Plan your next day out! (1000 Things to Do in Britain - Time Out Guides Ltd)

Member Name: Clayeree

Product:	1000 Things to Do in Britain - Time Out Guides Ltd
Date:	01/09/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of great ideas of things to do

Disadvantages: There are only a thousand ideas

I have always been fascinated by books of lists. Lists of things to do, books to read, films to see, places to visit - I have lots of them on my bookshelves. So when I spotted Time Out's guide to '1000 Things to do in Britain' in my local branch of Waterstones, I knew I had to add it to my collection.

~~~ Description of the Book ~~~

As you've probably guessed, this book is a list of a thousand things to do in Britain. These range from obscure to more mainstream places and include places to visit as well as activities to do.

Just to whet your appetite, here are some entries chosen at random from the book:

# 541-550 Ride Britain's best rollercoasters
#223 Marvel at Orkney's Italian Chapel
#835 Tour a turbine in Norfolk
#763 Stay in a stately home (without spending a fortune)
#341 See Shakespeare under the stars
#188 Uncover the secrets of real ale at the Hook Norton Brewery
#804 Have a Brief Encounter at Carnforth (Station)

Each entry is one or two paragraphs long but gives you all the information you need such as addresses and website details. The book also has fifteen special features written by Time Out journalists taking part in particular activities such as going wild camping or learning circus skills. These are two to three pages long and make a good read as well as providing a more in-depth guide. As well as this, ten famous individuals such as David Starkey and Katharine Hamnett have provided lists of their favourite things to do.

The entries in the book are not in any particular order so to help you find things that may interest you there are three indexes:

1. By county - so you can find things to do near you
2. By theme - for example castles, dining out, walks
3. By the name of the attraction - in A-Z order

~~~ My Opinion ~~~

I found two uses for this book. Firstly to look up entries for a particular area when planning holidays or days out and secondly dipping into it at random to get ideas for places to visit and things to do in the future. I have now read it from cover to cover, more or less and it is looking very well-thumbed.

The book is illustrated in full colour throughout and there are some lovely photographs to look at. In my opinion this makes for a much more attractive and useful book than most travel guides which restrict their colour photographs to a few pages scattered here and there.

I was a little disappointed when I read this book to find that some entries have been grouped together into one topic but given different numbers. For example, 'Eat the freshest seafood money can buy' makes up entries 884 to 891 with each suggested cafe, restaurant or seafood shack being a different number. This seemed slightly like cheating to me because the 'Thing to do' is eating fresh seafood so it should only be one entry. But maybe I'm just being pedantic.

As I mentioned in my review of '1000 Things for Kids to do in the Holidays', some of the entries in this book are duplicated in that one. I have not read Time Out's book on '1000 Things to Do in London' but suspect that some of the entries in this may also be in that one. However, it is the activity or place to visit that is duplicated, rather than the text describing it so this is forgivable.

There will almost certainly be something in this book to interest you. All in all, I found this book extremely useful and have now created my own mini-list of things to do which I shall be working my way through over the next year. Bring on the bog snorkelling!

~~~ Details ~~~

ISBN: 9781846700811
Paperback
First published by Ebury Publishing in 2008
320 pages
RRP £12.99. Available from Amazon for £7.79 (new)

Other books in the series are:

1000 Things for kids to do in the holidays
1000 Things to do in London
1000 Things to do in London for under £10
1000 Things to do in New York

Summary: A fab book full of great ideas