Swindon Secret Britain

Having really enjoyed the last episode of the BBC’s ‘Secret Britain’, we took a quick peek at the content of the next episode entitled ‘The Hidden Heart’. The blurb reads ‘Matt searches for a mysterious island in the enigmatic waterworld of the Norfolk Broads, while Julia discovers a secret side to Swindon’.

Swindon. Much looked down upon by the media, Swindon’s actually an extraordinary place in a super location.

We write about it here and offer our  ‘Top 10 Recommended Things To Do in Swindon’ here.

Members of the PictureTheUK team lived in the area for eight years and highlights, for us, include the internationally important STAEM, Museum of the Great Western Railway and the North Wessex Downs AONB on the boundary of which Swindon sits.

If you have local recommendations, please add them here or @picturetheuk on Twitter.

The Cornish Alps, Rumps Point, Haytor Quarries and the BBC’s ‘Secret Britain’

Just enjoyed watching the BBC’s new series ‘Secret Britain’.  If you didn’t see it, the programme covered some fantastic, ‘secret’, locations and attractions in the south of England including:

The Cornish Alps

Rumps Point

Pentire Point

Haytor Rocks

Haytor Quarries

Stover Canal

Teignmouth

Catch the programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00thlx9

Top 10 Budget Hotels, London

Hotels in central London can be astonishingly expensive. Clearly, this doesn’t help if you want to explore central London on foot and you’re on a budget. The good news is that there are dozens of high quality budget hotels in superb locations. In some instances, for example the Premier Inn by The London Eye, the locations are awesome.

So, to help save you time, we’ve created a list of ‘Top 10 Budget Hotels’ in London.  Given the sheer number of choices available, it’s difficult to boil the list down to ten but for each recommendation, we add an explanation which puts our choices in context:

1. Premier Inn, London County Hall

2. Strand Palace Hotel

3. Travelodge, London Covent Garden

4. Sidney Hotel London Victoria

5. Arosfa

6. Premier Inn, London Houston

7. Mic Hotel

8. Premier Inn, London Southwark

9. Travelodge, London Aldgate East

10. Avni Kensington Hotel

We also asked on Twitter for recommendations and add those below. Others are always welcome.  Cheers.

Top 10 Hotels in Bloomsbury, London

The British Museum is one of the world’s great attractions. It’s located in Bloomsbury which is a fine area in which to base yourself for a holiday or weekend break in London. To the south of Bloomsbury, you’ll find the West End of London with all its internationally acclaimed theatres. There’s also Covent Garden, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, the list goes on.

So where to stay?  We’ve put together a list of Top 10 Hotels in Bloomsbury to help you decide.

Each choice has a brief summary explanation of what attractions/destinations are close. There are maps and Google StreetView to enjoy, too. For the StreetView, click on the big orange man above the map!

1. The Hotel Russell

2. The Bloomsbury Hotel

3. The Kingsley A Thistle Hotel

4. Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel

5. Ambassadors Bloomsbury

6. Myhotel Bloomsbury

7. Goodenough Club

8. Grange White Hall

9. Renaissance Chancery Court

10. Sanderson, A Morgans Hotel

If you have other suggestions, please add comments below. Cheers.

Top 10 Recommendations for London Hotels

To help you discover places to stay, we’ve started the process of building lists of ‘Top 10 Recommendations’ for hotels, budget accommodation, holiday cottages, Travelodges, Premier Inns etc across the counties, cities, National Parks of the UK.

One of the first lists to go live is our ‘Top 10 Recommendations for London Hotels’. Each choice has a brief explanation as to why we’ve chosen the hotel and links to major attractions close by. You can also view the Top 10 list in map form. We’ve also added Google’s StreetView so you can wander the streets around each hotel to see if you like the area!

Here are our recommendations for London:

1. The Grand At Trafalgar Square

2. The Langham Hotel

3. St Martins Lane, A Morgans Original

4. Athenaeum

5. The Waldorf Hilton

6. Draycott Hotel

7. Bentley Hotel

8. Threadneedles

9. Landmark Hotel

10. The Rookery

We’ll be creating Top 10 lists for hotels and accommodation in the City of Westminster, City of London and other London boroughs, too. Any recommendations are welcome as ever in the comments below or via @picturetheuk on Twitter. Thanks.

