Things to do

Are you excitedly looking forward to an amazing trip somewhere new? Then YouGoDo.com is the place to be, for some great fun activity planning.

Sorting out the places to visit, things to see, the great experiences and activities you want to try, is a great part of any journey.

Let us tell you how you can find the fun! For example go find some amazing hiking in Nepal, superb rooftop bars in Hong Kong, fantastic mountain biking in Spain or some unusual things to do in London. Whatever floats your boat!

Come to think of it planning new things to do is great any time – even if you are simply bored at home in the rain and looking for something fun to do near you today.

YouGoDo is the world’s biggest activities and experiences website. Pure ‘things to do’ from all around the world – well over 35,000 great activity choices in over 190 countries. And increasing every day!

And we have some great tools for those looking for things to do. Try any of the below great methods to make you activity planning fun!

Search for activities in a location

The “We are off to London – show me what we can do and I’ll choose my favourites!” method. This is the top search method for YouGoDo users – answering the question “What can I do when I get there?” For example, I’m off to Miami – what are the best things to do in Miami – this is real easy to do. Simply go to the YouGoDo search screen, and enter the place you are planning to visit in the 'I want to go to' box. Once you have selected your location, hit the big red ‘Search for Activities’ button and we will show you some great things to do in the area. Here’s a few great examples:

Things to do in Barcelona

Things to do in London

Things to do in New York

Things to do in Sydney

Things to do in Spain - you can search by Country as well as by city / town / village!

Give your destination a try and get out there and make the most of your visit!

Search for activities of a certain type

Then ‘Show me where I can go Horse Riding and I’ll decide where I’m going to go!’ method! Another popular way of looking for great things to do is to simply tell YouGoDo what sort of activity you want to do – Hiking, Biking, Museums, Skydiving, Extreme Flights, Jetskiing, Horse Riding, etc! Again it’s a case of going to the YouGoDo Search screen, and entering the activity type you want to try into the 'This is what I want to do' box, select the relevant activity type from the list shown and then hit the good old red “Search for Activities” button! Bingo – YouGoDo will show you some great activities of your chosen type all around the world.

Now is the difficult bit – choosing where you want to go and play!

Here’s a few great examples

Horse riding

Mountain Biking

Museums

Scenic Flights

Search for activities for a certain type of group?

The “We are off to London with grumpy teenagers who hate everything, show us what they might like!” method. Exactly the same as the search by activity type but simply type in the target audience such as teenagers, seniors, family, couples, corporate, etc into the 'This is what I want to do' box. Here’s a few examples:

Things to do for teenagers

Things to do for babies

Show me some unusual things to do

The ‘I want to try something new’ method. YouGoDo users seem to be odd, and they like doing odd things! Searching for ‘unusual things to do’ will throw up some great and quirky activities - some I'd ever heard off prior to seeing them pop up on YouGoDo!

And unusual can be quite mundane, but become unusual due to the location, for example kayaking is not that unusual but not that many visitors to London or Venice go kayaking through the main rivers so Kayaking in London and Venice becomes an unusual thing to do. To see the unusual activities simply do a search using ‘unusual things to do’ in the ‘This is what I want to do’ box! Take a look at the full list of unusual things to do

The Combo Activities Search

The “I want to go cycling in Barcelona” method. Now we are talking, people who really know what they want to do and where they want to do it. The most powerful method of getting to the activities which are of interest to you. And real easy – on the YouGoDo search screen enter both the location into the ‘I want to go to’ box and the desired activity type into the ‘this is what I want to do’ box before hitting the big red button. YouGoDo will show you your best options!

Some great examples:

Mountain biking in Spain

Scenic Flights in New York

Rooftop Bars in Hong Kong

Things to do in London with teenagers

Unusual things to do in Miami

Share your activity planning

Another great part of the activity planning is sharing the fun with your travel buddies. The YouGoDo Hit List creator allows you to really easily select your favourites activities, create a Hit List of the things you plan to do on your trip, and email this to mates, print it, save it, etc. Read more about the activity hit list builder here!

Look for things to do on a map

And finally a great way of playing and looking for fun things to do is to use a map.

Try Things to do on a Map, and the YouGoDo Activities Map will show things to do near you now, on a map, well things to do where our system thinks you are sitting! It can be a bit out depending on your ISP but you can drag the maps to get to your exact location!

Or try the Map tabs on the YouGoDo search pages allow to quickly look at the things to do in an area and see what’s where!

Get planning your next trip! The longer you spend planning the nearer the trip is!

