Walk through Gough's Cave, where Cheddar Man, about 10,000 years old, was found in 1903

Walk the Cliff-Top Gorge Walk above Cheddar Gorge, England's largest gorge

Visit the Cheddar Man Museum of Prehistory

Cheddar Gorge is England's largest gorge, and a path runs along its clifftops. In Gough's Cave, Cheddar Man, a skeleton about 10,000 years old, was found in 1903, and Cox's Cave next to it now houses a multimedia show on how the caves formed; the Museum of Prehistory tells his story.

Cheddar Gorge: Gough's Cave and Cheddar Man

Cheddar and Wells

Eleven nights from Bath to the New Forest: the Roman Baths and Brunel's Bristol, Cheddar Gorge and Glastonbury Tor, the stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge, and the ponies and deer of the forest.

Wessex: Bath, Stonehenge and the New Forest

Walk the show caves along the underground Axe

Watch a paper-making demonstration at the mill

Look at the cheese maturing in the cave temperature

The River Axe runs out of the limestone at Wookey Hole through a series of chambers that have been open to visitors since 1927, with the stalagmite known as the Witch of Wookey in the first of them. A mill has worked the resurgent water since Domesday, and the paper mill, founded about 1610 and the oldest surviving handmade paper mill in Britain, now shows paper-making as a museum demonstration; the constant cool of the caves is used to mature Cheddar cheese.

Wookey Hole: The Caves, the Witch and the Oldest Paper Mill

Stand under the scissor arches at the crossing

Count figures on the 300-statue west front

Watch the swans ring the bell for food at the Bishop's Palace moat

When the central tower of Wells Cathedral began to sink, the master mason William Joy braced the piers with strainer arches — the scissor arches that now define the crossing. The west front carries 300 sculpted figures, and beside the cathedral runs Vicars' Close, reportedly the oldest residential street in Europe with its original buildings intact, built for the Vicars Choral with their hall finished in 1348.

Wells: The Scissor Arches and a Medieval Street Still Lived In

Find the Holy Thorn in the churchyard of St John the Baptist on the High Street, the tree that flowers at Christmas and again in spring

At Glastonbury Abbey, find the marked site of Arthur and Guinevere's tomb before the high altar, where the bones the monks claimed to have found in 1191 were reburied in 1278

Climb Glastonbury Tor, 158 metres, to the roofless tower of St Michael's Church and look out over the Somerset Levels

Drink from the Chalice Well, the Red Spring, in its gardens below the Tor

Glastonbury Tor is a conical hill of clay and Blue Lias, capped with hard sandstone, rising to 158 metres out of the Somerset Levels, with the roofless tower of St Michael's Church on top. Its Welsh name was Ynys Wydrin, the Isle of Glass, and the monks of the abbey below made it Avalon: destroyed by fire in 1184 and rebuilding slowly as pilgrims fell away, the abbey announced in 1191 that it had found the tomb of Arthur and Guinevere in its cemetery. The last abbot, Richard Whiting, was hanged, drawn and quartered on the Tor in 1539. The Glastonbury thorn flowers twice a year, in winter and in spring, and a flowering sprig is sent to the monarch every Christmas; and at the foot of Chalice Hill the Chalice Well, the Red Spring, has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years.

Glastonbury: Tor, Thorn and Holy Spring

Walk the length of the Grand Pier and play the arcades

Look along the shore at Birnbeck Pier, the island pier of 1867, closed since 1994

Go round the Helicopter Museum's 80-plus helicopters and autogyros

Walk out to Sand Point, often taken as the place where the channel becomes the estuary

Weston is the Bristol Channel's big seaside resort, with the Grand Pier running out from the middle of a long sandy beach, and the older Birnbeck Pier at the end of Worlebury Hill — designed by Eugenius Birch, opened in 1867, and the only pier in the country that links the mainland to an island; it has been closed since 1994 while it waits for restoration. The tide here goes out a very long way and uncovers thick mud you must not walk on. North of the town, Sand Point is often taken as the line where the Bristol Channel becomes the Severn Estuary.

Weston-super-Mare: The Grand Pier and the Mud Flats

Go aboard the SS Great Britain, Brunel's iron steamship of 1843, in the dry dock where she was built, and walk under the hull below the glass 'sea'

Visit the M Shed museum on Prince's Wharf, in a 1950s dock transit shed

See Banksy's The Mild Mild West mural in Stokes Croft

Cross the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon Gorge, begun to Brunel's design and opened in 1864

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron steamship SS Great Britain of 1843 is back in the dry dock where she was built, and you can walk under her hull below a glass sea. The Clifton Suspension Bridge, begun to Brunel's design and finished after his death to a revised design, opened in 1864 over the Avon Gorge. The M Shed museum is in a 1950s transit shed on Prince's Wharf, and in Stokes Croft Banksy's The Mild Mild West is still on its wall.

Bristol: The SS Great Britain, Stokes Croft and the Clifton Bridge

Tour the Roman Baths, around the Sacred Spring of Sulis Minerva, and taste the spa water in the Georgian Pump Room; the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Walk the Royal Crescent, built by John Wood the Younger between 1767 and 1774, and visit No. 1 Royal Crescent

Walk The Circus, begun by John Wood the Elder in 1754

Tour the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street, in the city where she lived from 1801 to 1806

Walk across Pulteney Bridge, Robert Adam's shop-lined bridge of 1774

Bath is a World Heritage Site for two reasons. The Romans built their baths round the Sacred Spring of Sulis Minerva, and the Georgian Pump Room still serves the water. The Georgians built the city: John Wood the Elder began the Circus in 1754, his son built the Royal Crescent in 1767–74, and Robert Adam's Pulteney Bridge of 1774 carries shops across the Avon. Jane Austen lived here from 1801 to 1806.

Bath: The Roman Baths, the Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge

Visit Thomas Hardy's Cottage at Higher Bockhampton, the thatched house where he was born in 1840

Visit Max Gate in Dorchester, the house Hardy designed for himself and lived in until his death in 1928

See the Hardy collection at the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in Dorchester

Tour Clouds Hill, the small cottage near Bovington that T. E. Lawrence bought in 1925 and moved into in 1935, weeks before his death

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in the thatched cottage at Higher Bockhampton, and he designed Max Gate in Dorchester for himself and lived there until he died in 1928; the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery keeps his collection. Near Bovington, T. E. Lawrence rented the small cottage of Clouds Hill from 1923, bought it in 1925 as a retreat, and moved in on leaving the RAF in 1935, weeks before his death.

Hardy's Dorset: Higher Bockhampton, Max Gate and Clouds Hill

Take the boat trip from St Mary's to at least three other islands — Tresco, Bryher and St Agnes are the usual stops

Walk Tresco Abbey Garden, begun by Augustus Smith with sub-tropical plants from around the world

Take a sea safari boat trip to see the grey Atlantic seals

Find the Troy Town Maze, the stone maze on St Agnes

Boats go from St Mary's to the off-islands — Tresco, Bryher and St Agnes among them. On Tresco, Augustus Smith, who took over the islands in 1834, began the Abbey Garden around his new house with sub-tropical plants from around the world; on St Agnes the Troy Town Maze is laid out in stones; and sea safari boats go out to see the grey Atlantic seals.