Written by Rosalie Scott

The kids are heading back to school, the weather is still warm and the sun is still shining — making New York City in September an ideal destination. Check out a ball game at Yankee Stadium, have dinner in Little Italy during the San Gennaro Festival, or grab a water bottle and explore the city with one of the many walking tours available.

New York Yankees & Mets Baseball Games

Sports fans visiting the city in September should take themselves out to a Yankee or Mets game, particularly because both teams have moved into brand new state of the art stadiums. Baseball aficionados wanting to delve into the rich history of the game will enjoy the behind the scenes tours available at Yankee Stadium, which includes a visit to the dugout, the New York Yankees Museum, and Monument Park which showcases the greatest baseball icons including Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. New York Mets fans can take in a game at Citi Field which has replaced Shea Stadium. Yankee Stadium is located in the Bronx at East 161st Street at River Avenue (across from the original stadium) and Citi Field is situated at 126th Street and Roosevelt in Queens. For game schedules and information on how to buy tickets, visit the Yankees and Mets official sites.

San Gennaro Festival, The Feast of San Gennaro

With its vibrant parades, delicious food and the renowned cannoli eating competition, this event draws more than a million people from around the world to the streets of Lower Manhattan’s Little Italy every September. Mulberry Street is closed for this colourful festival, which begins the second Thursday of September and celebrates San Gennaro, the Patron Saint of Naples. The event has a long running history, having first been celebrated in 1926 by immigrants from Naples. A mass is held at Most Precious Blood Church on Mulberry Street, which houses the shrine of San Gennaro, and then a religious procession carries his statue through the streets of Little Italy. The festival runs along Mulberry Street between Canal and Houston Streets. A performance stage hosts live entertainment and street vendors offers delicious delicacies at every turn. Visit their official website for a festival map, event schedule and a list of recommended Little Italy restaurants and cafes.

Walking Tours of New York City

The best way to truly experience the sights and sounds of New York City is to simply walk its streets. September is an excellent month to sign up for a walking tour since it’s still quite sunny and warm, but typically less humid than July and August. Guided walking tours are a particularly good way to view Ground Zero, the memorial grounds for those who died in the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. The Ground Zero/Lower Manhattan walking tour offered by New York City Vacation Packages takes you to the site of the former World Trade Center as well as the FDNY 9 11 Memorial Wall with a licensed tour guide.

Walking tours are great activities for travellers wanting to learn more about neighbourhoods like the famous East Village or the Lower East side but don’t know where to start. New York City neighbourhoods are packed with history that a guide can provide as you stroll through the streets and take in the sights. Some walking tours include Alphabet City, Five Points/Chinatown and even the Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos walking tour which covers the escapades of characters like Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel.

NewYorkJourney.com will give you a comprehensive look at several hotels, attractions, tours and shops in the Big Apple. Get the information you need to know before you travel and make sure you get to see and stay at the best of the best in New York City.

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New Year in New York © Sergio Sanchez

I hope you had a great holiday with family and friends. I spent mine in Gothenburg. You can see some photos from how New Year’s Eve looked like on Götaplatsen (not far from where I lived) in the blog entry NYE on the Swedish blog StreetStyle46.se

Happy New Year! I wish you an amazing 2010!

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The cover shows Pulpit Rock in Utah's Echo Canyon, in a photochrom by William Henry Jackson.

The strong economy by the end of the 19^th century, when North America was fully settled, led to affordable popular tourism. Not only wealthy people had the means to travel. Also the less well-off set out to discover the continent — via canal barge, rail, steamboat, automobile, and even horseback.

Coast to Coast: Vintage Travel in North America by Anthony Shugaar, Catherine Donzel and Marc Valter depicts these extraordinary trans-continental journeys and offers a panorama of the North American continent. Excellently researched, the book records a bygone era of travel with fascinating illustrations and engaging prose, as in the introductory chapter “Transcontinental”. The following sections — “Eastern Seaboard”, “Midwest and the Mississippi”, “Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and the Southwest”, “Pacific Coast” and “Canada and Alaska” — are accompanied by full-page maps (five in total).

I asked myself, how can I make Coast to Coast justice? Rather than writing a review in the traditional sense, I would like to share my favorite quotations from the distinctive personalities and travelers who so vividly described the places featured in the book.

