With the summer holidays just around the corner, now is the time when parents should start planning adventures to wile away the weeks.

Spend some time online and ideas for accommodation, theme parks, zoos, adventure playgrounds, or anything else that might take your fancy, will be thrown at you, but as with all internet searches, it’s sorting the wheat from the chaff that’s the hard part.

One organisation that is doing a good job of it, is the national tourist board, Enjoy England, which has this year once again launched its Family Fun website.

The cartoon design, map-led searches and fun icons make searching for attractions and points of interest easy, and may even engage the kids in finding their own distractions. There’s some limit to the geographical coverage – it would be helpful to have more towns and cities marked for reference and the map is simplified by being split into nine regions, presumably along tourist board boundaries.

Icons alongside the map allow you to look for nature, historical, theme park, or other attractions, which appear on the map when selected, and are clickable for further information, such as opening times, admission prices, location and website link.

Drill down your search for any attraction or accommodation and you’ll find yourself redirected to the Enjoy England website. The Family Fun site is merely a glossy front for the pre-existing mine of information that’s already on offer, but it does a good job of showcasing Enjoy England’s content.

The accommodation search, which is hosted on the main Enjoy England site, is comprehensive. It allows you to enter as much or little criteria as you wish, such as ‘pet friendly’, star rating and availability. The results often return a picture, description of the hotel, and also direct contact details and website, something that many commercial sites do not offer. You can plot the results on a Google map, then choose your hotel/campsite/cottage by location, or request a list.

There is also a page of events, listed by date and location, which is useful, although it’s a shame this is not also displayed on a map. Other additions such as tips on travel sickness, games to play on long car journeys and activity sheets are helpful.

We love: the cartoon map and icons; breadth of content and ability to cater searches to specific criteria

We hate: away from the tourist hotspots, information and ideas can be thin

Verdict

Design: 8/10

Navigation: 9/10

Content: 6/10

Fulfilment: 7/10

Overall score: 30/40

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