UK Tourist Attractions

Great Britain or the UK has always had some great seaside resorts and despite the unpredictable weather you can have some really enjoyable breaks along the British coast. Recently the Which holiday magazine conducted a poll amongst it's readers who voted for their top seaside town. Here are the top 5 results in reverse order what do you think?

1. Scarborough

On the North Yorkshire coast Scarborough came fifth but is still my favourite resort. The average summer temperature is 19°C so quite warm. I've been really lucky and whenever I've gone there it's been blazing hot during the day and lively at night! I've sunbathed there, shopped, been fishing, camped at the motorbike road races, stayed in a top hotel, holiday cottage, caravan and boarding house and loved every minute of every visit. Founded by a viking raider, Scarborough has it's own ruined castle, retains some of it's fishing industry and even has it's own annual beach rock and pop festival, a great place to visit.

2. Bournemouth

It's quite a long time since I've been to Bournemouth which is in Dorset on the South Coast of England. My memories are of lots of sand and riding donkeys, but I was a child then. Apart from the normal seaside entertainment Bournemouth now hosts a 4 day flying festival in the summer.  There you might see wing walkers, displays from such as the red devils and memorial flights from Lancasters, Hurricanes and Spitfires, plus flights from modern day aircraft.

3. Whitby

Another resort from the North Yorkshire coast, we in Yorkshire are doing well to have 2 of the most popular seaside towns nearby. The fishing port of Whitby is famous for featuring in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula and even has a Dracula museum for tourists to visit. Every year in August for 3 days is the Whitby Regatta which started out as a rowing competition and has now grown to in clude a fair on the pier, military displays, police demonstration and fireworks. Bi-annually Whitby hosts a gothic weekend especially for goths.

4. Brighton

On the South Coast Brighton attracts 80 million tourists every year and is a great favourite of Londoners in need of a short break or day out.  The resort became popular in the late 18th century when the Prince Regent to a liking to the place and built the Royal Pavillion. Considered to be one of the UK's top places for nightlife Brighton also hosts the second largest arts festival in the UK every May and the Brighton Festival Fringe.

5. Blackpool

On the North West coast the Lancashire town Blackpool is the winner of the most popular seaside resort in Britain. Bold and brash Blackpool became popular as a tourist resort during the 19th century for northern mill and factory workers and is still popular for residents of the north and Scotland. Walk along the golden mile with or without your kiss me quick hat on, see the shows on the piers, go ballroom dancing in the Tower Lounge, have fun at the Pleasure Beach, check out the illuminations. There is something for everybody at Blackpool and for me it's always been an enjoyable time. Whether it's been for a week or a day, when I'm on my way there and see the tower in the skyline I get a feeling of anticipation knowing that I'm going to have some fun.

There we have it, the top 5 seaside resorts here in the UK. Although numbers declined with the onset of cheap foreign travel these places still get busy in the summer. They aren't the only resorts in this country, there are many others all with a different personality and all waiting to welcome you on a visit.

The cost of traveling in the UK can vary wildly, depending upon where you live. In general, if you reside in the bigger cities there tends to be more competition between rival transport operators - whether they are airline, train or coach companies - so chances are travelers will be paying a lot less per mile than their rural cousins. However, if you do live slightly out of the way, you may find traveling around the UK a lot more expensive. And if you reside in the sticks, forget public transport altogether; the infrastructure just isn’t there so a car is the only real alternative for getting around.

So, how do prices match up when it comes to differentiating between air, rail or road travel? For many years, air travel was only for the better off, with prices out of the reach of the masses. However, with the advent of low-cost airlines, competition increased and prices have dropped dramatically to the extent that an airline ticket can cost the same or less than mainline train tickets. Depending upon the carrier, a cheap return air ticket between London and Manchester can cost as little as £69 - comparing favorably against a return train trip fare of £110! However, low-cost domestic airlines only operate between major airports, which tend to be few and far between, giving the traveler less choice if they live outside the country's major conurbations.

Train operators have been subject to criticism lately, both over the cost of traveling and also their inability to consistently keep to their published timetables. Indeed, Virgin recently lost their cross-country franchise after 10 years service, mainly due to one in five trains arriving late and costing the government over £2m per week in subsidies. This move is seen by many as the start of price increases for train travelers, as the operators will now seek to recover their costs from the public rather than the government.

Coach travel is mostly a cheaper alternative to using trains or planes and in many cases can be even better value than car travel. Most coach travel in the UK operates between fixed routes on a timetable basis, but there are also many charter companies from which you can hire a coach to a destination of your choice. This is a handy solution if a group of people wish to travel to a special event, and again can prove cheaper than taking the car.

In summary, there are many options for traveling throughout the UK, but the majority of us still choose to use our own private transport. That is likely to continue until there is major investment in the rail and road infrastructure; until then traveling anywhere in the UK will continue to be frustrating, mostly expensive and largely unsatisfying.

Travelers have many options that they can use to cut travel expense throughout the United Kingdom. The largest transportation expense that a traveler will encounter will be the airline fares that bring the traveler to the UK. The transportation options to travel UK cities are up to the discretion of the traveler. They are the only people who know how much time they have for a vacation and how fast they must travel to all of their travel destinations before they board a departure flight.

Many transportation options originate at Heathrow International Airport, which is in the heart of London, one of the UK primary vacation travel destinations. The airport will have an abundant assortment of taxis that people can hire very quickly that will certainly whisk them off to any hotel accommodations that they have arranged for. Some limousine transfers are available but travelers might have to wait for other passengers to board before the limousine will depart the terminal.

One of the best transportation options that tourists love the most is the British railway systems. Great Britain offers a wide network of trains that operate on certain schedules. Most of them will travel UK points of interest and others will take travelers all the way to Scotland. The railway cars will depart train depots every few minutes and give travelers the chance to experience travel UK by rail.

