A Local's Top 7 things to do in London

London's overwhelmingly large and full of places worth visiting. Although you might think prioritising 7 things to do in the city might limit your impressions of the place, if you manage to tick the 7 boxes, chances are you'll have a mighty good idea of what the real London's like. So, in no particular order, here's a local's top 7.

Tate Modern

Free art's always a pleasure, particularly when on holiday and keen on exploring the local art scene. The Tate Modern's home to various permanent exhibitions that are open to all, and changing temporary shows that have a cover fee. As the art on show is often interactive, children will love the experience too. Before heading out, be sure to visit the museum and book shops to get some original post cards and other arty artefacts.

Barbican

It may function as an arts and conference centre, but the Barbican's so much more. An architectural treasure, the complex is well worth exploring. Take the time to walk through the inner courtyards and enjoy the gardens and fountains along the way. Visit the arts centre to see what's on and snap up some tickets. The Barbican's home to the London Symphony Orchestra so you could be in for a great concert. For visual art connoisseurs, the gallery's worth visiting.

Borough Market

A foodie's paradise tucked in under the railway viaducts between the Thames and Borough High Street, Borough Market is held on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Although the market tends to get as busy as Oxford Street, the atmosphere is unlike anywhere else in London. Market stalls are packed with fresh, often organic produce delivered from around the country. Great not only as a a place to stock up on your vitamin C, the market is home to various stalls selling burgers, pastries and other lunchtime munchies. Most sellers are also very generous in handing out tasters.

Camden Market

Camden Market is a treat. For years it's drawn in the crowds, particularly at weekends, with its many cool and quirky stalls selling anything from homemade donuts to clothing made out of hemp. The market's also a great destination for anyone seeking affordable food in London. Lots of stalls offer Asian staples like noodles and spring rolls all day, and at the end of the day sell them for ridiculously low prices.

Shoreditch, Spitalfields, Brick Lane

Known as an area where the young and hip hang out, Shoreditch, Spitalfields and Brick Lane are host to a range of markets, shops and nightlife hotspots. A good place to admire the best of London's fashion, quirky hair cuts and tattoos. Certainly worth a visit if you're looking to find a unique piece of vintage clothing, or hoping to have a drink at one of Europe's trendiest bars.

The London Eye

Although certainly a favourite among tourists, locals will find it hard to argue with suggesting the London Eye as a must-see sight. Quite simply, the views you'll see from atop the ferris wheel are the best you'll get. It's a fun ride, and booked in advance, won't break the bank.

Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath is where locals head to for a breath of fresh air and a day outdoors. As one of the highest points in the city, the heath offers views that are a strong rival to those seen from the London Eye. With forests, ponds, sporting grounds and pools to discover, you could easily spend an entire day getting lost in the park. Don't forget to walk by Kenwood House, an old stately home.

Armed with fresh insider knowledge of the city, forget you're a tourist as soon as you step outside your comfortable London hotel and enjoy the city as a local.
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America's Best Cities for New Years

But it wasn’t what she’d hoped. “On the last day of the year, Las Vegas turns into a disrupted anthill—too chaotic and wild for me,” says Blair, now a travel blogger based in Minneapolis. “I was surprised Las Vegas could get any more amped up. It just brings out the wildest of the wild.”

Of course, that anthill level of excitement doesn’t scare everyone away. In the latest Travel + Leisuresurvey, Sin City ranked No. 5 out of 35 as the best American city for New Year’s Eve.

The best place to spend New Year’s Eve was just one part of the America’s Favorite Cities survey, where Travel + Leisure readers ranked 35 U.S. cities in 54 categories, such as the best luxury shopping, the best live music, and even the best coffee bars.

Finding a great place to celebrate New Year’s Eve is important. While many of us keep a standing New Year’s date with the TV and a pair of fuzzy slippers, more than 1 in 4 Americans plan to travel this year to welcome in 2011.

Like Blair, not everyone who travels for New Year’s wants a raucous time. When we looked at the Top 25 for New Year’s in the AFC survey, a mix of great live music, good bars, and wild weekend potential helped bolster many cities’ rankings. But warm weather also seemed to play a huge role. Two of the Top 10 cities are on islands, two are in the desert, and one—San Diego—is the AFC voters’ winner in the climate category.

Many people also just have different definitions of what constitutes a good party. Memphis, for all its great music and good food, still came in at No. 25 for New Year’s Eve—perhaps because AFC voters found other things about staying in Memphis that dampened their spirits. Meanwhile, southern city Savannah—new to the AFC survey—shot to No. 4, even besting Vegas, proving that some folks would rather err on the side of charming for December 31.

