Tameside

Tameside sits on the eastern fringe of Greater Manchester, where the city gives way to the Pennine moorland of the Peak District's edge. It is made up of a string of former mill towns - Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge, Hyde, Mottram, Denton - each with its own high street and its own character, held together by the hills that rise around them. It is not a place people typically think of as a holiday destination, and that is part of what makes it interesting: a working area, still, rather than one that has been smoothed into something purely for visitors.

That comes through in where you can actually stay. Rather than rows of identical holiday lets, Tameside's self-catering options are a scattered, individual bunch. Dove House and Luke House offer straightforward cottage bases, The Farmhouse Retreat leans into the area's rural edges, Alphin Apartment gives a more compact city-adjacent option, and Ye Olde Mottram Chip Shop is exactly the kind of quirky conversion that tells you something about the place - a working building given a second life rather than a purpose-built holiday cottage.

Days here are shaped by that same mix of town and moor. The built-up centres give you canals, markets and old mill architecture to walk through, while the ground rises quickly towards open countryside on the borough's edges, good for anyone who wants a proper walk without leaving the area. It suits a stay built around exploring on foot and driving out to the hills, rather than one centred on a single big attraction.

Put together, Tameside works well as a base for people who want somewhere real to come back to at the end of the day - a cottage or converted building with some character - and who are happy to eat their way around a genuinely varied set of restaurants while using the moors and market towns as their daytime draw.