Tips For Travellers

Visiting Cheltenham in the Cotswolds. Why it is not a waste of your time.

2012-05-25T09:11:00.000Z

When I thought of Cheltenham 3 things came to mind: Horse Racing; home of the UK government GCHQ donut shaped spy "listening centre, and a posh girl's private school.

It was a place that I had never visited, although I have lived in the UK since 1987, and is only 100 lies from London. I just never quite got round to it. So what did I think and do I recommend after going there?

What is the history of Cheltenham?
Cheltenham is a town with a long history. Located in the beautiful Cotswold area in the West of England. It is central enough to be able to explore the whole Cotswold area, including the famous towns like Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath. It became popular after the discovery of a natural spring with claimed medicinal benefits over 300 years ago. It became a fashionable place for the famous and rich to visit, boosted by King George III spending 5 weeks there in 1788.

The town expanded with beautiful regency buildings and homes. The buildings are distinctive and impressive. Clearly a town built by those with money to spend. Today many of the houses have been converted into flats, hotels and offices - but many are still large and impressive houses.

The shopping centre of Cheltenham is also impressive. The centre is largely pedestrian friendly with some parts closed to traffic, and there is a beautiful green square surrounded by stone buildings. Those who have been to Bath will recognise the style and approach.

There is quite a lot of business in the city, but the major draws are the Government GCHQ centre and the major Horse Racing events, with the Cheltenham Gold Cup being one of the major social events on the English Calendar.

Cheltenham also has it's fair share of well known celebrities and sportsmen that have originated from it, including people like Gustav Holst (composer of The Planets), WG Grace (cricketer), Elizabeth Hurely (actress) , Sharon Davies (olympic swimmer), Jilly Cooper (author), Brian Jones (Rolling Stones), JK Rowling (author) and Edward Jenner (discovered vaccinations).

Overall impressions

Cheltenham feels like a place with money. There is a style and flair to the place, as well as the types of stores that suggest that it is a wealthy city. There are trendy and impressive restaurants, like the Jamie Italian in the old Court House.
It feels youthful and vibrant. The city has a lot of young and trendy people about, and has an energy and excitement that I had not expected.
Architecture. As mentioned above, the city has amazing architecture and it has largely been retained. The city has regency style through it with its distinctive ironwork.

What is there to do?
While there are some things to do within the city, part of the attraction is that it is a great location to explore things around the area. So having a car is important, though there are many bus tours around Cheltenham and the surrounds.

3 key things to do in the city: Visit the Holst Birthplace Museum; see the stunning Pitt Pump Room Building (which was the centre of the spa offering in its day and is a stunning building and example of the area's architecture) and explore the town centre.
Things to do close by: There are 2 things I would recommend that are close by:

Visit the town Stow on the Wold which is a charming market town with quirky shops and great architecture. See photos below.
Visit Sudeley Castle. This was where Henry VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr, died. She married Lord Sudeley after Henry's death and moved to this large and impressive estate. A separate blog posting on Sudeley Castle to follow.

A charming and fascinating city that is worth going to for a short break to explore the beautiful Cotswold and features close by and further afield like Bath and Stratford-uopn-Avon.

Links

VisitCheltenham.com site
My review of The Hotel on the Park Cheltenham
See all my photos of Cheltenham, Sudeley Hall and Stow on the Wold

Cheltenham Cotswolds England

Everyman Theartre Cheltenham Cotswolds England

Stow on the Wold Cotswolds England

The Hotel on the Park, Cheltenham, Cotswold England. Positives and Negatives?

2012-05-24T13:32:00.000Z

I have blogged about Visiting Cheltenham, and why it is not a waste of time. Here is a review of the hotel we stayed at.

On TripAdvisor, the vast majority of people staying at The Hotel on the Park in Cheltenham give it a fairly rough time in reviews and ratings.

It seems the hotel may have created a bit of a monster by using deal sites like KGB to get people to stay and also to use the restaurant. It seems that most of the negative reviews are from people going to the hotel via such deals.

So we were a bit nervous about going to the hotel based on the reviews we had read. Overall we were pleased by our stay, with the hotel looking much better than we had expected. Though there were some issues that would likely make us not return if we came back to the area.

We had decided to upgrade from the deal offer to a "Spa Room". We realised once there that there are only actually 2 of the rooms (out of 10 in total) that are within the category in the offer. And so the offer at its inception is designed to get you to spend more. This is something one should always expect when visiting any hotel through one of the deal sites. Of course they will try and make more from guests once there.

What were the positives?

Design and decor. The hotel has some flair in the design. This is true of the public areas and the rooms. It has more of a "wow" factor than we had expected. The hotel is in a large house typical of the surrounding area that has been extended. You do feel like you are staying as a guest at someone's house rather than a regular hotel. This for some is a positive, but it is important to think of this as a guest house versus a hotel
Distinctive rooms with names. Instead of room numbers, the rooms have names of people with historical significance from the area. This is a nice touch, but the only thing linking to them is one short page in the guest book. So not sure that it works entirely. The room we stayed in was the Thomas Phipps Thomas on the 1st floor (watch a video below). A good sized room with a small dressing area and good bathroom. The bed was a standard double. Smaller than I like when staying at a hotel! The location was not great as out the back there is a garden and when they have functions (as they did on the Saturday night) it is very noisy with people talking and music.
Clean. The place was clean and well maintained.
Location. This is god, easy to find and is within easy walking distance into town where there are good restaurants (like Jamie's Italian), the Theatre and main shopping.
Reception staff. They were all friendly and welcoming.

What were the negatives?

Breakfast. Included in the price is "continental" breakfast, with a charge of £6 to have a full English. The breakfast is not great. You get juice, coffee/ tea, toast and one small bowl of cereal.

Drinks and coffee prices. These seem very high for such a hotel. 2 coffees are £8 and 2 drinks were over £16. We did not eat in the restaurant, but overall seems very pricey for what it offers.

Noise and attitude. It is seems that the restaurant and events are important to the hotel, and as noted above out of the back you risk noise from events (and in the front people comment on traffic noise). On the events it would be better if the hotel was more up-front about if an event will run and what time it will end. We called down and asked, as we could not go to bed until it ended, and were told "soon". But went on for hours.

Parking. There is very limited space for parking out the front, and this is exacerbated when the restaurant is open.

In summary, a pleasant surprise versus the expectations and reviews but we would not hurry back.

Video of the Thomas Phipps Thomas Room:

The Hotel on the Park Cheltenham Cotswold England

See all my photos of Cheltenham and The Hotel on The Park

Cruise the Caribbean like an expert! Follow these 6 tips

2012-05-21T10:05:00.000Z

P&O Arcadia in Saint John Antigua, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

I have previously written about "what you should expect when cruising the Caribbean" where I explored why you should be cruising the Caribbean, the main features of the Caribbean Cruise industry and the history of Caribbean and cruising. Also I looked at the impact of cruise industry on the Caribbean. In this article, I give 5 key tips about cruising the Caribbean. If you have any to add, or thoughts, please leave a comment.

#1: Review my First Time Cruiser tips

I also have an article with 16 key tips for “first time cruisers” based on the many cruises that I have done to date, and things that I learnt from others too. These have proven to be popular and helpful to others

#2: Choose your Cruise Line very carefully

With so many cruise brands, you need to choose who you visit the Caribbean with very carefully. It could really make or break your cruise experience.

While most of the USA based cruise lines operate extensive schedules to the Caribbean now not only out of Miami and Fort Lauderdale but multiple ports (including now even New York) there is a lot of choice. But also all of the European Cruise Lines also operate Caribbean schedules from September to March when they reposition their ships into the area during the European Winter as it is too cold to run a Mediterranean schedule.

Cruise lines tend to be quite nationalistic about where they promote, and so attract the bulk of their passengers. This is one thing to consider as most seem to therefore have the very vast majority of passengers from their home countries on board. For example, the P&O ship I was on was a definitely about 99% UK passengers. Italian lines like MSC and Costa will be majority Italian, and of course carnival mostly Americans.
This also means that the entertainment, onboard games and quizzes, talks and the like will all be heavily slanted towards the home country of the ship. So make sure you are prepared for that. It also does though give you an opportunity to be a bit more adventurous. Most US cruisers using local agents or responding to local placed ads will tend to be considering only US cruise lines – forgetting that there are a load of other options that they may actually find a bit more varied or different.
It also is important to chose carefully based on how formal you like your cruise to be. While all lines, including even the most formal line Cunard, will have a more relaxed schedule of how many Formal, Informal and Casual nights on their Caribbean season those that have a strict dress code will enforce it. So if you are on Cunard or say one of the UK lines like P&O you will be expected to wear formal on those nights and not be allowed into the dining room without it. While other lines may be less strict, for example MSC that friends traveled on more or less the same time found maybe 30% of people wore formal on formal nights and the line did not mind. If you like things very relaxed then chose the more “fun ships” like Ocean Village or those with the more “Freestyle” approaches.
If you don’t like hoards of kids that come on Caribbean Cruises also chose carefully. Some of the European lines like P&O have “adult only” ships operating in the Caribbean, or select cruises out of school holiday times.

#3: See and use the cruise as a taster for future land based vacations
One of the risks with the rather frantic port-to-port schedule is that the islands can start to blur a bit into each other. So while you get an overall Caribbean experience which is of glorious weather, islands, beaches and the like, it is harder to get the time to really appreciate and island other than get a taste for what could be on offer. So why not approach the cruise with exactly this in mind!

I recommend is to use a cruise literally as a “sampler platter” where you go with a view to returning for a specific land based trip to one or maybe two of the islands for a week at each. So use the visits to choose an excursion that you think will give you the best sample of the kind of things or activities that you would like for a longer trip. So if you like beaches then do that, if you like walks then do those, if you like activity sports then do those, if you like history do those excursions and so on.

A cruise where you are visiting islands back-to-back will provide an excellent way to help chose the right and best island to visit at a later stage. I know from cruises to some of the islands we visited I knew I want to go to Barbados again, but Grenada and St Kitts are on the “must go back and spend more time” while I was pleased to see St Lucia and Antigua I don’t feel they are where I want to spend more time. The cruise really helped in that regard.

On that front, also watch carefully what your cruise line defines as a stop and an island. Some cruise lines include stops at what they call “private islands” which are basically small islands with a beach that they stop at, haul food onto and that is it.

#4: Consider self exploring versus cruise line arranged excursions

The easiest thing to do is simply go through the excursion list provided by the cruise line and chose one for each port stop. Every cruise line has a wide range of tours on offer at each port and most are usually sold out. They know what people like overall through doing these stops over and over again. Although I do sometimes wonder if the tours they list are sold out more through the inertia we all have through cruisers assuming we HAVE to chose one of the things on offer to do while in port.

Staying on board while in some ports is probably a much underused option as well to enjoy the ship and facilities like the Spa. The ship is usually very empty and quiet when in port as almost all passengers will get off for some or all the day on an excursion, and even a large amount of the crew will get off to go shopping and have a break from their confined living space on-board. It means the pools; spas and other activities are less crowded and busy.

You are unlikely to want to stay on board every port as you miss seeing new places, although friends of mine came back from a 16 night Caribbean and Atlantic Crossing with stops in Europe only getting off in one port. They were the exception as they would stay up all night partying and used days to sleep and recover! If you have a hectic "port every day" cruise do build in some days you don't have something booked as a take it easy and relax day.

Based on my experiences of cruising, I think there are at least 3 approaches you should consider:

Start by looking at the excursion booklet sent by the Cruise Line. This will give you a good overview of the sorts of activities that are popular and the range of things that can do done. You get a good feel for if there is a rich history to be explored, if it is an activities area and so on. You also get an idea of the sort of prices tours in that port will cost and the time and distances involved. For the islands these are not that large as most islands are pretty small. Decide the kind of things that appeal.
Remember there is no rule requiring you to only go on cruise line tours. You should consider options. There is an excellent site called shoretrips.com that was set up by 2 travel agents who spent literally years identifying and validating tours on most of the islands. The tours on their site can be booked and paid for and they meet you at the ship. They argue that you will tend to find their tours will have smaller numbers of people on them (or you can even book some exclusively), will cost less (as the cruise lines take larger margins on tours) and also will have local people with huge local knowledge. People on cruise boards who have used the site have been very complementary. They also offer more tours taking you for longer and more relaxing tours like to beauty spots, beaches and the like.
Then, which is what I mostly end up doing, is do it yourself. This is a very easy and under appreciated option. The islands are small, used to dealing with tourists who are in and out in a day and the places to go are well known and well documented both online and in brochures. All cruise lines provide free shuttle buses into the town center if the dock is not in the center, but for most of the Caribbean they are.

#5: The USA $ is the one currency all islands accept, making it so much easier

All the islands take US dollars everywhere and so there is no confusion about prices, and there are always water or road taxis on hand and at the tourist spots that you can assess prices at. There are also always visitor stands or shops at the dock to get maps or other options. This way you are in control and importantly can spend as little or as long as you want at your chosen spot.

I also like this option as you are then talking to local people and getting more of a feel for the place.

#6: The best islands to visit?

Here are the recommendations based on the islands I visited to date and what I did that was good or bad and the views of others I spoke to:

Barbados
I have a whole podcast and blog posting about Barbados with tips and advice. There are great beaches, and St Lawrence gap is probably the easiest area to go to as has lots of beach area but also a road full of bars, shops and places to eat.The nicer and more up-market resorts are on the west of the island and there are some nice public beaches near Holetown - but you can go to any beach as anyone can use any beach. If you prefer sightseeing go on a tour that includes Harrison's Caves and goes to the high spot of the island. Bridgetown is worth a stroll through though not worth allocating a lot of time to, but do visit Trafalgar Square and Nelson's statue - even for the novelty factor as of course Nelson's Column and statue are in Trafalgar Square in London.

