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Take the (free) Staten Island ferry and go to a baseball game. The Staten Island Yankees ballpark is an easy walk from the ferry terminal. For $16 you get over two hours' sport and fun - we laughed for the whole event (3rd base seating is recommended). The sight of men trying to get into frozen t-shirts between innings will stay with us.
Other top tips for NYC:
Travel from JFK - for parties of three or more take a yellow cab ($55ish to your hotel door).
Breakfast - Grand Central Station
Lunch/Dinner - Whole Foods market, excellent value and choice (avoid busy 6pm - 7pm period) 10 Columbus Circle, basement of Time Warner Center. Very convenient for Central Park.
www.wholefoodmarket.com
10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019 USA
+1 212 823 9600
Google map: bit.ly/eZCfGP
www.siferry.com/
Google maps: bit.ly/cug1he
Elegant boutique guesthouse and restaurant in the most unspoiled part of Turkey. The interior design is exquisite, rooms are comfortable and the food rivals that in any of the best restaurants I have eaten at in Paris, London, Istanbul, Melbourne or New York. The price is very reasonable considering the excellent quality.
Since our grandson went to the university we have got to know Edinburgh better and he showed us this coffee house and restaurant. It is where JK Rowling wrote her early novels, sitting in the back and it was also frequented by Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith. So this should be enough inspiration for buddibng writers but the ambience is also great and the home made imaginative menu is even better.They serve home made lasagne, pannini's some with mexican flavours and even haggis, neaps and tatties. What more could you want?
It can be very busy so do not be in a rush but it is well worth the visit.It is clear that lots of the students spend their very precious grants in here.
21 GeorgeIV Bridge, Edinburgh.
This place is so good! Cheap hawker style stalls, dishes from all over Malaysia, and also some Thai. The atmosphere is buzzing and informal, and its open-air location is particularly interesting during a tropical downpour! About 10 minutes' walk from the Eastern & Oriental hotel - if you are saving your pennies for a drink or two in its colonial splendour - this is the place to go for tasty cheap eats!
Lebuh Leith, Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia.
www.malaysiasite.nl/redgardeneng.htm
tinyurl.com/36g2des
The Terrace Cafe is not only in one of the UK's most beautiful botanic gardens, but it also boasts one of the best views of Edinburgh. As you approach the terrace suddenly a panorama of the city appears in front of you. The cafe served the usual hot and cold, something-for-everyone fare. I had a memorable first date at the Terrace Cafe, escaping the bustle of the Edinburgh Fringe. Use the Arborteum Place entrance (West Gate) to the Botanic Gardens, which are about a mile from the city centre.
20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh
www.rbge.org.uk
tinyurl.com/2wquvg9
This tip is a comment on the story by Aida Edemariam in the travel section on 4 July 2009 about the Agia Fotini Taverna and the couple who run it, Stavros and Vicki Perakis.
My wife, Karen, and I live in Wollongong Australia, about 80km south of Sydney where Vicki grew up and Stavros lived for about 10 years. I worked with Stavros in the Abrasive Blasting game and got to know them and their extended Greek families and friends very well. When they went back to to Crete to take over the family taverna they always said we must come and visit. Well in 2002 we did just that and spent two weeks with them and a week on Santorini.
You always get the cliches and all the Greeks told us before we left "you'll love it, it'll be the best holiday you will have" and we went "yeah, right". But I must admit they were right, it was sensational.
The trip to the taverna was a holiday in itself and it is perched right on the waters edge. Karen and I stayed in the "honeymoon" suite (inside facilities) and my brother stayed next door. From there we ventured out and did all the touristy sites as nowhere is far away on Crete. When we decided to stay in a typical day was; late up, dip in the ocean, Stavros would call us in for a cooked breakfast then read a book, walk on the beach, try a Mythos (local beer), more food, chat to the customers and end up about 1am sipping Ouzo and Raki with any late comers. We even helped them out around the tables when things got busy.
