Now there aren’t that many truly traditional pubs left in the country. A bold statement, I know, but let me qualify it for a moment: by traditional I mean no Sky Sports, no jukebox – in fact, no telly or music at all. Just a quiet corner to pop into and enjoy a pint of proper ale with some civilised conversation.

Unless, of course, you are lucky enough to stumble across a Sam Smith’s pub. Still owned and operated independently by Humphrey Smith, the Tadcaster based brewery takes a pride in offering something completely different and a wee bit special. Oh – and as of recently, there are no mobile phones to interrupt your relaxing mug of ale either. Or any other electronic devices for that matter, due to a brewery ban on them. It’s taking a little while to get through despite the best efforts of the managers and staff (we popped into a few where punters are still not cottoning on), but by and large they’re getting there. And it’s oh so peaceful. Bliss, actually.

One of the finest Sam Smith’s pubs we’ve come across is the Victoria Hotel in Cleveleys, Lancashire, beautifully run by landlords Marcus Howard and Jackie Hole. It’s a bit like stepping back in time, but in every way that’s good. The perfectly kept beers and lagers are own brand, and very cheap compared to much of the competition; a decent pint of lager will set you back a mere £1.40 (yes, you read that right) and a cask ale just £2.

The Vic (as it’s affectionately known to locals) is one of those rare establishments that seems to be operated for the benefit of the patrons. Marcus and Jackie run a tight ship, and it shows in the superb levels of service as well as in how clean and welcoming the place is. The whole team are a credit to them, and on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays you can sample Jackie’s fabulous cuisine – the delicious meals won’t set you back a fortune either.

What’s really great about this pub (apart from the fact that it’s a wonderful old building and full of character) is that you can see the love and care lavished upon it. There is a real sense of pride, and I congratulate the management on a job superbly done.

So if you ever happen to be in the area and fancy a real treat, give the Vic a try. We’d like to say – for all the right reasons – that it’s probably one of the best pubs in the world. Congratulations guys.

The Victoria Hotel
183 Victoria Road West
Cleveleys
Lancashire
FY5 3PZ
United Kingdom

Telephone: 01253 853306

One thing that is almost as important as where you stay in Northern Ireland is where you eat. Belfast has undergone a little bit of a culinary revolution and has some fantastic places to visitors and locals alike to enjoy. There is a variety of fare and prices so there is something for everyone to enjoy and here are five of the top choices according to research and reviews from sources such as TripAdvisor.

Bia: 216 Falls Road, Belfast BT12 6AH:

The food served at Bia is listed as Irish, Bistro, Asian fusion, Sandwiches and it gets top marks all around. They serve Breakfast/Brunch and Late Night food so you can stop in just about anytime. With a focus on high quality food, service and reasonable prices.

Holohan’s: 1 Lanyon Quay, Belfast BT1 3LG:

This hot spot has a focus on classic Irish cuisine and serves it all day fresh and hot. Customers who go rave about the service and how good the food tastes, the often time special seared scallops served on pearl barley risotto with pea puree and bacon seems to be a favourite.

The Dock: Titanic Quarter, Belfast BT1 2QH:

This restaurant boasts European cuisine and a unique twist, it is an honest box café. What this means is that the buns, soup and coffee have no price tag on them. The café just trusts that people will pay a fair price for what they get. The staff is even volunteers! This unique aspect and the great food make it a must stop café.

Howard Street: 56 Howard Street, Belfast BT1 6PG:

A restaurant that offers a variety of gourmet food including lavender infused Hendricks. They have a lunch menu, Ala carte and a Pre theatre menu as well.

Saphyre: 135 Lisburn road, Belfast, BT9 7AG:

Serves Irish contemporary food and serves a menu for Breakfast/Brunch through late night. The fare here is fine dining and you will leave being impressed and feeling like you have been treated like royalty.

Thinking of a culinary exploration of Belfast? Base yourself at the nearby La Mon hotel for as little as €87 per night. You won’t even have to travel far for a taster of what Belfast has to offer as their Shakespeare restaurant has a menu worth travelling for and the awards to back it up.

You can pretty much guarantee that London will give you a good time, no matter who you are.

Whether you’re a tourist visiting the bright lights of England’s capital for the first time, or a hardened Londoner who chews on jellied eels, bellows Knees up Mother Brown at passers-by and understands why taxi drivers don’t go “sath of tha riva”, there are always new discoveries to be made in this sprawling city.

Of course, other guides might try to fob you off by recommending the staples – Buckingham Palace, Westminster, the National Gallery. But we’ve put together something a little different, the places that it might not occur to you to visit.

If you’re travelling from Gatwick Airport, drop your car off at the Gatwick Meet and Greet, make your way into the city and get ready for a good time.