Grenada
Grenada is a great place. Visiting should be a beach or water day as the sea and beaches here are stunning. The lovely Grand Anse Beach can be reached by water taxis at the dock that charge a few US dollars to take you there. It was about 3 dollars per person. You get a great view of the ships in port as you whiz round them, great views of the island and the beach is great. There are what seem to be concessions on the beach where for a stretch one set of people can rent you chairs and umbrellas (about twenty dollars for 2 people) and offer drinks and food for sale.Chat to the water taxi guys as they will tell you the history of the island (and the coups, American invasion and hurricanes!). After the beach go out the shopping mall at the docks, turn right and then go through the tunnel (built in the 189Os or thereabouts) into the lovely bay area with stunning architecture, bars, fishing boats and such like.

St LuciaSt Lucia is popular island, but I was less impressed. Avoid the day at a Sandals Resort as they are run down and the beaches not that great. It seems the best things to do here are to visit one of the more popular beaches or go on one of the round the island tours.

St KittsOn St Kitts, there are 2 great things to do.

If you like activity, go on a bike tour. This lasts the morning (or afternoon) and is quite strenuous as the island is very hill. But you get to see some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine and learn about the sugar trade as well. The tour also takes you up to look at Frigate Bay, across to the sister island of Nevis and to a beach for a swim in the amazing sea.
The other option is to take the helicopter tour to the now devastated island of Montserrat. The volcano eruption a few years back saw lava flowing at 1OO miles an hour and the whole place was evacuated. You see the submerged airport and other amazing sights. This is always very popular so book early for this one!
The narrow gauge railway (this covers the island and was used to ferry the cane from the fields to the main sugar refinery near the port) is a popular tour the cruise lines sell hard. Most people say it is not worth the time or money.

Antigua
Antigua boasts that it has a different beach you can visit every day, so it should also be a beach day. All beaches in the Caribbean are public and so you (in theory) can go to anyone you want. The best in my view is Dickinson Beach. This is about a 15 minute cab ride (about 6 to 8 dollars) and the beach is long, in a large bay with sand that looks and feels like powder. It is quite remarkable and the sea is brilliant. Not as clear as the more southern islands but stunning. There are many small bars that also sell food and places to hire boats, kayaks and other water sports.

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What should you expect when cruising the Caribbean?

2012-05-18T10:17:00.000Z

P&O Arcadia cruise ship in Grenada Caribbean

Something like 60% of all cruises in the world today take place in the Caribbean! Why is the case, and should you consider cruising the area?
The next most popular destination is Alaska. I find the fact that the Caribbean so dominates the world of cruising quite staggering. In reality it probably reflects more the history of cruising which really grew and developed in the area, driven by companies like Carnival and Royal Caribbean operating out of Miami in the USA. It is also a reflection of how developed the USA cruising industry is, and how it is still underdeveloped in other parts of the world. It is no wonder then that the building of ships seems to be almost frantic with all the growth potential as cruising catches on in other parts of the world.

What are the main features of the Caribbean Cruise industry?

The Caribbean cruise season runs from after the hurricane season from around September until March each year, and then the cruise ships are redeployed onto the Alaska route or head off to Europe to ply the Mediterranean and Baltic in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
Most of the Caribbean cruises are, and pretty much always have been, 7-day trips out of Florida where ships alternate between a “Western Caribbean” and an “Eastern Caribbean” routing. This pattern ideally suits the USA vacation patterns, as most people in the States tend to have and take shorter holidays than other regions so the 7-day pattern suits them. For those wanting 2 weeks vacations, then all they do is stay on a ship for two back to back cruises.
The 7 day cruises tend to have one sea day to get to the islands, visits to 5 islands and then one sea day back to port. The growth of popularity of the cruising has, though, started to see many more USA ports offering Caribbean trips – and the area is by far the most popular part of the world for European Cruise lines like Cunard, P&O and Costa to send their ships to during the European winter. Or, in the case of Cunard, in the period running up to the New Year when it tends to be too rough and is too cold for people to book on their famous transatlantic crossings. It fills in the period before they send their ships on their 3 month round the world cruises from January to March.
At the start and end of the Caribbean "season" many cruise lines include Caribbean legs into their ship "repositioning" schedules. My first Caribbean Cruise was part of what is called a “repositioning cruise” on the P&O ship Arcadia. There is a redeployment of ships, especially to and from Europe, before and after the main September to March Caribbean season. Most cruise lines doing this offer 2-week trips, which consist of a week cruising round the Caribbean and a week crossing the Atlantic. These cruises tend to be very good value as less people enjoy the long periods at sea and prefer schedules with lots of ports.

What is the impact of this huge cruise industry to the Caribbean?
My first Caribbean cruise in 2007 also happened to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery which was timely as traveling around the islands we visited (Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Antigua) the one thing that did strike me, as I learnt more about the history of the Caribbean, was that these stunningly beautiful islands were not only built on the back of slave labor, but also just how brutal and terrible the slave trade was.

An unpleasant history....

Behind the laid back tone and startling beauty of the Caribbean is an unpleasant tale, with the `British and French primarily squabbling and fighting over control with the indigenous Carib Indians being driven out and even massacred sometimes to take control of the islands.
They then shipped in slaves from North Africa mostly in horrific conditions where many would perish on the trip. They were then sold in markets held in what are now picturesque and charming town squares. The slaves were required to work in the huge sugar plantations that soon covered most of the islands, with cruelty and force ensuring compliance.
It is clear that the sugar plantations owners, all of who were from Europe, grew very wealthy on the practice and the sugar trade. But as the sugar trade declined it also has left the islands largely under developed, as the profits had been shipped out and not invested into the place that created the money. This means that now that the sugar industry has pretty much died, both due to declining popularity for sugar and also cheaper and more cost effective crops like sugar beet closer to the main markets, that the only real industry the Caribbean has is tourism – and especially the cruise business.

Cruise industry impact on the Caribbean: Good or bad for the islands?
Depending on whose point of view you follow, or possibly where your political leaning is, the islands are either benefiting enormously from the cruise trade – or are being shortchanged and manipulated by the cruise industry that passes little of the financial benefits on the islands.
There is an interesting debate on this and one I found made fascinating reading and gave me deeper insights about how the while cruise industry works.

The view against:

On the one side of the debate are a series of interesting books by an author called Ross Klein who wrote “Cruise Ship Blues” and other books that talk about how the industry plays islands off against each other to drive lower revenue for the island and more for themselves. For example, he talks about how cruise ships do not restock supplies and the like on the islands but only in their home ports for the main, that they keep the bulk of revenues from tours and such like and that international firms own many of the chains in the new port side malls that have been built.

The view for:

On the other side of the argument are the materials from the main cruise body called CLIA. Their site is cruising.org, and the organization talks about the money they spend on assisting with infrastructure and the overall benefits from the money passengers spend on-shore. Either way it makes for really interesting reading and it is worth hearing both points of view.

One thing that you cannot help to note on all of the islands is that they overall do seem fairly poor and underdeveloped. There are, of course, glitzy hotels but these again seem to be owned and operated by the major chains. Of course they are an important employer of locals but it is a pity that you do not see more local enterprise here.

So despite these observations what else struck me while cruising the Caribbean?
These are based on visits to Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia, St Kitts and Antigua. Click on the links for specific reviews and photos of each of the islands.

I loved all the islands. They are all so beautiful and the beaches are glorious. In most cases the people are welcoming and friendly, which is quite a feat when they are subjected to waves of tourists during the cruise season in particular asking the same questions and doing the same things.
I have to admit though one of the challenges of visiting so many islands in quick succession for one day on a cruise if that they do kind of blend into each other as an overall Caribbean experience.
So while beautiful, I did wonder if the islands have missed an opportunity to be more unique and distinctive. I am sure that if you spent more time on each you would get to understand and appreciate their distinctiveness, but the cruise experience does not do that justice. I am embarrassed to admit that I think that if I was not an obsessive photo taker and so have piles of images from everywhere, that I would not clearly be able to remember which island was which. Of course the trip on the island I can associate but from the non-trip elements from the port, walking around the town is where it starts to get less clear.
This seems like a missed opportunity. Admittedly the broad history of the islands is broadly similar (English and French fighting over them, largely English dominating, driving out the Carib Indian locals, importing slaves to drive the sugar industry), but I do think that there is way to find more uniqueness in the culture and story of each island. But this is probably more of the marketing background in me coming out, as I am not sure my fellow travelers thought as much about this.
The Port areas are all now very similar and this is a result in most cases of original facilities being destroyed at the turn of the century by hurricanes and being rebuilt to meet the needs of the current ship types and passengers in a more harmonious way. Disappointingly though, most of the shops in these ports are also the same with even the same chains, like the Diamond International chain for example.
Even the curio/ gift shops are stocked full of largely similar merchandise with the name changed. Much of the merchandise was made in China and even the UK (most of the china items). At the risk of going on, I did feel it was pity but saved on buying a lot of items from each island.
As a UK resident, visiting the islands has a lot of familiarity in a number of respects as the cars drive on the left hand side and many of the street names and places are familiar names from UK history and places like Piccadilly Circus and Nelson’s Dockyard. As you get further North, the islands start to have a more American flavour, but their roots in British Colonialism reeks everywhere you go. Though I did notice that the more south the islands the more laid back people were and the closer we got to the USA the more assertive. I am not sure if these islands get more ships and passengers and so the islanders have become more competitive with each other.
If you go on a classic Caribbean cruise with basically an island a day, it can be a tiring experience as you will be up early as ships get in usually around 7am to 8am and then you are off on trips and set sail at about 5pm and 6pm then still to have the dinner, shows and other activities in the evening to enjoy. It can become a bit of a blur if you don’t pace yourself. With the repositioning cruise we had a great balance as we had the busy 5 days at the start and then the 5 sea days to really relax.

There is no denying though that whatever observations and thoughts about similarities, the Caribbean and a cruise in this area is just a stunning experience. I adore the place. The islands are beautiful, the beaches and sea glorious and the people on most of the islands for the most part are charming, welcoming and surprisingly patient.
Have any thoughts and tips? Please leave a comment below, and share using the social media buttons too!

More articles on the Caribbean and Cruising by TipsForTravellers:

Barbados. How to make the most of your time there.

2012-05-15T15:11:00.001Z

Bathsheba Barbados

I adore the exotic and beautiful Barbados, in the Caribbean. An island I have been to 3 times to date. One of the most easterly of all the Caribbean islands, it is also one of the most stunning.

The island itself is pretty small. It's only about 20 miles by about 14 miles. And so when you fly in, you can see the whole island from the air usually. You see the very lush and green island, surrounded by a ring of turquoise, blue, and green water. It is one of the most breathtaking and beautiful things I've ever seen, with its gorgeous sea and little slithers of sand that dot all around the island.

Some general observations I have of Barbados

Friendly and welcoming people. The population of Barbados is only about 275,000 regular inhabitants. And they are the most incredibly friendly, outgoing, charming people. They have great spirit, and are very welcoming. They're very well‑educated, and have a point of view they love to share. You don't feel threatened, even by the guys and gals on the beach who come by trying to selling things. They'll chat to you; give you tips and advice and they won't hassle you. If you see them the next day and you said "no thank you", they won't hassle you. Unlike some places in other tourist resorts where you almost feel threatened by people.
Barbados is more British in feel than American. This is due to its long links to Britain. Even Admiral Nelson visited Barbados not long before the famous Battle of Trafalgar, and there is even a square that used to be called Trafalgar Square, which still has a statue of Nelson in it, which was erected even before the one in London.

Cars drive on the left‑hand side of the road, as you do in the UK.
You'll find the spelling of places and words is the British spelling, versus American spelling.
You generally find that most of the tourists there are from the UK. There's a very large tourist industry, with both British Airways and Virgin flying in very regularly, and daily in the season and pretty regularly out‑of‑season. A lot of UK charter airlines also fly into Barbados. So the tourists who really go there are much more from the UK and not even that many Continental Europeans go as there are not that many direct flights from Europe.

All beaches are public. Although there's a beach in front of a development or in front of a resort, it's not only for the guests or residents of that resort. All beaches are public, which I think is a great idea. People tend to stick more to wherever they're staying, usually, but anybody can swim on any beach.
Barbados itself is a relatively expensive island to visit. That may be why it tends to attract a certain type of tourist and is seen as an upmarket place to visit. In the UK, for example, it tends to be seen as a playground for the rich and famous. In fact, to give you an example of that, Concorde, when it was flying, used to fly to from London to New York but in season it also flew from London to Barbados, so this gives you a sense of the type of people who go there.

It is a pretty expensive place to go out eating. There are some very upmarket and world class restaurants, and I cover these in another blog posting about the best places to eat in Barbados. But take a big wallet with you!
If you're worried about how much you'll spend, there are quite a lot of all‑inclusive resorts where, obviously, you can make sure that you know what you're spending when you go. But it can be a pretty expensive place to visit.
Property is very expensive. There's a lot of property for sale in Barbados and a lot of developments taking place. On the West Coast, for example, you'd be struggling to buy a one‑bedroom place for US $300,000 US. In many of the developments, the starting price for a one‑bedroom apartment is around $600,000‑700,000. There are also many villas for sale for over $6 million and more.

Risk of over-development.One of the things that I felt and concerned me is that the scale of development of building holiday homes and developments, matched by the increasing tourism will eventually turn the island into an over‑developed island and it will lose some of it's charm.
The roads in Barbados are not particularly good in general. There is one major highway, which runs from the airport and runs right the way up to the St. Peter area, which is where the Sugar Cane Club is at the top of the island. It is really more of a dual carriageway, with many traffic roundabouts along the way. Mostly there are just regular 2 lane tar roads, and then secondary roads on the map which are often dirt roads.

