North Dartmoor

Over the past month or so, we’ve been adding more content to our local UK travel site Holiday in Dartmoor.

We’ve added around 350 attractions so far, categorising them to help visitors to the Park find what they want quickly. We’ve also been writing about Dartmoor in a new section called About Dartmoor.

Given that the internet is a visual format, we tend to present content in little chunks with lots of photos and maps such that information can be absorbed quickly. However, we’re also adding longer form content with lots of text based around themes.

For example, here’s our piece on North Dartmoor.  This, and other pieces, will get fleshed out over time as we add more content.

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Holiday In Dartmoor

We’ve seen in the region of 400% growth in traffic to PictureTheUK over the past year. The technology’s pretty much built now and whilst we’ll continue to tweak and iterate, we’re happy with the site. The idea is to continue adding content over the coming years.

Given that it’s bespoke technology and can be replicated quick, we’ve started building local UK travel sites. The first was Explore Lincolnshire www.explorelincolnshire.com and the second Holiday in Dartmoor www.holidayindartmoor.com.

We’re now looking at new locations and selling the tech. Our intention is to create a network of local UK travel sites.

Top Ten Swindon

In addition to the last post on Swindon, for quick reference, here’s the content of our ‘Top 10 Recommended Things To Do in Swindon’:

1. STEAM, Museum of the Great Western Railway

2. Lydiard Park

3. Lydiard House

4. Lydiard Tregoze St Mary’s Church

5. Lydiard House Walled Garden

6. North Wessex Downs AONB

7. Barbury Castle Country Park

8. Wayland’s Smithy Long Barrow

9. Uffington White Horse on White Horse Hill

10. Avebury Stone Circle World Heritage Site

Clearly, there’s loads more to do in the area and we list many of these here in our Things To Do in & around Swindon section.

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.