Peak District

Rick's guidebooks (like any guidebook) are curated, as no guidebook can cover everywhere.

First and foremost they are an adjunct to his tours business. Rightly or wrongly none of his tours visit the Peak District- wrongly in my personal opinion having been born just outside the area (full disclosure of bias). To an extent his videos are also angled toward the tours business.

However you will find quite a lot of content on this forum about the area from forum members who have either visited or UK members who know the Peak District. In the search bar at top left of your screen, type in 'Peak District', 'Buxton' or 'Bakewell' for instance. You can filter that content down to age.

Hi, Joe, I will be staying 5 nights in The Peak District in April of this year, and posted a thread a few months ago asking for information about where to stay (I'm staying in Castleton, FYI). But there was also a lot of information about sights to see there, like the Blue John mines, Chatsworth House, which is supposed to be amazing, Bakewell, Winatt's Pass, and much more. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/next-stop-the-peak-district

Here is another thread from this forum that has some good info, and includes links to YouTube videos: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/peak-district-national-park

Also, here are a few sites that should give you some info:
https://visitpeakdistrict.com/
https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/home
https://www.visitbritain.com/en/destinations/england/peak-district

The RS tour books do not cover everything in a country. That doesn’t mean that those areas aren’t interesting or worth seeing. As told to us by a long time RS guide, his tours as well as his books are based on his travels.

First, as noted by others, RS hasn’t and doesn’t go everywhere in his travels.

Secondly did you mean 2006 or 2016 guidebook. Either way both are out dated references.

Third, lots of intel about the Peak District on this forum. Use the search box. To access it click on the 5 horizontal lines on the left side of the header.

I’m just surprised he doesn’t seem to have put out anything on this area, not that I can find anyway. Nothing even that I see on Chatsworth, which by all accounts is a top destination. Given the popularity of the Pride and Prejudice movie I would think this area would be on the radar.
Thanks for all the replies!

Rick hasn't discovered the Peak District yet - Don't let that put you off as loads of other people have and appreciate all it has to offer. It is still off the tourist radar for most visitors, and that is one of its attractions. It has a widde range of different scenery from the gritstone moors of Kinder and the Dark Peak to the limestone of Castleton and the White Peak - don't miss the caves!

It has excellent walking. The Pennine Way starts from Edale, there are trails along long closed railway lines as well as a wide network of footpaths. There are stately homes (Chatsworth and Haddon Hall) as well as ruined castles (Peveril). There are stone circles - Nine Ladies and Arbor Low... There is the 'plague village' of Eyam as well Buxton, once an important spa town. There are many small villages to discover, the equal of many in the Cotswolds...

Come and find it before Rick puts it on the map!

Areas like the Peak District are why many of us in the UK simply don't understand the American obsession with the Cotswolds.

Unlike the Cotswolds the Peak District has very well developed public transportation including super easy links (far easier than the Cotswolds to Heathrow) to Manchester Airport.

There is another thread where Manchester Airport was really rubbished, totally unjustly, as an access point- it has great worldwide connections.

But even from central London the Peak District is 3 hours or less either from St Pancras or Euston by train- compared to the 90 minutes or so from Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh.

There is also a lot of very interesting industrial history to be discovered in the area- hence the network of former railway trails referred to by @Wasleys.

Being from the Cheshire/Manchester side I am used to thinking in those terms for access to the area, but access is just as easy from the east side- Derby/Chesterfield/Sheffield side.
There is also the railway line from Manchester to Sheffield which cuts through the Peak- with both local trains and long distance express trains. Most of the local stations on that line are in interesting villages.

OP, Which Pride and Prejudice film? The 1995 series? 2005 film? Olivier and Garson’s 1940 version?

Claudia, Chatsworth House was used as Pemberley in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film.

Rick's guidebooks (like any guidebook) are curated

Rick's guidebooks are much more heavily curated than most other guidebooks like Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. For example, he omits an entire district (The Peak) and has almost nothing about the Outer Hebrides in his Scotland books. Don't get me wrong; I like his books, but I don't buy them in many cases because he doesn't cover half of the areas I want to travel to.

I will just comment a good chunk of Sheffields boundary is within the National Park, a unique City distinction until the upstart South Downs was created a few years back.
Until a few years back it was the most visted National Park in the UK

The most well known Pride & Prejudice reference in the UK is the one which used Lyme Hall in the north of the Peak District, the one with Colin Firth bathing in “that shirt”, that was auctioned last week for £20K.

I recommend you look at another guidebook, The Rough Guide to England.
It has an entire section devoted to the Peak District.
In the edition I have, it begins on page 686 and ends with page 708.
One page is a map of the Peak District.
Major towns and sights are detailed in this chapter.
It has a detailed map of Buxton.
It has an entire page about Chatsworth House; it's history, its art collection, how to get there, and more.
Rough Guides are very detailed and cover every area in the country in the book title.
If you're going to every corner of England, you'll need The Rough Guide to England.

My folks live in the Peaks last 30 years, Rough Guide is very comprehensive

I love Rough Guides. That's mostly what I used for my upcoming trip. They are well-written and have interesting places to visit. I don't really use them for lodging recommendations, but have found a few now and then that I liked.

Rough Guides also give you a free ebook if you buy one of their print books, which is especially nice!