Paul Morand on New York, 1930:

Unlike London and Paris, New York does not possess a number of good old hotels. The old Fifth Avenue Hotel, for instance was replaced by the Waldorf, which was in turn dethroned by the Plaza and the Ritz… About the middle of the nineteenth century, New York replaced its family boarding houses with the Astor House, and then in 1856 came the Fifth Avenue Hotel, a place of gas-lit luxury, boasting its six floors of white marble and the first elevators; there followed the Commodore, the Brevoort, and finally the Waldorf-Astoria, the opening of which made no less of a sensation that than of the Grand Hôtel in Paris…

The Plaza Hotel, seen from the Grand Army.

F. Scott Fitzgerald on New York, 1925:

(I)f the night was mellow I strolled down Madison Avenue past the old Murray Hill Hotel and over Thirty-third Street to the Pennsylvania Station.

I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives…

Herbert Russell on Atlantic City, 1947:

Just what people do in Atlantic City is a mystery to anyone who comes here to observe. Some undoubtedly come to rest and enjoy the wide beach and the Boardwalk and the sunshine, and to sleep to the sound of surf. Visitors are old and middle-aged and young. To watch their mass comings and goings is like watching a swarm of bees, or rather ants, for they are perpetually restless, and they are everywhere.

Morrie Ryskind on Palm Beach, 1929:

Florida, folks! Sunshine, sunshine! Perpetual sunshine all the year around! Let’s get the auction started before we get a tornado.

Girl on the beach.

Baron de Hübner on Chicago, 1871:

I find myself in a great avenue on the banks of the lake, with a row of magnificent buildings on the other side. This is the celebrated Michigan Avenue, the quarter of the plutocracy of Chicago. In these splendid mansions, all of wood, but plastered over, and built in every imaginable style, Italian, Classic, Gothic, Roman, or Elizabethan, each and all surrounded by pretty gardens bright with flowers, liv the families and men who, in a few years, have realized millions…

Charles Dickens on Cincinnati, 1842:

I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does: with its clean houses of red and white, its well-paved roads, and foot-ways of bright tile. Nor does it become less prepossessing on a closer acquaintance.

Kate Chopin on St. Louis, 1980:

After a day of close and intense September heat, it had rained during the night. And now the morning had followed chill and crisp, yet with possibilities of a genial sunshine breaking through the mist that had risen at dawn from the great sluggish river and spread itself through the mazes of the city…

William Henry Jackson on Yellowstone National Park, 1871:

We were to enter the Yellowstone from the North, then the easiest route. On the way through upper Utah and across Idaho I took a few pictures. Up in Montana I made a few more picture… From Virginia City and its tired-looking Chinamen patiently reworking old gravel we moved over through Fort Ellis and established our base camp at Botelers’ Ranch on the Yellowstone River…

George Bird Grinnell on Glacier National Park, 1901:

Far away in northwestern Montana, hidden from view by clustering mountain-peaks, lies an unmapped corner — the Crown of the Continent. The water from the crusted snowdrift which caps the peak of a lofty mountain there trickles into tiny rills, which hurry along north, south, east, and west, and growing to rivers, at last pour their currents into three seas.

Olympe Audouard on Colorado Springs, 1869:

Colorado has its summer resort for “la high-life”. It is a spa high in the Rocky Mountains, near a hot sulfur spring. As you arrive in these desolate landscapes, having traveled through grim and barren country, you are astonished at the sight of a darling little house, decorated and equipped with a degree of — dare I say it? – luxe.

Robert Sterling Yard on Zion National Park, 1919:

The valleys bloom. Pomegranates, figs, peaches, apricots, melons, walnuts, and almonds reach a rare perfection. Cotton, which Brigham Young started here as an experiment in 1861, is still grown. Lusty cottonwood-trees line the banks of the little rivers. Cedars dot the valleys and cover thickly the lower hills. And everywhere, on every side, the cliffs close in.

Anne O’Hare McCormick on Reno, 1931:

You soon discover that Reno is Reno, wonderfully and singularly itself… It is a throw-back to the hard, tough, roomy epoch of the gold rush and the mining camp. Its free and easy manners belong to its tradition. Gambling is in its blood.

Jack Kerouac on San Francisco, 1950s:

Then up the Sierra Nevada, pines, stars, mountain lodges signifying Frisco romances… I suddenly realized I was in California. Warm, palmy air — air you can kiss — and palms. Along the storied Sacramento River on a superhighway; into the hills again, up, down; and suddenly the vast expanse of bay (it was just before dawn) with the sleepy lights of Frisco festooned across.

