Hike to the Worcestershire Beacon (425m), the highest point of the Malvern Hills

Tour the Morgan Motor Company factory, the sports-car maker founded in Malvern in 1910

Visit Great Malvern Priory, the Benedictine church with its medieval wall tiles

Taste the water at St Ann's Well on the hillside above Great Malvern

The Worcestershire Beacon, 425m, is the highest point of the Malvern Hills. On the hillside above Great Malvern you can taste the water at St Ann's Well, the Benedictine priory church below keeps its medieval wall tiles, and the Morgan Motor Company has made sports cars in Malvern since it was founded in 1910.

The Malvern Hills: Worcestershire Beacon and the Morgan Factory

Visit Worcester Cathedral, begun in 1084, and see King John's tomb and Prince Arthur's monument

Tour The Firs, the National Trust's cottage at Lower Broadheath where Elgar was born in 1857

See the Museum of Royal Worcester on the old factory site, with porcelain made in the city from 1751 until the factory closed

Worcester Cathedral was begun in 1084 and holds the tomb of King John and the monument of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's elder brother. Porcelain was made in the city from 1751 until the Royal Worcester factory closed in 2009, and the Museum of Royal Worcester, on the old factory site, tells its story. Out at Lower Broadheath, The Firs is the cottage where Edward Elgar was born in 1857.

Worcester: The Cathedral and Elgar's Birthplace

Visit Westons Cider Mill at Much Marcle, where the Weston family has made cider since 1880

Take the daily mill tour and sample the ciders and perries

Browse the cider shop and eat at the mill's tea room or restaurant

Henry Weston began making cider at Much Marcle in 1880, and his family still runs the company on the same site, with a fourth-generation Weston as managing director, in the middle of the Herefordshire cider country. The family grows its own fruit on 350 acres of orchards, and the mill runs daily tours with sampling, a cider shop, a tea room and a restaurant.

Westons: Cider at Much Marcle

Swim in the open-air lido, reopened in 2007 and filled with brine diluted to the saltiness of the sea

Find the Norman church of St Andrew where St Richard was probably baptised

Walk the Salwarpe, whose name probably means the river that throws up salt

Droitwich sits on massive salt deposits worked since ancient times — the Romans called it Salinae — and the natural brine underneath holds two and a half pounds of salt to the gallon, ten times stronger than sea water and rivalled only by the Dead Sea. The town's fortune was built on it: the brine baths opened in 1830, for floating in something that dense rather than for drinking. They have long closed, the last in 2008, but the open-air lido, reopened in 2007, is filled with brine diluted to the saltiness of the sea. John Corbett, the salt king, industrialised the trade and remade the town as a spa, and built Chateau Impney for his wife in the French château style; it has been closed since 2020.

Droitwich Spa: The Town Built on Brine Ten Times Saltier Than the Sea

Study the Mappa Mundi and find Hereford on it

See the chained library with the books still on their chains

Walk the Norman nave arcade and the crossing arches

Hereford Cathedral holds the Mappa Mundi, a map of the world drawn around 1300 with Jerusalem at its centre and the edges full of monsters, and the largest chained library in the world, its books still on the rods they were locked to. The building itself is part Norman and part Gothic, rebuilt from ruin by Bishop Robert of Lorraine from 1079.

Hereford: The Mappa Mundi and the Chained Library

Walk the trails of Wyre Forest National Nature Reserve, one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England

Visit the Wyre Forest Discovery Centre at Callow Hill

Walk the Dowles Brook valley through the forest to the Severn

Wyre Forest is one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England, now a National Nature Reserve. The Discovery Centre at Callow Hill is the way in, and the Dowles Brook runs down through the forest to the Severn.

Wyre Forest: Ancient Woodland Down to the Severn

Walk the inner bailey and the round chapel at Ludlow Castle

Climb the tower of St Laurence's church for the view over the Marches

Buy from the butchers and bakers around the market square

Walk the loop of the Teme below the castle

Ludlow Castle, probably founded by Walter de Lacy around 1075, became one of the great marcher fortresses, held by the Mortimers and later the seat of the Council in the Marches of Wales, with a rare circular chapel in its inner bailey. The town below it kept its medieval grid and nearly 500 listed buildings, and made its name again as a food town with a September festival and a run of butchers, bakers and brewers.

Ludlow: The Castle in the Marches and the Food Town

Walk through the ruins of the old cathedral, the medieval church of St Michael, destroyed on 14 November 1940, and into Basil Spence's new cathedral, consecrated in 1962, with Graham Sutherland's giant tapestry Christ in Glory

Visit the Coventry Transport Museum, home to the Thrust SSC that set the land speed record in 1997

Walk Spon Street, the medieval street where timber-framed houses were moved from elsewhere in the city

Coventry's old cathedral, the medieval church of St Michael, was destroyed in the air raid of 14 November 1940, and its ruins stand beside Basil Spence's new cathedral, consecrated in 1962, with Graham Sutherland's giant tapestry Christ in Glory. The Coventry Transport Museum holds Thrust SSC, which set the land speed record in 1997, and on Spon Street timber-framed houses moved from elsewhere in the city have been rebuilt together.

Coventry: The Two Cathedrals and the Transport Museum

Visit Shakespeare's Birthplace on Henley Street, the house where he is believed to have been born in 1564

Watch a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, beside the Avon

Visit Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, the farmhouse of Shakespeare's wife

Stand in the garden of New Place, the site of Shakespeare's last home, and see Holy Trinity Church, where he is buried

William Shakespeare is believed to have been born in 1564 in the house on Henley Street, and he is buried in Holy Trinity Church by the Avon. The garden of New Place marks the site of his last home, his wife's family farmhouse is Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stands on the river.