Travel Tips: UK Alternatives to Foreign Destinations

Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic last year, it's been, at times, difficult, and at other times, impossible to travel abroad. This has meant that many people around the world have been discovering different places around their own countries on their holidays, and this has been especially true here in the UK.

Speaking from personal experience, over the past year I should have been living in Santiago with my boyfriend, and exploring different places around Chile and Latin America. Instead, I have been living in a small, isolated village in Wiltshire with my parents, and have only left the country once since the first lockdown came into force. I'm not going to pretend that I'm satisfied with this situation, but I've at least tried to make the best of it. One effective source of escapism for me has been to travel to various places around my local area and beyond, in particular those that are reminiscent of foreign countries. 

This has led me to put together a list of some of my favourite UK alternatives to foreign destinations. Some are alternatives to a particular town or city, whereas others are alternatives to entire countries/parts of the world. I hope that it can come in useful for the times when it's not possible to leave the country (though hopefully this never happens again!), or for times when you would simply prefer to have a UK holiday. After all, there are many reasons to travel in our own countries, such as wanting to protect the environment, or not wanting to go through the hassle of border controls and luggage restrictions. 

So with that said, here are my British alternatives to ten foreign destinations!

Foreign Destination: China

Image of Beijing by Magda Ehlers from pexels.com

UK Alternative: Chinatown, London

The Chinatown in London is one of the largest Chinatowns in Europe, and it really does make you feel like you've been transported to China. Not only are there many colourful lanterns, elaborate gateways, and Chinese statues, but all of the shop names are written in Chinese! It's definitely one of the highlights of a trip to London, and it demonstrates just what an international city it is.

Read more here and here!

Foreign Destination: Veules-les-Roses, France

Read more about Veules-les-Roses here!

UK Alternative: Bibury

When I spent part of my Year Abroad in Normandy, I realised just how similar the north of France and the south of England are. Which makes sense really, as they're very close to each other! And when I visited Bibury in the Cotswolds last summer, I was struck by how similar it was to the village of Veules-les-Roses. Both are situated on rivers, and are full of quaint cottages and pretty flowers. In addition, they both have been described as the prettiest villages in their respective countries!

Read more here and here!

Foreign Destination: Viña del Mar, Chile

Read more about Viña del Mar here and here!

UK Alternative: Bournemouth

At the height of summer, the beach town of Bournemouth on the south coast of England really does feel a bit like somewhere more exotic. My boyfriend compared it to Viña del Mar (one of the most popular beach towns in Chile) and I can definitely also see the similarity. They both have plenty of palm trees, sandy beaches and pretty gardens.

Read more here and here!

Foreign Destination: The Netherlands

Image of Amsterdam by Kata Pal from pexels.com

UK Alternative 1: Westbury Court Garden

This has to be one of the most unique destinations I've been to over the last year, as it's the only restored Dutch water garden left in the UK. If you want to see canals, a Dutch pavilion, formal gardens and plenty of tulips, you should definitely visit!

Read more here!

UK Alternative 2: Ashdown House

Ashdown House is another very unique place, as it's a Dutch townhouse located in the English countryside! The house was built in the 17th century and has a very long and detailed history. It's more than worth a visit if you're interested in either history or architecture.

Read more here!

Foreign Destination: North American Lakes

Image of Field, Canada by James Wheeler from pexels.com

UK Alternative: The Cotswold Water Park

The Cotswold Water Park, a small area containing around 180 lakes, is only a short distance from my house, but often makes me think of the lakes of Canada and the north of the United States. Maybe this is because of the large amount of wooden cabins and New England chalets that you can find on the edges of the lakes. In any case, the area is a great place to enjoy nature, watersports and wildlife spotting.

Read more here and here!

Foreign Destinations: Italy and Greece

Image of the Pantheon in Rome by Griffin Wooldridge from pexels.com

Image of the Acropolis in Athens by Mohammed Zarovski from pexels.com

UK Alternative 1: Stourhead

The National Trust property Stourhead is famous for being one of the most beautiful gardens in the country. Its design was heavily influenced by Greek and Roman mythology, and it features several temples and statues of various deities. The highlight has to be the Pantheon (pictured above), which was inspired by the building of the same name in Rome.

Read more here!

UK Alternative 2: Buscot Park

The Buscot Park National Trust property also takes inspiration from Italy and Greece. It has lots of classical architecture, walls painted with frescoes, and even an Italian water garden, making it a very picturesque place to wander around on a summer's day.

Read more here!

Foreign Destination: Japan

Image of Osaka by Bagus Pangestu from pexels.com

UK Alternative: Batsford Arboretum

This arboretum in the Cotswolds is home to the UK's national collection of Japanese cherry blossom (sakura) trees, and is heavily inspired by Japan. Sights to look out for there include the Japanese rest house (pictured above), the statue of the Buddha, and several little red Japanese bridges over streams.

Read more here! 

Foreign Destination: Provence, France

Image by David Bartus from pexels.com

UK Alternative: Cotswold Lavender

Unfortunately, the weather was a bit grim when I visited Cotswold Lavender last year, hence the rather grey-looking photo! But it was still a nice experience to walk around the fields and see and smell all of the different types of lavender. It's probably the closest you can get to having a holiday in Provence without leaving England!

Read more here!

Foreign Destination: The Taj Mahal, India

 

Image by Sudipta Mondal from pexels.com

UK Alternative 1: Brighton Pavilion

The Brighton Pavilion is the most famous Indian-style building in the UK, and was inspired by palaces such as the Taj Mahal. Although it had scaffolding around it when I visited with my boyfriend Claudio last year, it was still a very majestic sight to see. It's definitely worth getting tickets to enter the palace and see the Chinese-inspired rooms inside. I would also recommend viewing some of the other Indian-style buildings around the city, such as the Brighton Dome and the Western Pavilion.

