An example of a Britains Finest map

www.britainsfinest.co.uk

www.britainsfinest.co.uk

Useful Link
in/near Birmingham, Shropshire (Inc Birmingham),
England Heart Of Inc Birmingham



Review added: 01/11/2007 21:33
By: dewberry (£0.00 earned from reviews) Earn £££'s

"Sometimes Mark and I will decide to just get in the car and find somewhere to visit for the day, or even just a couple of hours. Problem is that after years of doing this, we're getting a bit stuck on new ideas. The UK is filled with fab places to see, the problem is that if you don't know they're there then how can you expect to find them?

Of course I always check out YouStay when I know we're going to be near specific attractions, but it's always good to have a second option when it comes to looking for days out just in case you happen to miss something.

www.britainsfinest.co.uk

This is where Britains Finest comes in. It's a clever little website; simple to use, very easy on the eye and contains accurate and useful information about places to visit in the UK.

When you first visit the website you'll notice the links along the top of the page – Gardens, Historical Houses, B&B's, Museums and Galleries, Attractions and Hotels of Excellence. You click on the type of attraction or accommodation you're looking for and a page will open up allowing you to search by county, region or classification.

For example, I'm looking at Britains Finest now and have just clicked Historical Houses. Using the drop down menu I decided to look for Historical Houses to visit in Northamptonshire; once I've made my selection the website will display a list of attractions of this type in this area, along with a brief description of the place. When a particular House catches my eye I can click on the 'more' link and this will take me to a page where I can read about it in more detail and find out admission prices, opening hours etc…

It works in exactly the same way for each of the categories. I find the Hotels of Excellence section fascinating as, to be honest, I doubt I could ever justify the price of some of the hotels just for a night away but it's always nice to have a mooch and imagine what life would be like if I won the lottery!

We recently made a flying visit to Norfolk and would have a spare hour or two to look at something, but not much longer than that. Having a look on www.britainsfinest.co.uk I found two attractions to visit which were local to one another. Using the site I was also able to calculate our admission prices and decide on the time of day we'd visit, also with the map I could plan a rough route between the two.

There's also the option to search the site using classifications within one of the links. Clicking on Museums & Galleries brings up a long drop down list of Egyptian Museums, Toy and Childhood Museums and loads more so if you have a particular interest then do check out Britains Finest as they may have just the attraction you're looking for.

When you click through to the individual attractions page you can find full contact details plus a link to their official website. Britains Finest is really a taster site. Whereas I can use YouStay to find lots and lots of specific information about an attraction I'm interested in visiting, this site is more to give me a general impression of a variety of places but provides enough information for me to go off and consult a more comprehensive guide site should I need more details. Personally I think it's fantastic, I mean we don't want to be overwhelmed with information all the time and Britains Finest kind of draws your attention to a place and lets you make your own mind up about whether you can be bothered to look into it in more detail.

What I will say is that however sketchy the information may sound, it's always spot on and I find Britains Finest to be a reliable source of inspiration when we're planning a spur of the moment trip.

Another useful aspect of www.britainsfinest.co.uk is 'My Trip'. As you browse the site there is a link below each attraction or accommodation option where you can add it to 'My Trip'. This is useful for comparing attractions in list form so you can see at a glance which ones would be most suitable for you/your party. There is also the facility to email a link to any attractions you've saved to friends or family, which makes it handy if you're planning a group visit and want to run ideas past others. The list can also be displayed in a printer friendly format so that you don't waste too much ink if you need a hard copy of any of the information.

There's no need to register with Britains Finest, you simply load the site and you're off and running. The home page has links to the various search pages and is nicely laid out with very simple navigation. Another thing worth noticing on the home page is 'Britains Finest Maps' – click through and you can buy a selection of maps for just £3 each which show attractions in a similar layout to the website, with the added bonus of actually being able to carry the maps with you while you're out. Each map booklet has details of at least 250 places to visit and they are brilliant for planning your route to maximise your day.

I've visited seven attractions recently which I had originally found on www.britainsfinest.co.uk I tend to use the site in conjunction with YouStay or various tourist boards. I find Britains Finest is truly brilliant for finding me somewhere different to visit/stay, but the small amount of information means I usually have to use another site to find more specific details. This is not a problem for me as I'm very passionate about knowing exactly what to expect and always tend to check one or two sites before going on a structured day out.

www.britainsfinest.co.uk"

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