And what about New York City, arguably the epicenter of New Year’s Eve? It made a mediocre No. 13 showing, perhaps due to cold temps, big crowds, and high prices. Shari Lynn Rothstein-Kramer, a native New Yorker, admits that she has spent more New Year’s Eves than she can count in Times Square. “Every year I swore I wouldn’t do it again,” she said, “but then a friend would come into town, or it wouldn’t seem so cold—but it was never really fun.”

Best Resorts in the Caribbean

Toes in the sand, a frosty tropical cocktail in hand, and a bit of soulful reggae playing as the sun slowly sets—that’s the very essence of a Caribbean resort, right? Indeed, but just like the two dozen unique islands they call home, Caribbean resorts defy easy generalization. A few are luxurious enclaves, some are lively all-inclusives, and others are one-of-a-kind properties with a look and vibe all their own. Which are considered the best?

Based on the results of our ninth annual T+L 500, where we ask readers to choose their favorite hotels and resorts around the world, 29 Caribbean properties on 12 islands made the cut. Read on for a few tantalizing highlights, followed by a slideshow of the top 20 vote-getters.

Jamaica, one of the Caribbean’s most popular destinations, claims six of the top 20 resorts, including the genteel and romantic Jamaica Inn. This 60-year-old Ocho Rios property features 47 suites awash in whimsical periwinkle blue, plus an alfresco dining terrace where guests are invited to slow dance to live music.

Chic St. Bart’s and lush St. Lucia are each home to three top 20 properties, including Le Toiny, an intimate hilltop resort of 15 villas with private plunge pools and panoramic views of the island’s picturesque bays, and St. Lucia neighbors Anse Chastanet Resort and Ladera, both of which feature rustic-chic architecture with open walls offering clear vistas of the Piton peaks.

Turks and Caicos’ 72-suite Regent Palms makes the list for the first time. Set on scenic Grace Bay, the resort is known for its airy, kitchen-equipped suites and award-winning spa.

As a former flight attendant, Beth Blair had been to Las Vegas countless times. A few years ago, she decided it would be a great place to spend New Year’s Eve: bright lights, cocktails, and an all-night party.

World's Most Romantic All-Inclusive Resorts

Hard-partying Cancún, Mexico, isn’t the first place you’d think to take a secluded romantic getaway. But couples-only Le Blanc Spa Resort will make you think again. This all-inclusive sets the mood with a private beach, butler service, and infinity pools—and has even attracted romcom sweetheart Julia Roberts.

That’s no surprise to André Leavitt of Time Travels Inc., who wholeheartedly recommends the couples-only, all-inclusive experience to clients. “These resorts are simply more conducive to romance,” says the travel pro and mom. As Leavitt knows, sometimes you want a table just for two, without any kids in shouting distance. And the best romantic all-inclusive resorts have evolved to appeal to more sophisticated tastes, improving menus, diversifying amenities, and raising the bar on 24/7 service.

With all your meals and activities at the ready, you can tune out distractions and tune in to each other. This kind of coveted alone time comes easily on the island of Maui at Travaasa Hana, a serene group of plantation-style cottages that purposely don’t have TVs, radios, or clocks. Instead, you’ll wake up to the sound of the Pacific waves outside your window, soak in a private hot tub, and learn to stand-up paddleboard or even hula. Trying out something new together is bound to get that adrenaline pumping.

While endless water views are undeniably romantic, cuddling by the fire at a mountain hideaway has its own dreamy appeal. The Adirondacks are the site of one such retreat, The Point Resort on the edge of Saranac Lake, which draws big-city couples looking for a quick escape, whatever the season.

Of course, all this gourmet eating, pampering, and bliss comes at a price, anywhere from about $120 per person per night to upwards of $600. But once you find the resort that’s right for you two, the bucks stop there. “Not having to think about paying for a drink by the pool or lunch—it’s a completely carefree experience,” says Ernesto Coppel, founder and CEO of Pueblo Bonito Oceanfront Resorts and Spas.

Guide to Lille

STAY

Historically, one of Lille’s only drawbacks was a dearth of stylish places to lay one’s head. The recent arrival of L’Hermitage Gantois (224 Rue de Paris; 33-3/20-85-30-30 doubles from $250), housed in a 15th-century hospice, has changed all that. Admire the hotel’s artful use of original architectural details in the double-height brick atrium, the glass-and-steel bar area, and the modest but perfectly manicured rose gardens in the cloisters. The 67 rooms are spacious, many with lofty beamed ceilings and heavy linen curtains, and all with Carrara-marble or Flemish- tile baths. A seven-minute stroll up the Rue de Paris brings you to the city center. Opera luminaries stay at the Carlton (3 Rue de Paris; 33-3/20-13-33-13; doubles from $215) for its proximity to Lille’s venerated opera house. The 60 rooms, done alternately in standard Louis XIV and XVI, won’t be making the style news anytime soon, but they’re comfortable and come with all the necessary conveniences. And the hotel’s ultra-central location—bordering the Grande Place and within a stone’s throw of some of Lille’s best dining—can’t be beat.

