Hampton Court Palace

Some 20 mi from central London, on a loop of the Thames upstream from Richmond, stands one of London's oldest royal palaces. It is actually two palaces in one: a magnificent Tudor redbrick mansion, begun in 1514 by Cardinal Wolsey, and a larger, late-17th-century baroque structure, where Christopher Wren designed the graceful south wing, one of the palace's many highlights.

From the information center in the main courtyard, you can choose which parts of the palace to explore -- whether your taste is Tudor or baroque -- based on a number of self-guided walking routes. Throughout the palace, costumed interpreters and special programs, such as cooking demonstrations in the cavernous Tudor kitchens, make history fun. As you progress into the State Apartments through halls hung with priceless paintings, you can easily imagine the ghost of Catherine Howard screaming her innocence of adultery to an unheeding Henry VIII. Other highlights in the Tudor portion include Henry's Great Hall and the Chapel Royal (with its fan vaulting and azure ceiling). The routes continue with the later King's (William's) Apartments, the Queen's Apartments, and the Georgian Rooms. William and, especially, Mary loved Hampton Court and left their mark on the place -- see their fine collections of Delftware and other porcelain. Be sure to look outside as you explore the baroque apartments. Famed throughout the world, the gardens were designed to please anyone gazing out the windows, as well as people strolling outside. Come Christmas season, there's ice-skating on a rink before the West Front of the palace -- an unmissable mixture of pageantry and pleasure.

The site beside the slow-moving Thames is idyllic, with 60 acres of fantastic ornamental gardens, lakes, and ponds, including William III's Privy Garden on the palace's south side. Its parterres, sculpted turf, and clipped yews and hollies -- a hybrid of English and continental gardening styles -- brilliantly set off Wren's addition. Other highlights are Henry VIII's Pond Garden, the enormous conical yews around the Fountain Garden, and the daffodil-lined paths of the Wilderness. On the east side of the house, 544 lime trees were replanted in 2004 along the Long Water, a canal built during the time of Charles II. The Great Vine, near the Banqueting House, was planted in 1768 and is still producing black Hamburg grapes. Perhaps best of all are the almost half mile of paths in the celebrated maze, which you enter to the north of the palace. It was planted in 1714 and is truly fiendish.

Royalty ceased living here with George III; poor George preferred the seclusion of Kew, where he was finally confined in his madness. The private apartments that range down one side of the palace are now occupied by pensioners of the Crown. Known as "grace and favor" apartments, they are among the most coveted homes in the country, with a surfeit of peace and history on their doorsteps.