• Click on the picture of 'Bertie' for Virtual London's treasure trove of information!   You will find valuable advice on using London's underground, buses and taxis in their 'Transport' section.  The 'Attractions' page has information on London's museums, art galleries and historic buildings - Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral.  'The Royal Family' pages have the fascinating biographies of HM the Queen and her family.  The 'Uniquely London' section will unravel the mysteries of Cockney slang.  'Time for Tea' includes expert advice on the art of making the perfect cup of tea.  Be sure to visit their interactive online magazine 'London Life'.

• Subway Navigator 'Route finder' for The London Tube ['Subway'].

• Information on London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports.

• Panorama Photographs  Why bring your camera? The 200 photographs you wanted to take are all here in this photo tour guide.  London Panoramas has 360º degree panoramic views in and around central London.

• John Webb's Heart-of-England website has great snaps and lots of information.

• The world.nycsubway.org has great snaps ['photographs'] of mainline and preserved railways in Britain.

Before you leave...

• The British Tourist Authority  has a USA '800' number.  Phone for maps, pamphlets and brochures.  The first thing you want to ask for is their map of London!

• Know before you go.  The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs has current public announcements, travel warnings, consular information sheets and more!  The British Foreign Office has similar information on their website.

• Rick Steves' Back Door Travel Tips has sections on packing tips, health & safety, phoning home and more.

• Britain 'Country Information'  more from Rick Steves.

How much is that in shillings?

•   There is a veritable treasure trove of information on exchange rates at XE.com.  Check out their handy XE.com Personal Currency Assistant™

Hotels and Motels

• Need a place to stay in England, Scotland or Wales?  We like the Travel Inn chain.

• Our 'Advice page on Hotels' has more information.

Heritage and Rail Passes

• Great British Heritage Pass Depending on the venues you will be visiting, you may be able to save on the admission fees with this pass.  When you order your passes - direct or through your travel agent - be sure to get their guidebook which lists the over five hundred venues where they can be used.

• BritRail Pass (another link) For extensive rail travel, the rail pass may be a savings.

• Britain Rail Timetable Information  (another link) Plan your route before you go.  When you use the web site, note that the date is entered as dd/mm/yy and time is on a '24-hour clock'.  For example, 1:15 in the afternoon is entered as 13:15.

Wrong Number?

• If you are using an old guidebook, you will want to know that phone numbers in Britain have changed.

• On 22nd April 2000, telephone numbers in London, Cardiff, Coventry, Portsmouth and Southampton changed.  Mobile phone and pager numbers changed on 28th April 2001.

• Check online for current numbers via British Telecom's Directory Enquiries (another link).

Weather Forecast

• If you want to know what the weather forecast will be when you arrive for your summer holiday in Britain, here it is... 'Showery with bright spells, cooler in the Highlands.'

• In Britain temperatures are given in degrees Celsius not degrees Fahrenheit so you might like to have a 'print and take with' temperature conversion table.

• Seriously now, you can find weather forecasts at the Met Office, OnlineWeather.com, Yahoo! Weather and our personal favourite...  Weather Underground.

• Especially interesting are AccuWeather's 7 and 15-day forecasts for London and forecasts for the rest of the U.K. (Note: on the 'city page', select 5 or 10 day forecast from menu bar on left.)

• Looking at all of the forecasts reminds one of the old adage... 'knowledgeable people will differ in their opinions on this subject.' ...Just don't be surprized if the forecast is 'Showery with bright spells, cooler in the Highlands.'

British English

• If you think that British & Americans speak a common language, visit Mike Etherington's 'American's Guide to Speaking British' and Terry Gliedt's 'United Kingdom English for the American Novice' web sites.

These web sites are so big, they are the 'Millennium Dome of the internet'.

• British Monarchy

• Britannia

• Camelot Village(Website may be offline.)

• Rampant Scotland Directory  10,000+ Scottish-related links.

British Newspapers, Magazines and Television

Like their print edition counterparts, the internet editions of these two London newspapers are responsible journalism at its best. When we are in Great Britain, we read the print editions daily.  Here in the States, we read the internet versions nightly.  One might say 'Get the news before it happens. Read tomorrow's newspaper yesterday!'  ...It's the time difference.  

• The Electronic Telegraph does not charge to access their online newspaper.  They have a fast and simple online registration in order to view the articles and the respect the privacy of your email address.

• Beyond the newspapers' obvious interest to Anglophiles, there are benefits to us average PC users....  For over two years, The Electronic Telegraph has been running a weekly, must-read column called 'Boot Camp' in the 'Technology/Connected' section.  All of the old columns - more than 290 - are available online.

• London's The Times online newspaper allow visitors from the UK free access to the daily sections of the newspaper.  Visitors to their website from other countries will find only a very few articles available without charge.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that their annual subscription fee for online access to all articles includes access to their 'epaper.'  The 'epaper' (available Monday's through Saturday's) is the actual newspaper in 'virtual form'...  all of the actual pages, all of the stories, all of the snaps ['photographs']...  you can even click on and read the adverts ['advertisements'].

• Similarly, London's The Electronic Telegraph has added their own 'epaper' option (for an annual subscription fee) with all of the features mentioned above.

• Our favourite magazines include In Britain (published bi-monthly), Realm (bi-monthly) (another link) and Country Life (weekly).

Right then! ['OK']  You're done surfing the British internet, you've put down your British magazines, now it's time to turn on the telly ['television'] for British Broadcasting.

• BBC  In Britain, the British Broadcasting Company  is often referred to as 'Auntie'.  Their website has news, programming information and live, streaming audio from the BBC World Service radio broadcasts.  Check to see if your local PBS station in the USA carries the nightly BBC World News.

• BBC America is a cable television channel available here in the colonies ['USA'].  The best of British comedies, dramas, even gardening programmes ['programs'] are only 'one click away'!

• Many PBS stations carry The ITN World News and/or the BBC World News here in the States.  Check your local PBS station's schedule. 

Aerial Colour Photographs

• The getmapping.com (another link) company has undertaken an ambitious project...  taking aerial photographs of Great Britain in its entirety.  As each region is completed, the images will be for sale over the Internet.

London's 'Big Ben' on your PC

• Hear the sound of the Westminster Chimes on each quarter-hour and the tolls of 'Big Ben' on the hours with K. Jones' shareware utility.

• Hudson's website has links to over 300 Houses, Gardens, Castles, and Heritage Sites sorted by map, region, county and name.  See our entry on their invaluable guide book.

An Ambitious Chronicle

• Linda Lee & Laurie Jonas' The Heritage Trail website is an ambitious effort to chronicle Britain's Abbeys, Priories, Cathedrals, Castles, Royal Palaces, Stately Homes, Manor Homes, Notable Houses, Roman Britain, Battlefields, Parks, Gardens, Canals, Waterways, Piers, and Maritime & Industrial Heritage.  While some pages are a bit slow to download, it is worth the wait for photographs and commentary on a veritable treasure-trove of British sites.

In a class by herself !

• Lara Eakins' 'Tudor History' site (previously called 'Tudor England') is obviously a labour of love for the subject.

In a class by himself !

• Risto Hurmalainen's Web Site (another link) has photographs of and web links for over 200 British Castles, Stately Homes and Houses... and more!

Copyright © 1999 - 2005  J. C. Nash. All worldwide rights reserved.
Last modified:  Thursday, 27 October 2005.

Copyrighted 'Bertie' animation used with the kind permission of Virtual London.
 Copyrighted Hudson's logo used with their kind permission.
Animated telephone courtesy of Cody's Animation Station.