Travel Reviews + Breaking News
Welcome to our travel site where we write up travel news of interest, and review hotels and restaurants that we have visited in our travels. In the past we stayed in a lot of hostels and a number of these properties have changed names several times and more than a few no longer exist. We will look to cover more content around Street Art as that is one of our favourite items to find in our travels around the world.
- SkyLounge AmsterdamWow what an amazing view of the city and watching Sunset with a cold beer and some good company is epic, but damn the prices for a pint or beer or a burger is something that puts similar venues in London or New York in the budget bracket. Don’t be a hero and shout your mates a drink, you will need to take out a personal loan if you are dumb enough to start a… Read more: SkyLounge Amsterdam
- Hostels in London
London is still a bit hit and miss when it comes to hostels, there are amazing hostels, cheap hostels that are brilliant bargains and a handful of hostels that need to be shutdown. There are around 91 hostels listed on HostelWorld from just €5/night but you can always find new ones popping up and old ones being re-branded. The top things to think about when you are booking a hostel in London is Want to… Read more: Hostels in London - London Marriott Hotel Canary Wharf bed bug bites
So I had high hopes at this property in August having walked past it hundreds of times when I lived in London or I visited Canary Wharf. The hotel was near London City Airport so also made for an easy location as I flew in late in the evening and didn’t want to have to face travelling across London with my luggage. When I checked into the hotel the Marriott staff were friendly and welcoming… Read more: London Marriott Hotel Canary Wharf bed bug bites - STRAAT Museum for Street Art
The 8000m2 former warehouse located at NDSM wharf houses STRAAT a world class museum for street art & graffiti with over 180 art works on display from atleast 170 artists from around the world. The surrounding area of NDSM features NDSM walls which is a legal area for street artists from around the world to create 24/7. STRAAT is curated by a world class team of street art enthusiasts and recently hosted an amazing exhibition… Read more: STRAAT Museum for Street Art - Holiday Inn Lisbon Continental Review
If you are booking a trip to Lisbon be aware that there are actually 7 Holiday Inn locations across the city. The location I stayed at is officially called Holiday Inn Lisbon – Continental but Campo Pequeno is one of the more popular locations for people doing short stop overs due to it’s proximity to the Humberto Delgado Airport. It’s just 15-20 minutes away from the airport by taxi and far enough of our town… Read more: Holiday Inn Lisbon Continental Review - Sea Spray Boutique Hotel review
Sea Spray Brighton is a cute little boutique B&B located just off Marine Parade in Brighton. The location is a short 9 minute way to Brighton Palace Pier and just a few minutes from Brighton Seafront. The hotel is a 28 minute walk from Brighton Train station or there are several bus options that take around 20-24 minutes to get there. There is a bit of a hill up from Brighton Palace Pier so if… Read more: Sea Spray Boutique Hotel review - Courtyard by Marriott Parsippany review
This 3 star Marriott property is located out in New Jersey halfway between Parsippany-Troy Hills, Denville and Mountain Lakes. The hotel is 28 miles or about 35 minutes in an uber from Newark Liberty International Airport and about 35 miles from Manhattan, NYC. The 3 story property is fairly well laid out but during the stay one of the lifts failed so you had to walk to the other side of the property if you… Read more: Courtyard by Marriott Parsippany review - Statue of Liberty City Cruises
I would suggest booking an early morning tour if you can as a number of people stay on the island for several hours… I had a 9am ticket which meant waiting in a massive line for airport style security checks. The whole process took at 45 minutes as I arrived at 845am and was packed aboard the boat with hundreds of other people. Remember that Statue City Cruises is the ONLY vendor authorized to provide… Read more: Statue of Liberty City Cruises - Residence Inn by Marriott New York Downtown review
The location is great just a few minutes walk from Fulton Street station and just minutes from Wall Street. This is the 3 star property that is being reviewed located on 215 Pearl Street just next to the Four Points Sheraton New York Downtown. It’s easy to get confused with the Residence Inn by Marriott New York Downtown Manhattan/World Trade Center Area which is the 4 star hotel located on 170 Broadway, New York. When… Read more: Residence Inn by Marriott New York Downtown review - Niu Dairy Haarlem Review
We stayed one night at the former dairy building now known as Niu Dairy as it was good value with rooms from under €70 and was walking distance to the main part of Haarlem. Room 405 was very quite and the hotel felt very modern with fun blue beanbag seat, small desk good enough for writing postcards and a decent sized TV compared to the scale of the room. There was also a Bluetooth speaker… Read more: Niu Dairy Haarlem Review - Shu Restaurant Belfast review
