I wouldnt say i had a vast amount of experience, but the peak district is rapidly overtaking wales as my favourite place to ride. The peaks have a huge network of trails and bridleways criss crossing them, including classics like Jacobs Ladder and Cut Gate. The dark peak area seems to be the most popular with mountain bikers, but there are loads of great routes in the white peak too. I'm from merseyside too, and the thing i noticed first were the height and gradient of the hills. Some of them are real lungbusters, especially off-road. We dont have any hills at all that compare to the peaks (or wales for that matter).