Oct 14th, 2011 at 12:00PM: What makes a secret restaurant a secret? It might be off the standard grid. It might be simply unsung, or empty at particular mealtimes. There's got to be something, however contrived, that allows it to achieve status as a secret. And whatever it is, there's got to be something of high quality on offer to merit eligibility as a "secret" in the first place. Secrets have to be good. If they're not ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
unitedkingdom posts
Corner Room: London's best-kept upscale lunch secret
Oct 14th, 2011 at 12:00PM: What makes a secret restaurant a secret? It might be off the standard grid. It might be simply unsung, or empty at particular mealtimes. There's got to be something, however contrived, that allows it to achieve status as a secret. And whatever it is, there's got to be something of high quality on offer to merit eligibility as a "secret" in the first place. Secrets have to be good. If they're not ...Bierfest brings the spirit of Oktoberfest to London
Oct 1st, 2011 at 12:00PM: While not everyone can find time in their busy schedule to make it over to Germany for Oktoberfest, those in London from October 5-7, 2011, can still experience the spirit of the festival. London will host their annual Bierfest at Old Billingsgate Market, which will be transformed into an authentic-style Oktoberfest celebration with traditional German food, unlimited steins of beer, live music, ...London hotel offers package for insomniacs
Aug 30th, 2011 at 3:00PM: Jet lag, stress, too much work, too much play, and the novelty of being in new surroundings can all contribute to restlessness when traveling. Because insomnia is a malady that affects every traveler from time to time, a hotel in London is introducing a wellness package designed to help you get a good night's rest.
Through December 22, 2011, London's Milestone Hotel will offer The Gentle Art ...United Kingdom: 3G service survey crowdsourced
Aug 24th, 2011 at 1:30PM: This morning, the BBC released a survey regarding the reach of 3G service across the United Kingdom. The BBC obtained its data the newfangled way, via crowdsourcing. In July, almost 45,000 people downloaded an Android app that allowed their mobile phones to be tracked for the survey.
And the outcome of the survey? The BBC found that about three-quarters of the time people in the UK appear to be ...London: A nontraditional tea
Aug 22nd, 2011 at 10:30AM: High teas loom large in the fantasies of many tourists. How is it possible, I was wondering to myself earlier this month, that the only teas I'd enjoyed since moving to London in January were simple cream teas at various country pubs and inns? Most of these cream teas were notably lovely, with scones slathered in double or clotted cream the main event in each case.
But a blow-out high tea had ...Visa-free travel by the numbers
Aug 15th, 2011 at 11:30AM:
Visa-free travel is easy travel. Procuring visas takes time, energy, and money, and is beyond debate a pain for frequent travelers. The erection of visa barriers responds to a number of factors, though it can be said without too many qualifications that the citizens of rich countries tend to have a much easier time accessing the world visa-free than do the citizens of poor countries.
The ...London is burning: A dispatch from inside the riots, looting and arson
Aug 8th, 2011 at 10:00PM:
Improbably, London is burning.
I returned from a long celebratory weekend in Antwerp on Monday afternoon. It was a grand weekend, full of very good meals, great conversation, and retail discoveries. While away, I'd read about rioting in Tottenham on Saturday night in response to the shooting death of a man named Mark Duggan at the hands of a policeman on August 4. I'd sensed from some news ...Brits behaving badly abroad
Aug 4th, 2011 at 8:30AM:
Today the Foreign Office released British Behaviour Abroad 2011, with detailed figures on British nationals in trouble overseas (read: Brits behaving badly abroad). The period surveyed: April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011.
There are lots of interesting tidbits in the survey. British nationals request consular assistance in greatest numbers in Spain and the United States, though since both ...Traveler Q & A: Pavia Rosati
Aug 2nd, 2011 at 9:30AM: Pavia Rosati is the founder of Fathom, a recently debuted travel website. Fathom is smart and beautifully designed. It's full of exciting short briefs about various destinations across the globe.
Rosati, as you'll see from her answers below, is an experienced editor and an avid traveler. Her enthusiasm for Fathom's subject matter is palpable and infectious. We love Fathom and can't wait to see ...Cheap, tasty Indian food in London
Jul 25th, 2011 at 3:00PM: Indian food in London is often mediocre and overpriced, and a good curry joint is as highly prized as a traditional neighborhood pub. I've been to a lot of Indian restaurants in London and a new discovery I made last week ranks as one of my favorites.