This was a lovely spot for a romantic dinner when visiting Belfast, please make sure to book a table ahead of time as the place is fairly popular. The staff were friendly and full of enthusiasm and their house bread was simply magic I almost went for a second basket. Entre was some succulent herd potato gnocchi with beetroot puree, pickled beetroot and ricotta. I asked them to leave out the spiced seeds but it… Read more: Shu Restaurant Belfast review - Hampton by Hilton Belfast City Centre review
We picked Hampton by Hilton Belfast hotel as a get away spot for our Christmas present to ourselves, I also picked it for it’s close location to Great Victoria Street train station. I did forget to check that the Enterprise train from Dublin stops at Lanyon Place Station but still was only a 20 minute walk or about £7 in an uber but it was much closer than the Holiday Inn Express we stayed in… Read more: Hampton by Hilton Belfast City Centre review - Gleneagles Townhouse Edinburgh
For the first time in Gleneagles’ history, this spring they are expanding the brand beyond the Perthshire hills to open a lively new 33-room hotel right in the heart of Edinburgh. Home to some of the most vibrant eating and drinking experiences in the city, Gleneagles Townhouse will include an all-day restaurant, The Spence, and roof terrace bar, Lamplighters, with views across Edinburgh’s iconic skyline. It will also be home to a members’ club with… Read more: Gleneagles Townhouse Edinburgh - YHA New Zealand managed hostels closes
After operations running over 89 years Coronavirus has impacted yet another global travel brand with 11 YHA New Zealand manged hostels will shut down on the 15th December 2021, while the domestic bookings rose significantly it wasn’t enough to offset the drop in internationally travellers. YHA guest bookings up to and including these dates remain in place and hostels will be operating as usual until then. YHA are cancelling and fully refunding all bookings for… Read more: YHA New Zealand managed hostels closes - Switzerland to require negative Covid-19 test + 10 days quarantine
The Swiss government has started to add a number of countries to it’s risk country list. The Swiss embassy in the UK has also just advised when boarding a plane and entering Switzerland, all persons travelling from the UK must present a negative COVID-19 test and quarantine for 10 days. The new variant Omicron has occurred in the Czech Republic, Belgium, Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Egypt and Malawi. It seems a number… Read more: Switzerland to require negative Covid-19 test + 10 days quarantine - KLM will temporarily stop all long-haul flights
Following the Dutch governments requirement for a double negative test from all travellers flying to The Netherlands, KLM has announced they will stop all long-haul and some short haul flights within Europe. The requirement for every traveller to have both negative PCR and a negative antigen test including crew has currently proved too much for KLM. KLM said the main reason was they didn’t want to risk having to leave crew members abroad due to… Read more: KLM will temporarily stop all long-haul flights - Schiphol ban all of South America, UK and South Africa flights
The Dutch government announced on Wednesday 20th November that there will be a flight ban for air traffic from all over South America, the United Kingdom and South Africa from 23 January. This is to slow the spread of the new strains of Coronavirus from UK (B.1.1.7 variant), Brazil (mutation E484K) and South Africa (variant B.1.351). This is the first actual proactive steps made by the Dutch government to slow the spread of Coronavirus from… Read more: Schiphol ban all of South America, UK and South Africa flights - 51.3% of the South won’t change Christmas travel plans due to Coronavirus
A survey we conducted using Google Consumer Survey platform with data from 500 US based respondents shows that 44.6% of people across the USA said No they won’t change their Christmas travel plans due to Coronavirus. But we didn’t have enough survey respondents to ensure a statically significant answer for all the regions in the USA just the Southern states The survey was started on the 23rd November 2020 and finished on the 27th November… Read more: 51.3% of the South won’t change Christmas travel plans due to Coronavirus - Tokyo Highlights [Virtual Tour]
Yoshi was great tour guide and fun we did this as a present for my wife as she has always wanted to travel to Japan but due to Coronavirus that wasn’t possible this year. It was also nice to get some tips from a local when we can hopefully travel to Japan in 2021. The virtual tour of Tokyo is run by Japan Wonder Travel who Yoshi and is a great ambassador for Japanese culture.-Yoshi… Read more: Tokyo Highlights [Virtual Tour] - 45.9%* change Thanksgiving day travel plans due to Coronavirus?
