The UK’s most popular National Park – according to reviews
There are over 15 National Parks in the UK spread across England, Wales and Scotland.
The popular National Parks are protected areas based on special qualities within their parameters, getting over 100 million visits every year.
Each area is unique, filled with historic sites, breathtaking scenery, cycling trails, walking trails, water sports and even star gazing opportunities.
Visitors flock to the most popular National Parks in all weather – whether it be for a fun family day out or a luxurious UK holiday.
To help people decide where to go, Coast & Country Hotel Collection has compiled data from Google reviews to identify which National Park is the most popular based on its highly rated activities, and ranked them accordingly.
Most popular National Park – Peaks, Lakes or Northumberland?
Located on the north east coast of England, Northumberland is the UK’s most popular National Park, based on its highly rated reviews.
Bamburgh Castle was one of the most popular places to visit, with a rating of 4.7 from almost 10,000 Google users. The stunning Castle has stood guard above the Northumberland coast for thousands of years, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Following this was Alnwick Castle – which famously appeared in Harry Potter – with 9.4k reviews.
Other places featured included Housesteads Roman Fort, Hareshaw Linn Waterfall and Kielder Observatory.
The Peak District was the UK’s second most popular National Park, with almost 50k reviews on Google.
Froggat Edge and Baslow Edge – both of which are the best views in the park – had achieved 5-star ratings according to the research.
However one of the most famous landmarks in Derbyshire, Chatsworth House, has 14.6k reviews with an overall rating of 4.7.
Following this was the Lake District, the only UK National Park that is entirely a World Heritage site.
In total, the park had just under 50k Google reviews for its amenities, which included Aira Force Waterfall – a beautiful waterfall set amongst ancient woodland and landscaped glades – which had 3.9k reviews with an overall rating of 4.7.
The least popular National Parks
The National Park(s) with the lowest overall rating was the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.
Whilst Britain’s largest protected wetland had 21.1k google reviews with a 4+ rating, its total score was only 114.3, falling just behind the North Yorkshire Moors.
“The UK’s National Parks are filled with stunning lakes, hiking trails, towns and historical architecture which millions of people visit each year,” said Paul FitzGerald, Portfolio Managing Director from Coast & Country Hotel Collection.
“A great way to work out what to see and do when spending time in these destinations is by looking at Google reviews from previous visitors.
“Northumberland is a beautiful part of the UK filled with amazing castles and coastline, so we’re delighted that our research has revealed that it is the nation’s favourite National Park.
“The George Hotel in Hexham is part of the Coast & Country Hotel Collection and is located only five minutes from Hadrian’s Wall and the walking route running alongside it – the perfect location to see all the top-rated activities.”
Most popular National Parks – ranked
The full ranking of the UK’s favourite national parks based on its overall Google review score (all activities with 4+ stars that have 10 reviews or more) were:
- Northumberland, Western Northumberland: 323 total review score, 70,905 reviews
- Peak District – Derbyshire: 320.1 total review score, 49,974 reviews
- Lake District – Cumbria: 279 total review score, 49,613 reviews
- Yorkshire Dales – Yorkshire: 230.3 total review score, 42,543 reviews
- Snowdonia – Gwynedd :214 total review score, 35,371 reviews
- Pembrokeshire Coast – Pembrokeshire: 200.4 total review score, 25,399 reviews
- South downs – Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex: 184.7 total review score, 27,773 reviews
- Dartmoor – Devon: 183.6 total review score, 19,093 reviews
- Loch Lomond – Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire: 162.6 total review score, 21,353 reviews
- Cairngorms – Aberdeenshire, Inverness-shire and Banffshire: 146.8 total review score, 21,381 reviews
- New Forest – Hampshire: 145.3 total review score, 22,286 reviews
- Exmoor – West Somerset and North Devon: 132.2 total review score, 24,797 reviews
- Brecon Beacons – Carmarthenshire, Powys and Monmouthshire: 121.3 total review score, 16,908 reviews
- North Yorkshire Moors – Yorkshire: 119.9 total review score, 23,921 reviews
- The Broads – Norfolk and Suffolk: 114.3 total review score, 21,162 reviews