Simply Indian is one of those places you'll only find if a local tells you. Located on 25 Tabard St., it's away from the tourist center and easy ...London's surgery museums are frightening and fascinating
Jul 22nd, 2011 at 5:30PM:
Ah, the good old days! Everything was so simple a hundred years ago, so stress free. No television, no Britney Spears, no threat of global warming or nuclear war. Life was better then.
Rubbish.
Cities choked on coal smoke, people starved on the streets, terrorists blew up innocent people, and the medicine, well. . .
While London has dozens of museums that can tell you about the past, ...California hotels rolling out the royal red carpet for William & Kate's visit
Jul 7th, 2011 at 10:00AM: Want to live it up like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge? Hotels in California are rolling out "Royal" packages in anticipation of William & Kate's visit to the state July 8 -10. Here are a few our of our favorites:
Mission Inn & Spa
Book this Riverside Inn's "Royal Wedding Celebration Package" ($1,449) and enjoy overnight accommodations for two in the Presidential Suite, a champagne, ...UK strike slows down ports and airports
Jun 30th, 2011 at 8:30AM: UK airports and ports are experiencing delays as many customs and immigration officials are on a one-day strike.
The UK Border Agency is one of several UK public sector unions on strike over plans to change pensions, a move they say will have employees working longer, paying more into the system, and getting less out of it when they retire.
Some Border Agency workers started early, at 6pm ...Strike to cause delays at UK ports and airports tomorrow
Jun 29th, 2011 at 9:00AM: A massive public sector strike planned for tomorrow in the UK will slow down travel in ports and airports.
An estimated 750,000 public sector workers will go on a one-day strike in protest over proposed changes to pensions, and this will include thousands of customs and immigration officials. UK ports and airports will remain open but passengers should expect delays.
Most schools and many ...Finland in London
Jun 27th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Week before last, I traveled to Oulu to bask in the midnight sun. Dusk and dawn were indistinguishable. I needed little sleep to feel energized. At midnight I looked north and imagined landscapes bathed in even brighter sunlight.
Back in London this past week, I was faced with rain and general drenching. The clouds were low and foreboding; the gray skies interminably soul-annihilating. ...Italian art in London
Jun 23rd, 2011 at 2:00PM:
One of the best collections of Italian art in the world can be found in an unlikely place: a quiet street in the London borough of Islington.
The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is housed in an elegant Georgian mansion and boasts a comprehensive collection of Italian Futurist paintings. Futurism was a style born out of the havoc of industrialization and the carnage of World War One. ...Budget Edinburgh: Navigating Scotland's capital on a shoestring
Jun 23rd, 2011 at 9:30AM:
Great Britain isn't at the top of many budget travelers' lists due to the sheer insanity of the exchange rate. Today's dollar gets the American traveler only 0.62 pounds, and for those working on a ramen and couch-surfing budget, that unfavorable ratio can cause a great deal of hardship.
With that said, Scotland and Edinburgh are a world away from the star studded and action packed streets ...Luxury hotels in U.K., U.S. warned of 'Mumbai-style' terror threat
Jun 17th, 2011 at 11:30AM: Authorities are warning luxury hotels to be on the watch after new intelligence obtained reveals that Al Qaeda was planning a "Mumbai-style" attack on luxury hotels, specifically The Ritz-Carlton, in London.
The information was obtained after authorities found materials at a checkpoint in Mogadishu where Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the Al Qaeda operative who masterminded the 1998 U.S. embassy ...Mystery mound in England turns out to be ancient monument
Jun 2nd, 2011 at 9:00AM:
England's prehistoric landscape has a new addition.
Marlborough Mound in Wiltshire has long been a mystery. The flat-topped cone of earth looks like a smaller version of Silbury Hill, pictured here. The bigger mound was finished around 2300 BC at a time when Neolithic farmers were erecting stone circles such as Stonehenge and Avebury. Now archaeologists have taken samples from Marlborough ...Five unusual destinations from London
May 30th, 2011 at 7:00AM:
London is incredibly well served as a transit hub. Collectively, London airports see more traffic than any other cluster of city airports in Europe. An impressively broad network of routes connects the city's airports to destinations across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. For anyone predisposed to travel, this range of destinations is inspiring.
Many of the world's most visited ...