The UK’s top 10 most popular tourist destinations for international visitors

A new report from VisitBritain has named the UK’s top 10 UK’s most popular tourist destinations for international visitors as:

1. London

2. Edinburgh

3. Manchester

4. Birmingham

5. Liverpool

6. Glasgow

7. Oxford

8. Bristol

9. Cambridge

10. Brighton

All great places to visit, so we throught we’d have a quick trawl of YouGoDo’s 3500+ great things to do in the United Kingdom to see what made these places so great to visit!

Things to do in London

With over 500 London activities on YouGoDo, and many great unusual things to do, its easy to see why London is the number 1 visitor destination in the UK.

Visit its iconic historic buildings like the Houses of Parliament, London Tower, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and the Natural History Museum to get that ‘in a movie’ feeling. Just walking around the city and taking photos of the little red phone boxes could be considered a day out!

But of course London is also home to numerous ever popular famous attractions like the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Harrods and its many great museums. Add in the more unusual things on offer like kayaking on the Thames, Ice Climbing, Duck Tours and Pedal Powered Pub Crawls and it quickly becomes obvious that London has something for everyone!

Things to do in Edinburgh

Edinburgh has remained in the number 2 position and is still the largest draw for Tourists visiting Scotland. Its castle, located on the hill over looking the city, is a great place to enjoy a Whisky tour and a drop or two of the local brew – fine Scots Whisky. Other great activities on offer include the Dungeons, Dundas Castle, the Palace of Hollyrood, Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, the 3D Loch Ness Experience and a wealth of opportunities to discover the stunning local Scottish countryside by plane, helicopter, bus, hot air balloon or even a trike!

Things to do in Manchester

Always popular with YouGoDo users, Manchester has a great deal of great activities on offer. It is of course, much as it pains me to write this!, home to the top two football clubs in the UK currently! Other great experiences on offer in Manchester include Music Tours, Ghost Hunts, indoor climbing, indoor skiing, indoor karting, the Manchester Museum and Legoland. And for those wanting a different night out try the famous Manchester Curry Mile!

Things to do in Birmingham

Another longtime favorite for YouGoDo users, Birmingham is attracting visitors with activities and experiences like party boats, treasure hunts, ghost hunts, the National Indoor Arena, the National Exhibition Centre, Broad Street, Stock Car Driving, the National Motorcycle Museum (good to see it back open after the dreadful fire), the Sea Life Centre, Cadbury World, Indoor Climbing, Indoor Karting and much more.

Things to do in Liverpool

Things to do in Liverpool, anyone want to guess one of the most popular tours? That will be a Beatles Tour then! Liverpool is not just about the Beatles and Football, it is a city with plenty other fun of offer including Duck Tours (OK so these are call the Yellow Duckmarine which is a bit Beatlesy), Ghost Hunts, High Rope Adventures, Paintballing, the World Museum, the Blue Planat, the Maritime Museum, Tate Liverpool and Brewery Tours to name just a few!

Things to do in Glasgow

Just a short trip from Edinburgh is Glasgow, Scotland’s second entry in the UK’s top 6. While in Glasgow visit the Sea Life centre, take an open top bus tour, try indoor karting or indoor skiing, or maybe take an adventure tour in a sea plane, trike, helicopter, classic car or classic bike! And get out and explore the countryside - choose your transpoirt - bountain bike, sailing boat or quad bike!

Things to do in Oxford

The famous pretty University town of Oxford has many unusual fun activities on its doorsteps. As well as the more traditional attractions like punting on the river and the magnificent Blenheim Palace, you can enjoy hot air ballooning, Laser Quest, Foraging!, Wine Tasting, Ghost Hunting and multi day skiff trip’s down the river - how Bristish!

Things to do in Bristol

In the south west of England, Bristol offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy horse riding, laser combat, sailing, abseiling, boat trips, wine tasting, cookery lessons, archery, karting, tours of the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and more.

Things to do in Cambridge

Located in the east of England, Cambridge is the UK’s second top university town in the top 10 overseas visitor locations! Cambridge also offers the academic favourite of punting on the river along with canoeing, gliding, hot air ballooning, wine tasting and treasure hunting!

Things to do in Brighton

On the south coast, Brighton offer visitors the chance to try some pretty magnificent and very unusual activities. Take a tour of Brightons sewers for example, or just as bizarre take a day tour of the M25 motorway – a full lap of Britain’s most hated road, traffic permitting of course! Or try something more usual (only slightly) like mountain boarding, orbing, power kiting, jet skiing, etc. Or take the easier route with a boat trip, a look around Brighton Royal Pavilion and a walk along Brighton Pier with some candy floss!

