About Maps & Smiles

Maps & Smiles is a family travel site written by Joe Watson. We write up the days out we actually take our own family on, in the north of England and Scotland.

Every guide is based on a visit we made ourselves, using our own photographs. We are not sent on press trips and we do not accept free entry in exchange for coverage. If that ever changes, it will be stated at the top of the guide it applies to.

How we check facts

Prices, opening times and last-entry rules are read off the venue's own website rather than copied from other blogs, and every guide shows the date we checked them. Attractions change their prices often, so a guide with no date on it is not telling you much.

Where something is genuinely a judgement call — whether an attraction is worth the money, how tiring it is with a toddler — we say so, and we say what it depends on.

Photographs

The photographs are our own. Where a child's face would be identifiable we blur it before publishing, on the site and on our Pinterest pins alike.

Get in touch

If we have got something wrong, or a price has changed since we checked it, please tell us — see the <a href='contact.html'>contact page</a>.