The distillery at Talisker is ok, I did that tour among 9 others last year and it was my least favorite. But on the hill above the distillery you have to go up and eat at The Oyster Shed. Great views and incredible food
I know we’ve made some plans, but i can’t recall without the notes in front of me. Absolutely willing to take recs tho
Skye - Three Chimneys, Kinloch Lodge, and Loch Bay are all incredible. Three Chimneys and Loch Bay have Michelin stars and I thought Kinloch Lodge was every bit as good and with incredible scenery. Inverness - Malt Room like mentioned above is a great spot. For food I like River House, The Mustard Seed, and Contrast Brasserie (at the Glenmoriston hotel). First two are traditional, the last is a really crazy mashup menu of scottish classics with an asian twist. I didn't think it would be good and left blown away. Most of these places will need reservations so I'd check and see what's available.
Anybody flown out of Heathrow T5 lately and have any opinions on lounge options? Not gonna be first or business or anything.
My dudes....anyone out there rocking cross body bags? During last beach trip I really wanted one b/c I don't have enough pockets in my trunks for cell phone, wallet/cash, keys, etcs. Seen a lof of ppl rocking these. Whatcha got
I often say "As an American and therefore (whichever nationality)...." over here and it never fails to get an eye roll and a groan. People in Europe do NOT like it when you say you're *from* there when it was your great grandpappy. It's fun.
Beach? Backpack Walking around a city? Tote bag Day hike? Drawstring bag unless you need the backpack
I use a fanny pack I bought in Kathmandu when I go to music festivals. Gotta think I’d be immediately arrested if I tried to pass thru airport security with it.
I don't want to wear a backpack out to dinner/beach bar/cruising in the golf car. There are two separate functions here
I don't really use it while traveling but use it for the gym. Big fan as it fits 2 phones (work and personal), wallet, chapstick, and keys, no problem. https://www.cotopaxi.com/products/kapai-1-5l-hip-pack-del-dia?variant=41343083610173 For the beach, I use one a little bit bigger. https://www.rei.com/product/155776/patagonia-ultralight-black-hole-sling-bag?redirect-pup=false
Sicily isn't very big... Mondello to Cinisi or Terresini is like 20-30 minutes by car. Mondello has one of the best beaches in sicily... Take advantage of it... San Vito lo Capo is also amazing and it may be my personal favorite beach to visit. It's probably a 90 minute drive from Mondello but worth it. I'm going to call my cousin and see if she has any other restaurant recommendations
If you have any desire at all to go to Miami, Mila is one of the best restaurants in America in my opinion. The food is incredible and it's also just a beautiful restaurant with a great scene. It is truly a can't miss. Carbone is also one in Miami to look at, and it's great, but falls far below Mila imo (as does every other restaurant I've been to in South Florida). Blue Collar Diner is in a non-touristy part of Miami, and it's a casual diner, but the food is excellent. In FTL, Bistro Mezzaluna and Casa D'Angelo are very good for Italian. For seafood, they have a place on Las Olas called Lobster Bar which is great (but pricey) and is owned by the same group that has Chops in Atlanta. Laspadas is legit very very good for deli sandwiches if you want a quick and cheap meal. For a casual sit down lunch, I like Cafe Europa on Las Olas. I hate the Mai Kai is still closed!
We picked Monello for the beach and will be spending most of our 3 days either there or at the pool which overlooks the beach. I can't help myself on vacations though and always look for good dinner spots. Really nice of you to reach out to your cousin, thanks so much.
Still trying to provide reviews of my backlog of trips, so here is what I have for Montreal. Not sure if it should go here or the Official Montreal Thread. Spoiler I went to Montreal back in September. First time there, but have been wanting to go forever. Stayed at the Hyatt Centric. It just opened last year. Nice location in Old Montreal/watefront. Walkable to a main tourist area/street and along the river, but a few blocks removed from the hustle and bustle so not noisy. The rooftop pool/bar had great views. Went to Toque! the first night for dinner. Fine dining. Need reservations. It was good, but the vibe was lacking. It's supposed to be a classic fine dining destination in Montreal I believe, but it seems its time has passed it by. The menu offerings didn't really correlate to the high prices. The sommelier was great, however. Atwater Cocktail Club is internationally recognized. Great cocktail bar. On the smaller side, but a perfect spot for a few cocktails when you can grab a seat. Very assuming from the outside. Milk Way was another cool cocktail bar. As far as bagels- I enjoyed Fairmount much more than St Viateur. Go to Drogheria Fine after Fairmount. It's a walk up spot that serves freshly homemade gnocchi in chinese takeout boxes. Eat it with chopsticks. Super cool concept. Bernie Beigne is nearby and has great donuts. Loved the boston creme there. We also did champagne at Cardinal Tea Room. Walked through Jean-Talon market and had food at a few different stalls. Cafe Olimpico for a historic coffee spot. The second night we went to La Voute Supper Club. Place was a blast for our group. Located in an old bank building. You're served a massive sushi platter. Occasional shows by dancers throughout dinner. Then turns into a full on club later on. I met PK Subban while there. Chez Paree for a strip club. Notre Dame was beautiful inside. Do the little walk/hike up Mount Royal for a great review of the city. My favorite dinner was at Pichai. Small neighborhood joint serving unique Thai dishes. I think our group nearly ordered everything on the menu and loved almost all of it. Mon Lapin was the one restaurant I wanted to go to, but couldn't get a reservation that worked with our limited time there.