Have your Great Expectations met at the Charles Dickens Museum.

Charles Dickens – writer of Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and countless others – used London as the canvas for almost all his tales. Famously, the esteemed writer would wander around the most impoverished areas of the capital at night, using the squalor as inspiration.

The Charles Dickens Museum is the home to this legend’s canon, and features a slew of facts, relics and manuscripts from the writer’s life. Situated in the house where Dickens once lived, it’s a truly unique experience that almost lets you breathe the same air as one of Victorian England’s true greats.

The finest grub in Chinatown

Chinatown is one of the finest places to eat in all of London – that is, if you’re a fan of Chinese food.

To start with, try out the modestly priced Four Seasons, a restaurant famed for its Cantonese-style roast duck. If you’re heading down Wardour Street, you’ll find it easy to spot – it’s the one with the barbecued meats displayed in the window.

If you’re looking for a more authentic look to your dining, try out Longji on Charing Cross Road. Kitted out just like a Hong Kong fast food joint, it’ll give you the flavour of Asia in both sight and taste.

A laugh of an evening

The Comedy Store has become a mecca for stand-up comedy in the UK, priding itself on presenting the best in up and coming comics.

Originally making its name during the alternative comedy scene of the 80s, it played host to figures like Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Paul Merton, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, among others.

Now, it’s where comics come to make a name for themselves and, if you’re up for a laugh, it’s the perfect end to your night.

I have repaired to many chain hotels during my lifetime of travel, and more than once to the ubiquitous brand of Premier Inn. I have, I believe, always found those particular establishments to offer a good reliable standard of comfortable, spacious rooms, coupled with a pleasing range of food and drink; in short, one can usually depend upon a Premier Inn to deliver well and readily.

On a precious few occasions, however, in that big blue moon of travel, one can stumble across something quite unique, an establishment that sets itself apart from the daily run of things. Such was my experience of the Kidderminster Premier Inn.

Beset by a handful of retail giants, glitteringly holding hands around a busy, late autumn car park, it takes a few moments and closer inspection for the first marvel of this establishment to strike its target, namely, that the hotel has made its home in the impressively and lovingly restored Slingfield Mill. The second note of excitement sounds in the fact that the reception, adjacent to the establishment’s eatery and bar, is located all topsy-turvy on the top floor; moreover, in the loft!

This cannot fail to put a smile onto the face of any weary traveller, but this is immediately enhanced by a dedicated team – and this includes every last one we had the pleasure to meet – who positively bubble over with enthusiasm to serve you as well as you might possibly be served, always willing to hold discourse with you over pretty much any subject you might want to bring up, and at all times with a warm and genuine smile. Presided over by the very amiable and capable Ross, the whole experience of this delightful hostelry is a happy and welcoming one – it actually feels as though it were privately owned and run by a big, warm, loving family who want you to have the best of times while staying with them; great fun but always tip-top and professional.

‘The Kitchen’ – the name attributed to the excellent loft eatery – is something quite apart from any other chain restaurant I have sampled. The food is simple and delicious, served fresh and with aplomb, and the environment in which it is consumed convivial, chic and relaxing. A perfect combination tied beautifully together by the vivacious team of which mention has already been made.

Add to this propitious brew comfortable, clean rooms and the most convenient of locations, and it occurs to me that many a large and reputable hotel chain, and indeed all the other goodly Premier Inns, could do well to take this shining example as their guide and business model.

Visit www.premierinn.com/kidderminster

Premier Inn Kidderminster
Slingfield Mill
Weavers Wharf
Kidderminster
DY10 1AA
England

Tel.: 0044 (0)871 527 9350

To sit, of an evening, in a quietly bustling city square, devoid of traffic save for the intermittent buzz of a passing cycle hither and thither, your horizon a vista of spires and steeples sympathetically lit in cinematic blue and gold, sipping local wine and tasting local dishes, is surely a slice of Heaven itself.

It is what makes European city breaks so special, that elusive, season-hardy café society that the English shun and covet at the same time.

Maastricht has bars and restaurants like these aplenty, but one of particular note and fulsome character has to be the remarkable Brasserie Monopole, resplendent in red and purple on Vrijthof.

The beers, wines and spirits are of the usual high standard, but it is the conviviality and food that set this little venue among the supremos. Whether choosing a light and local bite, or a more substantial meat, fish or pasta dish, this fine example of Dutch eateries will stay with you longer than most.

A few hours spent here is most certainly a few hours well spent.

Visit www.brasseriemonopole.nl

Brasserie Monopole
Vrijthof 3
6211 LC Maastricht
Netherlands

0031 (0)43 321 4090

Email info@brasseriemonopole.nl

There is something very special about a European city break. It almost matters not whither you go; splendid town halls, vast and thriving squares, twisty cobbled weinds and ancient churches abound.

