Rick Steves, a European travel expert, endeavors to visit every place in his guidebooks in person every year when updating the annual additions. The practice allows the updates to include important little changes from year to year.
This year, Great Britain is recovering from last year's summer Olympics and the Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. In addition, the economic austerity measures have taken their toll on Britain's tourist information services.
"I've long been disappointed in Britain's inability to see that tourist information is an investment in an important industry that brings in business," Steves writes.
Instead, Britain tends to view tourist information offices as businesses themselves, leaving them to scramble to stay afloat. This results closings or converting them into shops that sell tourist activities, information and souvenirs for profit.
London has been hit worst by this phenomenon. The Britain and London Visitors Centre near Piccadilly Circus have closed, leaving the City of London Information Centre across from St. Paul's Cathedral as the only publicly funded tourist office that is nonprofit.
Aside from the added difficulty that travelers face, London is still full of things to see and do.
The city's skyline has changed over the years, with the tallest building in Europe, designed by Renzo Piano, the co-architect of the Pompidou Center in Paris. It stands at 1,020 feet and sits at the south end of London Bridge. The top of the building has a 15-story stack of observation platforms enclosed in glass, which opened to the public in February.
The newly constructed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is also available to visit. The northern part will open this summer and has footpaths, playgrounds and picnic-friendly green areas. The southern section is scheduled to open in 2014, and will allow visitors to swim in the pool the Olympics swimmers used in competition at the Aquatics Centre.
Kensington Palace has been redone, and now has a series of exhibits on notable past residents, among them William and Mary, and the Hanovers. There is also an exhibit on Queen Victoria, who was born and raised in the palace, which Steves calls the highlight.
Harry Potter fans will enjoy the opening of the "Making of Harry Potter" studio tour in Leavesden, which is a 20-minute train ride from London. The attraction lets visitors see the actual sets and props used in the films, along with exhibits explaining how the special effects were created. Visitors must book in advance.
Bath, a 90-minute train ride west of London, now offers advance tickets online.
Near Bath, visitors can wander the Avebury Manor and Garden, which was the subject of "The Manor Reborn," a four-hour BBC documentary on the refurbishment of the 500-year-old estate.
On the southern coast, the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard complex will be unveiling a museum displaying the 16th-century warship Mary Rose, which was known to have been the favorite of Henry VIII.
In the Viking settled city of York, in northeast England, a new candy exhibit will explore the Kit Kat, Aero bar and Chocolate Oranges, all of which were famously created in in the city, with "Chocolate: York's Sweet Story." It includes a guided tour and film, as well as a virtual chocolate factory.
Inside York Minster Cathedral, several examples of the Great East window's stained glass can be viewed up close in the Orb, located inside the Minster.
Lastly, two new museums in Liverpool and Glasgow celebrate the two cities proud heritage as port cities. The museum in Liverpool covers everything from music (the Beatles!) and sports to housing and health issues.
The Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel in Glasgow contains high-tech displays with a recreation of a 20th-century street. It includes stagecoaches, locomotives, the world's oldest bicycle and the Glenlee, one of Glasgow's five remaining tall ships, which is docked outside the museum.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
