Top 10 UK Most Popular Beautiful Destinations

With more of us expecting to work from home following the pandemic, there has been a huge surge in people looking for homes in their dream locations – aiming to swap a city lifestyle for the country’s most beautiful spots. Zoopla named 10 cities in the UK as the most beautiful spots for home hunters.

Cotswolds (Photo: CN Traveller)

Cotswolds – 8,666,131 views

With its rustic rural charm, rolling hills, vibrant market towns, and picture-perfect villages, the Cotswolds offers nearly 800 square miles of unspoiled countryside. An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the range of hills in west-central England is packed with picturesque villages built of Cotswold stone, beautiful churches, and vast manor houses, according to Visit Britain.

From the charming town of Cirencester that can trace its roots back to Roman times, to the honey-colored cottages of Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury, and Burford, the area was once renowned for its wool production, reminders of which you can still see today. Delve into history at Sudeley Castle and Gardens, scale the heights of Broadway Tower and surround yourself with nature at Westonbirt Arboretum on your way to discovering one of Britain’s most spectacular locations.

Kent Downs (Photo: Campsites)

Kent Downs – 8,257,901 views

The Kent Downs AONB continues from the Surrey border in a widening ribbon of rolling countryside to meet the sea at the cliffs of Dover. Inland, the Downs rise to over 240m, cresting in a prominent escarpment above the Weald to the south. It is traversed by the three prominent river valleys of the Darent, Medway, and Stour.

The Kent Downs AONB offers dramatic views, vibrant communities, a rich historic and cultural heritage, and diverse wildlife and habitats making it a worthy landscape for national protection. It is the eighth largest AONB and, along with the High Weald AONB, covers 33% of Kent’s land area providing a wealth of opportunities for everyone to explore, enjoy and benefit from this outstanding landscape.

Chilterns (Photo: Geographical)

Chilterns – 7,270,489 views

The Chilterns is a living, working area of beautiful countryside whose character has been shaped by agriculture, industry, and the people who have lived and worked here over the centuries. Once the larder of London, the historic market towns, tucked-away villages, pubs, farmland, chalk-fed streams, and ancient woods all hint at the growing, trading, and of course, enjoyment of good local food and drink, according to Visit Chilterns.

You could choose the Chilterns for activity and exploration, peace and quiet, entertainment or indulgence: this lovely countryside on London’s doorstep has all you need for a really memorable break. In 324 square miles of superb scenery, intriguing attractions, tucked-away villages, and market towns, there’s always something more to be discovered. Short breaks call for a short journey, so visitors from London and Oxford will find the Chilterns hard to beat. Quick to reach by train or by car, and easy to explore with boots, buggies, bikes, or boats, no time is wasted in discovering just why this is the last undiscovered Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England.

High Weald (Photo: Country Life)

High Weald – 5,844,025 views

The essential character of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was established by the 14th century and the area is therefore considered to be one of the best surviving, coherent medieval landscapes in Northern Europe. Every landscape has a story and the High Weald is no exception. Its key features - its rolling hills, scattered farmsteads, small woodlands, irregular-shaped fields, open heaths, and ancient routeways - were created by the end of the 14th century - the High Weald is essentially a medieval landscape.

A very high density of dispersed historic settlements of farmsteads and hamlets with late medieval villages founded on trade and non-agricultural rural industries. A dominance of traditional timber-framed buildings with steep roofs often hipped or half-hipped and an extraordinarily high survival rate of farm buildings dating from the 17th century or earlier. Ancient routeways in the form of ridge-top roads and a dense system of radiating driveways, often narrow, deeply sunken and edged with trees, wildflower-rich verges, and boundary banks.

Cornwall (Photo: Go Southwest England)

Cornwall – 5,531,634 views

Cornwall is a county on England’s rugged southwestern tip. It forms a peninsula encompassing wild moorland and hundreds of sandy beaches, culminating at the promontory Land’s End. The south coast, dubbed the Cornish Riviera, is home to picturesque harbor villages such as Fowey and Falmouth. The north coast is lined with towering cliffs and seaside resorts like Newquay, known for surfing.