Top 10 Things To Do in St Ives, Cornwall

One of the most popular seaside destinations in Cornwall, St Ives is, clearly, essential visiting if you’re looking to get to know the UK. All the way down in the south west of the county and not far from Land’s End, there’s plenty to do. To help you discover the area, we’ve put together our recommendations for the ‘Top 10 Things To Do in St Ives, Cornwall’:

1. Walk. Obvious, but worth stating. It’s a small place so have a wander. We’d also recommend following the South West Coast Path north and south.

2. St Ives Harbour and Beach.

3. St Ives Bay.

4. Tate St Ives.

5. Barbara Hepworth Musuem and Gardens.

6. Porthmeor Beach.

7. St Ives Chapel of St Nicholas.

8. Carbis Bay Beach.

9. Explore the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.

10. Land’s End.

The area’s packed with other things to do and see and we’d love to read your recommendations, too. Please post below or @picturetheuk on Twitter. Thanks.

Top 10 Walks in Devon

The team behind PictureTheUK are based around the UK. A couple of us live in Devon down in South West England.  When photographing and exploring the region, we often find ourselves on major walking trails and, as such, we’ve put together a list of our Top 10 Walks in Devon:

South West Coast Path

Dartmoor Way

Tamar Valley Discovery Trail

Tarka Trail

John Musgrave Heritage Trail

Templer Way

Two Moors Way

Exe Valley Way

Granite Way

Dart Valley Trail

If you have other recommendations or want to shout about a particular stretch on any of the above trails then please @picturetheuk on Twitter or add a comment below. Thanks.

Recommendations for the area around River Helford and Estuary, Cornwall

Having recently photographed the Roseland Peninsula down in Cornwall, we’ve started planning a trip to the area around the River Helford and Estuary.  We use Twitter so asked for recommendations.  Here’s what we have so far and if you have others then pls tweet or add a comment below.  Cheers, James.

Cycle_LEJOG

@picturetheuk You are dead handy for The Lizard there. Fabulous part of Cornwall, so many lovely places. Porthallow, Coverack, Kynance ….

Ammonyte

@picturetheuk Trelissick Gardens is a must http://bit.ly/d6CB7N

StrollingGuides

@picturetheuk Long time since I was last in that area, although we did visit Gweek http://www.strollingguides.co.uk/gweek in 2003.

Cycle_LEJOG

@picturetheuk It is lovely, a personal favourite of mine. Great ice cream at Roskilly farm nr St Keverne too! 🙂

NTHeartCornwall

@picturetheuk Gardens at Glendurgan (NT) and Trebah, hire a kayak from Helford River boats, walking, 2 good pubs, wildlife watching etc etc

NTHeartCornwall

@picturetheuk The Ferryboat Inn at Helford Passage and the Shipwright at Helford – both on the water on opp sides of the river.

Top 10 Walks in South West England

OK, a thankless task. How to choose ten of the top walks across some of the UK’s most beautiful counties, National Parks and AONBs. To make our task a little easier, we’ve chosen some of the region’s major walking trails.  In no particular order, these are our recommendations for the Top 10 Walks in South West England:

The South West Coast Path

The Ridgeway National Park

The Camel Trail

Cotswold Way

Dartmoor Way

Tarka Trail

Two Moors Way

The Purbeck Way and Purbeck Way West

Bath

Bristol City

Clearly, these are big walks and you could chop them up into much smaller, much more manageable chunks so we’d love to hear your recommendations below for top walks in the South West.  Thank you.

Top 10 things to do in and around Exeter

Devon’s one of the most popular places to visit in the UK.  People tend to head for either its coastal Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or for one of its National Parks but if you’re looking for a weekend break or a place in which to base yourself for a holiday then try Exeter.  There’s plenty to do both within the city and the surrounding area.  To help you plan a trip, here are our ‘Top 10 Holiday Recommendations’ for things to do in and around Exeter:

1. Exeter Cathedral.

2. Exeter Historic Quayside.

3. The House That Moved.

4. Exeter Cathedral Close.

5. Blue Boy/Princesshay.

6. Exe Estuary.

7. Orcombe Point Geoneedle.

8. Dartmoor National Park.

9. The English Riviera.

10. East Devon AONB.

If you live in the area or have visited before and want to recommend anything else then please post below or add your recommendation/photos here. Thanks.