Showing posts with label City Guides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City Guides. Show all posts
It's been nearly a year since my last post - time does fly.
I'll be honest with you, I had sort of fallen out of love with blogging, and wasn't sure if I wanted to keep going.
Nearly a year on, and I've had a change of heart, and with the current climate we're in, I needed a distraction.
So I've decided to start writing again, and give the ol' blog a little redesign.
I'm looking forward to sharing current, relatable content, plus what I've been up to over the last year.
Boy, do we have a lot to catch up on!
Washington D.C — the capital of the US, and home to some very iconic, famous landmarks, and the President of the United States. If you can get over the latter of those, Washington is a totally awesome city, and a place that stole my heart with the sheer amount of history, culture, award-winning chefs, and a vibrant arts scene.
The thing that surprised me the most, is how calm the city is. Bearing in mind it’s the capital of the United States, it didn’t seem as intense as cities such as NYC, Chicago and Philadelphia — the roads aren’t as busy, the buildings aren’t so high, and no one seems to be in too much of a rush to get from A to B.
Stay
I stayed in three hotels during my time in D.C. All very different styles to each other, and all had very different price points.
The Willard Intercontinental
I’m very lucky to stay in some very swish hotels for my job, but this one was another level! My bedroom view was of the Washington monument and Lincoln Memorial, we were within spitting distance (tempting) from The White House, I had two HUGE beds, and the hotel lobby was so posh, I felt totally out of place every time I stepped in!
1401 Pennsylvania Ave NW. washington.intercontinental.com
The Avery Georgetown
Based in the Georgetown area of D.C, this was a small guest house with lots of charm. You can read more on my stay here,
2616 P St NW. www.averygeorgetown.com
The Line DC
Possibly THE coolest hotel I’ve ever stayed in (it’s up there with The Hoxton hotels) I won’t go into too much about it now, as there’s a separate post incoming. Located in the Adams Morgan area of the city, in an 110 year-old church.
1770 Euclid St NW. www.thelinehotel.com/dc/
Eat
There are so many good places to eat in the city, you could spend a good week just eating your way around.
Federalist Pig
Two words: BBQ MEAT. Go hungry, and ready to tuck into some seriously good BBQ. I’m still thinking about the ribs we ate (separate post incoming).
1654 Columbia Rd. NW. federalistpig.com
Unconventional Diner
The name says it all really — this place is not your average diner. During the day, it serves up pastries, sandwiches and a few main dishes. But, at night, the chef gets more playful, especially with snacks. The tastiest of the lot: an assemble-it-yourself PB&J with foie gras custard, dehydrated peanut butter, grape jelly, and triangles of white toast, the fries with their ‘sexy sauce’, the fried chicken and the cheeseburger were the dishes that went down a treat on our table.
1207 9TH ST., NW. Unconventionaldiner.com
Blagden Alley
Now this is a place I really wish we’d had more time to explore! Blagden Alley is a system of interior alleyways with a booming commercial core of craft cocktails and coffee, street art, and some of the city’s most popular new restaurants. Tiger Fork, The Dabney and Supra all come highly recommended. We grabbed cocktails at Columbia Room — a perfect pre-dinner spot.
See
The Smithsonian
This is a rather large category as the Smithsonian is made up of several museums and galleries throughout the city — depending on how long you’re there, I recommend choosing a couple of favourites rather than trying to squeeze them all in. Highlights for me were: African American History Museum, Natural History Museum, and the American History Museum. There’s something for everyone within the Smithsonian and, best of all, most of these museums are free to visit.
www.si.edu/
Memorial’s
The Lincoln Memorial was my favourite place to visit during my stay in D.C. It’s such a beautiful and powerful memorial. It’s also very central, and if you’re able to, walk down to the Washington Monument, via the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, and the World War II Memorial. If you have the time, walk across to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. I think I’ve said the word ‘memorial’ enough. You get the picture.
The US Capitol Building
Another highlight was going on a tour of the US Capitol Building. You can book in advance, or queue up inside, which is what we did. Go early and get on to the first tour if you can (8:40am) it’s fascinating, and the building itself is beautiful. Plus, the tours are free — yes, you did read right!
There you have it — Washington D.C. A city that totally blew my socks off, and has something for everyone. I can’t wait to head back there at some point to do more exploring.
My last work trip of 2018 took me to Bangkok. I had never set foot in Thailand before, so wasn’t sure what to expect.
As I was out there for work, I obviously didn’t see as much as you would if you’re there for fun but, I knew I’d have a little downtime. If you’re on a tight timeline like I was, I would say your best mode of transport is by air train, tuk tuk or river boats — we were lucky enough to have a guide and driver (very fancy, I know, but very reasonably priced) but, I have to admit some of the free time we had to explore, was spent stuck in traffic! Traffic in Bangkok is like none other, and I thought New York and Paris was bad... Bangkok is insane, and seems to be 24/7, so avoid where possible!
We had roughly 12 hours, split over a couple of days to explore what we could of the city. This amount of time does give you a totally doable agenda in Bangkok, but I would highly recommend prioritising a few key things to see, do and experience. Keep in mind that Bangkok is very humid, something I thought I’d already experienced back home in the Summer, but left me sweating in places I didn’t think you could, plus add in a little jetlag and it can definitely take it out of you.
The Grand Palace is a must see when in Bangkok. Rather than being a single structure, the Grand Palace is made up of numerous buildings, halls, pavilions set around open lawns, gardens and courtyards. The buildings within the grounds are totally mind-blowing, adorned in gold, sparkling gems and tiles that give you total bathroom floor goals.