There seems to be a good bus service. There are two types of buses: one owned by the state and one which is private, which are very inexpensive. There's no train system, so people are pretty reliant on cars and busses. So traffic in Barbados can be pretty bad.
It feels like the roads don't really have many signs. Maybe that is because it's not a particularly big place, and so people just kind of know their way around! Although, we have hired cars when we have been there and found it pretty easy to find your way around, because, at the end of the day, you can't get that lost!

Despite the glitzy resorts and monied visitors, as you drive through Barbados, it feels relatively poor, but not as poor as other places I've been to, like Mauritius. You do feel that the growth of tourism is not really filtering through to the population as much as it should. But the island does have flair and has a very distinctive architecture, like wooden houses which are built up on concrete blocks and are generally are painted bright, vibrant, exciting colours.
Golf! The other thing Barbados is known for is golf. There seems to be very many golf courses in Barbados. Sandy Lane itself has two new ones and one of its original ones. There are golf courses galore.

Beach on Barbados West Coast: Fairmont Royal Pavillion

In addition to being an amazing holiday destination, what else is Barbados famous for?

Rum and Rum Shops. Probably one of the most important things that they are famous for is rum shops. There are about 1,000 rum shops on Barbados! Barbadans will gather there to have a rum drink, play dominoes, discuss the issues of the day, so it's kind of like the equivalent of Starbucks, if you like. I was not a big rum fan, but I really enjoyed the rum in Barbados, and the rum punch, which is a very popular cocktail and was really great.
Tuk Band. Tuk bands are composed of a trio of musicians. There's a tin flute, a snare drum, and a bass drum. It's kind of a mixture of British military music with African rhythms. It's part a Creole sound and part dancing music. You can't march to it, although it's got very clear military origins in there. But, even classical music and hymns are now played in tuk style.
Flying Fish. We actually saw a couple of these, and really quite close in to the beach. Barbados is known as "The Land of the Flying Fish." The national dish is actually "Flying Fish and Cou‑cou." The fish do fly, it's amazing! They can fly out of the water for up to 13 seconds at a time. It's a very tasty fish, and it's eaten steamed or fried. Pretty much every restaurant you go to has Flying Fish.
Rihanna. The singer comes from Barbados.
Living long. It is a very good place to be born in if you want to live to over 100 years. They claim about 20 people per year become over 100, which is not bad when you consider you only got a population of 270,000. This is likely because they live a very active lifestyle, and very healthy lifestyle.

What are my tips for travellers visiting Barbados to get the most out of a visit here?

#1: Best way of getting there?

The most common way to get there is flying. It takes about 8 1/2 hours to fly out of the UK and about 4 1/2 hours out of New York.

The airport itself is to the south of the island. The Grantley Adams International Airport is pretty big, busy and modern. But with the growing popularity of the island it is already too small.
For despite the long runway and terminal buildings, the volume of traffic, particularly at the peak seasons in the run‑up to Christmas through to Easter time is large. And so, what some of the airlines do, like Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, is that you can check in away from the actual airport. So Virgin, for example, checks in as many of their passengers as possible at the hotels and take away their luggage. So when people arrive at the airport, they can just basically go through to a holding pen, if you'd like, to get onto the airport.

Another growing way, is to get there on a cruise.

Many cruises, particularly by UK based or European based cruise lines, start their Caribbean cruises out of Barbados, using charter flights to get passengers in and out of Barbados.
One good way is to travel on ships doing their relocation or repositioning cruises. You can get the ship from Southampton in the UK take a week to get there, stay a while and then fly back. Repositioning cruises are generally cheaper than normal cruises.
The island does seem to be targeting Americans more and more. And many US visitors to Barbados tend to come in for the day on the cruise ships, because Barbados is a very popular stopping point for cruise ships, and there's a developed deep harbor, which actually can take ships even as large as the huge Cunard Queen Mary 2.

#2: Best time to visit?

The most popular time to visit Barbados is in the run up to Christmas through to Easter time. Which theoretically is the winter, but it's pretty warm all the year round. It's between about 24 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees all year round, the only difference is how much rain you get. We have been in both and both were great.

It's much cheaper to visit in their summer (may to July time), because people get scared away by the thought of rain. Prices can be half the price of the December/ January period.

Cherry Tree Hill Barbados

#3:Where to stay?

Chose very carefully where you stay, but stay on the coast as Barbados is really about the beaches and the sea.

The West Coast of the island is called the Platinum Coast, and I think this is really the best for swimming. It's where you have the nicest beaches and the most up‑market hotels, including probably the most famous, which is the Sandy Lane Hotel. This part of the island is where the up‑market tourism is.

The west coast has the best hotels, it's the most expensive. It's where most of the nice restaurants are. There's not many all‑inclusive places on the west coast but there are a couple, like the Almond Club & Spa.

On the south coast, which is around St. Lawrence Gap, and actually where Bridgetown is and down through St. Lawrence Gap, through to an area called Oistins is the more popular, more medium to lower priced resorts.

The south coast it tends to be much younger. It's where St. Lawrence Gap is, and so there's much more night life. There's also much more family stuff, including things like KFCs, and Chefette which is their own local equivalent to McDonald's. So if you've got families or you're much younger, and you want more of a nightlife, that's the place to go.

On the southeast coast, it is more open although there is the well known Crane Hotel and the Crane Beach. This is a great beach. It has more waves than the west coast does as on the west coast you have the clamer Caribbean Sea, and on the East coast you have the Atlantic.

On the east coast, it's very quiet. So if you like lots of quiet, it is worth perhaps considering sort of hiring a villa or somewhere along this stretch.

Once you get past the southeast, and up on to the East coast, while it is very beautiful, you can't swim there as the sea has very strong currents and is much less geared for tourists as a result. So, although a lot of people like to go and visit it and walk, you cannot swim there.

If you are worried about the budget, I would strongly encourage you to go all‑inclusive. There's a lot of all‑inclusive places which tend to be more on the south coast. Eating out is pretty expensive. My partner's father and partner stayed in an all‑inclusive up on the west coast, and it was great quality.

The other thing to consider, particularly if you're there with a family, is Villa hire. There's lots and lots of property available around the island. Many of the airlines in their holiday brochures now include Villa hire options

Crane Hotel and Beach

#4: Where should you eat?

If you're not all‑inclusive, really try and go and experience the restaurants beyond the hotel options. There are many amazing restaurants, and I'm just going to mention a couple, although as I mentioned earlier I have a posting about the best places to eat in Barbados.

"The Cliff," which is probably "THE" restaurant in Barbados, is literally on the side of a cliff. It is very special, very popular, with incredibly good food. It is also expensive.
"The Mews in Holetown on "2nd Street," where there are a bunch of restaurants and bars. Their sister restaurant "La Mer, " is at Port St. Charles is also very good. It is based in a complexwith a lagoon, and where lots of wealthy people own property, because they can sail their yachts and boats up to their properties. Both have great food, and are a bit cheaper than The Cliff, but very nice.
The "Sandy Lane Hotel" is probably the most famous of all the hotels, and the most expensive. It's really worth going to visit. You need to dress smart, avoiding jeans. Try the L'acajou, restaurant which was stunning. It is worth just visiting Sandy Lane, and if you're lucky you'll see celebrities.
Tides is another place that is very popular, and is near Holetown, which is incredibly popular, more focused on sea foody.
Daphne's, which is the sister restaurant to Daphne's in London, which is a very famous restaurant

#5: Should I stay in my resort area, or hire a car and explore?

I would really encourage you to hire a car and explore beyond just the area your hotel or resort is in - as the island although small is very different based on the coast as I mentioned above.

Hiring a car is incredibly cheap they don't seem to have only the international car hire companies there. There are more local companies offering very reasonably priced options.
Taxis are relatively expensive and so we actually found that hiring a car was almost as cost efficient as we were going out most nights. Taxis have a minimum charge is about twelve local so about $6 US. So you're going to spend quite a bit money on taxis, but if you hire a car it's a really good idea. Even if you are there on a cruise for the day consider it, because the island is small.

Bridgetown Barbados

#6: What must I make sure that I see and do?

There is not massive amounts of typical attractions to see, and it is mostly about exploring and seeing what the island has to offer. These are the areas and places you should try and ensure you visit:

Towns and Destinations:

Bridgetown is the capital. From a tourist perspective it has geared itself toward the cruise industry. It's packed full of duty‑free jewelry shops, duty‑free alcohol and perfume shops, and that kind of thing. Bridgetown is at best an ok place to visit. It's not particularly exciting, although around the harbor area, it has been renovated and looks very pleasant. I was a little bit disappointed, to be honest, with Bridgetown. I expected to see it a little bit richer in culture.
Holetown, which is up on the west coast, is very tiny, and Speightstown, which is a bit further up on the west coast are the main towns. But still small, but have more charm.
Explore Saint Lawrence Gap in the South. You should have a wander around there. Lots of energy and people out and about both daytime and at night.
Also go out up to the west coast and past Sandy Lane and up to Port Saint Charles, which is really just worth visiting as they have created this as a second port. There used to only be two ports of entry into Barbados, which was obviously the airport and the main Bridgetown Harbor. Now Port Saint Charles has created a third entry place, and has immigration and customs capabilities. It is a beautiful place with apartments and yachts.
On the East of the island, visit the Crane Beach (which has a huge long beach and great waves) and further up visit the fishing village of Bathsheba which has stunning views and various stalls selling crafts.

Water Sports and days out

Most of the places you stay, if you stay in a hotel, will have all‑inclusive water sports. Go out on a kayaks. Barbados is great for kayaking, because there's beautiful reefs and stuff so you can kayak. Snorkeling.
Swimming with the turtles is a very popular thing to do so sometimes depending on where you stay you can just sort of snorkel out to them, or hotel will take you along in a boat to where the turtles are. The turtles are huge and have been swimming with tourists for a long time. Conservationists are trying to clamp down on it because the turtles are being attracted there everyday by the tourists and they are getting a little bit lazy and little bit fat. And becoming more and more susceptible as they go on their migration to being attacked by turtle predators.
Glass‑bottom boats are very popular because of all these reefs and things, as are Catamaran sailings. There are many catamarans taking people out for the day, offering. You have punch and food as they take you around parts of the island. This is very popular.
Party Boat. If you're young and like drinking a lot and partying, there's the party boat which leaves from Bridgetown and there's a couple of stories high and makes a hell of a lot of noise, music‑wise. You see that chugging up the west coast up to around about Port Saint Charles and coming back during the day and doing the same thing at night. So if you're a party animal that's the thing to do.

Polo Match. The other thing I would encourage you to do is to go to a polo match. We were actually invited very kindly by the hotel to go to a match they were sponsoring. I've never been to polo and it really was an amazing thing to go and do. Barbados, has four polo grounds and the one we went to was called Lion Gate, which is on top of the hill. Probably the one with the most spectacular views and that's really worth going to. Unfortunately they're going to be building a lot of houses and stuff around it as developments. So that might block the view but really go to a polo match. Particularly if you go in the season, as it were, all the polo teams seem to be full of "Sir, this" and "Sir, that." "Lady, this."
Animal Flower cave. This amazing cave is right up at the most northerly point of the island. The name comes from the sea anemones in the pools. Some of the pools you can swim in. You climb into the caves and there are openings where you get great views of the sea. The caves are really worth a trip, and are interesting colours from oxidation of iron and copper deposits.

Animal Flower Caves Barbados

More from TipsForTravellers.com about Barbados and The Caribbean:

Barbados: how to make the most of your time here
Photo Video montage of Barbados on YouTube
The best Restaurants to eat in Barbados
Video of beach at Fairmont Royal Pavillion Hotel and Room Video
All my photos of Barbados on Flickr Gallery 1 and Flickr Gallery 2
Cruising in the Caribbean

Travel Tips
Bridgetown

Have you been to Barbados? What advice and tips do you have? Please leave a comment, and share this posting using the sharing buttons below:

Thanet in Kent (Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate) revival - time for leisurely exploration?

2012-05-11T15:09:00.000Z

I wrote a posting a few months back entitled: Kent Seaside towns: Margate, Ramsgate & Broadstairs. Potential still to come?. It was based on observations I had during a visit during winter. It created some reaction and feedback from passionate residents and lovers of the area, which is collectively known as Thanet, on Twitter. Two of which, called Paul Nichols (from Broadstairs) and Dom Bridges (from Margate), have written and provided a review and thoughts on the area for the blog that they entitled:

Brave Thanet’s nascent revival – time for a leisurely expedition

Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs, three towns often like siblings, each one vying to mark their identity distinct from the other two. The reality is they are quite interdependent whilst at the same time offer visitors to Thanet differing experiences. Isle of Thanet is where the ancients came to bury the dead whilst last century the Thanet seaside towns were famed as highly popular summer resorts pre-foreign package holidays. Sadly, over the last 30 or so years tawdry reputations have somewhat stuck with the general decline and lack of inventive civic forward planning.

Still what falls can with enough willpower rise and community led regeneration have been prevailing buzz words in more recent times. Riding on the high hopes for the Turner Contemporary and rock-bottom property prices a consistent trickling influx of newcomers, mostly ex-Londoners – affectionately referred to as DFLs – are giving the Thanet towns booster shots; injecting a creative and enterprising spirit fuelled with passion for realising the potential.

There’s much natural beauty to discover with miles upon miles of wide sandy shorelines with exposed white chalk cliffs. Between the towns lies stunning, award winning, secluded bays whilst the town centre beaches swell with ever increasing day trippers for as many months as possible. Out of season it’s like it’s all yours, making for a perfect get-away without custom hold-ups or long distant travel. The high-speed train from London is set to reduce the journey to just short of one hour.