Wore a lululemon one the whole time in Italy, was much better than carrying a wallet phone and passport in my pocket
Thanks I appreciate all the recommendations. I wanted to try Bouchon in Miami (and also just get into Miami a bit generally and look around) but we've decided that we don't want to invest the time driving to Miami and back. So we're going to be doing all our eating in FLL. From what I can tell, FLL still has great restaurants.
We are thinking Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon. Maybe a stop enbetween. We don't really have our minds set on seeing any one place.
We spent a couple weeks in Europe last year and I never did a write-up. I'll start it now and add to it as I remember more. Direct flight leaving FLL at 10pm to Oslo and flew premium/nicest class and it was worth it. So much space. We slept the entire time though, so maybe it wasn't? Landed in the morning Oslo - 3 nights . 9.5/10 This was my favorite City of the ones we visited. All we really did was walk around and check out all the local sites. We stayed at the Grand Hotel Oslo and it was super nice. Probably nicest hotel I'll ever stay in. It was right across the street from their Parliament. Stockholm - 3 nights: 9/10 We took a flight to Stockholm in the morning of day 4 and stayed on the water near City center. It sounded cool to be right on the water there, but it made it colder than it already was ~60's. I spent a few hours running around looking for hats and gloves and all the locals got a kick out of it because it's "summer" there. We wandered around and checked out a castle nearby, the Abba museum, and a few other random stops. The Stockholm Marathon was going on while we were there and it was cool to see all the people running it. There was a group of Ethiopian runners that were sprinting the entire time. It's one thing to see it on TV, but these guys are gliding with minimal effort. Their City center is really cool. We were walking down the stairs and I felt like I had been there before. It reminded me of a Tony Hawk level. This pic is the best I can find on Google for now. It's from 2017. If anyone knows the level I'm thinking about, please share. Spoiler: Pic similar to Tony Hawk level View attachment 222963 Copenhagen - 3 nights. 6/10 We took a train from Stockholm to Copenhagen. I don't remember how long it was, but it went by quickly. Copenhagen was my least favorite of the cities we visited. The best part of this stay was going to Malmo. We really loved Malmo and spent several hours there. We took a ~30 minute train ride to Malmo. We rode around on scooters and checked out the history. There was a soccer game that afternoon so we found tickets. The game was sold out (this is about an hour before kickoff), but I got pretty good tickets. This is from our seats. Hotel: Skt Petri Spoiler: Hotel link https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g189541-d280740-Reviews-Skt_Petri-Copenhagen_Zealand.html
Bergen - 2 nights. 8/10 We booked a flight to Bergen after our first night in Amsterdam and couldn't find a good hotel, so we ended up staying at an AirBNB. It wasn't the best, but it had a washer/dryer so we attempted to clean some of our clothes. This City was the most beautiful of everywhere we visited. We didn't do much other than walk around and eat. There was a Grateful Dead concert while we were there, so there were thousands of people decked out in all black. Tickets were sold out and I couldn't find tickets online with such short notice. It sounded fun though. View attachment 223437 Ål , Norway - 1 night 5/10 We had purchased plane tickets back to Oslo for our flight home, but we wanted to check out the fjords, waterfalls, and countryside so we ditched our flight and took a train from Bergen to Oslo. It was a beautiful trip, but I can't find any pics. A few hours in I was getting really bored so I asked my wife if she was cool getting off at one of the stops along the way. The train stopped at Ål and my wife decided that's where we were getting off. The train attendant thought we were joking when we said we were getting off here. He tried to talk us out of it, but we didn't listen. We ended up having to walk about a mile to get to the town/village center. We went to a local Chinese restaurant because it was the only thing open and met some nice people. An older couple agreed to let us stay in their basement for the night. The skies here seemed fake. I don't know how to explain it. Everything there was like 4K TV. Spoiler: Map to see where Al is We then took the train to Oslo and hung out and explored more before our direct flight from Oslo to FLL.
One thing I didn't talk about at all was the food. The food in all the cities sucked outside of Stockholm. Some of the worst food I've ever eaten was in Norway.
Thanks for the write up. I leave for Copenhagen in late May and have zero plans. My buddy moved there two months ago, so gonna stay with him for a bit. Possibly hit up Stockholm and Oslo as well. I wanted to do Lofoten, but not sure if it’ll work out.
Planning a Scandinavian trip for next year so appreciate the write up as well. And sorry, but can't help but laugh as well at running out to buy hat and gloves because the weather is in the 60s. That's ideal walking around Europe weather.
I mean Chinese food in a small mountain town like Ål has to be near the bottom of the worldwide food rankings.