England’s most rewarding experiences often lie beyond the obvious, beyond the Tower of London, Stonehenge, and the Cotswold villages that fill the Instagram feeds, in the landscapes and the towns that the guidebooks overlook and the tour buses pass by. England is a country of extraordinary variety for its size, from the wilderness of the Northumberland coast (the dunes, the castles, and the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, one of the most beautiful and atmospheric places in the country) to the forgotten mining landscapes of Cornwall (the engine houses of the tin mines, the remains of an industry that once dominated the world, standing like ruined temples on the clifftops), to the small, perfect cities of the Midlands and the North that have shed their industrial past and become centres of culture, food, and creativity. Here is how to get off the tourist trail in England.

Quick Facts: Off the Tourist Trail in England

• 1. The Northumberland Coast: The most beautiful and under-visited coastline in England, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty stretching from Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north to Amble in the south, a landscape of vast, empty beaches, sand dunes, and the dramatic silhouettes of the castles, Bamburgh (the greatest castle in Northumberland, a Norman fortress on a basalt outcrop above the most beautiful beach in the north, the view of the castle across the sands, the Farne Islands on the horizon, and the North Sea stretching to the edge of the world, is unforgettable), Dunstanburgh (a ruined 14th-century castle on a remote headland, accessible only by a walk across the fields from the village of Craster, 2 km each way, the castle emerging from the mist as you approach), and Lindisfarne (the Holy Island, the cradle of English Christianity, the monastery founded by St. Aidan in 635, the Lindisfarne Gospels produced here, the island cut off from the mainland twice a day by the tide. Check the tide times, the causeway is submerged and the island is truly isolated for about 5 hours. The walk across the Pilgrim’s Way, the ancient route across the sands marked by wooden posts, is one of the most magical experiences in northern England). Also: the Farne Islands (a boat trip from Seahouses, 15 min, to the islands where St. Cuthbert lived as a hermit and where 150,000 seabirds, puffins, guillemots, razorbills, Arctic terns, nest in the summer. The puffin season: April–July. ~£20. One of the best wildlife experiences in the UK). And Craster (the village famous for its kippers, oak-smoked herrings, the best in England. Buy them from L Robson & Sons, the smokehouse has been operating since 1856, and eat them on the harbour wall. The Craster kipper is an essential English food experience). More UK destinations →
• 2. The Shropshire Hills: The most underrated landscape in England, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Welsh border, a landscape of long, whale-backed hills, deep valleys, medieval castles and hillforts, and villages of black-and-white half-timbered houses that are as beautiful as anything in the Cotswolds at a fraction of the crowds. The essential experiences: the Long Mynd (the 8-mile ridge of heather and moorland above the town of Church Stretton, walk the Portway, the ancient track along the ridge, with views of the Welsh mountains to the west and the Midlands plain to the east), the Stiperstones (the jagged quartzite ridge, the Devil’s Chair, the rock formation that is the focus of local legend and the most dramatic landscape in the Shropshire Hills), and Ludlow (one of the most beautiful small towns in England, the castle, the medieval streets, and the food scene that made Ludlow the gastronomic capital of the Marches, the Ludlow Food Centre, the market, and the restaurants are among the best in the West Midlands)
• 3. The Lincolnshire Wolds: England’s least-known Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a landscape of gentle, rolling hills, chalk streams, and ancient villages between Lincoln and the sea. The Wolds are the English countryside at its most peaceful and least visited, the walking (the Viking Way, the long-distance footpath, 147 miles, across the Wolds, named for the area’s Viking heritage), the cycling (the quiet lanes and the big skies), and the villages (Tealby, the most beautiful village in the Wolds, a cluster of thatched cottages around a stream on the edge of the hills) are free of the crowds of the South West and the Lakes. The Red Hill nature reserve (the chalk grassland and the wildflowers, the cowslips in spring, the pyramidal orchids in summer) and the view from the top of the Wolds over Lincoln, the cathedral on its hill, a distant silhouette on the plain, one of the most beautiful city views in England, are the rewards
• 4. The forgotten industrial landscapes of Cornwall: Beyond the beaches and the surf towns, Cornwall has one of the most extraordinary industrial landscapes in the world, the Cornish Mining World heritage Site, a landscape of ruined engine houses, chimney stacks, and the remains of the tin and copper mines that were the engine of the Industrial Revolution and once produced two-thirds of the world’s copper. The engine houses of the Botallack Mine (clinging to the cliffs above the Atlantic near St. Just, the Crowns engine houses, perched on a ledge above the sea, are the most dramatic and most photographed mining remains in Britain) and the Levant Mine (where a man-engine, a primitive lift, collapsed in 1919, killing 31 miners, the restored beam engine is the oldest working steam engine in Cornwall) are the essential sights. The South West Coast Path runs through the mining landscape, the walk from St. Just to Pendeen and on to Zennor is one of the most beautiful and atmospheric coastal walks in the UK