Get out there!

If various pundits on the news are to be believed, there are bad times just round the corner. Credit crunch, rising prices, recession, doom, gloom… Let us offer you some evidence of our own. If you read through this here guide with trainspotterly attention to detail, you’ll see that many of the attractions we’ve listed don’t know exactly what admission price they’re going to be charging this year. Now admittedly we’ve had to start work earlier than usual on this guide because Easter 2008 seems to have been timed for just after Christmas, but it also reflects a lot of uncertainty. In past years, everyone put their prices up just a little bit for the new season, and the punters still arrived, and still paid.

So here’s a suggestion… If you’re considering blowing several hundred quid (maybe even a few grand) on trips abroad this year, forget it, or at least cut down on ’em. Especially those long weekend city breaks. Yes, of course Bristol Airport is convenient, and of course EasyJet is so cheap, but think of what you could do with the money instead. If you want to get shitface drunk and have a fight, why bother with some Eastern European place when we’ve got Brecon or Weston-super-Mare? If you want history and culture, why do Paris and Rome when there’s… well, England and Wales?

Never mind the ecological issues in air travel, think instead of all the wonderful days of adventure you can have for the price of a stay in Barcelona. Think of all the wonderful places that you can see on your own doorstep. And if you can’t think of all the amazing places there are to visit from round here, well this here guide will help you. If you use it properly, we categorically guarantee you’ll have three times the fun you’d have had getting drunk in places where you don’t speak the lingo.

We’ve not had room to include all the great stuff round these parts, but what we’ve tried to do is list all the major attractions in the Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset areas. From there, we've fanned out into Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and been a little choosier. We've also included a few suggestions from further afield.

We don't claim to know everything, so if you disagree with anything we've said, please tell us. If we've got anything wrong, please tell us. If we've missed out somewhere you think should have been included, we really want to know. Your feedback is essential. Praise is nice, but constructive criticism and helpful suggestions are much, much more useful. No, actually, come to think of it, we prefer the praise. Send us praise and/or criticisms to: Days Out Guide, Venue Publishing, Bristol News & Media, Temple Way, Bristol BS99 7HE or email: editor@venue.co.uk

he leaves are back on the trees, the rollercoaster has been oiled, the theme-park lions and giraffes have come back from their winter breaks in Spain (are you sure about this bit? Ed.) and the admission prices have gone up just a teeny bit.
And the Days Out Guide, produced by overworked and underpaid staff, is out again, bigger and better than ever.
See, it doesn’t matter if you’ve just arrived here on the coach from Krakow, or whether your ancestors arrived at the end of the last ice age. The point is that there’s loads to see and do over the spring, summer and autumn, and most of the people reading this guide will find loads of ideas for places they’ve probably not even heard of.
OK, a small percentage of you will find you’ve already visited everything. But our bet is that 90% of you won’t have been to even half of them.
Because Venue publishes a Summer Play Guide for families with children, just before the start of the school holidays, we’ve not included all of the smaller family attractions here. You’ll also find that some privately-owned stately homes and gardens aren’t included because they have limited opening hours.
What we have tried to do is list all the major attractions in the Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset areas. From there, we’ve fanned out into Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and been a little choosier.

Venue Days Out Guide - Bristol and Bath's best excursion guide. To order your copy ring 0117 942 8491. Only £2.95.