EAT

Although artisanal bread and pastry maker Paul (8–12 Rue de Paris; 33-3/20-44-72-56; breakfast for two $20), which was founded in Lille in 1889, has expanded its empire as far as Surrey, Dubai, and Palm Beach, the cozy, Delft-tiled bakery on the Rue de Paris still serves up creamy, thick hot chocolate, along with an artery-busting array of viennoiserie and crêpes. Méert (27 Rue Esquermoise; 33-3/20-57-07-44; breakfast for two $20), opened in 1761, is one of France’s oldest confectioners and is the place to stop for afternoon bonbons in the spun-sugar Rococo tearoom. Don’t leave without buying some of the exquisitely packaged chocolates—you won’t find them outside the city. Locals of the BCBG (bon chic, bon genre) variety congregate in the warren of 18th-century rooms and alcoves at La Petite Cour (17 Rue du Curé St.-Etienne; 33-3/20-51-52-81; dinner for two $65) for straightforward home-country fare (sole meunière, filet mignon de porc au Bleu d’Auvergne), more international dishes (a green salad with prosciutto di San Daniele, tandoori chicken, chopped egg, and parmesan), and a DJ who spins everything from Grace Jones to Desmond Dekker to Dr. Dre. A more patrician setting, and first-class seafood, can be found at the Lillois landmark A l’Huitrière (3 Rue des Chats Bossus; 33-3/20-55-43-41; dinner for two $210), whose unassuming fishmonger’s storefront leads to an oak-paneled dining room filled with monied businessmen and manned by a squadron of ancient, unassailably correct waiters in matching silk Hermès-style cravats. The 16th-century Le Compostelle (4 Rue St.-Etienne; 33-3/28-38-08-30; dinner for two $80), hidden on a Lilliputian side street off the Grande Place, has a beautifully updated, multilevel dining room. Angle for a table in the glass-ceilinged conservatory up front. The menu covers all the Flemish and French bases—sweetbreads in mustard sauce and duck breast émincé in raspberry-vinegar reduction were turned out with equal aplomb.

SHOP

It would be imprudent to visit Flanders without perusing the weighty linens, austere oak and beech furniture, and faïence and porcelain at Flamant (61 Rue Esquermoise; 33-3/28-52-48-92), Lille’s outpost of the surpassingly tasteful Belgian home-furnishings shops. A carefully edited library of photography and architecture tomes are also for sale. (The store will ship almost anything in its inventory, including furniture, to the United States for a fee.) The shop of local interior designer Jean Maniglier (89–95 Rue de la Monnaie; 33-3/20-13-05-05) is a bazaar of global exotica and Northern European austerity. Besides rugs, fabrics, and furniture, there are Asian and African wooden bowls and masks, a collection of naturalisés (huge taxidermied insects suspended in glass and framed in teak), and wool and cashmere throws in somber neutrals. Série Noire (14 Rue Lepelletier; 33-3/28-36-00-03) is a three-story carnival of ready-to-wear collections and accessories reminiscent of Paris’s Colette and Kirna Zabête in New York. Proprietor Olivier Axer stocks the racks with Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Barbara Bui, Dior, and DSquared. On the main floor are bags by Chloé, sterling cuff links and money clips by Paul Smith, and skin-care products from coveted boutique line Louhann. A few doors down, Antidote (42 Rue Lepelletier; 33-3/20-40-26-30) fills a tiny storefront with independent European labels that share an aesthetic of understated cool: Italy’s Kristina Ti, Danish line Day Birger & Mikkelsen, the French Stella Cadente, Bash, and more.Collection 17 (17 Rue de la Monnaie; 33-3/20- 31-01-32)—known to locals as "C 17"—is a sleek gray-and-white space (with 19th-century frescoes) lined with slingbacks, stilettos, and boots from the latest collections. The usual suspects (Prada, Miu Miu, Yves Saint Laurent) are punctuated by designs from lesser-known names, such as Luciano Padovan and Sartore.

Ride Through Versailles

The past is another country, and it's the only place I ever want to go. When the air collects into soup at the bottom of the bowl that Paris sits in, and the lady in the market corrects my request for "two pieces of roast beef" to "two slices" with a withering look, and I become too weary to rise above the passive-aggressive subtext in every exchange, I flee to a place of total and utter bliss. It's 20 minutes away by cab and three-and-a-half centuries away in the past. When I edited Paris Vogue, my greatest and sometimes only pleasure consisted in bicycling through the vast park of Versailles. In the autumn, the overgrown allées of the former hunting grounds were bumpy with fallen horse chestnuts; in the winter, I raced around the endless perimeter of the Grand Canal to keep warm; and on summer evenings, I rocked my melancholy by the empty basins of stone fountains.