Annette Fitch-Brewer on Seattle, 1913:

There are so many fine trips to be taken around Seattle: both by land and by water. Puget Sound, “the inland sea,” with its islands, its inlets, and its canals and bays. I don’t wonder the Scandinavians flock to this country by the thousands for it must make them think of their own country.

Mrs Arthur Spragge on Yoho National Park, 1887:

About half way down the hill a beautiful valley opens out, formed by the north fork of the Kicking Horse River; blue woords recede into purple forests, and these again swell into an amphitheatre of lofty mountains, whose peaks had caught and held the first rays of sunlight, and were glowing in rainbow lines, while all above was mist and shadow.

Arthur Granville Bradley on Vancouver, 1905:

The densely-wooded mountains of the coast range, snow-capped by November and often earlier, rise into the sky, while the leafy slopes and promontories of their foothills relfect their gorgeous colouring in the narrow waters of the fiord… And as one runs slowly into Vancouver and sees the busy city covering the slopes beside the water, the big ships and liners lying off it in the most beautiful harbour in the world, one tries to realise that twenty years ago this whole scene was an obscure wilderness of wood and water.

Other destinations include New Hampshire, Lake George, Niagara Falls, Miami, New Orleans, South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City, Portland, Los Angeles, and Quebec. You will also find quotations by the New York Times, Franz Kafka, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Jack London.

Travel related ephemera such as photochroms, vintage photographs, posters, travel brochures, inserts of facsimile guidebooks, menus and vintage post-cards with barely recognizable messages follow the quotes from every destination. All in all, the book includes more than 400 color and black-and-white illustrations.

Aerial view of the Banff Springs Hotel.

I particularly enjoyed a photo of turn-of-the-century picknickers at Lake George, Adirondacks, an ad for the new Boulevard Room in the Jefferson Hotel, St. Louis, from the mid-1950s, a picture of Aspen’s The Hotel Jerome, photochromes of Cape Horn on the Columbia River and Oregon’s Mt. Hood, a full-page spread of the Golden Gate Bridge with the San Francisco skyline in the distance, and an aerial view of the Banff Springs Hotel.

Santa Fe railroad conductor amusing his young charges, bound for the Grand Canyon, 1909.

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, likens the 320-paged hardcover book to a cherished family photo album. Coast to Coast certainly gives a new meaning to the joyful pursuit of imaginary travel. And when David Owen, in his review, states “I want to travel on those trains, camp in those tents, and spend weeks, if not months, in those hotels. I want to order the crab croquettes at the Hotel Ponce de Leon in 1880, and I want to cross Lake Michigan on the S.S. Christopher Columbus in 1893”, I wholeheartedly agree.

More information:

Read sample pages of Coast to Coast: Vintage Travel in North America at issuu.com and find the book profile at The Vendome Press.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of “Coast to Coast: Vintage Travel in North America” by The Vendome Press.

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Brooklyn Bridge © Anja Mutić

The beauty of the New York skyline.

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At HI SHREDABILITY | North from New York | VBS.TV I came across a motorcycle/surf road trip starting in New York.

The wisest words from the video: “You almost wanna get lost… ’cause getting lost is part of the fun.” Very true. Some of my best travel memories consist of the number of times when I’ve gotten lost.

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© Dee Fontenot

Traveling to New York soon? Don’t forget to pay a visit to Williamsburg. This part of Brooklyn is not far from Manhattan but a different world worth experiencing at least once.

The only picture I had of Williamsburg before visiting in August 2004 came from “ok, amen” by the Swedish culture journalist and author Nina Solomon. This book about her time with the ultra-orthodox Jews in Williamsburg gives a unique insight into a radically different culture and mentality. You can recognize the Chassidic Jews on their black hats, black coats and corkscrew curls. Even though they live in the heart of a world metropolis, they live more or less isolated from their surroundings.

How to get there? The subway’s L-line (the grey on the map) starts on the 8^th Avenue on Manhattan and continues along 14^th Street through Brooklyn. The Bedford Avenue subway station is only one stop from Manhattan. If you choose the J, M, or Z-line, you’ll end up further south closer to the blocks where the Chassidic Jews live.

