Peak District

The Peak District sits in the middle of England, a long way from any coast, and beaches play no part in a stay. The reservoirs look inviting on a warm day but are cold and deep, and swimming in them is discouraged. The best summer swim is the heated open-air pool at Hathersage, and some walkers dip in the rivers of the limestone dales. A visitor who wants sea bathing should plan a separate trip.

Eating here means country pubs, tea rooms and market towns. The stone pubs of the Hope Valley, the Derbyshire Dales and the Staffordshire moorland edge serve hearty food after a day's walk, with real ale from small regional breweries. Bakewell has its pudding, made with jam and almond filling in a pastry case, and Hartington has a long cheesemaking tradition. A handful of country-house dining rooms and ambitious village kitchens lift the top end, and farm shops, particularly around the Chatsworth estate, sell good local meat and baking.

The range is narrow. There is no street food or market hall scene, and in the smaller villages evening choices come down to one or two pubs, which fill up on summer weekends.

The region's heritage is that of great estates and stone villages. Chatsworth, the Duke of Devonshire's palatial house with its art collection and landscaped park, is among the finest country houses in England, and the medieval Haddon Hall near Bakewell is unusually intact. Buxton has a Georgian spa centre built around the sweeping Crescent and the Pavilion Gardens, and Castleton is overlooked by the Norman ruin of Peveril Castle.

Smaller stories reward a slower pace: Eyam, the village that quarantined itself during the plague of 1665, the well-dressing tradition of decorating village wells with flower-petal pictures in summer, and Cromford, where Arkwright's mills began the factory age in the Derwent Valley. It all adds up to a rich day or two, spread across a wide area rather than gathered in one place.

Evenings belong to the village pub: low beams, an open fire, local ale and a crowd of walkers who will be up early. Buxton and Matlock have a few bars that stay open a little later at weekends, but there are no clubs and nothing runs late. Those who want a night out go into Sheffield or Manchester, each about an hour away.

Britain's first national park splits into two landscapes. The Dark Peak in the north is high gritstone moorland and peat, with Kinder Scout's plateau, the Pennine Way setting out from Edale, and long edges such as Stanage and Curbar that are famous among rock climbers worldwide. The White Peak to the south is gentler limestone country of dry-stone walls, green dales and rivers: Dovedale with its stepping stones, Monsal Dale, Lathkill Dale.

Walking is the main draw, from short circuits round Mam Tor to long days over the moors. Former railway lines such as the Monsal and Tissington Trails make easy, traffic-free cycling, and the limestone hides caves for potholing. The heights stay below 640m, so this is hill country rather than mountains, and the weather is changeable, with snow on the tops in winter and the best walking from late spring to autumn.

The park sits between big northern and Midland cities, which makes for varied days out. Manchester, with its museums and Victorian centre, is about an hour by train from Buxton or Edale, and Sheffield is a short ride down the Hope Valley. To the south lie Derby and Nottingham, and to the west the Potteries towns of Stoke, where the old ceramics works can be visited.

Just beyond the park boundary is a cluster of grand houses: Elizabethan Hardwick Hall, Bolsover Castle, Kedleston Hall and the faded Calke Abbey. The Derwent Valley mill villages make another outing, and Chester and York are both possible from the right side of the park, close to the two-hour limit.

This works well for active families. The show caves at Castleton and Buxton take children underground, the cable car at Matlock Bath climbs to the Heights of Abraham with caverns at the top, and Matlock Bath also has a small hillside theme park aimed at younger children. Crich Tramway Village lets them ride vintage trams, and Chatsworth has a working farmyard and a big adventure playground.

The old railway trails are flat and free of traffic, ideal for cycling with children, and Dovedale's stepping stones are a classic short walk. Alton Towers, one of Britain's largest theme parks, is a short drive south of Ashbourne. The catches are distance and weather: a car is almost essential, and a wet day can mean a lot of time indoors.

Three railway lines reach into the park: the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield stops at Edale, Hope and Hathersage, and branch lines run to Buxton and Matlock. These make car-free walking trips genuinely possible, with walks starting from the station platform.

Beyond the railways it gets harder. Buses link the main villages but are thin in the evening and on minor routes, so most visitors drive. The roads are narrow, steep and winding over the moors, and on sunny weekends the honeypots such as Castleton, Bakewell and Dovedale fill up and car parks overflow. Within the villages themselves, everything is a short walk.

Shopping is modest and practical. Hathersage and Castleton have outdoor equipment shops for walkers and climbers, Castleton sells jewellery made from Blue John, a banded fluorspar mined only in its hills, and Ashbourne and Leek have antique shops. Bakewell's weekly market and its pudding shops draw crowds, and Buxton has a pleasant small high street. Farm shops are the best place to buy something worth taking home. There is no fashion or luxury shopping to speak of.

Prices are those of rural England: comfortable, but not cheap. Cottages and inns are in heavy demand on summer weekends and during school breaks, and pub meals cost what they do across the country. On the other side of the balance, the main attraction, the hills, is free to walk, and there are youth hostels, bunkhouses and campsites across the park. Stately homes and show caves charge entry, so a family visiting several of them will notice the cost.

Buxton is the performing arts centre of the region. Its Edwardian Opera House, designed by Frank Matcham, stages touring drama, comedy, concerts and pantomime through the year, and in July the Buxton International Festival brings opera and classical music while a large fringe fills the town's smaller rooms. Elsewhere it comes down to folk sessions in village pubs and summer concerts at the great houses. For a full concert or theatre programme, Sheffield and Manchester are the places to go.

The Peak has an old spa heritage. Buxton grew up around its warm mineral springs, and its Georgian Crescent holds a spa using the natural thermal water; St Ann's Well lets visitors fill a bottle from the spring for free. Matlock Bath was a Victorian spa resort too, though little of the bathing survives there. Country-house hotels across the dales add their own spas.

The deeper appeal is the pace. Quiet stone villages, long walks and evenings by a pub fire make it a natural place to slow down, especially midweek and outside the summer weekends, when the busier villages fill with day visitors.