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A pub overlooking Peckham Rye. It's an old-style bar which has been given a bit of a makeover. However, they've got it just right in not changing too much. It's spacious enough with solid wooden tables at dining hight and a fire in winter.
The main bar is now non-smoking but there's a space out back for the chokers and in summer they open a huge beer garden.
Best of all is the food. Great varied menu featuring mezes, Thai/Chinese food, burgers, salads and roasts.
There's also a decent range of wines.
It's not that cheap but it's worth it for a treat or just to get a seat.
Rye Lane, Peckham, South London.
Five Minutes walk up from Peckham Rye Train station.
The writer Schiller is a local celebrity and this restaurant and beer garden commemorates him in an attractive way by serving good quality food and drink at reasonable prices.
The tables outside are crowded from about seven o'clock on, but there seems always to be room, and the atmosphere is welcoming and cheerful.
Schillerplatz, Loschwitz; about 15 mins out of the city centre, on Tram 6 or 12 from Postplatz (Dresden), or bus 85.
www.schillergarten.de
This Cuban bar & restaurant promises the best Mojito in London - my boyfriend says they're ALMOST as good as his own, which is a great recommendation!
The food is satisfying and good value - great tapas including smoky patatas bravas and gorgeous melting sweetcorn fritters. Perfect to share. Mains such as steak won't break the bank, and are delivered to the table quickly even on a Friday night.
The cocktails are no more expensive than other bars but the atmosphere is much more laid-back.
This is not a "see and be seen" bar, more a place you can relax and have fun with friends, lose some inhibitions and cackle wholeheartedly while the attentive staff look after you.
Kensington Court, off High Street Kensington
W8 5DA
020 7938 4147
www.bdelmlondon.com
Nearest Tube : High Street Kensignton
This beach is not quite as famous as Croyd but very close to it. It's a fantastic beach for longboarding, has a hire shop on the beach, a great little cafe for lunch snacks which is open even in the depths of winter and a cool cafe bar for a well deserved drink after the surf.
Also the hotel at the top of the hill is beautiful and well worth a stop over.
A well designed friendly bar serving a wide choice of excellent food and beverages to a crowd of young, vibrant locals who radiate a positive, relaxed vibe.
Great music and atmosphere - a taste of real Israel.
8 Pika Street, Haifa
+972-4-8114010
www.barbarossa.co.il
(site in hebrew only)
This is the sea wall around Havana, and a fantastic place to cool off after a hot day. You can sit in the night's cool air, feel the sea breeze and enjoy the local rum.
It's also a great place to meet and talk with the locals.
Medium size, you can usually get a seat although it gets quite packed.
Gritty with a good healthy crowd, DJ spinning at the back with a very good taste funky/disco/indie rock.
Film projections on the walls. Drinks are cheap. Dirtily-hip, a lot of skaters hang out here, quite like the Raval neighbourhood. Info on BCN areas:
www.way2stay.com/area-info-Barcelona-en-52.htm
Manolo bar is Moog's answer to pre-club bar as you can pick up the free entry fliers here. Shuts at 3am.
It's 2 minutes from Las Ramblas.
Turn onto Nou de La Rambla off Las Ramblas. Take the first street on your left, Calle Lancaster, its 20 metres down on the left.
In a county replete with astounding cream teas, Primrose Cottage in Lustleigh serves the best.
Set in the wooded Dartmoor village famed for its Cleave, Lustleigh avoids the worst of the tourist influxes suffered by Widecombe and Haytor. Its thatched cottages centre around the church and its neighbour Primrose Cottage. As well as astoundingly good cream teas (served since the 19th century) the tea rooms also have an incredible selection of homemade cakes.
Work it all off with a walk along Lustleigh Cleave, a steep wooded valley through which the River Bovey bubbles.
Lustleigh is a 10 minute drive north of Bovey Tracey and about 45 minutes from Exeter.
After an energy-sapping morning soaking up the rays on Valdevaqueros beach - one of the best along the Costa de la Luz - try lunching at the minute hotel perched on the dunes behind a surf school and shop. Enjoy the typically Tarifan hippy-chic vibe, sitting at oversized wooden tables under generous shady bamboo cover and their delicious array of hearty, green salads and fresh fruit juices make a welcome break after a night of tapas indulgence.
This is the first pub to open its doors in Chiang Mai and was voted one of the best bars in the world. It is an olde worlde English pub in the true tradition. Has a great selection of food and drinks including roast dinners on Sundays.