Somewhat related: Ava Dakota Kim in Block Magazine, Williamsburg Pop:

New York in general has always been a pretty grimy place, from the days of horse carriages, trolleys and feces sharing the roads to the days of the subway full of sleeping homeless folks. However, in the past, Williamsburg was used not for its fashionable reputation, but passed off as other locations because it was convenient for filming. The Southside of Williamsburg, for example, has found a special place in the heart of filmmakers seeking a slummy background. In countless chase scenes and crack house busts, from Serpico to American Gangster, Williamsburg’s once-elegant (we’re talking late 1800s, before the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge) Southside has played the site of another city or neighborhood’s crime. In fact, in the 80s, it was truly the site of many a gang crime and crack bust. Slanted tenement roofs and fire escapes evoke Bensonhurt in Spike of Bensonhurst and the Lower East Side in Once Upon a Time in America, and even Harlem in American Gangster. In The Departed, Park Luncheonette on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, with a few antiques added in, stands in for a classic Bostonian mom and pop grocery and diner, and the Marcy Avenue Armory and Works Engineering Motorcycle Shop play grimy interiors. In Garden State, Sea on North 6th Street stands in for a disgustingly posh Vietnamese restaurant that Zach Braff’s character serves at in LA.

I didn’t write any journal at the time of our visit and have no recollection of the cafés and shops we went to, but if you have your own tips about things to do and see in the area, feel free to share in the comments.

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Who doesn’t enjoy beautiful views? The first thing I do in a new hotel room is checking out the view. The ocean view from Aparthotel Green Beach in Arguineguin on Gran Canaria is my favorite so far.

When it comes to city views, nothing has beaten Milford Plaza in New York City’s theater district. The room we had booked from Expedia was somewhere around the tenth floor, but thanks to my friend the male receptionist agreed to give us a room on a higher floor. We ended up on the second highest floor and had an amazing view over Manhattan.

Each hotel view is special in its own way, but the ultimate hotel view for me would be of the ocean, a snow-covered Mountain massif, or a city at night.

What are your favorite hotel views?

This post was modified from a post from 2008.

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NYC & Company, the City’s official marketing and tourism organization, has launched NYC: The Real Deal — a new marketing campaign to boost tourism to New York City this year.

The first phase of NYC: The Real Deal, available through June 30, offers “buy one, get the second one 50% off” at more than 100 NYC & Company member businesses and organizations, including museums, tours and attractions, arts and entertainment venues, nightlife spots, spa and beauty venues and transportation. Through the Travelocity widget on nycgo.com, you can also book hotel stays at “buy one, get the second night 50% off,” or better if available, at 26 participating hotels (book through May 30, travel by June 30). If you book a hotel stay through nycgo.com‘s Travelocity widget, you can also purchase tickets at “buy one, get the second 50% off” at 16 participating attractions or Broadway shows.

“The NYC: The Real Deal program is designed to entice visitors and locals to experience the vibrancy, energy and excitement of New York City while taking advantage of unprecedented savings this year,” said Jane Reiss, CMO of NYC & Company.

The new consumer micro site nycgo.com/realdeal, part of the Real Deal promotion, details all special offers throughout the five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island. Choose between enjoying the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, seeing Chicago, the Musical, attending the Tribeca Film Festival, and other deals catering to every age group and interest.

“We are pleased to create the NYC: The Real Deal program that brings so much value to consumers while at the same time offering excellent visibility to NYC & Company’s members — this is a worthwhile effort to boost tourism to New York City in 2009,” said Kelly Ann Curtin, senior vice president of Membership and Convention Services.

The second phase of NYC: The Real Deal will start in May with retail and dining offers, followed by other great reasons to plan a trip to New York City this year.

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Written by Skyscanner.net

In the survey of 250 people run by leading flight search engine Skyscanner in the run up to Valentine’s Day, New York topped the poll with almost 25% of the vote.

Rob Innes, head of marketing for Skyscanner commented on the unexpected result:

“We tend to think of Paris, Rome and Venice as top romantic destinations, but the excitement and buzz of New York makes it a great city for couples and Hollywood’s given us plenty of memorable romantic moments set in New York from the top of the Empire State Building to skating in Central Park so it’s a worthy winner of our poll.”

Most romantic cities as voted by Skyscanner users:

1.    New York 24%
2.    Venice 17%
3.    Paris 14%
4.    Prague 14%
5.    Rome 11%
6.    Helsinki 8%
7.    Edinburgh 5%
8.    Amsterdam 4%
9.    London 3%

Skyscanner’s Guide to Romance in:

New York – impress your partner with a stroll in Central Park before gliding around the ice rink at Rockefeller Centre and then heading to the roof-top bar in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. End the night by booking a romantic hotel room overlooking a spectacular view of the city skyline.

Venice – you don’t have to get an expensive gondola to find this city romantic; simply wandering through the narrow streets or walking down to the floodlit St Mark’s Square at midnight should be enough to set hearts ablaze.

