Whitby is one of our most perfect little seaside resorts, with its historic heart tucked cosily down a deep valley on the North Yorkshire coast. It’s an ideal short getaway destination. My must-do list includes some of Britain’s best fish and chips, lashings of Gothic horror, 199 famous steps, a hotel where Lewis Carroll stayed, … Continue reading
Browsing Category Things to do – various destinations
Far North city where bedtime is abolished
Newly minted with its old name St Petersburg, Prime Minister Putin’s spruced-up hometown is bidding for a place among the world’s great short-break destinations. I remember this city as black and white Leningrad. But I much prefer the remastered Technicolor version, with canals to match Amsterdam, wide boulevards on a par with Paris, and palaces… Continue reading →
Wide open hospitality on Canadian seaboard
Newfoundland is the closest call in Canada from the UK, just five hours by plane. I found it microscopic on stress, huge on hospitality. My list of things you just can’t miss on this island roughly the size of England includes wilderness and whales, icebergs and Viking remains, seriously good fish dinners and all the… Continue reading →
Brighton, rock star on the South Coast
The new movie version of Graham Greene‘s Brighton Rock opens this weekend (Jan 28th 2011) in the UK. Purists will note that it’s been updated from 1947 (when Richard Attenborough starred in his breakthrough role as Pinky) to 1964. And nobody would blame Brighton itself for stalking off in a huff after the location scouts… Continue reading →
Milan – Italy's capital of style.
Milan is on the New York Times list of 41 places to go to in 2011. This is a piece I wrote after a visit there in 2009. ( I include a resume of the New York Times article, “A reborn cathedral joins fashion-forward galleries and hotels” below) On our visit we stayed in the… Continue reading →
Montreal – baguettes with skyscrapers
There’s nowhere in North America quite like Montréal, the second largest French-speaking city in the world after Paris. Thinks baguettes with skyscrapers. The writer visited Canada’s bilingual big city, where the standard greeting is ”Bonjour-Hi”, and give six good reasons to make a long winter weekend of it, including endless cosy underground shopping, the hotel fit for… Continue reading →