As Margate’s Turner Contemporary is well publicised, even featured in International airlines’ in-flight magazines, we’d like to briefly draw your attention to other merits in each of the historic Thanet towns that could make a visit more insightful and venturesome.

Margate
The one time pioneer of British holiday hedonism, has sadly through recent economic downturns weathered very tough times indeed. However like a Phoenix rising from the flames, not in a dissimilar fashion to its’ American cousin, Coney Island, Margate has a genuine new buzz about it.

Every other day a new independent shop seems to be opening in the Old Town that’s tucked behind the water front, from high-end vintage clothes stores to cutting edge tattoo parlours. This surge of regeneration is now spreading up to Cliftonville, undeniably one of the most deprived parts of Margate. At the vanguard, a new style café, reborn from a dilapidated 60’s Italian Ice Cream parlour, Forts, providing all manner of entertainment from book clubs to vintage vinyl evenings (not to mention locally sourced tip top food!).

Margate is a town coming alive again with change and fresh new ideas. Listen carefully and you can hear people discussing their business ideas openly on the streets. A buzz connected to the arrival of the hard working TURNER Contemporary but also from the newbies to the town. In essence it is creativity itself that is filling Margate's lungs with fresh air.

This is an exciting time to witness a British seaside town going through such a revival and to feel the euphoria of its local community, one that wants you to stay and welcomes your creative input and ideas, to get involved. Or if you prefer you could simply wander along the epic Margate sands and follow the coast line along to Botany Bay, perhaps stay at the luxurious Reading Rooms that carries the exclusive Mr and Mrs Smith seal of approval. Or explore the strange enigma of the Shell Grotto or lose yourself in RG Scott’s labyrinth of an antique emporium. Margate has hidden gems however not every visitor will take the time or have the curiosity to uncover them. For example, how many would know that beneath the Snooker Club on North down Road lies a perfectly intact café laid out like the Lord of the Rings with a functioning waterfall running through it?

Broadstairs
Possibly the quietest of the 3 and undeniably the quaintest Broadstairs is beginning to shake off its out-dated legacy as a stuffy retirement destination.

Key spot-on stylish guesthouses, like Belvidere Place and Salon Bohemia, have promoted this small town for a discerning luxury weekend for hard-pressed city dwellers.

As well as original 1960’s Italian ice-cream parlours, new nostalgia themed cafes like Oscars Festival Cafe have popped up providing an invaluable social space for the local bohemians and visiting artists and writers. The main draw of Broadstairs are its’ 3 fine beaches, one of which Viking Bay, shaped out of our collective imagination of a crescent shaped smugglers bay, as indeed it was. The town also puts on an autumn food festival showcasing the best of local Kentish produce which each year is drawing large numbers of foodies.

Ramsgate
A much larger town and port is more urban with spreading suburbs. The main draw here is the harbour, royal no less, with its encompassing ring of cafe and restaurants. Less known are the long sandy beaches either side that offer enough wide-open space to lose yourself whist admiring the wind-surfers. For those who appreciate historic buildings, there are old quarters, which centre around Addington Street and The Vale, both areas colonised by artists and musicians. The Queen Charlotte, a pub, art gallery and occasional pop-up restaurant, which opens only weekend evenings, could be your portal into the local creative community. If you’re after some fresh fish then head directly for Eddie Gilberts.

Words of caution, if you’re not an enthusiast for homogenous out-of-town shopping complexes, then steer away from the Westwood Cross. Positioned smack in the middle area that lies between the 3 towns, it is frequently congested by incoming traffic and can mistakenly give a visit to Thanet a poor first impression. Never mind it is probably the culprit that drained much of the lifeblood from each of the towns’ high streets. Approach Thanet by the main roads into either Margate or Ramsgate and save yourself unnecessary stress, lost time and sore eyes.

If this brief summary has maybe whet an appetite to explore or know more of what lies in Thanet beyond the easily seen and popular misconceptions, you’d be well positioned to pocket the neat insider’s guide published last year, Discover Thanet, which I hear is set to be updated as new ventures continue to pop up. To have a finger on the locality’s pulse, Twitter has proved a conduit for the towns’ movers, shakers and followers, sharing vital information and their pride in these tide-changing times for contemporary Thanet.

Paul and Dom recommend that you visit www.discoverthanet.co.uk, which sells a guide to the area which promises:

"Discover Thanet is a beautifully designed, independently published guide to Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate. Written by discerning insiders and packed with hidden gems, handy itineraries and inspiring ideas, Discover Thanet is the essential guide to this unsung corner of the Kent coast. Contributors include Metro and Olive restaurant critic Marina O'Loughlin, journalist Iain Aitch, and internationally acclaimed artist Ann Carrington"

Thanks agin to Paul Nichols (resident of Broadstairs) and Dom Bridges (resident of Margate) for this article.

Photo Credits: All photos taken by myself except Margate Seafront at top of blog and the Margate Turner Contemporary which are by http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman

Le Meridien San Francisco Review

2012-05-10T10:54:00.000Z

Le Meridien San Francisco Room 1112 (1), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

I really liked this hotel. It was perfect for a business stay. Though I am not sure I would have felt quite the same if I had been on a pleasure trip, as this hotel is in the financial district and so at night and weekends the area is deserted with limited bars and restaurants.

In some ways, the relative blandness, predictability and efficiency of staying here makes it perfect for a business stay. For although it does not have a lot of soul and character, it does have friendly staff, good rooms laid out ideally to sleep and work, a 24 hour well equipped fitness centre and efficient but predictable bar and restaurant with good breakfasts and a limited choice on food otherwise.

I had a really great room. I think I was upgraded to a Junior Suite, as it was very large and split into 2 areas by a large divider. There was a massive flat screen TV, big comfortable bed, good sized desk and small seating area.

There is not much of a view, as you look into office though from one angle you could see water through sets of buildings.

It is not a long walk down to Market, the shops and Chinatown. But still not ideal if in town on a pleasure break as not in the heart of things.

Le Meridien San Francisco Room 1112 (5), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Le Meridien San Francisco Room 1112 (4), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Watch a video of Room 1112 on YouTube or the blog posting

Read more about San Francisco on Tips for Travellers:

Hotels I stayed in San Francisco and surrounds:

Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco
Cavallo Point Hotel (across the bay)

Hotel Review
San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO CAVALLO POINT HOTEL: well meaning but lacks attention to detail..

2012-05-10T10:52:00.000Z

There is one main issue with Cavallo Point Hotel at Sausilito San Francisco, and that is the lack of attention to detail and the enthusiastic but not very slick service across all aspects of the hotel.

Overall the hotel ends up providing a stay that is "fine" but not special. This is such a pity as the location is special and historic (an old army base at the base of the Golden gate bridge in a national park) and has stunning views of both the bridge and across the bay to the city of San Francisco.

The place is slightly surreal and odd, as it is a concerted army base and the old buildings and barracks have been converted into rooms. They are set in a large horseshoe shape around some open ground, with newer (what they call contemporary) buildings built up on the hill. The new buildings look nothing like the old and do not follow the same colours and so looks like a hotel in 2 parts.

The bar (Farleys) and the michelin star restaurant are attractive and busy. The food is good. And this seems to be the most successful part of the venture.

There is a good spa, but very expensive and so most people seemed to use it to hang out and use the small heated pool. There is a few buildings down a good sized fitness room with good range of cardio equipment and small weights section.

Our room (we had a king) in the contemporary buildings with good view of the bridge. The decor was quite Swedish like and fine, but not spectacular. It was large though and the bed was comfortable. There was a huge flat screen TV with good range of channels. The bathroom was large.

But overall service was mixed and for example:

although the hotel was very empty we were put in a room (knowing we had travelled from london) that was next to a suite lounge where a party was booked.
there were 5 empty beer bottles on our veranda that never were cleaned away, and a dead bird after the 1st day that also did not get cleaned
no service at all one day
our key had only been programmed for part of our stay
they would bring all courses ordered at once And so on.

So just lack of detail. People were entusiatic and nice, but not so efficient.

I would not recommend this place to friends, as although nice to be just outside the city and quick to get in, it was not special enough for the money.

To see my photos: click here

Read more about San Francisco on Tips for Travellers:

Hotels I stayed in San Francisco and surrounds:

Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco
Cavallo Point Hotel (across the bay)

Hotel Review
San Francisco

Sausalito San Francisco: a stunning alternative to staying in the city

2012-05-09T13:11:00.000Z

Sausalito San Francisco (5), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Having been to San Francisco a few times in the last few years, and again just 5 months ago, for work I was concerned that coming here for holiday would end up feeling like another work trip. So decided to stay at Sausalito, which is just the other side of the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge.

I am very pleased we did, as not only are the views spectacular but Sausalito is a small and buzzy town with great places to eat and diverse galleries and art shops.

Getting there
Sausalito is across the bay from the city and looks back across the stretch of water, across the famous Alcatraz prison island to the city. It is a stunning view, especially in the morning when the fog clings to the bridge and over the city.

It is very easy to get to by ferry from either Fisherman Wharf or Ferry Station. It is a popular commuter ferry as Sausalito is a beautiful alternative to living in the city. The ferry in the daytime, especially in summer, is full of tourists with bikes as the bike hire shops encourage you to cycle over the bridge, free wheel down into the town and get the ferry back.
The ferry to and from San Francisco to Sausalito leaves from the Ferry Building. This is worth a visit even if you don't go on the ferry.A very beautiful and imposing building that has been restored and is full of interesting and varied shop stalls. They mostly sell food and range from cheese shops, bread shops through to ice cream and coffee shops. The ferry building is buzzing and vibrant.You can get to and from the ferry building around town on the very old Muni cable cars. These are from the 1940s and restored. They are rattling and creaking but fun, frequent and popular. They cost $2 a ride.
There is also a bus service, that takes about 40 minutes to the very centre of the city.
Then of course you can drive over the bridge. There is no toll heading out of the city, but a $6 one per car heading in.

Where to stay
While there are a number of hotels in Sausalito in the town near the water, we are staying literally at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge itself. The hotel is called Cavallo Point and used to be an army base with a long history. The hotel has not been open that long. A fuller review of the hotel will follow in another posting.

The hotels in town look great and are close to the marina and all the shops.

The Town
There is a long main road that is full of coffee shops, restaurants, tourist souvenir shops and then art galleries. There are also some quirky sea related shops selling model ships and the like.

The marina has many small sailing boats and then the odd large "wow" yachts costing huge wads of cash. Houses and apartments cling all the way up the steel hill behind the main street with twisting roads. The houses are pretty and varied giving the place a sense of style.
Overall the town has a slightly hippy feel but with a monied and sophisticated spin - if that makes sense.
There is a feeling of restfulness and is a great alternative to staying in the city as it has charm and is easy to relax. And it is really easy and fast into the city.

Things to do

Eat. Stroll. Relax. Look at the view!
You could also go out sailing or skiing on the bay.
And cycling is popular. Though you need strong legs with all the hills.

See all my photos of Sausalito, Ferry Building & Golden Gate Bridge: click here

Sausalito San Francisco (6), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Read more about San Francisco on Tips for Travellers:

Hotels I stayed in San Francisco and surrounds:

Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco
Cavallo Point Hotel (across the bay)

Sausalito San Francisco (3), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Things To Do
Sausalito

Castro Street San Francisco: observations based on a recent visit. It feels more vibrant than ever..

2012-05-08T19:16:00.000Z

castro street san francisco (1), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Castro. This is the gay centre of San Francisco, and possibly was the gay centre for the world before the AIDs epidemic and the embracing of wider gay rights across the world.

San Francisco was one of the early places to be open to gay rights and people being more openly gay. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to public office, and although his time in office was short as he was assassinated, his impact was huge. Still today his name and image is used on the Castro.

Over the years that I have visited Castro Street, I have had very different views. For a time it felt like a depressing time warp where you felt a bit like the gay community was slightly stuck in a ghetto with all shops and services for the gay community, when life had moved on and the community was more integrated and part of everyday life.

Other times, like on the visit today, helped by the bright sunshine, the what felt like brightened up more sophisticated shops and restaurants and summer atmosphere in the streets, it felt like a relaxed and vibrant centre with a confident feel.

It does, however, feel like a cast back. The age of people feels older and more of a generation of gay men and women who grew up in the 70s and 80s when they needed support and community to feel they fitted in. I think younger men and women have less need these days. I may be wrong but the Castro feels like it serves a need but without reinventing for a younger generation may slowly fade away.

I hope not as it has energy and buzz today. It has a more upbeat, positive and vibrant feel about it than I have felt before.

Though still not for everyone. I am not sure I would feel comfortable taking my mum for a stroll when some shops are advertising a new porn film with naked chap and the title 24 cocks in 24 hours.

Read more about San Francisco on Tips for Travellers:

Hotels I stayed in San Francisco and surrounds:

Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco
Cavallo Point Hotel (across the bay)

Things To Do
San Francisco

San Francisco: Ferry Building versus Pier 39. There is only one winner!

2012-05-07T08:04:00.000Z

One of the more famous Tourist destinations in San Francisco is Pier 39. It is well known and listed in many guides. It is also a total nightmare, and makes the South Street Seaport in New York seem positively up-market and glamorous. It is a real attraction to avoid.

Luckily just down the road is something that is worth visiting and offers a more honest and real reflection of what San Francisco is. And that is the Ferry Building.

Pier 39 is just awful. It is a tacky, over-priced and appalling tourist trap. It has terrible shops, terrible food and overall is just nasty.

While down a few piers is the stunningly beautiful and very chic Ferry Building.

The ferry to and from San Francisco to Sausalito leaves from the Ferry Building. This is worth a visit even if you don't go on the ferry.A very beautiful and imposing building that has been restored and is full of interesting and varied shop stalls. They mostly sell food and range from cheese shops, bread shops through to ice cream and coffee shops. The ferry building is buzzing and vibrant.You can get to and from the ferry building around town on the very old Muni cable cars. These are from the 1940s and restored. They are rattling and creaking but fun, frequent and popular. They cost $2 a ride.

