THE AMERICAN TOURIST TRAIL

London's Tower Bridge:

Over 40 million tourists visited Britain, of which about 5 million were American visitors.

The top place for Americans to visit is understandably London. But outside London, Americans seem to like visiting the cities or towns of Bath, Cambridge Canterbury, Chester, Edinburgh, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick and York and the countryside of the Cotswolds and the Lake District, as well as landmarks like Berkshire's Windsor Castle, Cornwall's Eden Project, County Antrim's Giant's Causeway and Wiltshire's Stonehenge. This is essentially the American tourist trail.

Now don't get me wrong, all these places are great to visit. But the problem is that they all get very crowded and even rammed with tourists. I'm one of those slightly hypocritical tourists that when I visit places I don't want to see many other tourists. I remember my time in Dubrovnik, a beautiful city in Croatia. It was a great city to wander around until the hordes of tourists disembarked from their cruise liner to invade the city.

Brick Lane Brasserie, Brick Lane, London:

If you were to visit Britain, what places would you like to see?

And if a tourist was to visit your area, what places would recommend them to visit?

If I was to give advice to a tourist, whether an American, Canadian and Japanese tourist (I think I've covered all my readers here), this is my alternative tourist trail.

I would start and end in London, not least it has the most international airports and has lots of things to do. But rather than visiting Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, Leicester Square (Leicester is pronounced Lester), Oxford Street, Tower of London and Trafalgar Square, I'd recommend going to Hampstead Heath for the panoramic views of London, Highgate Cemetery to see the graves of the economist Karl Marx and the sociologist Herbert Spencer next to each other as a precursor to Marks & Spencer, Chinatown in the West End and Brick Lane in the East End to sample Chinese and Indian food, Brixton Market for a multicultural experience, and Kew Gardens via a boat trip up the River Thames for a bit of peace and quiet.

Brixton Market, Electric Avenue, Brixton, London:

Rather than the touristy cities/towns that many visitors flock to, I'd instead recommend visiting Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool (make sure you get a ferry across the Mersey!), Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Swansea. If I had to narrow that list down to make it manageable for a tour, I'd say Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham, the latter only because you can stop by and say hello to me!

And rather than Stonehenge, go and see the quite rude Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset. And there's no point to the Cotswolds, as British television (especially Midsomer Murders) has that well covered and, I assure you, it's better on television than in real life. The English cottage (and cottage garden) isn't the norm here.

Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset:

Instead of the Lake District, I'd go to Derbyshire's Peak District, it's far less crowded and it's close to me so you can pay me a visit. Or if you want to be different, go to south Shropshire for its amazing and idyllic scenery (eg Carding Mill Valley, Long Mynd, Stiperstones) without tourists popping up everywhere. Ludlow, a market town in south Shropshire, has more than its fair share of Michelin-starred restaurants and it has a castle.

One of the best Christmas presents I ever gave my Mum and Dad who lived in north Shropshire was a voucher for a three-course meal with a bottle of wine of their choice at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Ludlow, about 40 miles from where they live. They upgraded the present to include a one-night stay in a Ludlow hotel after their gourmet meal. I always wondered whether they had sex that night!

Ludlow Castle, Shropshire: