Happy happy Harrogate… the North Yorkshire spa town was named the UK’s happiest place to live in a 2013 poll – and again in 2014 – largely, we surmise, because folk have been coming here for happy health reasons since the time of the first George.
One of the UK’s most famous spa towns (see also, of course, bubbling away in Bath), Harrogate and its waters have been drawing visitors since the early eighteenth century. These days, book a Harrogate campsite for happiness to hit: once you’ve immersed yourself in the history of the town at the Royal Pump Room, there’s still the Mercer Art Gallery, steaming in the Turkish baths at Harrogate Spa, gorgeous gardens like the renowned RHS Harlow Carr and the nightlife of Montpelier Quarter to put a spring in your step.
To the west, hit more dizzy heights climbing around the Yorkshire Dales National Park, or use camping in Harrogate as a base to saturate self in other North Yorkshire happy places, like Leeds to the south, York to the east, the North York Moors National Park north-east and the magnif Fountains Abbey at nearby Ripon.