Every UK City's Top Tourist Attraction

For tourists and locals alike, there are cultural attractions and landmarks all over the country waiting to be wowed at. Whether you prefer to marvel at the historic ceilings of century-old cathedrals, head for long strolls among the country’s natural beauty or tend to find yourself eyeing up the modern art in a gallery, you’ve sure got plenty of choice in the UK. But which should you choose if you’ve only got a limited time to explore?

Luckily for internet browsing thrill seekers, Google collects a bunch of reviews for almost every tourist attraction in the country, written and rated by fellow travellers. We’ve compiled a list of the top attractions within or near each of the UK’s 65 cities by taking a look at Google’s Travel Guides for each city and finding the top reviewed ‘thing to do’ there.

All attractions were categorised as either ‘museum’, ‘religious’, ‘nature’, ‘entertainment’, ‘landmark’ and ‘library’. There were:

24 natural attractions
17 museums
10 religious buildings
9 entertainment venues
3 landmarks
2 libraries

It seems that the great outdoors is a popular choice for city explorers, with nature coming out as the most frequently occurring category in our list of the top things to do around the UK. Museums and art galleries are also a popular choice for tourists, being the second most commonly occurring category in our list. Religious buildings are highly rated amongst Google reviewers in smaller, historical cities, with cathedrals making up the majority.

Chris Johnson, former head of Operations at vouchercloud, commented:

It’s really encouraging that so many of the top attractions – so close to cities – are focused on nature, and it feels quite refreshing knowing that most cities offer a way to escape to the great outdoors. Despite some of the quirkier options among the top attractions, we’ve definitely shown that every corner of the UK offers something different, and there’s always a fun day to be had.

In terms of country-specific differences, in Scotland 4 out of 6 of the top attractions listed are natural, and similarly 50% of the highest rated attractions are nature-based both in Ireland and in Wales.

Interestingly, only three landmarks make the list of top-rated attractions; the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, the HMNB in Portsmouth and Free Derry Corner in Londonderry.

City	Top Attraction on Google	Rating	Number of Reviews	Category	Miles from centre
Aberdeen	David Welch Winter Gardens	4.7	154	Nature	1.29mi
Bangor	Zip World Panrhyn Quarry	4.8	1,339	Entertainment	2.24mi
Bath	Alexandra Park	4.7	253	Nature	<1mi
Belfast	Grand Opera House	4.7	1003	Entertainment	<1mi
Birmingham	The Electric	4.7	572	Entertainment	<1mi
Bradford	Oakwell Hall Country Park	4.7	111	Nature	5.21 mi
Brighton and Hove	Devil's Dyke	4.7	131	Nature	4.98 mi
Bristol	Clifton Suspension Bridge	4.7	2412	Landmark	1.72mi
Cambridge	Imperial War Museum Duxford	4.8	3910	Museum	7.57 mi
Canterbury	Wingham Wildlife Park	4.6	1291	Nature	6.48 mi
Cardiff	Principality Stadium	4.7	3517	Entertainment	<1mi
Carlisle	Watchtree Nature Reserve	4.7	141	Nature	6.15 mi
Chester	Chester Cathedral Falconry and Nature Gardens	4.8	238	Nature	<1mi
Chichester	Goodwood House	4.7	593	Museum	2.86mi
City of London	British Museum	4.7	41,716	Museum	1.62mi
Coventry	Coventry Transport Museum	4.7	2543	Museum	<1mi
Derby	Make Your Escape	4.8	63	Entertainment	<1mi
Dundee	McManus Galleries	4.6	439	Museum	<1mi
Durham	Durham University Oriental Museum	4.8	85	Museum	<1mi
Edinburgh	Arthur's Seat	4.8	579	Nature	1.21mi
Ely	Ely Cathedral	4.6	325	Religious	<1mi
Exeter	Red House Mysteries	4.9	67	Entertainment	<1mi
Glasgow	Glasgow Film Theatre	4.7	593	Entertainment	<1mi
Gloucester	Gloucester Cathedral	4.7	409	Religious	<1mi
Hereford	Hereford Cathedral	4.5	201	Religious	<1mi
Inverness	Plodda Falls	4.8	126	Nature	24.33mi
Kingston upon Hull	Escape Room Hull	4.8	57	Entertainment	<1mi
Lancaster	Williamson Park	4.7	1276	Nature	<1mi
Leeds	Royal Armouries Museum	4.7	2737	Museum	<1mi
Leicester	BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir	4.9	71	Religious	1.95mi
Lichfield	National Memorial Arboretum	4.8	2306	Nature	5.29mi
Lincoln	Lincoln Cathedral	4.8	552	Religious	<1mi
Lisburn	Wallace Park	4.6	519	Nature	<1mi
Liverpool	251 Menlove Avenue	4.8	71	Museum	5.03mi
Londonderry	Free Derry Corner	4.7	379	Landmark	<1mi
Manchester	John Rylands Library	4.8	295	Library	<1mi
Newcastle upon Tyne	Beamish Museum	4.8	4549	Museum	6.86mi
Newport	Belle Vue Park	4.6	379	Nature	<1mi
Newry	Slieve Guillion Forest Park	4.8	179	Nature	4.98mi
Norwich	City of Norwich Aviation Museum	4.7	102	Museum	3.49mi
Nottingham	Wollaton Hall, Gardens and Deer Park	4.7	2832	Nature	2.21mi
Oxford	Oxford University Museum of Natural History	4.7	1703	Museum	<1mi
Peterborough	Peterborough Cathedral	4.7	241	Religious	<1mi
Plymouth	National Trust - Plymbridge Woods	4.7	277	Nature	3.66mi
Portsmouth	HMNB Portsmouth	4.7	3,195	Landmark	<1mi
Preston	Worden Park	4.6	758	Nature	5.38mi
Ripon	Studley Royal Park	4.7	174	Nature	2.51mi
Salford	John Rylands Library	4.8	295	Library	1.77mi
Salisbury	Boscombe Down Aviation Collection	4.7	139	Museum	1.77mi
Sheffield	Peak District	4.8	13,575	Nature	4.73mi
Southampton	Royal Victoria Country Park	4.6	697	Nature	3.92mi
St Albans	St Albans Cathedral	4.7	430	Religious	<1mi
St Davids	Pembrokeshire Coast National Park	4.8	5,109	Nature	15.13mi
Stirling	Dumyat	4.7	53	Nature	3.67mi
Stoke-on-Trent	Gladstone Pottery Museum	4.7	187	Museum	2.28mi
Sunderland	Ryhope Engines Museum	4.7	78	Museum	2.92mi
Swansea	The Escape Game Swansea	4.9	57	Entertainment	1.53mi
Truro	Kennall Vale Nature Reserve	4.8	89	Nature	6.42mi
Wakefield	Clarence Park	4.5	84	Nature	<1mi
Wells	Wells Cathedral	4.7	272	Religious	<1mi
Westminster	British Museum	4.7	41,716	Museum	1.56mi
Winchester	Winchester Cathedral	4.6	717	Religious	<1mi
Wolverhampton	Royal Air Force Museum Cosford	4.8	3,018	Museum	8.81mi
Worcester	Worcester Cathedral	4.7	242	Religious	<1mi
York	National Railway Museum	4.7	5,880	Museum	<1mi

The Data

The data was collected by Vouchercloud using Google’s ‘Things to do’ feature to search every UK city list of reviewed attractions. The attractions with at least 50 reviews and the highest star rating were selected.

Share this post