It was and still is the best holiday we've had and we would like to thank Aida for telling it just like it is.
Google map: tinyurl.com/2u9rwux
Escape the tourist hordes and take a short walk from Place Kleber, along Rue de l'Outre, to Brasserie Flo, a cousin of the famous Paris institution, ironically one of the original fin de sicle "Alsatian" Brasseries which transformed the eating habits in France's capital. It attracts Strasbourgers for lunch and dinner inside a faithful copy of the Paris original, from cafe chairs outside to leather booths, stained glass panels and ceiling inside. The main menu replicates the original too, and the changing seasonal menu is an attractive deal at two courses for under €20, or €26 for three, the starters include a slab of delicious foie gras served with sweet mango ‘chutney', or choose oysters, rillettes or goats cheese. The mains offer a freshly chopped steak tartar, spiked with shallots and capers, a substantial and tasty lump of raw beef, served with chips and salad. The choice runs to choucroute, bouillabaisse, lamb chops or salmon followed by - if you have room - a selection of traditional desserts and cheeses.
In the Oltrepo Pavese area, Lombardy, life is still authentically Italian, as is the food. Not spoiled by tourists, the mammas still cook as they did generations ago. Simple but delicious food with ingredients of their own "orti", of the season. Come to experience this at one of the best restaurants of the region, Bagarellum, or order a cookery class at B&B Villa I Due Padroni.
Montecalvo Versiggia, www.bagarellum.it and www.duepadroni.it
Google map: tinyurl.com/3335agq
Very stylish restaurant, on a cafe/eating stretch in central Kuching which is likely, should you have any preconceptions about nightlife in Borneo, to blow them away. This place serves up local food with a modern edge, and despite the service sometime being a bit haphazard, on the whole its worth the trip. Prices by Kuching standards are high (around £8 for a main) and you may well get just as good quality somewhere round the corner for half the price. However, come here for the atmosphere, the ambience, the stepping stones over a fish pool to reach your table in the lush gardens - this place is unique!
Jalan Tabuan, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Google map: tinyurl.com/36w3w8e
A high point of my visit to Sevilla was a tapas tour with the woman who writes the Sevilla Tapas website. Not only did we get to try some really delicious food, but we got to see some truly charming tapas bars, each with its own unique character.
It was a real treat to be with someone who really knew her way around Seville's confusing maze of streets, and knew where to go and what to order to have a phenomenal tapas experience.
Walk across the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn, stay on the left path off the bridge, turn left and left again then right to get to Grimaldi's pizza place under the bridge. If you get there about 11.30, there'll be a queue, but only a shortish one. Queue, eat great pizza, pay in cash, walk to waterfront, eat ice-cream - fab way to spend a morning. Yes it's touristy but if you are a tourist in New York why not eh?
www.grimaldis.com
1 Front Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
+1 718 858 4300
Google map: bit.ly/f58Few
We ate in the house of the owners Monsieur and Madame Chauvigné and the meal was certainly one of the highlights of the trip. They did say that we were the first of their English guests who had chosen to eat with them. The food and wine were of the highest quality.
The cost for 7 of us at La Fiouzaire was 290 euro. Not to be missed if we are ever back that way.
Gite de France La Fiouzaire, Chemin de Ninets, Route de Grenade, 32600 L’Isle Jourdain
00 33 562071880
fiouzaire@gmail.com
Google map: tinyurl.com/32tnwap
An excellent restaurant that serves huge portions of traditional food. We had the set price lamb vlachiho at EUR for two - including salad, wine, and vegetables - and could just manage to finish it, this after a pretty strenuous day of hiking from the other side of the island. Friendly service, great little place under awnings. Don't go unless you are hungry!
