A country of royalty and pomp, quaint villages, English country gardens, stately sprawls and wistful rolling countryside there’s no place quite like England.

England is a country known, the world over, for its consumption of tea, its propensity for the inexplicable game of cricket (and usually loosing) and its national obsession with the weather. But despite its eccentricities, England has been at the hub of Britain and indeed the rest of the world throughout most of its history. The English language is the most widely spoken in the world and, its system of governance has been adopted in countless nations around the globe.

Despite being a small country in a small island, England has a huge wealth of celebrated heritage enjoyed by millions of visitors each year. A large portion of this is taken up by the capital, London a World Class city of wondrous proportions. But outside of London, England has a rich depth of character and history to discover, from medieval cathedral towns and towering castles, to timber, thatched cottages and a countryside that’s at once rolling and blissful and in parts wild, dramatic and deeply atmospheric.

England is a land that has inspired countless artists and writers and for every Stonehenge, Tower of London, Stratford-upon-Avon and Lake District, there is a corner of England that hides a lesser-known gem. And England is a country rightly proud of its heritage and beauty with museums on practically anything and everything and huge hectares of National Parks, Areas of Outstanding National Beauty and stately gardens.

Entertainments in England range from the cultured to the banal, from the Henley Regatta to cheese rolling in Gloucester, from cricket to football. A nation of quirks, that’s best enjoyed over afternoon teas in an English country garden or over a pint of beer in a quiet country pub, preferably in an oddly named village.