The UK is home to a whole host of attractions and landmarks. From national icons like Big Ben and the Blackpool Tower to natural wonders like the Lake District’s mountains and Cornwall’s golden beaches.
To help you plan the best staycation to suit your individual needs, we have created a UK-wide index of sights and attractions, breaking them up into cultural icons, natural landscapes, and national landmarks.
The capital is home to some of the UK’s most popular sights and attractions, with Buckingham Palace taking the top spot with 15 million annual visitors.
This is followed by the British Museum, the world’s oldest national public museum, which receives an average of 6 million visitors each year.
In third place is the Natural History Museum, with 4.6 million visitors, thanks to a diverse calendar of events such as discos and sleepovers throughout the year.
Other popular London landmarks include Trafalgar Square with an estimated 4 million visitors, the London Eye with 3.5 million, and the Tower of London with 3 million visitors.
Planning a trip to London? Check out our offering of city centre hotels.
Looking at attractions outside of the capital, Liverpool’s iconic Royal Albert Dock tops the list with 6.3 million visitors each year.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach closely follows this with 5 million annual visitors, currently home to the UK’s tallest rollercoaster at 235 feet.
Another seaside town snaps up third place, with Brighton’s Palace Pier attracting 4.6 million visitors each year to walk the 525 metres out to sea.
Alton Towers, near Stoke-on-Trent, takes fourth place with 2.3 million yearly visitors, while the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh takes fifth place with 2 million.
Chester Zoo takes sixth place, with 1.8 million visitors each year coming to see some of the 35,000 animals housed there.
Two very famous castles follow in seventh and eighth place. Windsor Castle, the largest and oldest occupied castle in the world, receives 1.5 million visitors, while Edinburgh Castle, which sits atop an extinct volcano, receives 1.4 million.
The Historic Roman Baths in Bath claim ninth place with 1.3 million annual visitors, while Stonehenge in nearby Salisbury completes the top ten with 970,000 visitors.
If you’re looking to experience culture and history on your staycation, we’ve picked out the best UK attractions for culturalists.
The British Museum, the largest museum in the UK, comes out on top with a score of 99/100 thanks to an average visitor rating of 4.7 across 147,000 online reviews.
This is followed by the National Science Museum, also located in London, with a score of 69/100 and an average rating of 4.5 across 64,000 visitor reviews.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, the world's largest museum of decorative arts, takes third place with a score of 67/100 and an average rating of 4.7 across 54,000 reviews.
The National Museum of Scotland, located in Edinburgh, takes fourth place, with an impressive rating of 4.8 across 44,000 online reviews.
Completing the top five is the National Gallery, in London, home to one of Vincent Van Gogh’s world-famous sunflower paintings. The art gallery has an average review rating of 4.7 across 47,000 reviews.
For those looking to get off the beaten track and experience some of the UK’s most awe-inspiring natural wonders, we’ve picked out the best attractions for adventurers.
In first place is the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Giant’s Causeway, located in County Antrim, Northern Island. Scoring 98/100, the site has an average rating of 4.7 across 24,000 visitor reviews.
Whitby Beach in North Yorkshire follows in second place with a score of 63/100 for its two miles of golden sands. The beach has an average rating of 4.7 across 6,600 reviews.
Malham Cove, located in North Yorkshire, follows in third place with a score of 62/100. The curving amphitheatre-like cliffs boast a rating of 4.9 across 5,000 reviews.
Brinham Rocks, North Yorkshire, takes fourth position with a score of 61/100. The impressive rock formations boast a rating of 4.8 across 5,500 reviews.
Finishing off the top five with a score of 60/100 is Perranporth Beach, located in Cornwall. A world-famous beach for surfers with the UK’s first surfboard said to originate from here. The beach has an average rating of 4.8 out of five stars across 5,200 reviews.
If you’re visiting a new location for the first time, you probably want to see the sights. Luckily, we’ve got a top ten list perfect for any budding sightseers.
The London Eye takes the top spot with a score of 97/100. It is, in fact, the world's largest cantilevered observation wheel, boasting an average rating of 4.5 across 170,000 reviews.
Buckingham Palace follows in second place with a score of 95/100. The palace has housed over five previous monarchs, with King Charles III currently residing there. It has an average rating of 4.5 across 162,000 reviews.
London’s iconic Tower Bridge follows in third place with a score of 94/100. The world-famous attraction boasts a high rating of 4.8 across 149,000 online reviews.
Other notable mentions from the list include Edinburgh Castle, with a score of 75/100, Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock, scoring 63/100, and Stonehenge, with a score of 62/100.
Looking at the highest-rated free attractions in England, the capital has the greatest offering, with the British Museum coming out on top, followed by the Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In Scotland, the National Museum of Scotland takes the top spot, located in the heart of Edinburgh. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Riverside Museum in Glasgow follow in second and third place, respectively.
In Wales, the St Fagan Natural History Museum in Cardiff takes the top position, followed by the National Museum Cardiff. The Big Pit National Coal Museum rounds off the top three located in Pontypool.
As for Northern Ireland, the Ulster Museum is the highest-rated free attraction located in Belfast. This is followed by the Ulster Folk and Ulster Transport Museums located in nearby Cultra.
Using Google Snippets, we created a seed list of 500 attractions across the UK and tallied up each one’s average review ratings, number of reviews, and adult admission price.
To establish the most popular attractions, we ranked each attraction based on annual visitor numbers. As for the top attractions, we used a weighted rank combining average review scores with the number of reviews to generate a final score.
This allowed us to rank attractions from best to worst based on a blend of visitor satisfaction (average ratings) and engagement (review counts).
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