Perissa, Santorini - just off the main road through the town
Google map: tinyurl.com/3ae9shb
Marvellous ice cream shop. At first we looked at the mere six flavours available that evening and were disappointed; but it's all made on the premises, and really fantastic ice cream - coconut that really tasted of coconut, and the best frozen yoghurt I've ever tasted. Add to this a wonderfully crazy and incredibly friendly proprietor, who the night we were there was supporting Argentina against Greece in the World Cup footie (she has guts!) - and who kept breaking off while we watched the game to go and tend her machine, then gave us a free taster of the latest flavour.
Paroikia waterfront
84400 Parikia, Paros, Greece
+30 (22840) 24864
Google map: tinyurl.com/3alt57h
Dzyga is an arty cafe-bar at the northern end of Virmenska. You can't miss it as the street is a dead end and the bar is at the very end! It's only a stones throw from the Rynok and is quieter and has some nice views. It's a nice place to start or end the night sitting outside in the atmospheric old Armenian quarter. If it's not the weather to sit outside the inside was cool too with lots of local art on display. The beer was a good local wheatbeer and washed down the pork fat in chocolate perfectly - which is not as bad as it sounds - I had to give it a try. The rest of the food that we tried (the bar was located just below our apartment) was good - the breakfast and ice-cream mainly!
35, Virmenska street, Lviv, Ukraine
+38 32 276 7420, dzyga.com
Great eating place for carnivores and veggies. BBQ host cooks Buffalo Burgers and ribs, Wild Boar, Rabbit Rattlesnake Sausages and Rcoky Mountain oysters with beer on tap.
+1 435 648 2778, buffalobistro.net.
On Highway 89 at Glendale, Utah with Grand Canyon North Rim to the south, Zion National
Park to east and Bryce Canyon north
maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=glen
Held every January in the town of Fellsmere, Florida, The Frog Leg festival is a fantastic event to gain insight into the 'real Florida'.
There is music, entertainment and obviously, lots of frog legs – served fried with classic American sides of coleslaw and grits (skip the latter- tastes like wallpaper paste!).
As to what they taste like? Well, it's obvious really, tastes like chicken!
Held annually in January in the town of Fellsmere, Florida
www.froglegfestival.com
Google map: tinyurl.com/35zlndy
This is a very good chocolate shop and cafe. With a couple of famous names behind it - the brothers Albert and Ferran Adrià. I had a late lunch there - glass of wine, starter, sandwich and two tasting shots of chocolate, all for about £10. Then I went and bought a box of truffles to take home. The chocolate flavours are far from the ordinary as you might imagine! The place is great and somewhere very relaxing to spend an hour over lunch or coffee. It's near the Mercado de Colon which has lots of cafes - but save yourself for this place just round the corner instead. A nice surprise!
Calle del Conde de Salvatierra de Alava, 19
46004 Valencia, Spain
www.cacaosampaka.com
Google map: tinyurl.com/3ykzdvu
Padstow town and harbour. If you're down in Cornwall ... get yourself down to Padstow! It's a great little town full of little streets and shops to explore, and a great harbour in which to sit and watch the world go by. You'll not be disappointed.
There's also a great pizza restaurant overlooking the harbour. It's located in the first floor of a building above an ice-cream cafe.
Padstow is on the north Cornwall coast, across the estuary from Rock. For more info check out www.visitcornwall.com and search under Padstow.
Peebles is a market town in the Scottish Borders. Located approximately 25 miles south of Edinburgh it's a great place to visit for a leisurely day out.
Dander down the high street browsing the variety of shops and boutiques. Pop into the Tontine Hotel for a coffee or a bite of lunch. Walk by the river. Take your kids to the swing park or local swimming pool.
If you're feeling slightly more energetic put on your walking boots and take a walk up some of the surrounding hills ... or head to Glentress for a spot of mountain biking.
For more info check out www.visitscotland.com and search under Peebles.
Peebles is approximately 25 miles south of Edinburgh (45 mins by car).
It's also possible to get there by public transport with First Buses - No 65.
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