Instead of repeating how bad Pier 39 is, I below cover what other blogs and sites say about the place:

Pier 39 sucks site/posting: http://www.sftravel.com/fish.html

The 5 reasons Pier 39 sucks:

5) Crowds, crowds, crowds. Pushy, rude tourists overflow the wharf streets. If you want an intimate or unique experience -- this is not the place to go.

4.) Parking: The Fisherman's Wharf parking charges $7 per hour up to a maximum of $35. There are few or no discount places for parking and street parking is a joke.

3.) Activities: The basic Wharf scam is that people come for the boat tours, and end up with huge waits (up to all day) - and get stuck shopping and "dining". Here's our best tip - you want the boat ride - the shopping is a waste of time and the restaurants...........(see below!)

2.) Awful Food: If I wanted to set up a restaurant to charge the highest prices -- for the worst food -- with a captive audience -- Fisherman's Wharf would be at the top of my list. If you think you are dealing with a family fisherman's restaurant taking fish out of the Bay and onto your plate -- you're in for a rude -- and expensive awakening.

1.) Scams: From street "performers" who are just a hair from homeless panhandlers to a variety of questionable charitable organizations; timeshare marketers; etc.; etc. -- this is the place to get talked out of your money. Be wary at the Wharf and hold onto your wallet.

What do you think?

Read more about San Francisco on Tips for Travellers:

Hotels I stayed in San Francisco and surrounds:

Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco
Cavallo Point Hotel (across the bay)

Things To Do
San Francisco

Alcatraz Prison Island San Francisco: worth escaping TO if you get the chance to

2012-05-06T12:11:00.000Z

Alcatraz Prison San Francisco (8), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

I had been to San Francisco a few times and never got organised to go to the famous Alcatraz island in the bay, home of the infamous high security jail and the subject of films and books.

Finally, I got there. It was a fascinating and incredibly well organised and thought provoking experience. It is hugely popular and you need to plan a trip in advance, especially if you are only in the city for a short while.

But definitely worth planning to go.

Alcatrtaz celebrated its 75th Anniversary of becoming a civil prison in August 2009. It dates back before that when used as a military prison. The facility closed as an operating prison in 1963 as it became too costly to maintain as the buildings were dated and lacked modern plumbing and the like.

The prison was renowned for being a harsh and tough place, and although after visiting it and seeing the tiny cells and gloominess of the place, some of the image was driven by the fact that almost no visitors were allowed to the island to see prisoners and if they were they peered through tiny windows of thick glass.
Alcatraz is also famous for the stories of some of its inmates, like the famous gangster Al Capone ( who was actually sent to the island on a prison train from miles away that was then put on a barge and sailed to the island!) and the dangerous criminal known as "bird man of Alcatraz" (although in reality his studies of and keeping of birds was at his previous prison).
The prison is also infamous for the stories of escapes/ escape attempts. Only 3 people escaped from the prison and have never been found, though it is expected they drowned. They had over time burrowed into a service passage behind each of their cells and managed to make plaster fake heads complete with hair to fool the guards into thinking they were sleeping. There was also a vicious battle where guards were shot and one killed after being locked in a cell. That attempt led to a 2 day battle where marines were called in and the leader shot and later 2 others sentenced to death.
After the prison closed in 1963 it lay empty and crumbling, it was occupied by Native American tribes on and off as protests, the longest lasting 19 months. Then it became a national park and open to tourists.

Getting there
There is one main way to get to the island, and this is through the Alcatraz Cruises company that runs a ferry around every 30 minutes from Pier 33.

It is almost essential to book in advance, easiest to do online, and it is often sold out in advance. The site is alcatrazcruises.com
They offer some tours but the most popular is to get the ferry, and look around by yourself.
On docking after a short 15 minute or so ride the around 1.5 miles there, you are given a short briefing reminding you that this is a National Park run by the Federal Government and so those laws apply. Then it is up to you.
It is a lot of walking and up a very steep hill, the equivalent of 13 stories, so you need to be prepared. There is a limited golf cart pulled passenger transport for disabled/ limited mobility people. But it is very limited availability.

What to see
There are leaflets for a donation of just $1 that explains the layout of the island.There are 3 main things to see:

An audio visual presentation about the history of the island
Stroll around the island. Most of it is open.
Audio tour (which is free) around the main cell block. This is excellent and narrated by former guards, prisoners and some people who lived as children of guards on the island. This tour is fascinating and walks you around the cell blocks, dining room, library, old guard rooms and some of the outside. It tells of the routine, how isolation areas worked, dining room, escape attempts and so on. It is quite chilling looking at the 3 high stories of cells and imaging hundreds of men locked in these tiny cells, some 24 hours a day.

It is a very grim and at the same time imposing place. I wish I had gone there sooner.

See all the photos of the ferry to the island and of the prison: click here

Alcatraz Prison San Francisco (36), originally uploaded by garybembridge.
Alcatraz Prison San Francisco (32), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Alcatraz Prison San Francisco (28), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Alcatraz Prison San Francisco (21), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Alcatraz Prison San Francisco (dock area), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Read more about San Francisco on Tips for Travellers:

Hotels I stayed in San Francisco and surrounds:

Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco
Cavallo Point Hotel (across the bay)

Alcatraz Prison San Francisco (d block: isolation), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Things To Do
San Francisco

San Francisco California. Why is this city so loved by so many?

2012-05-05T17:39:00.000Z

It had been a lot of years, about 7, since I had last been in San Francisco. And other than a week or so holiday here about 10 years ago, all previous trips had been "in and out" work trips. Then in the space of 5 months came here twice, once for work and once for holiday.

I have a number of observations of this very popular and traditionally quirky city, famous for its liberalism and home of hippies on the 1960s and the gay community through the 1970s and 1980s.

(1) The relative quietness
My previous trips were during the internet boom days. The city now seems much more quiet and less vibrant than I remember it. Even considering there were supposed to be 19000 delegates in town for the conference, the streets, bars and restaurants seemed easy to get into and less throbbing.
I guess the whole silicon valley turn down has made a huge impact.
You did see closing down sales and empty shops but not on a massive scale. The most noticeable was the huge Virgin Megastore closing down.

(2) Hobos and homeless
I do recall this image from before, but there seems to be a lot of hobo and homeless people on the streets in the centre. Not that you feel threatened or scared, but you see a lot of them all over. More so than I feel you see elsewhere. Is this a heritage of San Francisco's hippy days and Mecca to attract bohemians and the such?

(3) Coffee Shops
I don' t know what the stats show, and it may have been a function of being in the financial district and centre, but I don't think I have ever seen so many coffee shops ever.

There are not only Starbucks after Starbucks it feels like every time you turn round, but also other chains like Peets and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, some of which I think come from the city originally.

(4) Not American
Maybe it is because most of my trips to the USA are to the East Coast (New York/ New Jersey), but it always strikes me that San Francisco is American but does not feel as American. This is party the architecture and style of the city, but probably the more laid back and less frantic approach

(5) Weather and micro system
San Francisco is its own city. With an almost bizarre weather system that bears little to what is going on even 10 minutes drive down the motorway.

The bay sucks in fog that in summer often completely obscures the Golden Gate Bridge and can hang about for days. It is always cooler on the city than nearby. Even crossing the bridge into Sausalito will see temperatures move upwards.

This strange weather and the fog is something locals talk about all the time. They also talk a lot about moving to warmer place.

(6) People
Maybe it is a California thing, or maybe a hangover from the hippy heritage and glory days, but people from San Francisco really do seem to be "of a type"! They are chatty, effusive and enthusiastic - but overall service and detail seems lacking. They seem to confuse friendliness with service!

(7) Beautiful from other side
Most visits to San Francisco seem to entail staying and being in the city and the most people venture to is perhaps walking across the long Golden Gate Bridge to the viewing area. Some may venture to Napa. But staying or visiting Sausalito on the other side of the bridge is a must. You get stunning views across the bay to the city, great views of the Golden gate - and also a quirky laid back town. It is really easy to go on the ferry for example. I have a whole posting on Sausalito: click here

(8) Things to do:
- visit Alcatraz
- cycle or walk over the Golden Gate Bridge. Best to cycle as then can free wheel down into Sausalito
- get the ferry to or from Sausalito and explore the shops at the ferry building
- visit the huge and impressive Golden Gate park with Japanese Gardens
- go to the Castro
- get a tram
- do an open air bus tour

Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco

Read more about San Francisco on Tips for Travellers:

Hotels I stayed in San Francisco and surrounds:

Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco
Cavallo Point Hotel (across the bay)

Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Things To Do
San Francisco

Seoul Korea: Ultimate guide for time pressed travellers visiting this huge city

2012-04-29T17:43:00.000Z

Does Seoul have much soul?

Overall I found Seoul reminded me a great deal of Taipei in Taiwan. Not necessarily from a look perspective, but the overall feeling and attitude that I picked up. I wondered if it has anything to do with the many parallels in the on-going tensions and uncertainty they both face everyday due to their traumatic histories with China.

History and proximity to North Korea effect...

I had not realised that Seoul is not that far, about 30 miles, from the demilitarized zone border with North Korea. Since the terrible war that took place back in the 1950s there has been, and continue to have, a tense and fraught existence with the North.

The North Koreans are viewed with great unease. Every male in South Korea undergoes some form of National Service, and even to this day my colleagues in Seoul told me that if North Korean Air Force takes off then so do the South Korean planes.
In Seoul they have air raid attack drills, as due to the proximity to the border it can be minutes rather than hours from the time fighter planes take off in the North to arriving in Seoul. I even learnt that on top of the fairly ordinary, but tall, building the company I was working for at the time offices had air defense guns on the roof.
So although I am not sure how threatened people really feel everyday, there is this underlying sense of threat that must affect the overall nature of Seoul.

It is not an especially attractive city, but neither is it unattractive.
Seoul only became the capital of South Korea in 1948, and was developed in the 1960s and beyond after damage through the Korean War. The 1970s does not seem to have left a very exciting legacy no matter what country of the world one looks at!

Some of the books I read before going seemed to claim it had one of the highest proportions of skyscrapers in Asia but if it does they seem well hidden! It is though a very densely populated city, and ranks up there with the Tokyo and such cities. There are a lot of people packed into the city and surroundings. It is surrounded by hills that may have made the intensity even greater as there are natural boundaries to its city sprawl

A very large city, with the advantages and disadvantages that brings.
There are over 10 million people living in Seoul, which is about 25% of the total population of South Korea. The Greater Seoul area though has a staggering 23 million people, making it the 2nd most populated metropolis after Tokyo.

Although there are a lot of people, and it is supposed to be one of the most densely populated cities in the world, it did not feel quite as crowded and frantic as other big Asian (or for that matter any crowded city) and although traffic can be bad it seems there is very good public transport systems that keeps things running smoothly.
However, despite reported attempts to improve air quality, the city is very smoggy. I was staying up on one of the hills at the Grand Hyatt overlooking the city and Hangang River that splits the city, but you could never see right across the city due to smog. Though the air did not seem that smoggy as you walked around the city.

Seoul is not on the "tourist circuit" as much as other major Asian cities.
Seoul is not as cosmopolitan a city, like Hong Kong or Singapore, and the vast majority of the residents are Korean with small Chinese and Japanese communities. As a result, it did not feel to be a very diverse city considering its size of population, which I felt is probably due to the history and sense of constant threat of turmoil with the North.

Also, Seoul is not really on the Asian Tourist Circuit and so it is not as geared towards tourists, unless you have real interest in the more recent history of Korea. The government is now trying to promote and develop more of a tourist trade launching and promoting websites like visitseoul.net.
However, there is not really the spread of sights and things to do that will capture tourists for that long. Colleagues who are not into history had built in a good few days before our meetings and found after less than a day even on an organized tour had seen what was on offer. Admittedly not in depth as they had not explored the museums and historic buildings just visited them.
For me, however, visiting the relatively recently opened Korean War Memorial and Museum was one of the most fascinating and impressive days I have spent. More about this later in the blog, but this is not only a beautiful memorial (set of memorials really) and museum with row upon row of planes, tanks, helicopters and displays.

#1: Best time to go
The tourist office for Seoul recommends autumn as the best time to visit. This is because the heavy rains during the summer months of July and August have passed. This how they describe the city: “Of Korea’s four seasons, the autumn is by far the most spectacular. It as if the entire country becomes a riot of color, from the high, cloudless deep blue skies to the mountains sides blazing in red and yellow. Even Seoul, re-energized as the brisk fall weather wakes the city out of its late-summer malaise, becomes a showcase of natural delight as its sidewalks and avenues turn golden yellow with the leaves of the ubiquitous gingko tree.”

In Summer Seoul can be very hot and very humid due to the rain, with the monsoon at this time. I was there in July and so I can confirm this! Although there is a lot happening around the riverbanks and so there can be a lot of buzz.
Saying this, no matter what time of the year you go, one tip is not to plan to stay here too long as there is not a lot of tourists to do!

#2: Getting there and around once there.
There is a major and very modern airport in the nearby town of Incheon (about an hour from central Seoul) that is the international airport. The Gimpo Airport nearer to town is now primarily a domestic terminal. Seoul seems well served by regional airliners like Singapore Air and the Japanese Airlines in particular, and Korea has Korean Air and Asiana Air based there.

