Walk Birkenhead Park, opened in 1847 as one of the world's first publicly funded parks, which inspired New York's Central Park

Walk Port Sunlight, the model village William Lever founded in 1888, and visit the Lady Lever Art Gallery

Look for birds at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands on the Dee estuary

Walk the Wirral Way through Wirral Country Park, Britain's first country park

Birkenhead Park, opened in 1847, was one of the first publicly funded parks in the world, and it inspired New York's Central Park. William Lever founded Port Sunlight as a model village for his soap workers in 1888, and the Lady Lever Art Gallery stands at its heart. On the Dee side of the peninsula, the RSPB has its Burton Mere Wetlands, and the Wirral Way runs through Wirral Country Park, Britain's first country park.

The Wirral: Birkenhead Park and Port Sunlight

Visit the Museum of Liverpool at Pier Head, opened in 2011 to tell the story of the city and its people

Walk the Royal Albert Dock, opened in 1846 with its fireproof warehouses

Take the Mersey Ferry across the river from Pier Head, the ferry immortalised by Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1964

See the Three Graces at Pier Head — the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building

The Royal Albert Dock opened in 1846 with its fireproof warehouses; its Maritime and International Slavery museums are closed for redevelopment until about 2028, but the Museum of Liverpool, opened in 2011, stands at Pier Head. Along the waterfront at Pier Head stand the Three Graces — the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building — and the Mersey Ferry, which Gerry and the Pacemakers sang about in 1964, crosses from there.

Liverpool's Waterfront: The Albert Dock, the Three Graces and the Ferry

Visit The Beatles Story at the Royal Albert Dock, the museum opened in 1990

Go down into the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, rebuilt in 1984 on most of the site of the 1957 cellar where the Beatles played 292 times between 1961 and 1963

See Penny Lane and Strawberry Field, where the original red gates now stand inside the visitor centre opened in 2019

Take the National Trust tour of Mendips and 20 Forthlin Road, the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney

The original Cavern Club on Mathew Street opened on 16 January 1957, and the Beatles played it 292 times between 1961 and 1963; Brian Epstein first saw them there on 9 November 1961. It was filled in after it closed in 1973, and today's club, rebuilt in 1984, covers most of the same site. The Beatles Story at the Royal Albert Dock opened in 1990. Out in the suburbs are Penny Lane and the gates of Strawberry Field, and the National Trust takes visitors round Mendips and 20 Forthlin Road, the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Liverpool: The Cavern, the Beatles Story and Strawberry Field

In the well crypt, look up at the carved boss above the spring, which shows six scenes from the life of St Winefride

Bathe in the pools at the permitted times: by tradition, pilgrims pass three times through the small pool by the spring while saying a decade of the Rosary, then kneel on St Beuno's stone in the outer pool

Find out which kings came as pilgrims: Richard II in 1398, Henry IV in 1403 after the Battle of Shrewsbury, and, according to the poet Tudur Aled, Edward IV

Compare the flow of the spring with Samuel Johnson's 1774 diary, which claimed 'one hundred tuns of water in a minute', and the 1859 measurement of 22½ tons a minute

The holy well at Holywell in Flintshire has drawn pilgrims since the Middle Ages, and it is the only sacred site in Britain whose pilgrimage tradition carried on unbroken through the Reformation. Legend says the spring rose where Winefride's head fell when Prince Caradoc beheaded her, and that St Beuno, her teacher, restored her to life, leaving only a thin white line around her neck.

St. Winefride's Well: The Lourdes of Wales

Walk the full circuit of the 130-acre zoo

Take the Lazy River boat ride round the Islands habitats

Find out how the Mottershead family built the place from 1931

George Mottershead and his family opened Chester Zoo in 1931, moving up from a market garden business near Crewe. It is now one of the largest zoos in the country at 130 acres, on a total holding of about 400, and it takes no government funding at all — it runs on visitors, of whom there were more than two million in 2019, making it the most visited wildlife attraction in Britain.

Chester Zoo: Britain's Most Visited Wildlife Attraction

Walk the pinewoods and find the red squirrels

Look for prehistoric footprints exposed in the beach silts

Walk the dunes and listen for natterjack toads in spring

Follow the paths through the dunes to the beach for the view over the Irish Sea

The National Trust looks after the pinewoods and dunes at Formby Point, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and one of several places in Britain where red squirrels still survive, alongside natterjack toads in the dune slacks. The beach itself keeps something older: layers of silt that hold the footprints of people and of red deer, roe deer, wild boar, wolf and aurochs. In June 2016 more than fifty human footprints around 7,000 years old were uncovered here.

Formby: Red Squirrels, Pinewoods and 7,000-Year-Old Footprints

Walk the almost complete two-mile circuit of Chester's city walls, the most complete in Britain

See the Roman Amphitheatre, the largest in Britain

Visit the Grosvenor Museum and its Roman tombstones

Walk the Rows, Chester's medieval two-tier galleries of shops, and see the Eastgate Clock

Chester's walls run an almost complete two-mile circuit round the old city, the most complete in Britain. Inside them the Rows are medieval two-tier galleries of shops, with the Eastgate Clock over the street, and just outside is the largest Roman amphitheatre in Britain; the Grosvenor Museum keeps the Roman tombstones found in the city.

Chester: The Walls, the Rows and the Roman Amphitheatre

Walk York's medieval city walls, a circuit of about 3.4km through the four main gates, the longest town walls in England

Climb York Minster's central tower and see the Great East Window, glazed in 1405–1408 by John Thornton of Coventry, the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in Britain

Ride through the Jorvik Viking Centre, built on the Coppergate excavation and opened in 1984

See Mallard, the steam locomotive that set the record of 126mph in 1938, at the National Railway Museum

York's medieval walls run about 3.4km round the city through its four main gates, the longest town walls in England. York Minster's Great East Window, glazed in 1405–08 by John Thornton of Coventry, is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in Britain, and the central tower can be climbed. The Jorvik Viking Centre, opened in 1984, is built on the Coppergate excavation, and the National Railway Museum has Mallard, which set the steam record of 126mph in 1938.

York: The Walls, the Minster and Jorvik

Take a cruise on Windermere, the largest lake in England

Kayak or paddleboard on the lake from Bowness

Climb Orrest Head above Windermere, the first fell Wainwright ever climbed, for the view that started him

Work out why Windermere is not really a mere, despite its name

Windermere is the largest lake in England by length, area and volume — 10.5 miles from Lakeside, 11.23 if you count from Newby Bridge, a mile across at its widest and 64 metres deep. It was Winander Mere until at least the 19th century, and despite the 'mere' it is not one: a mere is broad and shallow, and Windermere is deep enough to have a thermocline. Above the town of Windermere is Orrest Head, the first fell Alfred Wainwright ever climbed — 'our first ascent in Lakeland, our first sight of mountains in tumultuous array across glittering waters, our awakening to beauty.'