Coordinates: 51°31′53″N 2°35′16″W / 51.5314°N 2.5879°W / 51.5314; -2.5879

Patchway is a town in South Gloucestershire, England, situated 10 km (6.2 mi) northwest of central Bristol. The town is a housing overflow for Bristol being contiguous to Bristol's urban area, and is often regarded as a large outer suburb. Nearby are the other Bristol satellite towns of Filton and Bradley Stoke. Patchway is twinned with Clermont l'Herault, France, and Gauting, Germany. It was established as a civil parish in 1953, becoming separate from the parish of nearby Almondsbury.

Patchway lies just north of Filton Airfield, where Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems and Airbus UK are major aerospace employers. The town comprises three areas: Patchway Estate, Stoke Lodge and Aztec West.

Housing in Patchway Estate lies southwest of the main London-South Wales railway line. Coniston Road circles the estate, where many of the streets are named after birds and trees. Patchway Trading Estate is adjacent to the dual carriageway linking the A38 and M5. The mall and two retail parks at Cribbs Causeway, just north of Filton airfield, form the largest shopping centre in South West England.

Bristol ⁱ/ˈbrɪstəl/ is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007. It is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city, one of the group of English Core Cities and the most populous city in South West England.

Historically within Gloucestershire, the city received a Royal Charter in 1155 and was granted County status in 1373. From the 13th century, for half a millennium, it ranked amongst the top three English cities after London, alongside York and Norwich, on the basis of tax receipts, until the rapid rise of Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester during the Industrial Revolution in the latter part of the 18th century. It borders the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire, and is also located near the historic cities of Bath to the south east and Gloucester to the north. The city is built around the River Avon, and it also has a short coastline on the Severn Estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel.

A guide book is a book for tourists or travelers that provides details about a geographic location, tourist destination, or itinerary. It is the written equivalent of a tour guide. Many travel guides now take the form of travel websites rather than printed books.

It will usually include details such as phone numbers, addresses, prices and reviews of hotels and other lodgings, restaurants, and activities. Maps of varying detail are often included. Sometimes historical and cultural information is also provided. Different guide books may focus on different aspects of travel, from adventure travel to relaxation, or be aimed at travelers with larger or smaller travel budgets, or focus on the particular interests and concerns of certain groups such as sexual orientation or dietary restrictions. Guide books are generally intended to be used in conjunction with actual travel, although simply enjoying a guide book with little or no intention of visiting may be referred to as "armchair tourism".

The periplus was an itinerary from landmark to landmark of the ports along a coast, a forerunner of the guide. A periplus such as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was a manuscript document that listed, in order, the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. It served the same purpose as the later Roman itinerarium of road stops.