Rick Steves England

by Rick Steves

Hike the wild moors of Dartmoor, explore the scenic bays of Cornwall, and dive into history at Hadrian's England is yours to discover with Rick Steves! Inside Rick Steves England you'll Comprehensive coverage for spending two weeks or more in England Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites Top sights and hidden gems, from the ancient and mysterious Stonehenge to cozy corner pubs How to connect with local Enjoy an evening at the theatre, take high tea in a classic hotel, or cheer on the team with fans at a football match Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight The best places to eat, sleep, and relax with a pint Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods, historic sites, and museums Detailed neighborhood and museum maps for exploring on the go Useful resources including a packing list, a phrase book of British slang, a historical overview, and recommended reading Over 900 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down Complete, up-to-date information on London, Windsor and Cambridge, Canterbury, Dover, Brighton, Portsmouth, Dartmoor, Cornwall, Penzance, St. Ives, Penwith Peninsula, Bath, Glastonbury, Wells, Avebury, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Oxford, the Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Coventry, Ironbridge Gorge, Liverpool, Blackpool, the Lake District, Yorkshire, Durham, and more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves England.

Visiting for less than two weeks? Try Rick Steves Best of England.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Reference, History, British Literature

1826 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 11, 2006

About the author

Rick Steves is an American travel writer, television personality, and activist known for encouraging meaningful travel that emphasizes cultural immersion and thoughtful global citizenship. Born in California and raised in Edmonds, Washington, he began traveling in his teens, inspired by a family trip to Europe. After graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in European history and business, Steves started teaching travel classes, which led to his first guidebook, Europe Through the Back Door, self-published in 1980.
Steves built his Edmonds-based travel company on the idea that travelers should explore less-touristy areas and engage with local cultures. He gained national prominence as host and producer of Rick Steves' Europe, which has aired on public television since 2000. He also hosts a weekly public radio show, Travel with Rick Steves, and has authored dozens of popular guidebooks, including bestselling titles on Italy and Europe at large.
Beyond travel, Steves is an outspoken advocate for drug policy reform, environmental sustainability, and social justice. He supports marijuana legalization and chairs the board of NORML. He has funded housing for homeless families and donates to anti-hunger and arts organizations. In 2019, he pledged $1 million annually to offset the carbon emissions of his tour groups.
Steves is a practicing Lutheran with Norwegian ancestry and continues to live in Edmonds. He has two adult children and is in a relationship with Reverend Shelley Bryan Wee. Despite health challenges, including a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2024, Steves remains committed to his mission of helping Americans travel with greater purpose, empathy, and understanding of the world. His work reflects a belief that travel, done right, can be both transformative and a force for peace.

Reviews

[da AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've used Rick Steve's books for France & England - both have been extremely helpful! Also his philosophy is spot on when it comes to how, if everyone traveled more, the world would be a better place!

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some incredibly helpful 5 star tips in here but I wonder if I couldn’t have found most of them online. It’s a good tour book but much isn’t useful for the way I want to travel. There are various types of touring suggested and none of them appealed to me. Perhaps if I was returning to places and it wouldn’t be my first ever trip I’d have more interest. I can see this being a 5 star book for some. For me it was 3-1/2 stars.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome...totally helped plan my trip, love the way he did everything1

[Emilyann Wert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A million stars. I’ll never go anywhere without Rick!

[Karli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Rick Steves. Your books are informative and well-researched. Your recommendations are some of the best in the business. Most importantly, you strive to show Americans that we aren't just going somewhere new to us, we are experiencing someone's home. It sometimes seems as if there is a tendency to travel and still want to have all the comforts they have at their own place. If we always want home then we shouldn't travel. Things being different should be a major part of the fun. Thank you for including historical background and social significance in your books. Thank you also for the recommended reading, viewing and suggestions on BBC Radio.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This man is my travel guru. Point final. I used this book extensively while planning and travelling my first ever trip to England, and he never steared me wrong. He was excellent at showing good places to eat, the best places to see the sights, and the best places to stay...and how to do it all without spending a fortune, something otherwise difficult to do over in jolly ole' England. If I hadn't had Rick...I don't know what I would have done. I highly HIGHLY recommend any of his books for those of you planning on travelling. Thank you Rick!!!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick Steves' travel guides are the best of the best--full of history, helpful route plans, and tips for budget-friendly adventurers. This guide practically MADE my trip to England and lacked nothing except perhaps an extensive look at British night-life (Rick, though a passionate traveler, is clearly a bit of an early-to-bed square). I recommend this guide to anyone with 3+ days to spend in England. I will be reading Rick Steves' prior to all my future European travels.

[DearMYRTLE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Studying Rick's books helped me with the trip to Germany, Austria & France, so I am sure his England book will help me prepare for my brief :before & after the Baltic Sea cruise" visit to England. I haven't made my plane reservations and won't until I decide how much time I really can afford to spend in England.

Wish he could figure out how to add more travel days in a week.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick Steves's travel guides are the best. Use this one if you are going to travel only within England, but if you can make it to anywhere else in the UK on your trip, use Rick's Great Britain. Also, before you go, look up Rick's videos on Youtube, check for updates on the website, and listen to the great podcasts. This book will help you plan a great trip -- and save time and money.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick Steve's has everything you need to know. I suggest buying his book and taking it along with you on your trip. Most details are accurate, and his tours are as good as any audio tour you could take. I was thankful to have this little book guide me through England's sights, food, and history.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy helpful when planning a trip to London... I took all of his maps and made copies to stick in my pocket as we went from place to place. So easy to read and use, and there was no need to use any other guide but this one.

