Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a new city? Even if only for a weekend, think about how many new things you could discover about that city and the places you could explore. That's exactly what Hertz is doing. It has invited a number of journalists to swap cities for the weekend to see what new things they can discover.

The journalists will be visiting cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham and Brighton throughout the month of August. Each journalist, from publications such as the Telegraph, will stay in the allocated city for the duration of one weekend. The challenge starts with each journalist picking up a rental car from Hertz and driving it across the country to discover their new city. Despite the sometimes bad weather, the UK is actually an ideal place to holiday in. The size of the UK lends itself nicely to domestic holidaying as there is nowhere that's too far away. Whether it's a quaint seaside village that you're looking for or a buzzing city to explore the night life, the UK has a lot of surprises to explore. It depends on your personal stamina of course but a holiday in the UK will always involve a relatively short car journey. In other countries, the eight or so hours that it takes to get from one end of England to another is merely a short day trip.

There's always somewhere to stop along the way as well. When driving from the South up towards the North there's the mysterious Stonehenge to stare at and perplex over. There's also the stunning Angel of the North in Newcastle to look at and plenty of cute coast line areas to stop and have a picnic at. No one can argue that the Brits don't love their seaside picnics, no matter what the weather. There's plenty of seaside and coastal area to choose from in the UK: from the small but amorous sand dunes of Norfolk, to the wonderfully tacky seafront of Brighton or Blackpool, to the breath-taking sights of Cornwall.

Cities also offer a huge variety of holiday options and there's nowhere with more variety than London. Everywhere you look in London there is a theatre, restaurant, museum, art gallery or street performer. Indeed there is this sort of excitement in any other city if you take the time to find it, which is what the journalists will be doing on their weekend City Swaps.

Paul McShane - 25 Sep 2013