The effects of the Gulf Stream mean that Cornwall has the sunniest climate in the UK. It also has the mildest climate in the United Kingdom. Warm ocean currents ensure that snow and frost are rare in Cornwall even during the winter months. The Cornish cuisine with the most worldwide recognition is the Cornish pasty, which is sometimes referred to by locals as ‘oggies’. The pastry-based dish is traditionally filled with beef, onion, potato, swede, salt, and pepper but you’ll find many variations of fillings.

Gower (Photo: Campsites)

Gower – 4,915,398 views

The Gower Peninsula is a rich and varied environment that is as ecologically diverse as it is beautiful - from open, wild moors and dramatic limestone cliffs to golden, sandy beaches. Gower is a geological goldmine with inspiring landscapes and a captivating coastline.

Stay on dry land, and you will be missing out! It gets some of the most awesome waves in Britain, and sandy Llangennith has been popular amongst surfers for decades. Rhossili Bay has also been enjoying some limelight on the world stage too. It has been voted into the top ten beaches in Britain for the last eight years and is currently the 11th best beach in Europe.

North Wessex Downs (Photo: Great West Way)

North Wessex Downs – 3,065,673 views

The North Wessex Downs is the third largest area of outstanding natural beauty in the UK. The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty includes parts of Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Wiltshire. It covers 668 square miles and extends from Basingstoke and Andover in the south to Reading, Devizes, and Newbury in the north, west, and east. Important for the variety of its wildlife and habitats, it contains 66 Sites of Special Scientific Interest and some important archaeological sites, such as Avebury and Beacon Hill.

The North Wessex Downs forms part of the unique chalk landscape of southern England and is renowned for its sweeping hills, unspoiled villages, and stunning views. The area is popular with horse riders, walkers, and cyclists and two long-distance walks, the Wayfarer’s Walk and the Test Way, meet at Inkpen Beacon and allow visitors access to some of the most beautiful scenery in Hampshire. The famous Watership Down, the inspiration for Richard Adams’ heartwarming novel, can be explored on foot or on the off-road-cycling routes the Watership Down Trail and Whitchurch Trail.

Surrey Hills (Photo: Visit Surrey)

Surrey Hills – 2,840,595 views

The Surrey Hills offer some of southeast England’s most beautiful and accessible countryside. Famous beauty spots include Box Hill, Leith Hill, and the Devil’s Punch Bowl. You’ll discover an extensive footpath network, open commons, inspiring views, attractive market towns, villages, and much more, according to Visit Surrey.

Well-known iconic sites such as Box Hill, Leith Hill Tower, and Newlands Corner to the more unusual including the Tillingbourne waterfall, Wilberforce memorial & Atlantic Wall – you’re bound to discover something you didn’t know about in the Surrey Hills. Find out more about the legend of Silent Pool, the military history associated with Reigate Fort, and why Wanborough Great Barn is the oldest and most important wooden building in Surrey.

South Devon (Photo: HF Holidays)

South Devon – 1,852,473 views

With 3 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a World Heritage Coast, a National Park, over 125 miles of stunning coastline, acres of unspoiled countryside, two vibrant cities and an amazing mixture of coastal and rural towns and villages, South Devon encompasses the very best the country has to offer.

From the rolling countryside to the wilderness of Dartmoor National Park and the undulating hills of the countryside around Tiverton to the winding river valleys leading to the coast, this diverse landscape is peppered with an array of towns and villages from quaint, traditional, rural communities, diverse waterside market towns such as Salcombe, Dartmouth, Newton Abbot, Exmouth, Sidmouth, Teignmouth and Dawlish to vibrant city centers such as Plymouth and Exeter, all offering their own unique charm.

Wye Valley (Photo: Trip Advisor)

Wye Valley – 1,802,694 views

The Wye Valley was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1971 to protect the special features that make it one of the finest lowland landscapes in Britain. The lower Wye Valley remains nationally renowned as a destination for tourism and recreation with 2.3 million tourist days per annum. Overnight stays, while common, are outweighed by day trips with many people traveling for less than 2 hours to visit the Wye Valley. Amongst these visitors are some of the 29,300 residents living and/or working in the market towns, villages, and hamlets of the Wye Valley AONB.

The natural beauty of the area is recognized as contributing to economic activities and well-being such as tourism and inward investment, as well as the overall quality of life, making the Wye Valley a more attractive place in which to live and work. However, the general locality is renowned for limited job opportunities.

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