Europe: United Kingdom: England

England is a definite travel hot spot and one of the most visited places on earth. Comprising of offshore islands such as Isle of Wight and a large chunk of Great Britain’s island plus nine regions, England neighbours Wales and Scotland and is a mere 52km stretch of sea away from France.

The English Countryside is famous for its lush green rolling hills such as the Pennines in the east-west, the Cotswolds and Exmoor, for the romantic bridges and numerous picturesque rivers. Some of the more prominent rivers include the (longest Britain) Severn, the Trent and Thames, the Tees, Humber Tyne and Wear, Ouse and Dee… to name a few!

The English Coastline is another draw card for many and Poole is said by some to be the 2nd largest natural harbour in the world.

The English Climate is known to be wet due to prevailing, south-west winds and temperature extremes ranging between -6 °C and 30 °C.

England’s Architecture is exciting because as a visitor we get a fusion of historic English houses, castles such as Windsor and Warwick Castle plus the Tower of London, cathedrals such as world renowned St. Paul’s Cathedral and other medieval venues and state of the art modern buildings.

England’s 10 Largest Cities:

London is of course the big attraction for the traveller and the largest city in England. It has a population of 8,278,251 and major localities include Barnet, Bromley, Croydon and Ealing.

West Midlands has a population of 2,284,093 and noteworthy to the visitor is Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampton.

Greater Manchester with a population of 2,240,230 and its Manchester, Bolton, Stockport, Salford and Oldham.

Tyneside has a population of 879,996 and the localities include Newcastle on Tyne, South and North Shields, Gateshead and Jarrow.

Liverpool houses 816,216 people in St Helens and Liverpool, Huyton-with-Roby and Bootle.

Nottingham has 666,358 people in Beeston and Long Eaton, Stapleford, Nottingham and Carlton.

Sheffield with 640,720 people has the localities of Highlane and Chapeltown, Rotherham, Sheffield and Mosborough.

Bristol has 551,066 people and the areas of Bristol, Mongotsfield and Stoke Gifford plus Kingswood.

Littlehampton, Brighton and Worthing houses 461,181 in Brighton, Hove, Littlehampton, Worthing, Lancing and Shoreham.

Portsmouth has a population of 442,252 and areas include Portsmouth, Waterlooville, Fareham and Gosport.

English Cuisine is often ridiculed but many global favourites originate from England. These include dishes such as cottage pie, apple pie, fish and chips, pies with fillings of pork or steak and kidney and Shepherd’s pie. And of course the famous English Breakfast!

England’s Airports include Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester Airport and London Stansted, Birmingham International and Coventry airport.

England’s Rail Networks in urban areas are super convenient and a favourite option for travellers. The London Underground covers 275 stations along 400+km and is the oldest railway world-wide. The National Rail network stretches over a route of 16,000 km!

England’s Waterways include over 7,000 navigable waterways on which 160+ million trips are made per year.

Fast Facts of England

Languages are mostly English and Welsh.
People are mostly English with great integration of other cultures and races.
Government consist of a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and Gordon Brown the Prime Minister as head of government plus a representative democracy.
Religions include Christian, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism and atheism.
Currency Britain uses the pound sterling. The sign for the Great British Pound (GBP) is £.
Time zone From 29 October – 26 March: UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and 25 March – 29 October: UTC + 1

UK holidays 2008
1 January
2 January (Scotland only)
17 March (Northern Ireland only)
21 and 24 March
5 and 26 May
14 July (Northern Ireland only)
4 August (Scotland only)
25 August (England, Wales and Northern Ireland only)
25 and 26 December

Electricity in England has a voltage of 240 volts AC at 50HZ. Appliances generally use standard 3-pin square plugs and sockets.

The Travel-Informed Team

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