As well as reading our UK travel guide, start your holiday planning in the UK by taking a trip to your favourite independent bookshop. Because so much UK literature has been inspired by journeys through the lakes of Cumbria, the snowy Scottish slopes of the Cairngorms, a love of the lochs, or the wilds of Darmoor.

Robert Macfarlane brings our ancient tracks, drove roads and coastal paths to life in his exquisite book The Old Ways. Or shares his inner thoughts evoked by remote spots such as Bardsey Island, Wales, in ‘The Wild Places’. Alfred Wainwright walked the length and breadth of the UK for his prolific and historic collections of walking guides. And Roger Deakin, in the highly acclaimed ‘Waterlog’ swims his way around lakes and rivers for fully immersed tales of our waterscapes.

Such writing reawakens a pride of place in our homelands, dusting off out hiking boots and OS maps and realizing that there is so much of it we have still to discover.

To look at the UK with a new perspective, it helps to look back in time. To the old ways. Literally. The Victorians created the Caledonian Canal to link up the lochs so that they didn’t have to sail around the treacherous tip. It is now one of the country’s greatest places to holiday. Sail Scotland’s remote islands on a traditional wooden fishing boat to experience marine perfection. Walk the Pilgrims’ Way in Kent, where people have trodden since prehistoric times. Or paddle around Pembrokeshire to forget time altogether. So often tourism in the UK is about castles and cottages, camping and city breaks. Here are just a few of our favourites that touch on all of these too, but throw a few more secrets ingredients into the mix.