This is a fascinating topic -- for me, in the US, one of the big attractions of the UK is the sheer volume of easily-reachable places to go exploring of a weekend. I live in Central Illinois, and I could drive three hours in any direction and still basically be in the cornfields of the midwest (although there's always Chicago, I suppose) -- I love the idea of bring, say, half an hour from London and also from the coast, or of being able to take city breaks in Edinburgh, Sheffield, Oxford, etc. or to go biking in the countryside, poking around little villages, discovering new pubs, etc. It's an aspect of my childhood (in the UK) that I really miss now.