Lonely Planet's top 500 experiences

Lonely Planet has ranked the top 500 unmissable experiences and hidden gems across Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the first time in the ultimate UK travel hitlist.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe been named the UK’s top experience by leading travel media company, Lonely Planet, in a new ranked list of the 500 most memorable, beautiful, surprising and compelling experiences to be had.

For the first time, Lonely Planet’s community of travel experts have chosen the best sights and experiences and ranked them in order of their brilliance in Lonely Planet’s Ultimate United Kingdom Travelist.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is followed by London’s British Museum – “the envy of the world” – at number 2 and “timeless…and unrepeatable” Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland at number 3. It is joined by two other Scottish entries in the top 20: Glencoe in 17th place and Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh in 19th. In total, 67 Scottish entries made the list, including Skara Brae at 22, Edinburgh’s Royal Mile at 24, the North Coast 500 at 37, the Fairy Pools at 41 and spending a night on ice in Cairngorms National Park at 43.

To create Lonely Planet’s Ultimate United Kingdom Travelist, the Lonely Planet team compiled every highlight from the Lonely Planet guidebooks to Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Every sight, attraction and experience that had caught their writers’ attention over the years were included.

Everyone in Lonely Planet’s London office, plus 20 leading figures in the country’s travel sector, were then asked to reveal their favourite spots and experiences before the voting began. Everybody in Lonely Planet’s UK community was asked to vote for their top 20 experiences. With hundreds of votes cast, Lonely Planet ended up with a score for each of the 500 experiences in the book.  

You can read the full article at lonelyplanet.com where lots of Scottish regions feature.