Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been crowned the UK’s top experience in a new ranking.
The largest arts festival in the world, taking place this month, topped Lonely Planet’s Ultimate United Kingdom Travelist.
Also in the top 20 were two other unmissable Scottish sights: Glencoe in the Highlands and Arthur’s Seat, also in the capital.
Travel experts from Lonely Planet ranked 500 sights and experiences across Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands to compile the list.
According to Lonely Planet, Edinburgh Festival Fringe “floods the city with art and nowhere beats it for spectacle or scale”.
“There is theatre, comedy, dance, circus, cabaret, opera, music and spoken word, and whatever the time of day, an acrobat, trapeze artist, contortionist or tried-and-tested bagpiping busker will be pleased to entertain you.
Simply step through the looking glass and prepare to be dazzled by the greatest show of arts and culture on Earth.”
The festival was followed by the British Museum in London; Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland; the city of Bath; and Hadrian’s Wall to make up the top five.
London had five entries in the top 20, of which three were in the city’s zippy SE1 neighbourhood: the Tate Modern, Borough Market and the South Bank.
Other entries in the top 500 sights and experiences included using Victoria Pier’s public toilets in Hull; getting a fast train to Margate; visiting the renovated Birmingham library; and watching tennis at Wimbledon.
Top 20 UK experiences according to Lonely Planet
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh
- British Museum, London
- Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland
- Bath, Southwest England
- Hadrian’s Wall, Northeast England
- Sunday pub roast
- Tate Modern, London
- Stonehenge, Southwest England
- Windermere, Cumbria
- Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, South Wales
- Punting in Cambridge, East Anglia
- Glastonbury Festival, Southwest England
- St Paul’s Cathedral, London
- The Scilly Isles, Southwest England
- Stratford-upon-Avon, Midlands and The Marches
- Borough Market, London
- Glencoe, Highlands and Islands
- Yorkshire Dales National Park
- Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh
- South Bank, London
