Great Britain Feeling Festive?

Britons love to party. The concurrent Edinburgh International and Fringe Festivals take over Scotland’s capital each summer with a head-spinning program of performances. Torch-lit Viking revelry ignites the Shetlands during Up Helly Aa , and all of Scotland hits the streets to welcome the new year for Hogmanay. Back in London, things turn fiery during the Chinese New Year, while the summer Notting Hill Carnival blasts the neighborhood with Caribbean color. Manchester’s Gay Village hosts Mardi Gras , the wildest of street parties, and the three-day Glastonbury Festival is Britain’s biggest homage to rock, drawing banner names year after year. T in the Park, Reading Festival, Leeds Festival, V Festival, and the Isle of Wight Festival all bring massive musical acts and crowds, selling over a million tickets annually. The International Musical Eisteddfod is Wales’s version of the mega-fest, swelling modest Llangollen to nearly 30 times its normal size. For a celebration of all things Welsh, check out the National Eisteddfod . Grab a ferry to Northern Ireland on Saint Patrick’s Day for a countrywide carnival of concerts, fireworks, street theater, and Guinness-soaked madness. More information on British festivals can be found in the sections for English , Welsh , and Scottish events.

Best Place For A Pint: In Penzance, the Admiral Benbow adorns its walls with shipwreck relics. Students prowl The Turf in Oxford. Tradition mandates a pub crawl in Edinburgh . Nottingham’s Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem , carved from rock and established in 1189, claims to be England’s oldest pub and still serves a mean pint. London brims with pubs: Fitzroy Tavern is perfect for sipping a pint on the street with your pals.
Best Livestock: Don’t pet Northumberland’s psychotic Wild Cattle, inbred for seven centuries . They aren’t really livestock, but the tailless Manx cats on the Isle of Man are still pretty rad. Famous seaweed-eating sheep sustain themselves on the beaches of North Ronaldsay .
Best Place To Feel Like Royalty: For the ultimate regal experience, book the Bishop’s Suite in Durham Castle . Fend off the ghost at Chillingham Castle during a stay in a private apartment. Get lost in the hedge maze at the Chatsworth House . The hidden sea cave beneath Northern Ireland’s Dunluce Castle makes for stealth escapes back into the commoner’s life outside.
Best Nightlife: Brighton does native son Fatboy Slim proud as a legendary naughty town. Hip travelers command most of Newcastle , while funkier folks try Oldham St. in Manchester —home of the famous Factory Records club nights—or Broad St. in Birmingham .
Best Place To Be A Rockstar: Rock gods like Oasis cut their teeth at the Water Rats in London . Find three friends and strut the crosswalk in front of Abbey Road Studios in St. John’s Wood. Channel The Beatles in the Cavern Club , Liverpool’s tourist mecca. Radiohead played its debut gig in 1984 at Oxford’s Jericho Tavern . See rock legends take the stage in Pilton at the Glastonbury Festival.
Best Sunsets: The walled Welsh city of Caernarfon sits on the water, full on facing the western horizon. The extreme northern location of the Shetland Islands makes for breathtaking skies, while Arthur’s Seat grants 360° views of the Edinburgh skyline. Get even closer to the sun on an evening hot- air balloon ride in Bristol .
Best Quirky Museums: In Boscastle, the Museum of Witchcraft confirms the hocus pocus with biographies of living witches. The Dog Collar Collection in Leeds Castle displays medieval pooch attire. London’s Sir John Soane’s Museum contains the mummified corpse of the architect’s wife’s dog, among other fun oddities.
Best Way To Tempt Fate: According to legend, nappers on Snowdonia’s Cader Idris will awake either as poets or madmen, although the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Also in Snowdonia, mountaineers celebrate reaching the summit of Tryfan by jumping between its two peaks. Go coasteering in Saint David’s , or—for the truly courageous—root for Arsenal at a Manchester United football match.
Best Of The Macabre: Lay down the law at the gallows at Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice . Some 250,000 bodies supposedly slumber around Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk , while relics of the infamous Red Barn Murder spook visitors at Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St. Edmund’s. Watch your head at the Tower of London .
Best Way To Time Travel: Listen to the town crier announce the secession of the American colonies in Chester . Near Shrewsbury, the Land of Lost Content salvages souvenirs of popular culture from trash cans.
Best Place To Be Posh: Shop till you drop in Birmingham , the shopping capital of England. Hit up the Victoria Quarter in Leeds, where designer stores are housed in grand, stately Victorian buildings.