[Myos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't quite read the whole book, just the section that pertains to Wiltshire, Bath, Salisbury, and the "ancient sites", ie., Avebury and Stonehenge. The best among the guidebooks I purchased, detailed, with maps, good recommendations, funny comments. Good job.

[Addie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amount of information that Rick Steves packs into these guide books is amazing! So many of the places I plan on visiting are included in this book! Not to mention all of the maps included with every section that give the details of the smaller towns and places of interest. While I wish it were in color and even slightly larger in size, I see the purpose is to keep the book small for easy carrying. Steves even suggests slicing the book up into sections and taping the edge so you can carry only a small portion of it with you while walking around Europe on day trips!

This book came in super helpful in planning my trip because of all the website links and other detailed information he gives to reserve accomodations and purchase tickets.

My one regret is that this book is NOT accompanied by a large fold out map like his others do. It would have been helpful to have that addition. However, there are several colored maps at the back of the book for both the entire country and a few specific cities, showing details that are sorely needed.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the hottest spots in England, this is a great guidebook. But if you’re thinking Wales, just to the west of the Marches, then you’d better grab his Great Britain guidebook instead. (Which would also include Scotland, if you’re planning on venturing north past the remains of Hadrian’s Wall.) However, there were two minor drawbacks that I discovered when using this 2010 guide. First, the bike rental place listed in the Wells section no longer is in business as of August 2010 (and the local TI was in the process of moving closer to its famed cathedral when I was there) – which put a slight crimp on my plans to bike from Wells to Glastonbury. (Although the short fifteen-minute bus ride he suggests did just fine.) And second, if you’re planning on taking a quick hydrofoil trip over to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth, then you’d better hit up a Lonely Planet guide, as Rick’s book doesn’t even touch upon that.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Rick Steves' approach to travelling. I intend to try to use his tip on asking a bus tour company to drop us off in the Cotswolds from Bath as part of the tour. And the idea of going from Heathrow to Bath as our first stop, rather than to London, sounds like a good idea, a better way to handle jet lag. Also, it's good to have someone's opinion on places to go and places to skip.

However, as another reviewer said, this book leaves out some parts of England. Perhaps this is another way he's sharing his opinion on the best places to go, but it seemed a bit odd.

I'm looking forward to my trip and intend on buying a more recent version of his guide when we're ready to go.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book on getting yourself acquinted with parts of England and London so you won't be so lost when you get there. There are some places I'm adding to my to do list after reading this book but I only gave it 4 stars because I felt the author was very biased about some of the places to see. One in particular is Dover. I really want to go there but Rick Steves didn't talk highly about it at all. Now I'm not sure whether to go there or not. I think he should be more neutral in his reviews and let the travelor decide what's worthwhile or not.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally prefer the Rick Steves guidebooks, but this one had patchy coverage of England, which is surprising given its length. It was missing several places that I was considering going to, which means I'm going to have to supplement with the Frommer's guidebook.

There was also a lot of redundant content, summarizing things that had already been covered shortly after they'd been covered in not much more detail. And the Kindle version is woefully out of order.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite travel guides are Rick Steves. For practical advice they are THE BEST. The lack of color photos is disappointing, which is why it is not 5-star, but there are other books (such as the Eyewitness guides) if you want a souvenir with color.

The maps provided are simple line drawings but practical.

For my "go to" guide, I only go to Rick Steves. As well as practical and up-to-date, the book is very entertaining to read.

[Jane Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, a good read with excellent recommendations. It missed out on two areas we visited:Wales (South) and Kent in the southeast. These travel guides are our first go to ones for sensible and fun suggestions. For a balance I like to read others such so that I have some different perspectives.

[Rashaan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the first time, Steves disappoints. He barely covers any useful info on South England. We'll have to see how this number stands up for future treks in Cornwall and Northern England. I'll stick to Steves but with wariness now.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in Rick Steves' guides is always engaging. Unfortunately, I didn't gain as many "off the beaten path" suggestions from Steves' England guide as I did from his Paris guide, which introduced me to a new Parisian neighborhood and helped me identify a bus rout that went to all major sites.

[Joey/katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rick Steves is always great for finding the interesting spots of where you are visiting but when it comes to outside the most visited places, you will need a more extensive book.

[Kelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good resource. I will buy the next addition.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more in depth and lots of interesting information including history, places to eat, and other tips. Pretty good for getting me up to speed

[Debby Baumgartner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standard Rick Steves's tourist information on visiting England.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've just returned from a two-week visit to England, and I read and carried this book with me every day of that trip. A very helpful guide!

[Janis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick Steves’ England is a good place to start when planning a trip there. This comprehensive guide is full of travel valuable tips and isn't afraid to tell you which tourist traps to skip. I especially liked the chapter about the history of England.

[Craig Beyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know about England as a destination, read this book. It’s broad in coverage, dense in content, and pretty up-to-date That’s a typical Rick Steves book.

[Jerry]

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