Take your pick!

Plenty great activities and things to see and do across the UK!

Cycling the Length of Spain

This year YouGoDo will be cycling the length of Spain.

I am a keen lover of life in Spain, and its great environment, climate and facilities for outdoor activities.

So this September, along with a few friends I will be cycling right across Spain, from the Atlantic on the North Spanish Coast right down to Fuengirola on the Mediterranean South Spanish Coast.

Why are we going North to South? Easy answer - because its all downhill ;-) No - I’m told the prevailing winds tend to come from the West so no real likely tail wind advantage going top to bottom or bottom to top. So it’s the psychological advantage of every single turn of the pedals taking me nearer to home, as I live in the South!

North to South of Spain Route

You can see our draft planned length of Spain route here, starting at Ribadesella and passing through

Ribadesella

Riaño

Almanza

Sahagun

Villalon de Campos

Tordesillas

Medina del Campo

Peñaranda de Bracamonte

Arenas de San Pedro

El Campillo de la Jara

Talarrubias

Hinojosa del Duque

Cordoba

Ardales

Fuengirola

The route is currently showing to be 1053km but I’m sure we will add about 100 – 150 extra km to this, looking for places to stay, getting lost, taking detours, etc!

How long will it take?

We plan to complete the ride in 12 relatively easy cycling days - so it looks like around 100km a day average which should be no problem. We want to have the time and energy to enjoy the Spanish sights, food and culture at our overnight locations. Even with an average rider age of over 50! Are we too old to be called MAMILs (Middle Aged Men in Lycra!) yet?

We are planning to ‘not plan’ our stops, rather decide on our overnight points each day around lunchtime. This way we can take advantage of those dream days where it’s all downhill or level-ish and we have a tail wind from heaven! (Mmmmm - maybe - is there anywhere flatish in Spain?). We will do shorter rides on those uphill, into a driving rain and a headwind days!

We are hoping to enjoy quiet well surfaced roads, and avoid any really steep climbs – long climbs not a problem – all part of crossing Europe’s second most mountainous country.

We will be starting on the weekend of 15th September so hopefully not too hot and dry!

Help and Advice!

We’d appreciate any advice, comments or general sarcasm:

Anyone know the roads in these areas well? – Busy, steep or badly surfaced roads to avoid

Can you recommend places to stay and eat?

Anywhere on the route where we will struggle to find places to stay?

Must visit places on route?

Advice from anyone who has done a similar ride in the past.

Any random encouragement and sarcasm!

Please add comments below ;-)

Bring it on!

Looking forward to the ultimate cycling in Spain, onboard my Trek Madone 4.7, on the YouGoDo Tour de España!

And of course we hope to raise some funds for some great and well deserving charities along the way – you can help us to support reasrech to help suffers of Cancer, Cusytic Fibrosis and Alzheimers by donating at http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/paulbell - every little helps in the fight against these dreadful diseases.

YouGoDo Hit List Builder User Guide

What is a YouGoDo Hit List?

A YouGoDo Hit List is your personal selection of thing you want to do. Its real simple – you look at our selection of over 30,000 great activities, experiences and 'things to do' around the world, for example take a look at things to do in London for an upcoming trip to London, and cherry pick the activities you would like to do. Of course it does not have to be in one location, you may create a hit list of activities of a certain type, for example all the places in the World you would like to go mountain biking, or create an ‘all time’ hit list - your list of things to do around the world before you die – the Bucket List!

How do I create a Hit List?

Selecting Activities for your Hit List

Creating a hit list is really easy – on all of the YouGoDo Search and Activity Details screens you will now see the Tick Links.

To add an activity to your Hit List you simply click on the “√ Yes - Add to my Hit List” link.
Added an incorrect activity by mistake or changed your mind – no worries simply click the same link which will now show “X Maybe Not – Remove from my Hit List” and it will be taken off your Hit List.

Viewing your Hit List

As you are selecting activities for you Hit List the Hit List Counter shown in the green button at the top of the Search and Activity Details screens will show how many items you have selected for your Hit List.

Once you are done simply hit this button “All Done – Show My Hit List”. This will then take you to the Hit List screen showing the Hit List you have just created.

What can I do with my Hit Lists?