When exploring Holland, the first, and a very deserving, port of call is the capital, Amsterdam. But most Brits tend to overlook two other of our favourite Dutch cities, save for a dismissive nod to connections with war crimes trials and treaties – namely Den Haag and Maastricht. The former is covered elsewhere in these pages, so it is to the second of these fine metropolises that we bend our attention here.

Situated adjacent to the River Maas, this majestic conurbation seamlessly blends old with new; ancient with modern.

From the 17th century Stadhuis on Markt, with its splendidly ornate and melodious bell tower, quite happy to regale an audience with fullsong every hour on the hour, and a chirrupy burst of just a stanza or two to mark the quarters, to the vastness of Vrijthof, sporting a skyline comprising the spires of Sint-Servaas Basiliek, the Romanesque church of Saint Servatius, on its far horizon, Maastricht is a city that doesn’t disappoint architecturally. A place of deep histories and subtle energy, this dynamo of an urban settlement imbues the wanderer’s soul with a temperate excitement that informs the tourist that, if he hasn’t already, he must become a traveller with all fortitude.

Boasting 52 churches – one for every week of the year – and over 400 bars – more than one for every day of the year – Maastricht has the wherewithal to entertain the most discerning visitor. Turn a different corner and there is something new to peruse, walk another street and some ancient wonder presents itself. Akin with many of its European counterparts, the city has a great student population, and this lends itself to a feeling of vibrant relaxation.

Whether one requires to simply while away a pleasant few hours – or even days – just basking in the laid-back charm of the city, or more actively partake of its many museums, events and cultural diversity, Maastricht will not be overlooked by the adventurer displaying even an ounce of sagacity.

World Travel Blog especially recommends:

Tijl Uilenspiegel
Break your fast leisurely whilst watching the world go by on the city’s famous and beautiful Markt…
Find out more

Café La Clé
Situated on Maastricht’s quaintly picturesque promenade, this stylish little café bar is one of the few to offer a late drink…
Find out more

Brasserie Grand Café Amadeus
Tucked up a serene little byway off one of Maastricht’s busy shopping streets, this eatery offers simply divine local dishes…
Find out more

The Maastricht Solar Train
Be green and lean whilst exploring this fine city, with the uber environmentally friendly little solar train…
Find out more

D’n 11e Baog
Perfect for taking in the hustle and bustle along Maastricht’s promenade, and with a delightful view of the River Maas…
Find out more

Brasserie Monopole
Be where it’s at in the city hubbub of Vrijthof, while safely tucked into a quiet corner to enjoy your victuals…
Find out more

It’s a romantic notion, akin to an inherent idea alive in an abundance of souls worldwide, transcending time, tide and all mortal perception; a soft, quiet evening in the right quarter of that anciently magnificent city of Paris can surround one with a deliciously impenetrable aura of bliss.

Such an evening was hewed from the rain soaked streets of that wonderful metropolis in the 12th district, on the north bank of the Seine, from a quiet table for two on the pavement of En Attendant L’Or, an unassumingly perfect little bar that mademoiselle fortune threw in our way.

Watching the dampened throng dash backwards and forwards, whither does not concern us, whilst partaking of a leisurely glass or two of beer, over discourse with good friends, is time spent most agreeably. When the tenacity and volume of the rain persuaded us, finally, to repair to the cosiness of the interior, the pleasantness of the experience was not diminished even slightly, and we availed ourselves of the tempting provender, supplemented by further supplies of ale, with alacrity.

When it was eventually time to bend our steps back to our hotel, it was with a sweet sorrow that we left this beautiful establishment in our wake; good bars are plentiful, but perfect ones are found only once in a big blue moon.

Visit www.facebook.com/En.Attendant.Lor.Paris

En Attendant L’Or
6 Rue Faidherbe
75011 Paris
France

Tel.: 0033 1 43 71 43 10

Email kandia75011@gmail.com

When I first repaired to the stunning Kentish seaside town of Whitstable, I had little idea that it would be so dedicated and devoted to one of my childhood heroes, the much loved English actor Peter Cushing.

That this fine working actor was one of the town’s favourite residents is evident in many tributes, but none more poignant than the local J D Wetherspoon pub, aptly and simply named The Peter Cushing.

Once the Oxford cinema, the chain took over the building in 2011, transforming it into an Art Deco style palace, while retaining the essence and dignity of its former incarnation. The foyer is beautifully preserved, bedecked with posters and stills from classic films of the fifties and sixties, while the main hall itself is a splendidly magnificent auditorium, majestically presided over at the bar end by a huge, wall sized black and white print of Cushing and Robert Urquhart in Hammer’s 1957 production of The Curse of Frankenstein. Some of the star’s original paintings also grace the walls, celebrating the multiple talents of this true English gentleman.

