The Isle of Man, otherwise known simply as Manx, is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but its foreign relations and defense are the responsibility of the UK Government. The island has been inhabited since 6500 BC. In the 9th century, the Norse began to settle there. In 1266, the island became part of Scotland. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal overlordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship reverted to the British Crown in 1764, but the island never became part of the United Kingdom and retained its status as an internally self-governing jurisdiction.

The main international event associated with the island is the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race, colloquially known as "The TT", which began in 1907. It takes place in late May and early June. The TT is now an international road racing event for motorcycles, which used to be part of the World Championship. It has long been considered one of the "greatest motorcycle sporting events of the world". Taking place over a two-week period, it has become a festival for motorcycling culture. It makes a huge contribution to the island’s economy and has become part of the Manx identity. For many, the Isle carries the title "road racing capital of the world". The Manx Grand Prix is a separate motorcycle event for amateurs and private entrants that uses the same 37.70-mile Snaefell Mountain Course in late August and early September.

The area comprising the Lake District was formed during several ice ages. The ice created a couple of valleys, most of them with lakes inside, surrounded by mountains up to 3,120 ft. high. Large sections of the Lake District were declared a National Park in 1951. This is considered to be the most beautiful park in merry olde England.

Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification built by the Romans in northern England. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of Emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain. The second was the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today. The wall was the most heavily fortified border in the Empire. In addition to its role as a military fortification, it is thought that many of the gates through the wall served as customs posts, to allow trade and to levy taxes. A significant portion of the wall still exists, particularly the mid-section. For much of its length, the wall can be followed on foot along Hadrian's Wall Path, or by cycle on National Cycle Route 72. It is the most popular tourist attraction in northern England, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. English Heritage, a government organisation in charge of managing the historic environment of England, describes it as "the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain."

It is said that if you want to rule Scotland you need to rule Stirling. Located high on a rocky outcrop and surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, Stirling Castle was a focal point in the Wars of Scottish Independence, especially during the Battle of Banockburn which saw the final defeat of the English forces against Robert the Bruce. With almost half a million visitors each year Stirling Castle has become one of the most visited attractions in Scotland.

In the 19th century the famous writer Sir Walter Scott wrote about this region in many of his books. Since then, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs (a national park since 2002) are among the most visited natural attractions in Scotland. The village of Callander features the Rob Roy Visitor Center, named after the clan chief and outlaw who Scott glorified as a national hero. You can visit Roy’s tomb in Balguhidder.

The island of Skye is of exceptional beauty and full of rich history. In 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie embarked from here to gather and unite the Highland clans in one last attempt to free Scotland from the English. He was defeated in the Battle of Culloden a year later and had to flee back to the Isle of Skye, where a Flora MacDonald helped him escape his pursuers by dressing him up as a maid. The combination of prehistoric and historic sites, spectacular scenery and small, winding roads make the Isle of Skye one of the highlights of this tour.

Edinburgh is one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, draped across a series of rocky hills overlooking the sea. It’s a town intimately entwined with its landscape, with buildings and monuments perched atop crags and overshadowed by cliffs. From the Old Town’s picturesque jumble of medieval tenements piled high along the Royal Mile, its turreted skyline strung between the black, bull-nosed Castle Rock and the russet palisade of Salisbury Crags, to the New Town’s neat grid of neoclassical respectability, the city offers a constantly changing perspective.
The Athens of the North, an 18th-century Edinburgh nickname dreamed up by the great thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, is a city of high culture and lofty ideals, of art and literature, philosophy and science. It is here that each summer the world's biggest arts festival rises, phoenix-like, from the ashes of last year's rave reviews and broken box-office records to produce yet another string of superlatives. And it is here, beneath the Greek temples of Calton Hill – Edinburgh's acropolis – that the Scottish parliament sits again after a 300-year absence.
Edinburgh is also known as Auld Reekie, a down-to-earth place that flicks an impudent finger at the pretensions of the literati. Auld Reekie is a city of loud, crowded pubs and decadent restaurants, late-night drinking and all-night parties, beer-fuelled poets and foul-mouthed comedians. It’s the city that tempted Robert Louis Stevenson from his law lectures to explore the drinking dens and lurid street life of the 19th-century Old Town and it’s the city of Beltane, the resurrected pagan May Day festival, where half-naked revellers dance in the flickering firelight of bonfires beneath the stony indifference of Calton Hill's pillared monuments.