A survey we conducted using Google Consumer Survey platform with data from 501 out of a total planned 500 US based respondents* shows that yes 45.3% said the Coronavirus pandemic had changed their Thanksgiving day travel plans. The survey was started on the 23rd November 2020 and finished on the 28th November 2020 with our analysis was done on 383 weighted responses. It seems based on earlier smaller surveys run last week the amount of… Read more: 45.9%* change Thanksgiving day travel plans due to Coronavirus? - 5% discount off your Airbnb booking fee
Airbnb are ramping up their marketing activities again with a newsletter campaign offering you a 5% discount off your booking fee! The maximum coupon value is AUD$35 which is ok but is it enough for you to book your Airbnb by the 10th December 2020? This article is also available in: - Qantas requires Coronavirus vaccine for international travellers
In an interview on A Current Affair on Channel 9 in Australia the CEO of Qantas Alan Joyce said they are looking at adjusting their terms & conditions to require passengers to prove they have received a Coronavirus vaccine. Social media has something of a melt down over the idea with crazy anti-vaxxers trying to get #BoycottQantas trending but Alan Joyce has made the right decision in protecting his passengers and business. It’s still to… Read more: Qantas requires Coronavirus vaccine for international travellers - Disneyland Paris closes temporarily
With actions intended to slow the spread of Coronavirus and in line with latest direction from the French authorities, Disneyland Paris will be closing end of day on October 29th. In anticipation of celebrating the Christmas holiday season we will be taking reservations from December 19 – January 3 and hope to be open based on prevailing conditions and government guidance at that time. Disneyland Paris will be closed from January 4 through February 12.… Read more: Disneyland Paris closes temporarily - The Roosevelt Hotel closes
In what might be one of the most high profile closes due to Coronavirus, the Manhattan landmark has closed after 96 years. The NYC hotel opened on September 22nd 1924 by American politician, hotelier and lawyer Frank A Dudley and was named in honor resident Theodore Roosevelt. The hotel is one of the larger hotels in NYC with 1,025 rooms with 33 suites over 19 floors. The hotel was shut by owners Pakistan International Airlines… Read more: The Roosevelt Hotel closes - Alitalia replaced by ITA
The heavily indebted and failing national carrier Alitalia is finally due to be replaced, with the new state owned ITA. ITA stands for Italia Trasporto Aereo (Italy Air Transport) and might be much easier for tourists to stay. One bigger hurdle for the new airline is ensuring it can be found by travellers in Google as currently it faces competition from Google’s own Matrix software Also in The Netherlands ITA stands for International Theatre Amsterdam… Read more: Alitalia replaced by ITA
Summary
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David Iwanow
I have been travelling around the world since I was young and travel is in my blood. I've travelled to almost 40 countries around the world and can now be found based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I've visited over 8,100 places with 16,236 checkins on Foursquare/Swarm and I'm a level 10 Google Local Guide with 911 reviews and having posted 18,571 photos which have been viewed 195 million times.