There is a modern subway system that is very heavily used (about 8 million passengers a day) as well as buses. They all seem very efficient and well coordinated. There also seem to be loads of taxis everywhere you go, and taxis are fairly inexpensive and probably the best way to get around. Taxi drivers generally (as is true in most cities which are not very big tourists stops) did not speak English and so a good idea to get the hotel concierge to give you the name of where you want to go in Korean and your hotel as well.
The taxi drivers seem very good natured and helpful but struggled with me trying to explain Grand Hyatt Hotel but got me there with me directing sometimes.
One thing I will add is that I felt very safe in the city, and not sure if that was a function of the volume of people or the overall nature of the city and its people.
The city is divided into districts and I found, with the use of the map from the hotel, that it was fairly easy to find where to go. Partly as there is not a lot to see as a tourist and so the places are easy to locate!

#3: Korean War Memorial and Museum
As I mentioned earlier, the Korean War Museum the highlight of the trip. Not only because it is so well done and so extensive and informative, but also really helps you to understand the history and its impact on the people of Korea. There are really 3 elements to the memorial:

First, a massive set of sculptures with a set of huge spires representing North and South divide and the most amazing sculptures. Nearby to this is another sculpture of 2 men on top of a mound like building representing families torn apart between North and South.
Second, there are the outdoor exhibits of row upon row of planes, tanks and vehicles from the Korean and Vietnam War, which you can go inside of.
Third, there is the museum, which has long open halls on either side with the names of people who lost their lives in the war. Inside the museum are a series of halls as follows: Commemoration Hall, War History Hall, Korean War Hall, Foreign War Hall, and Army History Hall.
See 2 videos I took at the memorial and museum: click here

#4: North Seoul Tower
This North Seoul Tower is a huge tower in Namsan Park on what is called the Namsan Mountain, though it is more of a very large hill than a mountain! Here is the place to get views of the city, but chose a clear day. The tower first was built in 1969 to enable television and radio broadcasts in the Seoul area. It was eventually opened to the public about 10 years later in 1980. Recently the tower was renovated and a light show was added which is supposed to run every night from 5PM until 11PM with various color presentations.
On the ground floor is what they call the “media zone” where you can relax and watch music video and movie commercials. There is also a playground where children can play with water and sand. Con the 2nd floor if the sky café. Then there is the observation platform where you can get 360-degree views of the city.

#5: City Bus tour
Website I am a fan of the hop-on Hop-off type bus tours with commentary. They did start one in Seoul but this seems to have been put on hold, but worth checking if it has started up again.

There is another option that the tourist office promotes quite hard which is called the “Seoul City Bus Tour”. They described it as “the quickest, most convenient way for visitors to explore Seoul’s tourist sites. For the price of a single ticket, you can get on and off the bus as many times as you like. Courses take you past Korea’s royal palaces, though downtown Seoul’s major tourist destinations and to the city’s nighttime attractions”.
This is fine and convenient, running every 30 minutes, but you need to then have read up and have a guidebook so you know what you are seeing and what to stop and do. But it is an efficient and cheap way of getting to the sights, and you can buy tickets at hotels or even the airport when you arrive.

#6: One Day Cultural Tour
Website. I was looking at things to do when one had limited time and on the visitseoul.net site they suggested what they called a “one Day Cultural Tour” which you could do yourself. It is a really good suggestion.

It takes about a day and focuses on the downtown area and specifically Gyeongbokgung Palace, Insadong, Cheonggyecheon and Deoksugung Palace.
They suggested starting at Gyeongbokgung Palace in the morning. Here you can explore what is called the most magnificent of the “Five Grand Palaces” of the Joseon kingdom. This large structure includes Geunjeongjeon, the imperial throne room, and the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion that stands on 48 granite pillars in an artificial lotus pond. There is also the National Folk Museum of Korea located to the rear of the palace complex. From the palace you get a view of Cheongwadae, the presidential residence.
From the palace, it is a short walk over to Insadong, which is the largest market of traditional Korean art and cultural items. There are various alleyways with antique stores, stationary shops, frame stores, and handicraft and pottery shops.
From here down to the Cheonggyecheon river, which used to be covered over and has been opened up. You follow the stream to the Deoksugung Palace, which is also one of the “Five Grand Palaces” and based on timing you may get to see one of the changing of the guard ceremonies that take place across the day.

#7: National Museum of Korea
http://www.museum.go.kr/eng/index.jsp This place is huge and has 6 permanent exhibition halls, a children’s museum, three museum shops, a food court, and a theatre. It is a vast structure, which would require at least a few visits to cover everything. The permanent exhibition halls are divided into the following sections: the Archaeological Gallery, the Historical Gallery, the Fine Arts Gallery (I and II), Asian Arts Gallery, and the Donation Gallery.

#8: Seoul Olympic Museum
http://www.seoulolympicmuseum.com/ In 1988, Seoul hosted the Olympic Games which, like most other cities hosting them was used to focus regeneration and development – in Seoul’s case for the south of the city.

The Olympic Museum is in the Olympic Park in a three-story building. It is fairly interesting but not that unusual, the first exhibit hall is the Place of Peace where you learn the origin and history of the Olympics and the games involved. They look at Olympic heroes and the mascots of the 88 Olympics, Hodori and Hosuni. You can also watch a film at the Simulation Theater about the Seoul Olympics.
The 3rd floor comprises of an Audio & Video library and a Document library. You can view the Olympic related documents, videos, films and other records. In the basement, you can play games of weight lifting, volleyball, soccer, skiing, snowboarding, shooting etc. I suspect as time passes the novelty and significance of the Olympics will dwindle and the museum will fade away!

Links:

My videos and review of Korean war Memorial and Museum
View all the photos I took of Seoul or on Flickr
Click here to see my Grand Hyatt Seoul review, video and photos

Seoul Korea Street

Seoul: Korean War Memorial and Museum

Things To Do
Seoul

Seoul: Korean War Museum and Memorial

2012-04-29T17:42:00.000Z

Korean War Museum and Memorial, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

For a full review and top tips for travellers to Seoul click here. In that review I talk about the remarkable and sprawling Korean War Museum and Memorial to the harsh war in the 1950s which left Korea a divided nation of North and South.

This museum is amazing and has a massive collection of planes, tanks and equipment used, as well as a beautiful memorial. I made 2 videos of the place, which you can watch below:

Korean War Memorial and Museum in Seoul:

To see all the photos I took of the Korean War Memorial and Museum click here

Grand Hyatt Seoul, Korea: Hotel Review & Room Video

2012-04-29T17:41:00.000Z

The Grand Hyatt is Seoul is considered to be one - if not the best - hotels in the city. It is perched on top of a hill and if you have a room that faces the city (which I recommend that you ask for), the view is great. Though with the high levels of smog and in the season I was there also the clouds from the heavy rains in the middle of the year, the view can be limited. Saying that the openness of the view is very restful and appealing.

The rooms facing this way also look down onto the quite spectacular and large swimming pool (or to be more accurate pools as there is a smaller paddling style pool for children).

The bedrooms in the hotel are fairly small but I liked them a lot. The renovated rooms (almost all have been done) are cleverly done with light wood and mirrors around the top of the walls to reflect light and make the room feel larger. The rooms are designed for the business rather than tourist visitor (the former clearly being the main clients of the hotel) with a great desk with good lighting. The internet access is costly (which was a surprise considering that Korea is supposed to be one - if not THE - most connected country in the world) and you log on with a cable first to get your user name and password which you can then use to log on anywhere in the hotel wirelessly. A good idea!

The bathroom is small and has a lot of mirrors, including on the sides of the bath/ shower and although it did not bother me, colleagues found looking at themselves from all side while showering was a bit disturbing.

The hotel is always busy with meetings and they have a very flexible huge ballroom that can be divided up but can hold about 1200 people and while we were there (for a week) they had a non-stop flow of events from weddings, concerts and big trade shows. The meeting organization team is very efficient and pro-active.

We had been put onto the club floor rooms which gave access to the club floor lounge on the 17th floor which had a really good continental breakfast, snacks and drinks in the evening and then coffee until 10pm.

There are a number of restaurants in the hotel. I went to the Japanese which was good but expensive. This is true of most of the food and drink and in fact most things in the hotel. It was an expensive place to stay. Even the buffet for lunch, which had a great selection ranging from sushi to roast joints, was expensive.

The fitness centre was good with a good range of equipment. It was free if on club floor but charged if not. It was open 24 hours for insomniac travellers! I did not go to the Spa but colleagues did and raved about it, though said it was expensive.

Overall I liked the hotel as the rooms were comfortable and the beds and pillows were especially good. I liked the "funkiness" of the bedrooms. But it is not great value overall, but really pleasant to stay at.

Hotel Review
Seoul

Harry Potter Studio Tour Warner Bros. Leavesden London. A magical place to visit?

2012-04-25T09:00:00.000Z

Add caption

All the Harry Potter films were made at the Leavesden Studios near London, which are owned by Warner Bros. The site used to be a Rolls Royce car assembly plant, and before that an aerodrome during the Second World War.

The huge warehouses were first turned into studios to make the Bond Film "Goldeneye" in 1995 when the usual Bond home (Pinewood Studios) were booked out. For 10 years it was also the host for the filming of each of the Harry Potter films. Now also on the site is the extensive and comprehensive Harry Potter Studio tour that opened at the end of March 2012.

The official name of the experience is "The Making of Harry Potter: Warner Bros Studio Tour". It is a huge and expansive tour that is spread across 2 huge warehouses and a backlot and, unlike attractions at theme parks, it does not have thrill rides. But unlike Theme Parks, it does have all the original sets, original props, original costumes and the thrill of knowing that the films were made right on these stages, with the most impressive set being The Great Hall that was used in every single film and remains in the exact location.

They recommend you allow about 3 hours to do the tour, and you could easily spend that if you are a fan as there are many things to explore.

The key positives of the Harry Potter Studio Tour:

It is not a cheap trip, with adult tickets costing £28 and children to age 5 - 15 are £21, but it is (in my view) worth it if you are a Harry Potter fan as it is very comprehensive and detailed with huge amounts of detail.
They use timed entry tickets and to control crowds you cannot buy tickets at the venue on the day and must book in advance. This means very limited queuing and lots of space within the tour, as you will see in the video and photos I took. You can book an audio tour and brochure at the same time.
The Great Hall. This is at the start of the tour after the welcome video to the tour and then a short film where the actors playing the 3 main characters of Harry, Hermoine and Ron talk about growing up from ages around 10 to 21 while making the films at the studios. The Grand Hall was used in all the films and it is huge, with stone floor, the long tables and many costumes.
The original sets, especially Dumbledore's Office, Grifandor Common Room and Boy's Dormitory, Potions Classroom, Weasley's kitchen at The Hollow, Hagrid;s Cabin, Professor Umbridge's office and sections of the Ministry of Magic.
Creature Workshop, where there is a great series of films explaining how many of the masks, monsters and Hagrid's Head was made. Really impressive and interesting.
Diagon Alley. This is fabulous with many of the shop fronts. The alley changed in the films and this is a collection of some of the shops. Impressive and popular section.
Models and design. Before you enter Diagon Alley there is a section on how they imagined and designed the buildings, with a lot of paper models. Then after Diagon Alley at the end of the tour is the Hogwarts model. This is amazing. It is massive (about 30 feet high) and was used in the films for long shots of Hogwarts. This is really quite something.
The Gift Shop. I did not buy anything, but real fans will like it as full of all sorts of things from school costumes, wands, and replicas of all sorts of props. It is large - and also expensive.

Things I felt less positive (Not many!)

Although there are all the original sets, it does lack some authenticity as clear when filming sets are dismantled, destroyed and moved about and so there is (of course) reassembled and laid out for visitors. The Great Hall is the most impressive as not only is it - but also knowing it is where it was and how it was used.
The Backlot is disappointing - although you do get to see a section of Privet Drive, the Night Bus, Hogwarts Bridge and Potters House.

Overall very recommended if you are a fan. The studios are near Watford and will take a full morning or afternoon to travel from London and to see it.

Video I made of the Harry Potter Studio Tour that walks you through all areas:

See all the 85 photos I took of the Harry Potter tour in my Flickr Set

Add caption

Great Hall at Harry Potter Studio Tour Warner Bros. Leavesden

Dumbledore's Office at Harry Potter Studio Tour Warner Bros. Leavesden

Weasley's Kitchen at Harry Potter Studio Tour Warner Bros. Leavesden

Night Bus on Backlot at Harry Potter Studio Tour Warner Bros. Leavesden

Diagon Alley at Harry Potter Studio Tour Warner Bros. Leavesden

Hogwarts Model at Harry Potter Studio Tour Warner Bros. Leavesden

Craigsland Hotel, Ilkley, Yorkshire. Good value hotel ideal for wedding and events

2012-04-23T14:47:00.000Z

Craigsland Hotel, Ilkley, Yorkshire

The deal we got was very good and included 2 nights, afternoon tea and full breakfast. We stayed on a Saturday and Sunday night, and did pay £20 to upgrade to a deluxe room, and there was a £30 Saturday night levy as part of the deal.

The hotel clearly is targeting attracting weddings and events. They have some large and pleasant rooms to hold the service and also the party, and seemed to offer good prices and packages. They also hold regular event evenings with tribute bands.

Most positive things:

- Good sized room and bathroom. We were in Room 239 (which is the top guest floor) and the room was a good size, with a huge and comfortable bed. The bathroom was also a good size (although the bath seemed very narrow!). The view was non existent as looked onto some houses, but that was fine for what we were paying for. The room has been renovated and although not glitzy, it was neutral and comfortable. It is not plush and fabulous - but this is not that sort of hotel. It so comfortable and welcoming. There was a flat screen TV with a fairly decent selection of channels.
- Very clean and spotless. The hotel is very clean throughout, it really did feel well looked after in that regard.
- Good food. The breakfast buffet was expansive and very good, offering both fruit and cereals as well as full hot breakfast (bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, black pudding, baked beans). On the Sunday it was in a huge and very bright room, and on the Monday in the Brasserie 1 restaurant area. We had dinner one night at the Brasserie, and the menu was varied and the food excellent, with good service.
- Free WiFi. We could not get it in the room, but in the more central parts of the hotel worked fine and was pretty fast. It is so good to get free wi-fi - and seems that more reasonable priced hotels offer it included but higher star ones don't!