Saving your Hit Lists

This is a great idea - You can save as many Hit Lists as you wish and view and amend these at anytime from anywhere in the world. To 'Save' your hit list simply give your Hit List a name – for example “Steve’s 40th Birthday Bash in New York” and hit the “save this hit list” button. If you are already logged in your hit list will be saved and you can continue.
If you are not logged in you will be taken to the Login Screen so the system can identify who it is saving the Hit List for, and ensure you have access to this Hit List from anywhere in the world at a future date. If you have previously registered as a user of YouGoDo simply enter you login details. Your Hit List will be saved and you can continue. If you have not yet registered as a user of YouGoDo simply click the Register Here link, and enter your YouGoDo registration details.

Email your Hit List to your mates

Travelling with family and/or a group of mates?, why not send them your Hit List! Simply hit the “email this hit list” button.
You can send your Hit List to up to 6 friends. NB you do not need to register or login to email hit lists.

Printing your Hit Lists

Want to take some paper on hols with you with all the operator contact details, or stick your Hit List on the wall at home or the office as a reminder of the upcoming fun – no problem – simply hit the “print this hit list” button.

Playing with your previously created Hit Lists

Want to see, edit, email and print any of your saved Hit Lists from any internet station in the world at any time – no problem. Simply Login to YouGoDo using the Login link shown at the top of the screen, and your previously created login details. When you login to YouGoDo you will be shown your Control Panel
Choose My Hit Lists and you will be taken to your Hit List Manager screen.

From here you have access to all of the previous actions for each of your previously saved Hit Lists. Use the Actions drop list to choose to View / Amend, Print of Email your Hit Lists as you wish.

Simples!

If you have ever used a 'shopping basket' online its very similar!

Have Fun!

As always comments and questions are very welcome!

YouGoDo Hit Lists and Bucket List Builder

A few nice exciting upgrades have arrived on YouGoDo today.

The biggest and most exciting to us is the new ‘Hit List’ builder, allowing users to create great exciting Hit Lists for their planned destinations, and even build their 'all time' life Hit List - a personal Bucket List!

YouGoDo has always provided users with some great activity and experience information. Showing users loads of great things to do in an area, but with so much activity information a great weakness has been – “Great YouGoDo has over 600 things to do in the London area, but I only have time to do 10, and with my hobbies and preferences I'm only really interested in 25 of the 600 - what can I do with all this info? YouGoDo is giving me information overload!”.

Well the Hit List Builder is the answer to your prayers.

What is the Hit List Builder?

The Hit List builder allows you to quickly look through our activities in an area, and choose your favourites - your Hit List. You can browse through our huge selection of activities and build as many Hit Lists as you like. Once you have your Hit List it can then be emailed to your travel buddies, saved for access when you are at the destination, or simply printed if you are, like me, in the stone ages (or paper ages!). Hit Lists show the activity and experience suppliers contact details - so you are ready to book and go!

How does the YouGoDo Hit List Builder Work?

OK lets see how easy it is to build a hit list. Lets assume you are a lucky chap, or lady, heading to Miami with your mates!

On the YouGoDo activity search page, take a look at YouGoDo’s 280+ things to do in Miami, and for each activity which takes your fancy, simply hit the ‘√ Yes - Add to my Hit List’ link, and keep on heading down the Miami activities list and adding. You will soon have an exciting personal Miami ‘Hit List’ of your favourite things to do in Miami - activities like jet ski tours, helicopter flights, speed boat trips, air boat rides, roof top bars, etc.

Once you have done your trawl of the best stuff to do in Miami simply hit the ‘All Done Show My Hit List’ button.

Here you will see all of the fun activities you and your mates are going to be enjoying in Miami! Now take your choice - from here you can email the Hit List to your travel buddies, print it and/or save it. Thats the activity planning done - get packed and remember the sun cream!

How Many Hit Lists Can I Have?

As many as you like! The new Hit List manager allows registered YouGoDo users to create multiple hits lists. You can have one for each of your future destinations, a local hit list, and even create the big one - your all time Hit List – your personal Bucket List, the amazing things you want to do in your lifetime.

Choose from our 30,000+ great YouGoDo experience ideas.

A huuuuuuge improvement in usability! Get in there and have a play - go to the YouGoDo search page now and start to build your hit lists and bucket list!

Incredible New Zip Wire in Central London

An incredible new zip wire has been opened this morning in London, offering adrenalin seeking visitors to the UK’s capital city the opportunity to zip wire from the Iconic London Eye fairground wheel on the banks of the River Thames, over the famous river and right into the Houses of Parliament bar on the other side.