These trains offer travelers the best value on travel expense and they will take travelers to various points of interest throughout the United Kingdom without stressing them out one bit. The train system offers people the chance to recuperate from long shopping trips into the city because there is ample seating available in a variety of styles that allow travelers to simply, enjoy the trip and the scenery.

For travel directly into London, the British offer the subway system as one of the transportation options. People can travel UK stops very quickly because they go without stopping from Heathrow to London in about 45 minutes. The speed of these trains is increased somewhat and travelers get the chance to enjoy drinks and comfortable seating for the duration of their travel time into London.

Other than taxis that are plentiful in the major cities, travelers have one transportation mode that they were born with. Since there are many sites to see throughout London and the rest of the UK, many travelers save a lot of money by traveling on foot. There are many cafes where people can stop, eat, and take a moment to rest their feet. The choice of ales gives people a cool respite from the heat and they can listen to many accents and meet a lot of new friends.

The task of buying binoculars, UK or otherwise isn't easy to say the least but one way of simplifying the process is by buying binoculars from UK online stores where searching for specific functionality is so much easier than on the high street.

Making the decision to invest in binoculars is the easy part but once you take those first tentative steps towards buying binoculars you soon learn that the process isn't as simple as it seems. There's an amazing amount of choice, numerous top quality binocular manufacturer (are you thinking of buying UK binoculars, German binoculars, US binoculars), hundred's of different types and sizes on offer (waterproof binoculars, IS binoculars (image stabilising), compact binoculars, lightweight binoculars, marine binoculars, bird watching binoculars, the list is endless) and a decision to be made regarding such things as magnification, objective diameter, lens quality and eye relief.

One of the biggest problems with buying binoculars in the UK is that there is so much choice it's hard to make a decision and when you start to realize the whole new world that binoculars give you access to you tend to want to go for the best money can buy (which can get expensive).

So there you have it, buying binoculars (UK), is a minefield, be prepared to follow a few guidelines before you start:

Be clear about what you are buying binoculars for. You can buy binoculars for general use, many of which are very good but if you are looking for astronomy binoculars for example and you want the best quality viewing it's best to opt for specialist binoculars, particular given UK weather conditions.

If you want to use your binoculars in wet, salty, environments then search for marine binoculars which will be waterproof, fog-free and built for extreme weather conditions. The best marine binoculars are also corrosion resistant.

A lot of binoculars aren't waterproof and in nice hot climates this isn't an issue. For UK residents, when buying binoculars, UK weather conditions have to be taken into account, given the number of wet or damp days we have are none waterproof binoculars going to provide you with the flexibility you need?

Do you want to be able to use high magnification binoculars without a tripod? If so you may want to consider buying IS binoculars (image stabilising) which will eliminate the distortion caused by slight movements in your hand normally apparent with high magnification binoculars. If you're buying binoculars to use in a moving vehicle then IS binoculars are ideal.

Are you buying binoculars for travel, UK and abroad, if so look at compact binoculars. They are light enough and small enough to carry around wherever you go maximising the use you get out of them.

Unless you are going to use a tripod or IS binoculars look at buying binoculars that have a magnification of 10x or less. Anything higher and you start to get image distortion due to slight movements in your hand. The Canon 10x42L IS Binoculars are a popular choice.

If you want to take your binoculars out and about all day, weight could be important. Lightweight binoculars are worth looking at with modern materials enabling a significant weight reduction even in full-size binoculars.

In the UK we have some wonderful wildlife which shouldn't be missed, for the best quality viewing try and buy binoculars with high quality Bak-4 prisms and fully multicoated lenses.

If you wear glasses or for comfortable all day viewing look at buying binoculars with long eye relief (15mm and above).

Rubber armoured binoculars tend to be more robust.

One final tip for buying binoculars (UK) is that price doesn't guarantee quality but it is worth paying a bit more if you want good quality lenses and an unforgettable viewing experience.

Many travelers will follow the travel advice of a travel agent to travel UK cities in a very affordable manner. The advice they receive might recommend the best cities to stop in that offer low priced lodging locations that could put them up in a bed breakfast overnight or in a five star hotel that looks over the River Thames. After a good night's sleep and a good meal under their belt, a traveler will be very thankful to the travel agent for giving such good advice.

The travel agent will also advise on the best travel routes to take to get to the United Kingdom. These routes might take them through the northern parts of Scotland where the traveler will really enjoy the short layovers for a change. While at that location they can enjoy duty free shopping and have a pint of Scottish lager too. The travel agent might have advised to limit quantities of ale consumed to low quantities until they are safely at their final destination.

Some travel agents can offer advice about holiday travel in the United Kingdom that could save a traveler a lot of time. They can tell them when the banks will be closed and where they can get currency exchanged. Banks of Scotland, England and Wales close for holidays and with some good advice about the hours of operation a traveler is assured of never running out of cash that they need for lodging and miscellaneous living expenses.

Many cities post advice to travelers at major travel ports all over the city. A traveler might not have to rely on the advice of strangers to find their way through a city that they have never been to before. Many cities post maps at the entrance to subway stations that tell travelers what the names of all of the stops are along the routes that any smart traveler might take. Families can ensure that they stay together while they use these trains for shopping and can arrange a meeting point if they get separated at some point in the day.

A travel agent might provide good advice that travelers can use throughout the United Kingdom. The British telecom systems can be difficult to manage if a traveler does not have a good understanding about how country codes are used and what countries they are used for. A traveler is certainly going to want to make calls back to the United States and with some good advice, they will have plenty of British telecom phone cards that they can use to call home and tell friends and family members the sights that they have been seeing.