Fairly good things:

- Service. Overall service was good and friendly, without being intrusive. The hotel was holding a Wedding Fair on the Sunday and service was a bit less good as everyone as focused on that, but once we asked they made sure we were seen to. Reception was a bit off hand on arrival, but warmed up over the stay.
- Afternoon Tea. It was included in our deal, and from that perspective was greta. We had a friend join us and it costs £12.50, and not sure if it was worth that much. But it had good sandwiches, scones and brownie and choice of tea (plus glass of wine if you wanted it). It is served in the bar. Not sure it would be worth making a trip to the hotel for, but fine if you staying.

Overall we had a good time there, and thought it was excellent value.

Watch the video I made of Room 239 we stayed in:

Afternoon tea : Craigsland Hotel, Ilkley, Yorkshire

Eurostar Business Premier Lounge Paris Gard du Nord Station: what is it like?

2012-04-20T14:24:00.000Z

Eurostar Business Premier Lounge: Paris Gard du Nord

I have written a few postings and reviews about Eurostar and the St Pancras terminal and business lounge at St Pancras International, and they are some of the more popular postings on the blog. I realised that I have not done the same about the Paris side at the Gard du Nord Station. So this posting corrects that!

I am not sure if Eurostar had ever realised just how popular the train service under the Channel would become. The trains are packed, and at peak times it is now not unusual to find the trains full. I have increasingly found that even booking a week or more ahead you cannot always get seats on them.

It is, therefore, not a surprise that the fairly small area allocated at Gard du Nord station right in the centre of Paris struggles to cope at times. The Eurostar check in is on an upper level, and sometimes for regular passengers (those not with the Carte Blanche Frequent Traveller card, or in Business Premier) they have to wait based on train time before even being able to check in.

The lines in the staff manned ticket office are fairly slow, and it is best to try and do changes online or use the ticket machines.

The area for the French and then UK immigration is cramped together and (to be honest) a bit scruffy. As they do not have EU and non-EU passport lines, in Summer especially you may find you take a while if you get stuck behind a series of non-EU travellers!

The lines for the security screening machine is varied. It can see lines of people crammed into the smallish space, or easy and free flowing. In the boarding area there are some limited duty free and food places, and seating.

The Business Premier lounge is right at the end of this area, and again at peak times they have to close sometimes when it is full. You can only use the lounge if you are a Carte Blanche card holder, in Business Premier or an American Express Platinum or Silver card holder. The mid level (now called Standard Premier) does not allow access.

The lounge is on 2 levels, with big chairs (as the photo shows) and then free drinks and some snacks (like peanuts). In winter they also lay on some very tasty hot chocolate. Unlike at St Pancras, to use Wi-fi you cannot just log on for free. You either need to buy access or in the Business Premier lounge they give you a scratch card with codes for limited access. I think, especially as no wireless on the train, this is something that seems dated and should change. They do have one or two desktop computers you can use, but they usually have someone on them...

The lounge is fine, looks good and is usually busy. There are not a lot of places to work other than on your lap. But as the check-in time before trains is not that large, and so most people are not in the lounge for long this is ok.

Eurostar Business Premier Lounge: Paris Gard du Nord

More articles by Tips For Travellers on Eurostar:

Eurostar Business Premier Lounge St Pancras International Railway Station London

2012-04-19T15:36:00.000Z

(new) Eurostar Business Premier Lounge St Pancras London, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

As you will know, I really love the Eurostar and think it is the only way to travel from London to Paris as a previous post explains.

The Eurostar Business Premier Lounge at St Pancras London opened a few months after the station opened for Eurostar services. The station at St Pancras, as I have written about and shown in a previous post, is massive and very impressive.

The business lounge can be used by people travelling in the highest class (Business Premier), people holding the Eurostar Carte Blanche card (frequent travellers) and Silver and American Express Platinum and Centurian card holders.. It is very long, quite narrow and on 2 levels. Though not sure every realises there is an upstairs and so the lower level gets very full in the early mornings.

The lounge runs down the right hand side of the general lounge/ pre-boarding area where, as I mentioned, the smaller than ideal Cafe Nero is and the WH Smith newsagents.

It looks good (as the photos I took hopefully show) and is quite striking.

Downstairs: There are sets of very comfy chairs with side tables with both UK and Euro plugs for laptops, then further down the lounge there are higher stainless steel style tables near the bar and drinks area. There are 2 toilets downstairs only.

The range of drinks is good, with only limited snacks and food. Perhaps as people in Business Premier and the Leisure Select (who only get into the lounge with the Carte Blanche card) get a meal on the train.

Upstairs: This can be reached by a lift by reception, or up some sweeping stairs at the entrance - or smaller stairs at the rear of the ground floor. It is not really obvious that there is an upstairs lounge and I think that they need to flag that better. But saying that, once you head up you find a large, well designed and very comfortable lounge. It is less manic that downstairs, has more space to spread out and more tables - and larger area serving drinks.

Eurostar Upstairs Business Lounge St Pancras London (2), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Eurostar Upstairs Business Lounge St Pancras London, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

To see all my photos of Eurostar, St Pancras and the lounges, click on this link

(new) Eurostar Business Premier Lounge St Pancras London (6), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

For more of my photos of the Eurostar, St Pancras Station and the lounge: click here

(new) Eurostar Business Premier Lounge St Pancras London (4), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

More articles by Tips For Travellers on Eurostar:

The Eurostar St Pancras International Station: stunning and impressive

2012-04-18T17:16:00.000Z

St Pancras International Eurostar (4), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

It is amazing just how fast time goes by. Looking back at blog postings, I realised that it was November 2007 that it was the first time that I caught the Eurostar to Paris from the then new (and just opened) London base at St Pancras station. The station is next to the Kings Cross station in North London. At the time of my first visit, the Eurostar had only moved there from the somewhat cramped space at London Waterloo about 5 days before.

So what were my thoughts and observations then and now after having been through the station about 20 times a year since then:

It is a stunning space. The renovation of the run down 150 year old station is quite spectacular. The look and drama of the new station is helped by the massive glass and steel roof (and I do mean massive). When you enter the station, you enter into this glorious open and gleaming space. It is breathtaking!

The place and layout evolves as they learn what works, and what does not and to ensure as smooth as possible passage. The large open spaces make for a much easier trip to fetch tickets and the many check in terminals and security points help a huge amount. At peak time in the early morning when many people catching the trains to Paris and Belgium, the lines at security can be slow - but do clear fast as they are less onerous than airports.

The facilities once you go through the ticket check-in machines and French Passport Control are strangely non-existent. This seems odd and perhaps the plan is to encourage passengers to loiter in the large retail mall before check-in (or in the huge champagne bar upstairs) rather than hang about in the embarkation area. There was only a Cafe Nero with a huge queue as a result and a smallish WH Smith newsagents. I had actually wondered what facilities there were and had toyed with hanging about before going into the embarkation area. I wish I had!

Work space. There is, which is good, a very long stretch of a desk area with UK and Euro plug sockets galore so about 40 or more people could be sitting on their PC. And there are cash machines where you can draw out Euros as well as Pounds.

And the area overall looks great, with beautiful wooden floors, funky seats and white pillars. Very nicely done overall.

The Business Lounge is on the right of the hall, and you need either a Business Premier ticket or the Eurostar Carte Blanche card to get access. The buisness lounge is over 2 floors and busy, with good selection of newspapers and magazines and drinks. Review and more on the business lounge use the link below.

There is free wi-fi in the hall and station. But still now wi-fi on the train

So my overall view? Really beautiful and well done. Not quite ready though!

To see more photos of the station and the train: click here

More articles by Tips For Travellers on Eurostar:

St Pancras International Eurostar (5), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Eurostar platfroms at London St Pancras

Cafe Nero in the boarding lounge at Eurostar St Pancras

Boarding lounge at Eurostar London St Pancras

Things To Do
London

When travelling from London to Paris, which is better: Eurostar Train or Flying?

2012-04-17T16:18:00.000Z

Eurostar Train at London St Pancras (2), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

For the last 4.5 years I was working in both London and Paris. This meant commuting a few times a month on average. So what did I find was the nest way to travel between London and Paris? This is also a question I get asked a lot by people visiting Europe and hoping to see both cities.

The short answer is: There is no competition. To travel between London and Paris, the Eurostar train is the best way to get to go.

The main reasons are:

Getting through the airport these days. With the needed security, it is so stressful, cumbersome and time consuming going through the airport these days (especially Heathrow). You queue, shuffle along and then have the hassle of taking off shoes, belts, laptops in separate trays, liquids in bags and so on. The system is so inefficient and cramped and I still don't know why they cannot have conveyor belts much longer so as you shuffle along you can get everything set instead of having to do it once you are at the front of the line. On the Eurostar, the checks are less complex and involve passing bags through one screen an yourself through another - with no need to remove laptops etc.
Check in time. With Eurostar you can check-in 30 minutes before - and with business ticket up to 10 minutes before on the train. This is a boon - nowadays the minimum for flights is 45 minutes but then this is tight due to security etc.
Central city departure and arrival of the train. There is no unpredictable commute to and from Heathrow and CDG Paris. These can takes ages to get to and from at commuting times. You depart/ arrive from St Pancras Station (next to Kings Cross) in North Central London, and on the Paris side it is Gard du Nord, which is also Central. The travel time to Paris airports can take at least an hour, but usually more, and same with London airports. Traffic is very unpredictable for getting to Paris or London airports.
Delays. Flights are almost always delayed between London and Paris. The train is not generally - although when there is a problem on Eurostar it is usually a big one and then it can be many hours and hours. But overall it is always on time - and so if you have someone picking you up there is no hanging about for delays and then waiting for bags (which can be as long as the flight)!
Time (and space) to relax, work and even eat. I get so much work done on the 2 hours 15 minutes train trip. Flying you cannot as you are boarding, taking off, landing etc - and as the flight itself is so short you have almost no time to work, or relax. But on the train once you are on you can relax, walk about and even in standard class you have comfortable amount of space and a table. You have power for laptops in the top 2 classes, but not standard. The Business and Standard Select carriages are especially roomy and all have seat power for laptops with meal service. They are fantastic. But so is Standard which as 4 seats across (2 and 2) versus 3 in Business/ Leisure Select (1 and 2). You also have time to eat and even have a full meal (included on the top 2 classes, or taken on or bought on board of in standard class). On flights now there is limited refreshments offered.
St Pancras. The new St Pancras station in London is stunning and impressive, as the pictures on this posting show.

When should you consider flying and not using the Eurostar train then?

If you are not going to be in either city centrally. For example, if you are meeting outside of London in somewhere like Maidenhead or Reading - as you are then closer to Heathrow.
You are obsessed with collecting your British Airways or Air France miles, and do not want to build up Eurostar points. The program though is pretty good and there are quite generous and flexible redemptions.

More articles by Tips For Travellers on Eurostar:

Eurostar Train at London St Pancras, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Eurostar Standard Premium Carriage Seats

The Channel Tunnel between the UK and Europe: a brief history

2012-04-16T19:57:00.002Z

Entering Channel Tunnel - Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebatty

When travelling between London and Paris or Brussels I would recommend that you chose the Eurostar train over flying. You can travel by Eurostar from city center to city center in a much less and much less hassled way than flying.

The history of how the Channel Tunnel, which the Eurostar uses, is a long and complex one, with the UK military blocking most plans and efforts for decades for fear it would make invasion of the UK easier.

Unpleasant crossing by sea
Both Britain and France have been major trade and maritime partners, and at times rivals, for centuries. They are only 34 kilometers apart across the English Channel. But, trading and crossing had at times been hazardous because although it is only a short trip from Calais across the straits of Dover, the seas on the Channel can be very rough.

So even with modern ferries, a crossing could be unpleasant. I have been on a ferry where most of the passengers have been throwing up and seasick. A century or so ago, it could take you up to six or seven hours to cross in rough seas.

It has been argued that Queen Victoria, after feeling a little bit queasy on such a trip, challenged engineers to try and find another way, and really increased the momentum to find a solution. Over the years there were many and varied ideas put forward on better ways to cross the channel. In fact, a tunnel had been suggested even as far back to Napoleonic times, but resisted as was seen as a way to simplify invading the UK.

Finally a rail tunnel was agreed, and approved by the military

Finally in 1986, the UK and France managed to agree on the best approach, which was to have a rail tunnel, instead of the alternative, which was a long suspension bridge. The Channel Tunnel started to be dug in 1987, and was completed in 1991, although the tunnel was actually only opened in May 1994 for traffic. The UK military had recognised in the late 1950s that the bigger risk was from air attacks than marauding land based attacks.

An Anglo‑French consortium called TransManche Link constructed it, and the client was a private company called Eurotunnel Group, who still own and operate the tunnel. The cost was huge and the company had humongous amounts of debt as it ran horrifically 80% over budget. It finally cost about six billion pounds to build. The company struggled for years with many shareowners losing the value of their investment through restructuring which had to turn debt into shares.

The term "tunnel" is wrong - there are actually 3 tunnels

It took 13,000 engineers and technicians to construct the tunnel. It's actually a slight misnomer to call it a tunnel, as there are actually three tunnels. There are two running tunnels, one each way, and there's a smaller service tunnel, with a crossover in the middle, in case there's an emergency so the trains can actually change to either side.

The tunnels themselves are about 50 meters below the seabed. It was relatively easy to dig, because there is chalk marl underneath the sea, which is relatively easy to dig through. About 85 percent of the tunnels are constructed through this chalk marl.

