Bolton

Bolton sits at the point where Greater Manchester's built-up sprawl gives way to open moorland. To the west, the ground rises towards Rivington and the West Pennine Moors, all gorse, reservoirs and long views back over the town; closer in, Bolton itself is red brick and terraced streets, a former mill town that still carries the shape of its industrial past in its civic buildings and market halls. It's a place of contrasts within a short drive - hard urban grain giving way quickly to green hills and water.

The landscape is really what shapes a visit here. Rivington Pike is the obvious draw, a steep climb rewarded with views across the whole of the Bolton area and beyond, and Go Ape Rivington makes use of the same wooded hillside for something more active. Jumbles Country Park and Moss Bank Park offer gentler walking closer to town, with water, woodland and open grass. Smithills Hall brings some history into the mix, a genuinely old manor house with grounds to wander, while Smithills Open Farm and Poppywood Alpacas are aimed squarely at families wanting animals up close. Crazy Karting covers the more high-octane end of things.

Bolton works well as a base for a couple of days that mix town and country - market stalls and restaurants one day, moorland tracks and reservoir views the next, without much distance between the two.