Working for the airlines (NWA) with basically free flights I used to pop over for the weekends every couple of months or so with a couple friends to the UK, Germany, and Holland for some serious pub crawling tasting all the beers and ales. Good discounts on hotel rooms as well. Back then in London they still would close down in the afternoons. We found that a big suck. LOL France (southern Med coast for the beaches, not Paris) and Spain for some uh, wine tasting as well. About 50 bucks RT for 1st class back then with our employee discounts. We used to do the islands as well in the winter, Caribbean, Bahamas, Aruba, Bermuda once - too expensive there though really. My favorite was the Bahamas. Until I started coming to Thailand. The long flights are a bitch though, but if you could get some good time off (10 days at the least) it was doable and even less expensive.It, maybe, depends on nationality.
I would guess UK probably has a much more diverse range of beers/ales/IPAs than any other country.
I remember years ago I went to a beer festival in UK. Not a big national affair. Just a local one. Over 100 beers on keg. All local, I think from a radius of 50 miles.
I would think it's a bigger business now, with the amount of micro breweries around.
Drinking any beers, other than lager, brewed in other countries likely feels and tastes like a poor compromise. Hence @CO-CO 's reference to Mackeson.
It would be interesting to see other's opinions of local brews alongside nationalities of the poster.