The provender on offer is the usual fantastic bill of fare we’ve become used to from the Wetherspoon stable, representing first class quality and exceptional value for money. There’s an equally impressive selection of ales and lagers, complemented by superb wines, spirits and cocktails, all at extremely reasonable prices.

This superbly run establishment is an absolute pleasure to patronise, and is indeed the perfect homage to one of the true British greats of cinema.

Visit www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-peter-cushing

16 – 18 Oxford Street
Whitstable
Kent
CT5 1DD
England

Tel.: 0044 (0)1227 284100

Part – some would say all – of the excitement of exploring a new city is rooted in the thrill of surprise.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of discovery, of treading streets which are familiar to countless previous visitors and inhabitants, but which feel completely new to you. And if you find yourself wandering up Nottingham’s Victoria Street, you’ll find yourself astonished in all the right ways when you encounter the Pit and Pendulum, lowering mischievously behind a suitably brooding facade.

Part of the Eerie Pubs group – which has spread its cadaverous fingers across the UK, from Aberdeen to London – the Pit and Pendulum is the kind of easygoing rock-Goth-grunge bar you like to think you’d have gone to when you were an angsty teen. The guitar-music backdrop is loud enough to enjoy, but won’t drown out a conversation. The “spooky castle” decor (complete with grotesques, chandeliers and alchemy apparatus) treads a fine line between moody drama and knowing, nudge-wink camp throughout this sprawling venue. And it’s dark enough to be atmospheric without making you fall down the stairs.

Fundamentally, though, the Pit and Pendulum is a damn fine eating and drinking establishment. There’s an excellent choice of bottled beers and cask ales, not to mention all the spirits and cocktails you’d care to mention. Meanwhile, a surprisingly extensive food menu runs the gamut from light snacks to full meals, making this a hostelry catering for all appetites.

It’s tasteful, it’s tasty, and it’s absolutely brimming over with character. Whether you’re fortunate enough to be able to visit regularly, or only have chance for a single swift pint (if the Titanic Porter’s on draught, it comes highly recommended), the Pit and Pendulum is the kind of pub you feel a whole lot richer for having visited.

And besides, any alehouse that hides its toilets behind a false wall in the library has got to be worth a look, hasn’t it?

Visit www.eerie-pubs.co.uk/pit-pendulum

The Pit and Pendulum
17 Victoria Street
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG1 2EW
England

Tel.: 0044 (0)115 950 6383

Revisiting what we dubbed “the best restaurant in the world” did not come without a sizeable gulp of trepidation.

Our perfect evenings at Sa Pedrera d’es Pujol, nestling in the sleepy village of Torret on the idyllic Spanish island of Menorca, were some years ago. The restaurant has undergone some structural alterations too – would it be as good, exude the same charm, rightfully retain its place at the top of our tree?

Discovering that it is still lovingly presided over by Daniel Mora and his partner, Nuria, was the first reassurance we had when booking; the rest would all become apparent on the night.

That very occasion arrived, and our cab pulled into the driveway of the restaurant as the last of the September sunshine kissed a nearby meadow goodnight. We were immediately greeted by José, our waiter for the evening, and furnished with “special” gin and tonics. So far, so good.

The remodelling of the front of Sa Pedrera needs to be seen in the metal to appreciate it fully. Completely sympathetic to the original building, it enhances the rustic charm with cosseting but clean industrial lines, making a bold statement that this precocious child has come of age; what was excellent is now perfect.

Daniel has totally surpassed himself with his new menu, each mouthwatering delight playing the senses with the reassurance of a familiar instrument, yet one imbued with the vitality of new discoveries, never once pretentious or contrived. This master chef has an inbuilt instinct for the very best culinary adventures, effortlessly marrying flavours and textures in supreme happiness, and presenting the resultant spectacle with his signature style. All this adds up to a magnificent party of delicate indulgence on the palate, leaving you in marvellous anticipation of what’s to follow. Disappointment is out of the question.

So, in summary, is Sa Pedrera d’es Pujol still the best restaurant in the world? Well, if it’s possible, it actually got a little better. And if you have no other reason to venture to this breathtaking island than to discover this for yourself, then your efforts will be amply rewarded.

Visit: www.sapedreradespujol.com

Sa Pedrera d’es Pujol
Caserío Torret
23 – Sant Lluís
Menorca
Spain

Tel.: 0034 971 150 717

Email: sapedreradespujol@hotmail.es

main image © Sa Pedrera d’es Pujol

See also: Sa Pedrera d’es Pujol – the best restaurant in the world!