Grandiose and overwhelming, Versailles stands for everything pompous about France. In 1661, Louis XIV took over a marsh west of Paris to build the best palace in the world. He added the Trianon as a pocket palace where he could hang out and be a family man. Louis XV built the Petit Trianon for Madame de Pompadour, and Louis XVI created Le Hameau, a little farm of half-timbered cottages, for Marie-Antoinette. The Revolution trashed them all, and then for two centuries, punctilious curators reassembled the treasures while savant gardeners snipped and seeded the grounds. This year, Versailles is fashionable again, because of Sofia Coppola's movie, Marie Antoinette, which was 

filmed in its great rooms for the comparatively reasonable cost of $20,000 a day. The hordes of tourists trundling along the Hall of Mirrors will now ask where Kirsten Dunst sat to look at the roll of silk and exclaim, unforgettably, "Wow!"

The formal gardens and vistas of Le Nôtre are well-known and punishing to the feet, but Versailles has the unknown bounty of a magical, carefully tended 17th-century park, whose dimensions and details exceed the reach of any map or any guidebook. You can ride for hours without seeing a trace of today. It was meant to be experienced on horseback, and a bicycle is lower than a horse, but it never shies, bucks, or needs water, and when you look up as you pedal along, the carefully trimmed trees unfold in perfect symmetry above your head, and the subtle Pythagorean perfections of French ideals realign you into harmony.

This summer, I was working on a play in Paris for two months with Actors Studio director Elizabeth Kemp, living in a hovel, hauling bags full of shoes and props up and down the steep staircases of Montmartre. Elizabeth's dog, an elegant gray border collie named Pearl, desperately needed to herd some sheep. I rarely take anyone to my Versailles, but Elizabeth and Pearl were as town-worn as I was. On our first day off, we found a cabdriver who did not howl at the prospect of conveying a border collie to Versailles, and two tunnels, a bridge, and 25 minutes later we drew up to the gate called the Grille de la Reine, where you can rent large, sturdy old-fashioned bicycles.

In the park after six years away, I feel like a child released from boarding school. I check the wheels on our bikes before I give the Peruvian gentleman who runs the stand my driver's license so he knows we won't vanish. Pearl trots along next to Elizabeth while I set off to the right, down the long road where my legs and arms rediscover the effortless rhythms of the journey. Descendants of Marie-Antoinette's sheep graze just beyond a light wire fence. Despite Elizabeth's urging, Pearl does not recognize the sheep as sheep; summer-shorn and naked, they look faintly human. The Hameau is ahead of us, its Temple de l'Amour visible beyond the trees, but I make a sharp left at the end of the allée, into the avenue that goes past both Trianons. Trees planted in straight lines lead the eye to the Grand Canal. I pause to see the look on Elizabeth's face. Her eyes are wider than ever. "Just wait!!" I shout and speed off, down to the edge of the Grand Canal, where I veer right, as always. Here the trees race staccato on the left, the water is bounded by a white stone ledge just beyond the trees, and the woods on the right are dense with grass.

Welcome to Italy

Italy - Bella Italia, the Bel Paese - is a country of extremes, with something to offer every visitor: from snow-iced mountains to hot lazy Mediterranean beaches, from unspoilt hill villages to cities that have bustled for thousands of years. This website is designed to help you plan a holiday in Italy, or to research Italian vacation options.

Italy travel forums on the internet are full of overwhelmed travellers asking 'I have two weeks in Italy, what should I see?' Responses range from: 'Everything: do Venice, Milan, Florence,Rome then Naples, ' to 'Spend a fortnight in Tuscany'. The best answer, of course, is to do what suits you. Some people want to squeeze in as much as possible for a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Others prefer to explore a culture at a slower pace. On Italy Heaven you can look around, and consider what your dream holiday might be. Learn more about selected destinations, and read advice on travel in Italy to make your stay easier, more fulfilling or more fun.

Nowadays planning your own holiday is a viable and economical alternative to booking a package. It's easy to organise your own journey and book online, and Italy Heaven offers you practical tips and assistance, from advice on choosing a hotel to suggested Italy travel itineraries

Italy is a dream destination for city breaks, with three of the world's most beautiful cities just three hours from the UK: Rome, where antiquities bask in the sunshine in a colourful and lively metropolis,Florence, thought by many to be the art capital of the world, and unique Venice. Those in search of culture or vibrant modernity may prefer the charms of fashionable Milan or stately Turin, while the intrepid can dive into the colourful chaos of historic Naples.