The X Thames Zip is the latest addition to the many unusual things to do in London.  It is the first of its kind in the world, and has taken over 3 years to develop. The unique WMMA (wheel mounted multi angle) zip wire offers riders the opportunity of choosing the speed and steepness of their descent. Using a revolutionary connecting mechanism, based up a Rotary Damper mechanism first used on a Suzuki Motorcycle, the zip wire is connected to the moving London Eye pods.  This means brave riders can choose to leap from the pods right at the top of the wheel's revolution, and travel at speeds of up to 80mph, whereas the more timid can choose to start their ride at the bottom of the wheel's rotation where it is almost level and travel over the Thames at a sedate 15mph.

Designed by the famous British Architect Bert Really, the zip wire has taken 13 years to get through the notoriously tough British Health and Safety system. Although riders of all ages will need to wear three safety harnesses, and carry with them spare pants, a flashlight and written permissions from their mums to take the ride.

The ride was originally due to open for New Years Eve, but designers had to go back to the drawing board when the original tensile steel cables were found to be too low for riders opting to take the slower ride. Heavier riders who were starting their rides at the bottom of the London Eye’s rotation, were taking an early bath in the Thames. A more elasticated cable has now been employed.

At the end of the ride visitors arrive at the Houses of Parliament bar where they can enjoy a drink and a cold pasty. Further health and safety issues here were overcome with the banning of MP Eric Joyce from the establishment.

The operators of the new ride, Starta Apreel Entertainments have stated that if this ride proves popular they have plans to open similar zip wire rides from the top of the Eifel Tower in France, the Burj Tower in Dubai and the Sydney Opera House.

Another one to add to the collection of many great things to do in London!

The X Thames Zip, which opened on 1st April 2012 has no association whatsover with either the Houses of Parliament or the London Eye.

The World’s Shortest Experiences

With YouGoDo featuring over 30,000 great experiences to enjoy, from all around the world, I thought I’d take a look into which of these great 'things to do' are over fastest! This does not mean they are bad value for money, as you will see below, they may be over all too soon - but they tend to score highly in terms of thrills per second!

A few of the contenders:

Rollercoasters tend to be all done in a few minutes but these tend to be part of the overall experience of theme parks, which generally take up a full day to explore, so I’m afraid these do not make it into the top league of ‘all over too soon’ experiences.

There are plenty of great 'things to do' which are in the 10 to 30 minutes bracket.

Many short tours fall into this bracket. Many helicopter tours start from 10 minutes long. But this said a helicopter can show you more of a great area in 10 minutes than you could see on the ground in 4 hours, and in many cases the helicopter allows you to explore areas you could not see in any other way! High speed passenger laps of race circuits are also over in about 10 – 15 minutes. Although depending on how nervous a passenger you are, these can seem a lot longer! A passenger lap of the world famous Nurburgring with a professional driver, like Sabine Schmitz, would take less than 10 minutes, but what a 10 minutes for Petrolheads!

Activities like jet skiing, karting and trampolining tend to be charged for 10 to 30 minute sessions. Some of these activities are surprisingly energetic, and this is probably a good reason for the length of the experience. After 15 minutes on a trampoline most folk are pretty exhausted! Even 15 minutes of jet skiing or karting is hard work, if you are doing it right!

Parachute Jumps are also in the 10 – 15 minute bracket, unless you go for the more extreme military method of skydiving known as HALO jumping – High Altitude Low Opening! But again what a 10 – 15 minute experience! A favourite on many people’s bucket lists!

But all of these are ‘endurance’ when we get down to the top three ‘all done already – wow – again, again!’ activities!

3rd - A go on the swings – about 2 - 5 minutes

There are some amazing ‘extreme swings’ in stunning natural locations around the world. And these are not your average self-propelled playground “swing your feet more” swings – We’re talking swings across gorges, 100’s of meters high and across. Swings which will leave your stomach well behind you, as you step into pure air, lots of it! A few minutes of pure adrenalin rush!

2nd – Bounce Bounce - Bungy Jumping - about 1 - 3 minutes

Leaping into the air, suspended by a bungy cord around your ankles, and plummeting to the earth over amazing scenery comes in at number 2 on our list. With around 1 – 2 minutes of intense, adrenalin rushing, upside down, horizon smashing fun!

1st - Dragster Rides – lights – action – stop! about 10 - 15 seconds

The winner, by quite a margin has to be high speed passenger dragster rides – at sub 10 – 15 seconds this one has to be the fastest ‘all over’ experience. Strapped tightly into your shaking car, with rather a lot of horsepower rumbling and exploding all around you, waiting for the green light, and then bang, you are off. Screaming up the quarter mile while your experienced pilot fights to control the vehicle in a straight line for a ¼ of a mile. And then after only a few seconds of high G force, high powered, high speed fun its hard on the brakes! But what a few seconds!