Foreign tourists used to have a pretty standard list of must-see sights and to-do tours in Britain.
A visit to Shakespeare’s Stratford, a Wordsworth wander in the Lakes, Madame Tussauds and Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard.
But now it’s more about changing the barrel – and a nice pint of real ale or a G&T.
Because a London pub crawl has just been voted one of the world’s best travel experiences.
In fact, the Liquid History Tour is the only UK attraction to make the top 25 in TripAdvisor’s annual Travellers’ Choice Awards.
But that could soon change – because pub crawls with a different are pulling in punters around the country.
We gave our reporters the arduous task of trying out a few...
Paul Routledge
Transpennine Real Ale Trail
This is more of a pilgrimage than a pub crawl.
I started in a puffer-nutter’s paradise, the Station Buffet Bar, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, a magnificent Victorian celebration of all things railway. And beer.
Tourists will wow to this bit of olde England, historic train stuff on the walls and white-bearded relics of the steam age knocking it back at 11am. It’s not cheap but it is theatre.
Which cannot be said of the The Railway Inn, Greenfield, just up the valley, which is shut.
And the train is cancelled too, so it’s the 184 bus over Saddleworth Moor to the Riverhead Brewery Tap, Marsden.
Altogether more welcoming. We’re now in Yorkshire and the village is the birthplace of Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.
He’d compose an ode to my pint of Ossett Blonde.
Ever onwards, ever down the Colne Valley to The Commercial, Slaithwaite (pronounced Slawit), which is quiet but, who cares, with Commerci’ale made round the corner by Empire Brewing at £2.20 a pint.
Next up is The King’s Head, in the east wing of Grade-1 listed Huddersfield station where I often partake with Robert Sutcliffe of the town’s Daily Examiner newspaper.
In the square outside, statuesque Harold Wilson – a brandy man, for all the talk of beer and sandwiches in No10 – turns his back on the pub.
Canalside in Mirfield, The Navigation is a favourite of ale-trailers.
They throng through in fancy dress, stag and hen parties.
Cheaper than Prague, when you take the air fare into account.
Finally made it to The West Riding, on Dewsbury station.
Another Victorian masterpiece with coal fires (is it really midsummer?) and a cracking pint of Black Sheep as it should be for £3.60. First-rate pizza and all-day breakfast for trailers.
All these pubs are close to – or on – stations on the Manchester to Leeds line. With such delicious distractions, I’m surprised anybody ever gets to either city.
But given the record of Northern Rail and Transpennine Trains, who’s to tell?
Amanda Killelea
Manchester gin crawl
Think of a Manchester and booze and it may conjure up a vision of Mel Sykes leaning out of an ice cream van with a pint of Boddington’s, asking “Do you want a flake in that, love?”
But gin is now the drink of choice, with thousands of flavours on offer in dozens of gin bars across the city.
Clever marketing and imaginative ingredients have re-ignited our love affair with the tipple once known as mother’s ruin.
Oliver Wrigley’s family have run the Atlas bar in Deansgate for the past eight years.
They were the behind the city’s gin revolution, after spotting a gap in the market for artisan products.
The bar now stocks over 480 varieties and is the first stop for afficionados on the city’s burgeoning Gin Journey.
Oliver says: “The laws on gin production changed in 2009, opening the market to smaller artisan companies. That’s why there is so much choice.”
He pours me his favourite Isle of Harris gin – produced from kelp mixed with a tonic made from quinine grown on the Inca trail in Peru.
Weird...but quite wonderful, too.
Next stop is Gorilla bar, which has its own dedicated gin parlour tucked away on the first floor where it infuses its own gin with berries, herbs and olives.
Bartender Ben Thompson, 25, says: “We have regulars who have gone back to the traditional way of drinking gin with soda rather than tonic, so they can taste the intense flavour.”
Manchester’s regenerated and flourishing Northern Quarter, home to countless independent cafes, bars and restaurants, is on the city’s popular gin crawl.
In Cottonopolis drinkers can even give Japanese gins a whirl.
But manager Gethin Jones explains that even the fanciest of his cocktails won’t break the bank.
I’d better call it a day there, though, otherwise these oh-so-alluring new gins could be this mother’s ruin too.
Rachael Bletchly
Liquid History Tour, London
I'm on my third gin and tonic in just over an hour and beginning to feel pleasantly fuzzy.
I’ve been enthusing about pork scratchings to a couple from Guatemala, swapping Winston Churchill-isms with a guy from Texas and chatting about a foul-mouthed parrot with Simon and Amanda from Harpenden.
And, although it’s only 3pm, I’m now trying to persuade a reluctant barman to take me down to the cellar and show me his crown jewels.
Or, rather, the vault where the priceless royal gems were stashed during the Blitz to protect them from Nazi bombers.
But then Freddie, our cheery guide, tells us to drink up and my 14 new chums and I pour out of the Old Bank of England Pub on to Fleet Street, heading for another boozer and more fascinating stories.
I’ve joined one of the award- winning pub crawls delighting tourists with a quirky mix of history, literature, politics, pop culture, architecture and, of course, alcohol.
They were set up eight years ago by former international tour guide John Warland, 41.
He calls them “love letters to London’s old ale houses and gin palaces”, highlighting their fascinating history while giving hard-pressed landlords a boost – at a time when
18 pubs a week are being forced to close down.
And the 18 to 80-year-old tourists who pay £25 a head for the pleasure (drinks extra) clearly think they’re liquid gold.
The regular walk takes three to
four hours, stopping at half a dozen pubs. But a private group once crammed in 13 boozers… and then managed to take in a gin distillery.
Guide Freddie Heacock, 26, said: “People rarely come on the tour to get hammered.”
The funny, friendly walking encyclopedia of beer and history added: “The foreign visitors find it a great way to see the city, hear some stories and find out about our pub culture and different ales.
“But we get a lot of locals too.”
I urge you take the tour – it really is the best bar none. Hic.
Matt Roper
Madam Parboiled's Nottingham pub tour
Sitting in a dark cave with six others, I’m enjoying my third pint as a toothless old “wench” spooks us with stories of a ghostly tormented highwayman and a little street urchin called Rosie.
We’re at the Salutation Inn (Est 1240), the third drinking hole on this very different kind of pub crawl. Or more precisely, we’re in one of the caves deep beneath it where peasants once lived.
And where, according to our cackling guide Madame Parboiled, many a poor soul met an unpleasant end.
Four-year-old Rosie was knocked down by a cart and buried in the cave.
“Just there on the spot you’re sitting,” shrieks Madame Parboiled, making a fellow drinker spit out his beer.
If you’re looking for a pub crawl which leaves you with more than just a hang-over, this is definitely it. Kath George, 58 – aka Madame Parboiled – charges £7 for the three-hour tour of the city’s oldest pubs.
First up is The Bell Inn (Est 1420) with a hole still at the entrance, where lepers could buy their beers.
Others on the route include the Ned Ludd and The Royal Children, so named because Charles II’s offspring would go there to play with the landlord’s kids.
Final destination is the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, claiming to be the oldest pub in England, reputedly dating to 1189.
Few, however, know the story of the cursed galleon, an ancient model ship kept locked in an upper room.
Twice in the last 50 years, cleaners have decided to dust it but both died within days.
Today, no one dares go near, including Madame Parboiled, who winds up the tour telling the story from the safety of a room downstairs.
Fellow crawler Jacquelyn Clarke, 62, says: “I’ve found out loads about my city. This is a great way of meeting people, having a laugh and a drink too.”