We also visited Wat Pho — home of the reclining Buddha (46 m long!) and the birthplace of the Thai massage, which you can have during your visit for the price of a coffee here in the UK.
On our last day, we jumped in a tuk tuk to Wat Traimit, home of the Golden Buddha — a solid gold Buddha that has a crazy story behind it, followed by a few hours walking round MBK, a shopping mall with hundreds of stalls and stores in selling everything and anything you can think of — it has so much to offer, as well as a food hall selling very cheap, delicious Thai food — more authentic than the designer handbags and shoes on sale downstairs, plus air conditioning, so a nice break from the humidity outside.
Another thing to experience are the night markets in Bangkok. Our hotel was around a 15-minute walk from one of the big, popular ones, and so we were able to spend a couple of nights walking round picking up some shopping, and sampling some Thai street food and drinks, which was honestly my favourite thing I experienced whilst out there.
Bangkok was an experience in itself, and honestly I was surprised at how much I liked the city. The locals were so welcoming, the food was amazing and the sightseeing was breathtaking. The traffic and humidity totally blew my mind, but all in all, Bangkok was a city I look forward to visiting again one day, and exploring more.
If you don’t follow me on Instagram, or the algorithm is truly living up to its total shiteness, then you may not know that I was in San Diego a couple of weeks ago for a work trip.
It was my first time on the West Coast of the US, and after a long-ass journey (via Seattle) I landed, went straight to the hotel, and face planted on one of the beds in my hotel room.
The next day, I was greeted by this view
Sunshine, water, palm trees and heat that was basically the same as we get in the Summer here in the UK — hello California, if this is the weather you get in FEBRUARY, then I’m moving here straight away.
We had a day to explore, and whilst we were jet lagged up to our eyes, we weren’t going to stay in bed all day.
So, without further ado, I bring to you my 24 hours in San Diego….
Stay
At The Westin San Diego - it’s downtown so really near to the harbour and Gaslamp Quarter. Plus, the beds are a dream!
Eat
San Diego is full of great places to eat. As they’re right on the border of Mexico, you can’t visit without having mexican food. We ate at La Puerta, which is in the Gaslamp Quarter and one lunchtime visited Spike’s, a fresh fish bar.
We also had takeout from a variety of places (hotel room service gets boring after a day) and I can highly recommend GrabbaGreen, Sushi 2 (some of the best sushi I’ve ever eaten - also a restaurant too) and Tender Greens.
See
There’s a lot to do and see in the city, and although I only managed to venture down to the harbour and walk along the bay to Seaport Village, some of the girls managed to visit La Jolla, which is about a 15 minute drive away and has the most gorgeous beaches. There’s also Petco Park, home to baseball team, The Padres and Balboa Park, which has the Natural History Museum, San Diego Air & Space Museum, and the San Diego Zoo.
Stockholm was the second part of our honeymoon, and has always been on my travel to-do list, and as I’m married to someone who doesn’t exactly like lying on a beach, it was the perfect city to hang out in. Armed with the Wallpaper Guide (I highly recommend these travel guides) and our trainers, we set off ready to explore, and so this is my next post in my travel series, 24 hours in…
Stay
If you are looking for a chic and cool hotel you should definitely stay at the Miss Clara (read my review on it here). It’s Scandi-minimalist bedrooms will have you getting your instagram on as soon as you enter. The hotel also has a bar and restaurant where all the locals seem to hang out amongst the hotel guests.
Miss Clara by Nobis, Sveavägen 48, 111 34 Stockholm, Sweden; missclarahotel.com
Eat
There are so many good places to eat, and as we were only there for a day and a half, our list doesn’t really do the city much justice! For breakfast we ate at the hotel (you would if there was a waffle maker with waffles on tap). For lunch, we went to Phil’s Burgers, a small chain with branches dotted about over the city. It got mentioned a fair few times to me on Twitter when I asked people for recommendations, and I have to say it was pretty darn tasty - the fries were some of the best I’ve had and come with the most tastiest of sauces.
Phil’s Burger, Drottninggatan 79, 111 60 Stockholm, Sweden; www.philsburger.se
Dinner-wise, on our first night we decided to stay in and order room service. I know what you’re thinking but the pizzeria next to our hotel was booked up and they happened to be connected to the hotel and offered room service, which is a genius idea! The pizza was amazing and I would definitely recommend paying them a visit if you’re in the city.
Giro, Sveavägen 46, 111 34 Stockholm, Sweden; www.giropizzeria.com
On our last night, we decided to ‘push the boat out’ and have dinner at Sturehof. A stockholm institution having been around for 120 years. The menu is Swedish/French with a focus on fish and seafood so this is the place to get your herring on. I’m a huge fan of Swedish food, so we had a few plates to share, including their ‘handful of prawns’ which as you can see, was more than a handful.
Sturehof, Sturegallerian, Stureplan 2, 114 35 Stockholm, Sweden; www.sturehof.com
See
There is SO much to do and see in Stockholm, so make sure you bring comfy shoes! When we first arrived, we headed to Gamla Stan (old town) which was so beautiful to walk around and look at the old buildings and streets, some of which date back to the 13th century. It’s easy to get lost on the island as the maze of streets are so fun to explore.
Djurgärden island is home to most of the museums in the city. It’s also home to the Botanical Gardens which are worth the walk around. The views were beautiful and even though it rained the whole time we were there, it would be my top pick of places to have a wander around.
If you’re into going for some drinks I recommend starting with cocktails at The Nobis Hotel. It's a little swanky, but it does a great Espresso Martini and is brilliant for people watching.
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