Weather, coast, and when to go

The UK is mild, damp and changeable. A July day can be 28°C and shirt-sleeves; the next can be 16°C with a wind that feels personal. The west — Cornwall, Wales, the Lakes, the Highlands — takes more rain off the Atlantic. The east — East Anglia, the North Sea coast, much of Lothian — is drier and colder in the wind. Mountains make their own weather, usually worse than the town you started in.

Pack a waterproof layer in every month. Pack shoes that can meet a wet pavement. Umbrellas are a London tool; on a ridge they are a kite.

Late spring and early autumn are the best bargain: May, June, September, early October. Light is long in June. Heather and fewer midges favour September in the Highlands. August is festival in Edinburgh, holiday for the whole country’s schools, and the month the coast is full. Christmas markets are pretty and crowded. January is cheap, dark by four, and honest.

School holidays — a week or two at Easter, late July through August, and a week in October — move prices and tempers. Bank holidays bunch the country into the same car parks. If you can travel mid-week outside those windows, the same place is a different country.