What is your favorite thing about England?
 

Any thoughts?

My favorite thing about England is the English import I married almost 20 years ago. He's a keeper. ((L))

I'm not sure if you looking for specifics or are posing the question in a more metaphorical sense, but, as an American, I like the history of England. I'm continually amazed at the age of buildings and the history that constantly surrounds you when you're in London, for example. In America, we put ropes around anything over 100 years old and charge admission. In England, I think I've slept in beds over a hundred years old.

Another of my favorite things about England is London's pub culture. So much fun!

Thanks Gekko, this is good to know as I will be traveling alone and probably going to the pubs!

I hope this isn't another one of these questions actually posed here by the Fodor's staff so they can enhance their guidebooks with "free" feedback from unsuspecting users. Think I'm joking??? just ask them directly whether or not they constantly monitor the info here and mine it for all it is worth PLUS collect the addresses of every user and sell those for profit!
Enough ranting...my favorite thing is the shade of green in the late Spring and the roses in all the gardens.

No, I'm not from Fodors, I really wanted to know, haha

Several things:

-Sense of humor, e.g., Evelyn Waugh
-Great acting, e.g., Alec Guinness
-Writers: Greene, Waugh, Swift
-Their departure from America and Ireland

Anthony

My favorite thing is that even though it is a foreign country, when I go there I feel like I am going home. Also, the first time I went (I have been twice and will shortly go for my third time) it was better than I imagined from everything I have read about it.

bookwurm, by any chance, do you sell model trains?

Keith

The food.

The extraordinary variety of activities.

Ditto Gekkos's sentiments.
The history is amazing to me...I would love to be able to drive just a few hours to get to somewhere like York or visit Wales...there are hundreds of wonderful places everywhere you turn.
And the pubs...

The culture, the history, the countryside. I love England in general. The historical aspects are fantastic. The countryside is rolling and unspoiled, and I just love the culture in general; the accents, the pubs, the cream teas...love it all!

Wales, Scotland and Ireland are not in england ...but very nice they are too !!

Mucky-I wasn't implying that Wales was in England. Just that it is very visitable from England.

England produces some of my favorite products - Portmeirion ceramics, fine bone china, LUSH bath and body products and Mitchell's Wool Fat soap. All that girly stuff.....

I like the pubs too.

The very best thing about England is that, wherever you are, you're not all that far from Scotland!

As I live here, too many things to mention, and the list is topped by all the friends and family I have here.

More tangible things include the excellent cosmopolitan nature of London's population (and restaurants) and the fantastic range of accents - that one language can sound sooo different is a constant source of amazement to me.

As for whether or not Fodors mine the forum for information that they can then use in their guidebooks - so what if they do? By posting in such a public domain one is surely ceding all rights to ownership of that information and anyway - TINSTAAFL - There is no such thing as a free lunch - there has to be something in it for them - I would bet that the minimal income from advertising doesn't even begin to cover the costs of hosting this site, a site we all benefit from for free.

I'd rather think that Fodors finds this forum plays an important role for them than worry about them making a decision to scrap it because it's a bit of a white elephant.

That's just my opinion, of course!

Beginning at Heathrow, I love that you can see virtually every nationality on the planet represented and hear every language.

I love that ivy grows around everything.
That the 'Goth' and the businessman sit side by side on the tube and are actually tolerant of each other.
That everything I read about English history becomes real the moment I land there.

That I get to rent a thatched cottage in the middle of a chocolate-box village and wander home from the pub at night along streets filled with night-scented stock. That the sound of birds wakes me in the morning. And that a cuppa tastes better there.

That green in England is not a product of chemicals. That they love their dogs. That Druids actually cavort around Stonehenge. That you can be totally lost a minute after you get off an 'M' road.

That the people don't gush or fawn over you. That they fill your pint to overflowing and you don't have to tip everyone all the time. That they know about their country and its history and read newspapers voraciously. That they are irreverant in a clever way.

That you actually have to think when you watch their game shows. That they are a bit eccentric. That you can find the holiday you want - hiking, museums, pub crawls, architecture, sailing - in one small island.

That you can have a pint where the Crusaders had a pint. Stand in the room where Rudyard Kipling wrote. See the place that Winston Churchill loved the most. And go to a village fete, complete with Morris dancers and a maypole.

Castles, Manor Homes, the countryside, and the British accents. Tea and scones.

No question about it -- THE THEATRE!!