Read more here and here!

UK Alternative 2: Sezincote

In fact, the most direct inspiration for the Brighton Pavilion was this palace located in the Cotswolds, which I would say is even more majestic. Not only is the building itself beautiful, but it also has amazing gardens, including the Persian Garden seen in my picture. Sezincote is definitely one of my favourite places I've visited this year, and it almost made me feel like I was really in India.

Read more here!

Foreign Destination: The South of Chile

Read more about the South of Chile here!

UK Alternative: The Lake District

When I visited the Lake District in the north of England last September, I was surprised by how much it reminded me of the south of Chile, where I'd been in 2018. The mountains may not be so high, but at least there actually are mountains (I don't think we have any in the south of England). Plus, there's a range of lakes, waterfalls and forests to explore.

Read more here and here!

So there you have it: my little world tour that you can take without leaving the UK. (Well, actually, I've just realised that all the destinations are in England, as that's the part of Britain I'm most familiar with, but I'm sure there are some other great foreign alternatives in Scotland and Wales - Portmeirion in particular looks a lot like Italy, and is somewhere I'd love to go to in the future.)

Of course, there is no real substitute for global travel; personally, I still plan to continue discovering the world once it's possible to do so again. But, it's nice to know that there are some places where you can get a little bit of that feeling of being somewhere else, whilst still being here in England!

Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here!

A Minibreak in Bournemouth

Earlier this week I got back from a couple of days in Bournemouth with my parents. We only spent one night there, because of difficulties finding an affordable hotel that everyone liked, but we managed to squeeze quite a lot into the time we had.

The main reason we went there was so we could swim in the sea - the last time I'd swam in the sea was in Chile in March 2020 and the last time I'd swam at all was in July 2020 in our local outdoor pool. Unfortunately, the pool had implemented a special booking system to deal with Covid, which actually had the effect of making it far more crowded than it had been in normal times, so swimming there wasn't a safe or enjoyable experience at all, and we haven't been back since. This is a shame for me, as I love swimming, and I don't feel like I've had a proper summer without spending time in the sea, or at least in a pool. Fortunately, during this holiday we had the chance to spend time in both!

The only real downside of the trip was that the hotel where we stayed wasn't anywhere near as good as we'd been expecting; my room was very small and the shower didn't work. But on the other hand, at least it was right by the beach.

On the afternoon that we arrived (after a long journey passing sights including Avebury stone circle and Salisbury Cathedral), we settled into our rooms, and then my mum and I went down to the hotel pool for our pre-booked swimming slot. We had about 10-15 minutes with the pool all to ourselves, but then more and more people started arriving, as it turned out that the hotel had allowed around 10 guests to book the same slot (which we'd thought was just for us). This was a bit disappointing, especially because the pool wasn't particularly big. But it was nice just to be able to swim again, and also to relax in the jacuzzi!

Later on, we went for a little walk through the town, firstly to the beach and then to Lower Gardens, a park that we'd visited last time we were in Bournemouth (in 2019). The whole area was absolutely heaving with tourists, as it was one of the hottest days of the year, and because of all the travel restrictions preventing people (especially us younger people, who are last in the queue for the vaccine, and therefore have fewer rights to travel) from going on holiday abroad. It was definitely quite a different vibe from two years ago!

Afterwards, we had a very tasty dinner at the 1805 Chinese restaurant. By the time we'd finished the meal, it was later than we'd expected, but there was still another place I wanted to visit before the day was done.

As the sun was going down, I made the mile-long journey to the Tropical Gardens in the west side of the town. This place had particularly intrigued me when I had discovered it while searching for info about Bournemouth on the internet, because I really liked the idea of having some kind of experience of a tropical beach holiday whilst being confined to the UK.

The garden was small but it did not disappoint. It had plenty of palm trees, in addition to other plants from many different parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Chile! And the views from the garden of the beach below were beautiful, especially because it was sunset. Being there was when I finally started to feel that "holiday feeling".

And the holiday vibes continued into the next day! My mum and I got up early and went down to the beach at around 7:30 in order to avoid the crowds. The weather was already quite nice even at that time in the morning, and although the sea was a little cold, it was an amazing experience to swim in it. This was definitely the highlight of the holiday, and I wish I was back there already! Hopefully, I'll have the chance to swim in the sea again soon, wherever that may happen.

After breakfast, it was time to pack up and leave Bournemouth. But it wasn't the end of the holiday yet! En route back to our village, we stopped off to spend a few hours at another beautiful place, and I'll be writing about it very soon...

Bournemouth and the Surrounding Area

This week I spent a couple of days in Bournemouth and the surrounding area with my parents. I actually liked the area more than I thought I would, mostly because of the beaches. The weather was quite warm, so it felt like we were on holiday abroad.

On Thursday morning, we went to Bournemouth beach, which was really impressive to see. When I showed the pictures to my boyfriend, he said it looked like Viña del Mar in Chile!

Later that day, we went to Wimborne Minster, a market town best known for its church, which is also called Wimborne Minster.

Yesterday was quite exciting as we got the car ferry across to Studland Bay. The views from the boat were spectacular.

Then my mum and I swam in the sea at Middle Beach. Although the water was freezing when we first got in, it was actually really nice once we got used to it!

My parents are thinking about possibly moving to the area in the future, which is why we went there. I think it's a very nice place, but we'll see what happens!

This was the last bit of travelling I had planned for the time being. At the moment, I'm getting on with some tasks I need to do, as well as thinking about my future, which hopefully will involve going abroad sometime soon. I don't know when I'll next be writing on this blog, but I've enjoyed updating it over the last couple of months. It's been interesting to focus more on places around the UK. Who knows where I'll be going next... 😁