The Smallest House in Great Britain, and other UK Travel Tips

The Internet has become a simply amazing tool for in-depth exploration of any and all topics. My favorites generally relate to travel and my favorite travel sites are those written by locals and experienced visitors to a region. These blogs, forums, and member websites often give you a perspective and insight you'll only rarely get from a guidebooks or tourism bureau, both of which have agendas that often conflict with yours and have severe space limitations. Unless the guidebook happens to cover your exact itinerary you'll have trouble finding printed literature that goes into the deep coverage you'll appreciate from blogs.

Here's a great example of what I'm talking about for the UK:

http://members.accesswave.ca/~tvor/uk2006c.html

Britain by Train

Over at the Times Online you can follow the UK Transportation Minister in his whirlwind tour of Britain by train. He'll be travelling thousands of miles on about 40 different trains over a 70 hour period to survey the services and the landscapes, and I can't think of a better way to introduce the public and tourists to the joys of train travel.

Trains offer a slower and more relaxed way to see a country and get a feel for the land and people, and I'm a big fan of this approach. Last year on the China Trip I took two major train routes across about 1800 miles of China. This gave me a chance to quietly reflect on the trip as I took in a ground level view from Hong Kong to Shanghai and Shanghai to Beijing.

I would have to say that train travel can become boring at times even on interesting routes. Our family trip from Portland Oregon to Minneapolis, MN was enjoyable but I probably wouldn't be inclined to do that often as it's a long haul with minimal services in route. Amtrak, as well as the China trains, fail to provide enough entertainment along the way. This is surprising as I think opening the dining car into a lounge-like atmosphere for 24 hours would probably result in a lot more food and beverage sales, as well as potential tips for servers.

Google Street Views for UK

The BBC reports that Google is launching their amazing "street view" mapping service for the UK. Google's maps and street view offer an amazing way to visualize cities and travel routes on your computer screen as if you were actually in a car in the distant location:

From the BBC:

Street scenes in 25 UK cities from Aberdeen to Southampton can be viewed using the service.

The Netherlands version of the service also launched on Thursday, bringing the number of countries covered to nine.

The imagery available comprises video taken along 22,369 miles of UK streets by customised camera cars.

Google Maps users can zoom in to a given location and then drag the "Pegman" icon above the zoom bar on to a given street.

Google UK Street View

Google Maps