Experience the best of Warwick

Warwick Castle stands on a bend of the Avon, a fortress first raised by William the Conqueror's men in 1068 and grown over the centuries into a ring of towers, ramparts and state rooms. The Earls of Warwick, among them Richard Neville, the Kingmaker of the Wars of the Roses, held it as one of the great strongholds of England. The town beneath is largely Georgian, rebuilt after the fire of 1694.

St Mary's church has a tall tower and the Beauchamp Chapel, a Gothic chantry filled with the tomb effigies of earls. The Lord Leycester Hospital, a cluster of timber-framed buildings by the West Gate, has housed retired soldiers since the sixteenth century. Leamington Spa's Regency terraces run into the town's edge, Kenilworth Castle's ruins lie a few miles north, and Stratford-upon-Avon is a short way south-west.

Capability Brown laid out the castle's parkland in the eighteenth century, and the meadows along the Avon make easy walking. Pubs in the old lanes pour Midlands ales and serve Sunday roasts, and late spring, with the leaves fresh and the castle walls catching the sun, suits the town best.