It recently had a makeover and extended the bar and the restaurant but has kept its old charm. There is also an outside area where you can sit and enjoy the tranquility of a tropical garden. And now has new bungalows added for those wishing to linger a while. A must to visit when in Chiang Mai.
Great place, wrong location, Joe's cafe bar on Oldham Street is a little gem lying in the mud.
Decked out in leather sofas and dark wood tables it could fall into the trap of being yet another Bar 38 or Pitcher & Piano but it's all saved by well cooked food and service that just falls neatly into place.
Get in there and pretend you're in St Anne's Square. It's just as far, as owld Will Mossop would no doubt pipe up.
Oldham Street
Most squares in Seville have got nice old fashioned bars, where eating and drinking is cheap. Santa Maria La Blanca is not an exception, and it is close to the gardens (Jardines del Murillo) and the beautiful building of Universidad de Sevilla.
I recommend trying as many varieties of tapas as possible, always keeping in mind, or at hand, a nice beer to chill out.
The city centre.
Great old-fashioned beer cafe with brown walls, beer posters and two dimly lit, smoky rooms. Friendly staff and not really a tourist trap place. There are over 200 bottled beers on the menu, plus five draught beers. Brugse Zot is a good one to try.
't Brugs Beertje
Kemelstraat 5
8000 Brugge
www.brugsbeertje.be/
Two-storey pub/bar down a tiny cobbled side alley between the Markt and Burg squares (you'd be lucky to stumble across this if someone hadn't recommended it.) A medieval building with creaky, sloping floors, it actually feels like a place for locals rather than a tourist attraction. There are hundreds of beers on the menu, and tasty cubes of cheese to nibble on. Their housebeer is recommended, but watch the stairs after trying a few glasses of the 11% Brugse Tripel!
De Garre 1, Bruges
On a recent trip to Thailand, I finally made my way north and on a visit to the night bazaar in Chiang Mai, I found a good English pub - the originally named Red Lion.
They had a great range of beers (Strongbow and Blackthorn Cider) and I was quite surprised that they had draught Kilkenny and Guinness. Despite that, I went for the local brew - Singha.
They had a big screen showing the Premiership and my team was on, so I was well happy. I love Thai food but after a week in Thailand I was ready for some old-fashioned English stodge. They had steaks, and the likes, but I tried the chicken pie and chips and I was not disappointed.
The staff were very friendly and the service was good. Well worth a visit.
Ios is one of the most popular party islands of Greece. Well known from the early seventies to young backpackers from all over the world. Ios located in the Cyclades about 21 miles south of Santorini, you can go there by ferry from Piraeus or from Mykonos, Paros or Naxos. Ios has many sandy beaches and Mylopotas is one of the best. There is also a nude beach in Koumpara. There are plenty of modern hotels, apartments and rooms to let. Being a party island, Ios has numerous restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs and a wild nighlife.
www.thegreektravel.com/ios/index.html
www.in2greece.com/english/places/summer/islands/ios.htm
www.greekisland.co.uk/ios/ios.htm
A fantastic old fashioned pub selling the best pint of Harveys (brewed in Lewes). Situated in the castle precincts, it recently made the news as the locals boycotted the place for months until Harveys was restored (it had been replaced by Greene King - boo).
You can play the local game - 'Toad in the Hole' - they also have some incredible competitions like the world pea throwing championships!
Lewes Arms, sort of opposite Dilraj, Lewes
It's some sort of cafe and a meeting place for businessmen and entrepeneurs, but I think anyone is welcomed. I just wanted to check my mail and drink a cup of coffee with an icecream.
The atmosphere is an experience and the staff are helpful with questions.
Gothenburg, Vegagatan 1
www.bluechipcafe.com
This cocktail bar takes some hunting out (up some narrow stairs from an inconspicuous door on the street) but when you get up there it's a real find. Delicious cocktails served by really friendly, unpretentious staff. It gets quite busy at the weekends but there's usually more space (and often a DJ) in the two bars at the back - they're for members only but you can call in advance for free entry or sign up online for free membership. Try the Marylebone mojito - it's out of this world.
135 Western Road (beside Waitrose)
www.kobauk.com
Tel: 01273 720059
Nearest station: Brighton
The best beach bar on this stretch of the spectacular north Brittany coast, Le Surf serves up simple meals of oysters, salads and steaks, at a very leisurely pace. The wide, flat beach is perfect for children's games and on a breezy day you can watch the surfers catch the waves.
Le Surf, Plage de Longchamp, St Lunaire, near Dinard. Open in season until 10pm.
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