the largest collection of the artist’s work in the world) and it’s the perfect place to pull up a waterside chair, order a creamy pint of Boddingtons and reflect on how Manchester has so successfully washed her gloomy industrial past downstream.
Back in the city center the transformation continues. Manchester has long been competing with London for the best nightlife in the country, and now the area around Rochdale canal is set to steal the UK’s café-culture crown. Arts run the whole gamut from fringe theatre, at the Cornerhouse, to the sublime classical performances put on by the North’s premier orchestra; the Hallé based at the Bridgewater Hall.

Edinburgh
The ‘Athens of the North’ has long been a favourite weekend away for those in the know and today the city is one of the most popular city breaks in the UK. Slender church spires and Georgian facades jostle with each other for attention as you reach the top of the Royal Mile. It’s easy to see why J.B.Priestley declared that he 'never imagined that any city in these islands could be at once so beautiful and fantastic'. Edinburgh also has a busy social calendar with the annual August Arts festival being the main draw and New Year’s Eve Hogmanay coming a close second.

Brighton
A long-time favourite destination of the Royals, toady’s Brighton attracts queens of a different kind. Brighton’s laid-back vibe and liberal politics have put the city at the top of metrosexual modern Britain’s cool list. There’s a certain air of faded splendour lingering about the sea front and reminders of past patronage in the faux-Taj Mahal pavilion and dilapidated pier beyond. The pebble beach is not fantastic for sunbathing, but it’s the closest bit of coastline to London so expect to see it swamped in summer.

Glasgow
To really get under Glasgow’s skin you’ve got to find out a little about her past, and there’s no better place to start than the People’s Palace Museum. Glasgow’s pride in her industrial roots is only matched by a phenomenal appetite for life, and as you would expect from the largest city in Scotland there’s plenty going on. After an obligatory pilgrimage round several of Charles Rene Mackintosh’s buildings (of which the Glasgow School of Art steals the show), there’s no better place to relax than Pollok Park; also home to the exquisite Burrell Collection of art. Glasgow really comes into her own at night where, between the City Centre and the West End, there are more than enough restaurants and bars to suit every taste and pocket.

Bristol
Sipping a drink on Bristol’s revitalized quayside it’s easy to forget that you’re actually in the UK. Here café culture is booming and combined with colourful street performers and the overspill from Arnolfini gallery it’s a heady cocktail. Besides acting as Bristol’s economic lifeline the river Avon also proved the inspiration for two of the city’s greatest landmarks, Clifton Suspension Bridge and the world’s first iron-hulled steam liner, the SS Great Britain.

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