There's a terminal in Folkestone in the UK and there's one near Calais at Sangatte. 84 kilometers of tunnels are constructed on the English side and about 69 kilometers of tunnels on the French side. The tunnels under the sea are about 30 meters apart.

There are 2 options on using the Channel Tunnel to cross to/ from the UK

There are a few options to travel through the tunnel. You can either go on a passenger train, which is Eurostar, which is a completely separate company to the Channel Tunnel company, that depart from London, Paris and Brussels city centre. Or you can go on drive on service, called Eurotunnel Shuttle, close to the tunnel entrance where you drive your car or truck onto special rail cars.

The Eurostar takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes to travel from London St Pancras to Paris Gard du Nord.

To find out more about Eurostar and the service, read more articles by Tips For Travellers on Eurostar:

Eurostar Standard Premium carriage and seats

Paris France. My ultimate guide for first time visitors to this city of style and love!

2012-04-13T14:20:00.000Z

Paris itself is a magical city. Mention of its name immediately evokes an image of style, sophistication and, of course, glamour. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is one beautiful city, whatever the season. The broad boulevards and the clever layout of the city means you can see the famous landmarks from a long way away through very careful town planning over the centuries.

In reality it is expensive to visit, traffic is terrible, the locals can be offhand and unfriendly, and in summer it is hectic and packed with visitors. But the beauty and history of the place cancels all of that out for almost everyone, and you have to visit this city – at least once. Though most will have to come back, such is the effect it has on people.

The tips and advice in here are based on the fact that I worked part time out of Paris for 4 and a half years, as my job had me based between London and this city. But I have had a long and varied experience of the city, from camping as a student, way back in the summer of 1980 through to attending some very glamorous meetings at one of the most ridiculously expensive hotels, to working and also as a tourist popping over from London for a weekend break.

History

Paris was occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War, and so the buildings and historical architecture escaped the hammering, and destruction, that so many other European cities on either side of the war went through.

Paris has had turbulent history, and has been occupied many times of the years, including by the Romans, the Huns, the Normans, the English and the Germans. In World War I, the Germans were stopped from reaching Paris, but it was occupied Paris in World War II from 1940 to 1944, and this was a very controversial time in Parisian history.

A big part of the charm of Paris is the beauty of the city itself. As mentioned the lack of bombing in the war helped, but also it had been traditional for the Presidents of France embark on grand projects for the city. Francios Mitterrand, for example, spent a lot of time when he was president building arches and renovating the Louvre as part of the Bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989. The controversial, but striking, glass pyramid at the Louvre was added, as was The Grand Arche of La Defense, and the Opera Bastille.

In 1992, Disneyland Paris opened with its 5000 acres, and although it struggled financially is a pretty good place to visit. I'm not going to cover it, or the more French‑based theme parks, because I'm focusing on if you have limited time in Paris and will have a separate review of it.

I will focus on the key things to see as a first time visitor, and if you have limited time to see the best and right things.

#1: Do a City Tour

Open Deck Bus tour: Whenever I go to a city, one of the things I recommend if you have limited time is always to go on one of those open‑top bus tours. It sounds very touristy and for those without a sense of adventure, but it gives a great snapshot of a city, the layout and helps you decide where you want to focus.They have a great one in Paris, called the Paris L’Open Tour that includes one with over 50 stops, offering one‑ or two‑day tickets. It's relatively expensive, as much of Paris is, but worth it. They have a very good commentary in a choice of many languages. You can review routes and book online at http://www.parislopentour.com/
Bike tour: If you're feeling very energetic, this option is also good. The best is Fat Tire Bike Tours who have guided bike tours in English. They run up until only about the middle of December. You meet at the Eiffel Tower‑there's a special yellow sign. The website for that is http://fattirebiketours.com/paris
Walking Tours: If you're really feeling energetic, there are also walking tours. The best one of those are rub by http://www.paris-walks.com. They have English tours around the different neighborhoods, or by themes, like, of course, inevitably The Da Vinci Code theme.
River tour: Boats run up and down the Seine River which runs through Paris, some of which have meals. Personally I am not a fan of these and don’t recommend this option as lacks the flexibility of the other tours – and you don’t get to see (of course) anything other than what you can from the river!
Virtual Tour: If you're really feeling lazy and very tight on time, but you want to get a sense of the city, you can so the Explore Paris. They bill this as "Three ways to experience the City of Paris. The Paris story spins through 2,000 years of Paris history, in a 50‑minute panoramic film, using the city's architecture, art, historical photographs, and contemporary, and archival, films, to illustrate the story, along with wonderful music. A great way to begin your discovery of Paris, shown 365 days a year, from 9am to 7pm, in twelve languages."Before the film, you can either visit Paris Miniature, which is a scale model of the city, or Paris Experience, which is a series of five short films, which explore the city following different themes. More at http://www.paris-story.com/

#2: Eiffel Tower

Probably the most famous of things to do in Paris, and the one thing you need to at least see and visit if on a tight schedule.
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1899 for an exhibition called the Universal Exhibition, which celebrated a centennial of the French Revolution. The contractor was Gustave Eiffel who was a master at metal construction, and had been involved in varying projects including bridges and even the Statue of Liberty.
It took two years, two months, and five days to build. It has over 18,000 individual parts, and was almost like a Meccano set in terms of putting it together. It is unique, although there is a half sized replica of it in Las Vegas.
The wind causes the tower to sway 67 centimeters at the top, and when it's hot the movement increases. You don't really feel it though. It went through large renovations from 1980 to 1985 to strengthen it up, and it now also has striking light effects that run at night.
The Eiffel Tower gets about six million visitors a year. It is very popular and it can take many hours of standing in lines to get up it, especially in Summer and so it is best to either get there before it opens, or go later in the evening. In summer it opens very late.
You can either climb the stairs to the 2^nd level (about 150 metres high) or take elevators up but to get to the top, which is 276 meters high, you have to take an elevator up.
There are 2 restaurants, both are expensive: "Altitude 95" which is on the first floor and so called as it is 95 meters above sea level. It looks out over the Seine and the Trocadero and inside of the tower on the other. It's supposed to be capturing the sense of being an airship above Paris. And it's quite big. It seats about 200 people. Then there's the very up market, Jules Verne Restaurant, which is on the second floor, with its own private elevator. It's one of the top restaurants in France.
On the ground floor, there is an exhibition of original elevator machinery. On the first floor exhibits and displays and a bit of shopping, on the second floor you get great photographs. But the view from the top is really just amazing.

#3: The Louvre

After the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre is probably the next major landmark anyone visiting Paris needs to visit. The Louvre has dominated central Paris since the late 12th century, and had been a Royal residence and expanded and developed over many years by a series of the Kings (from Louise V right through to Louis 14^th).
However, when the famous Versailles Palace was built, the royals lost interest in the Louvre and it fell into a period where it wasn't being used very much.
The French Revolution caused a major change in its role and with the end of the Monarchy in 1793, a small museum called the Museum Central de Arts Which was opened in the grand gallery. Slowly, collections were added until eventually it took over the whole building. It now has over 35,000 works of art, with 60,000 square meters of exhibition space.
You could spend weeks exploring it all in detail, though most people focus on seeing the Mona Lisa, which is the piece of art most people come to The Louvre to see. If you have limited time in Paris, you may want to explore the outside more and visit the Mona Lisa – or forgo other activities and spend a morning, afternoon or day here!
The Louvre had a big resurgence in popular culture and awareness with the Da Vinci Code book. You can actually do walking tours based upon Dan Brown's book that start in front of the Ritz Hotel, which is where Robert Langdon, the main character stayed.
http://www.louvre.fr/en

Louvre - Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/simo0082/

#4: Champs Elysees promenade, and Arc D' Triomphe

Once you have visited the Louvre, you could take a walk (a long one admittedly!) from the bottom of the Champs D' Elysees and explore right up to the stunning Arc D’Triomphe.
The Champs D' Elysees means the Elysian Fields, as originally it was just fields! In about 1660 a big tree‑lined park was established and over time more footpaths and fountains were added, that you see, then gas lighting and it developed into a long wide street. One that is now a night mare traffic wise. As you walk up the Champs Elysees you see many flagship stores for prestige brands as it has become the signature address, but the street is actually a strange mix of designer shops, car showrooms, airline offices and tacky tourist places – with a massive McDonalds even.
At the top is the Arc D' Triomphe that Napoleon intended as a celebration of his victories. But, it wasn't finished until after the Battle of Waterloo which actually brought his downfall. Underneath it is the remains of an unknown soldier from World War I, which has an eternal flame burning. The arch is stunning, and covered in friezes telling the history of various battles of significance while engraved around the top of the arch are the names of major victories, from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. On Armistice Day, which is the 11th of November, the President lays a wreath there and on Bastille Day they hang a massive flag down the centre.
Official site: http://www.champselysees-paris.com/

Arc D'Triomphe - picture by http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_longus

#5: The Pompidou Centre.

I also recommend a visit to the Pompidou Centre, not surprisingly built during President Georges Pompidou period in office. He wanted to create a cultural institution, as a part of his legacy, in the heart of Paris that would be focused on modern and contemporary work. This compliments the Louvre, which is more focused on pre‑1848. The Centre is charged with focusing not just on art but also theater, music, cinema and the spoken word.
This building is a strange looking building. It was designed as the result of a competition by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and it opened in 1977. It was closed for quite a while in 1997 to 1999 and reopened in 2000 with more space and reception areas.
It looks like all the innards are placed on the outside with large pipe and the air conditioning ducts.
About six million people visit it every year. They claim to have had 150 million visitors in the last 25 years. It has an amazing collection of modern and contemporary art. Huge library. It tends to attract younger people, and has a buzz and vibrancy.
It's a very open, interesting place.
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/

Pompidou Centre Paris - Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/soniacurcialeiro/

#6: Musee d’Orsay

The other museum/ art gallery I recommend you visit was only opened in 1986. It focuses on the period from 1848 to 1914. It is in an amazing building that from 1900 to 1939 was a railway station. In the Second World War, it was a mailing center and then used as a set for films. The government stopped it from being knocked down for development and the President finally decided to convert it into a museum. Eventually, it was opened by Francois Mitterand, in 1986.
It’s just an amazing place and you have to go to see the building. It's just really, quite something.
http://www.musee-orsay.fr

#7: Ille de la Cite and Notre Dame

The Ille de la Cite is one of only 2 natural islands in Paris, and many argue that this is the heart of Parisian civilization, because it was here that the original tribe lived when Caesar conquered Paris in 52 A.D. The island has traditionally had two main roles. One of which is religious and one of which is judicial.
Notre Dame, the most famous cathedral which was also made famous by the book “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” has its origins right back to 1163. It's a beautiful cathedral and it's worth going to look at. It's very stunning and vast and impressive.
It has gothic style architecture, and has rose windows that glow. You can climb up the west facade to see the Seine from above, and this is where the story of the Hunchback was inspired by, with all the twisted gargoyles.
At the other end is the Palais de Justice, which is the famous prison where many people were hauled from to be taken to the Place de la Concorde to be guillotined. Actually you can go and see Marie Antoinette's chamber, where she was held before being taken to the guillotine.

#8: Evening Show at the Lido or the Moulin Rouge

One of the things to do, although relatively expensive, is to go to one of the famous Parisian cabarets in the evening. My personal recommendation is at the Lido, which is on the Champs Elysees.
It has been open since about 1945 and in a very grand, large, cabaret theatre where you all sit in tiered seating at little tables. There are different packages where you can either eat, have half a bottle of champagne, or a bottle of champagne and watch the show.
Those of you who've been to Las Vegas, will know the kinds of things that they do, as Las Vegas has tried to recreate some of those shows. The Lido is quite amazing, and it's probably one of the most famous. The other one is the Moulin Rouge, which dates back to the late 1800's. The Moulin Rouge created the French can‑can. A lot of famous people have actually performed here: Ella Fitzgerald, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Elton John.

#9: Versailles

If you have time to spare, I do recommend spending a day out at Versailles. I had originally gone out to Fontainebleau, which is another Royal palace outside Paris, but nothing beats Versailles! There are many tours that go out there. Paris Vision, which is one of the best known tour companies, does a very good one out there.
The Palace of Versailles is mind‑bogglingly glitzy. The Royal Apartments, the Hall of Mirrors, the Queen's Bedroom, are all just amazingly opulent. In addition, you can explore the beautiful park with rowing lake and spectacular gardens.
I would go on a guided tour because there's so much to see, and there's so much history, so you get the whole story.
http://en.chateauversailles.fr

Versailles - photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjungling

#10: Hotels I have stayed at in Paris, with reviews and videos:

Hotels are expensive and process fluctuate a lot by week, so do a lot of checking what events are on in Paris when you planning your trip. Shifting by a week or a few days could halve the cost of the hotel!

Hotel Du Louvre - fab hotel next to the Louvre
Hotel Lutetia - art deco masterpiece. Controversial history!
Pullman Eiffel Tower - great location
Hotel Concorde Lafayette - massive tall building with great views
Concorde Saint Lazare Hotel Paris - handy location
Ambassador Hotel - Upmarket area of Paris
Pullman Paris Rive Gauche - a bit too far out of the centre
Renaissance Arc D'Triomphe - great location, stylish - pricey!
L'Meridien Etolie - opposite the Concorde Lafayette
Marriot Courtyard Neuilly-sur-Seine - not bad
Holiday Inn Republique - good location but bit shabby
Radisson SAS Hotel Boulogne Paris - a bit out of the way
Hilton Arc D'Triomphe - fab art deco style hotel

New York Statue of Liberty: video from the ferry from NYC

2012-04-12T11:00:00.000Z

This is a video I took of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry from Battery Park to Liberty Island

Read my full New York review and suggestions: New York in 48 Hours. The Ultimate Guide on what to see