The 'Get Up and Go' Travel Guide

The 'Get Up and Go' Travel Guide

Travel the UK with the greatest of ease, by plane train or on foot, with help and advice from the Internet

The Internet can't bring John O'Groats any closer to Land's End, but it can help you get from one to the other. If you're driving, use the RAC's Route Planner (http://www.rac.co.uk/) to find the fastest or shortest route to your destination. Senic lowlights such as road works, tailbacks and lorry fires are listed alongside your highways and byways, and the site will email you with an update just before you leave. You can also check for snow, sleet, rain or Tarmac-melting heatwaves at the BBC's online weather centre (http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/), or plan those all-important comfort stops with help from the Loo of the Year Wards (http://freespace.virgin.net/martin.higham/).

All aboard

Opting for public transport? That's very wise. Look up a train at Railtrack's Travel Information site (http://www.railtrack.co.uk/travel/) or find a National Express bus (http://www.nationalexpress.co.uk/).

Both sites ask you where you want to go, and when, then spit out a mini timetable. You can change times, days or destinations as many times as you want, so they’re great for the terminally indecisive. If you end up in the big smoke, the London Transport site (http://www.londontransport.co.uk) can help you find a bus or tube. A separate site dedicated to the Jubilee Line Extension (http://www.jle.lul.co.uk/) explains how you’ll be able to get to the Millennium Dome – one day – but really you’d be better off catching the Heathrow Express (http://www.heathrowexpress.co.uk/) and taking off for pastures less polluted.

British Midlands (http://www.iflybritishmidland.com/), EasyJet (http://www.easyjet.com/) and Go (http://www.go-fly.com/) all enable you to book flights online, while a2btravel (http://www.a2btravel.com/) has airport guides and lots of other useful information.

The great outdoors

More leisurely modes of travel aren’t as well catered for, but there are some good starting points. If it’s just you and your boots, try Walking Britain (http://www.visitbritain.com/walking/) for routes and events. Sustrans (http://www.sustrans.org.uk/) and the CTC (http://www.ctc.org.uk/) look after cyclists, although you have to pay for most of their guides and maps.

The British Waterways Board (http://www.british-waterways.org/) has details of Britain’s wet bits and addresses of boatyards. You can also order books and leaflets, including a guide to buying a canal boat and travelling Britain – without ever leaving home. If you’d rather drift lonely as a cloud, the unfortunately named BABO, or British Association of Balloon Operators (http://www.babo.org.cuk/), lists companies that’ll hang you underneath a bag of hot air. Sounds fun.

However you travel, sooner or later you’ll get lost – in which case you’ll need a map. The Ordnance Survey site (http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/) is mostly useless, but does have an entertaining guide to the National Grid. Multi media Mapping’s zoomable atlas (http://www.multimap.com/) is more practical and enables you to track down cities, towns, villages and London streets.

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