Paris – visit the Luxembourg Gardens adjacent to the romantic Luxembourg Castle, then head to one of the bridges that cross the Seine River before wandering along the Champs Elysees to get coffees for two in one of the sidewalk cafes.

Prague – take a walk along the River Vltava towards Charles Bridge where you can marvel at the illuminated Prague Castle, before ogling the magnificent views of Prague Castle, The National Theatre and St Nicolas Cathedral.

Rome – take in the espresso-induced energy of the streets where Vespas zip past, before taking sanctuary from the hustle and bustle with a visit to the Borghese Gardens. Then steal a kiss at the Trevi Fountain, one of Rome’s most popular spots for lovers.

Helsinki – a city full of surprises, it has the café culture feel of Rome or Paris, the Neo-Classical architecture of St Petersburg, and the great Nordic gastronomy that favours fresh, local produce – ideal for those whose hearts are found through their stomachs.

Edinburgh – take a wander up round Arthur’s Seat for a bird’s eye view of the city, stroll along the Water of Leith in Stockbridge, then stop off in one of the cosy basement pubs that are characteristic of the city.

Amsterdam – take a romantic boat tour along one of its 165 canals to get a better look at some of its 1281 beautiful bridges and the tall thin houses that line the waterways. Then dine in a candle-lit pannekoekenhuis (pancake house), before relaxing at one of the cities chilled jazz bars.

London – a ride on the London Eye to see the city from the air is an ideal starting point for a romantic day, then head to the Tate Britain to see some of the world’s finest paintings before taking to the waters at Hyde Park where you can row a boat for two on the Serpentine.

Skyscanner is the most powerful and flexible flight search engine in Europe, providing instant online comparison on flight prices for over 670,000 routes on over 600 airlines. Users can browse without having to enter specific dates or even destinations.

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1. The Photo Blog of Justin Wright features his photos from around the world.

2. Buenos Aires Daily

3. Jakarta Daily Photo

4. London Daily Photo

© Ben Earwicker

5. Images of Mexico City

6. New York Daily Photo

7. Paris Daily Photo

8. San Francisco Daily Photography

9. Shanghai Daily Photo

10. Venice Daily Photo

I’m just curious, what photo blogs do you follow?

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Autumn in New York © Piotr Bizior

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Even though I like living in Sweden, I miss New York incredibly much right now. So here comes three classic songs worth a read.

Autumn in New York - Billie Holiday

Autumn in New York, why does it seem so inviting?
Autumn in New York, it spells the thrill of first-nighting
Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel
They’re making me feel: I’m home

It’s autumn in New York that brings the promise of new love
Autumn in New York is often mingled with pain
Dreamers with empty hands, may sigh for exotic lands
It’s autumn in New York, it’s good to live it again

Autumn in New York, the gleaming rooftops at sundown
Autumn in New York, it lifts you up when you’re let down
Jaded rou’s and gay divorces who lunch at the Ritz
Will tell you that it’s divine

This autumn in New York transforms the slums into Mayfair
Autumn in New York, you’ll need no castle in Spain
Lovers that bless the dark on benches in Central Park
Greet autumn in New York, it’s good to live it again

Wouldn’t Have You Any Other Way (NYC) - Elton John

I remember it like it was yesterday
Snow in the park and skaters on the ice
Long black cars standing side-by-side
Loading up the boys at night

Turned up our collars to the chill of the wind
Caught an innocent smile from a taxi at the lights
Not something you’d see on a New York street
It’s such an uncommon sight

But I wouldn’t have it any other way
This city’s got a thing about it
Don’t try to understand it
New York City I’d really like to stay
New York City I wouldn’t have you
I wouldn’t have you any other way

Oh the subway rumbled underneath
Italian lights where Joey Gallo died
And the man on the door down at Fifty Four’s
Is letting only the pretty inside

I’d wake with a stranger under the covers
Late in the day and longing for the night
Just like the snowfall there’s so many bodies
But somehow it feels so right

And I can feel the magic
And read a million lips
And no matter what might happen
They’ll never sink this ship

New York, New York - Frank Sinatra

Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it – New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, they are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it – New York, New York

I wanna wake up in a city that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill – top of the heap

These little town blues, are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it – in old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you – New York, New York

New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
And find I’m a number one, top of the list
King of the hill, a number one

These little town blues, are melting away
And I’m gonna make a brand new start of it in old New York
And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere

It’s up to you – New York, New York

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New York City

When I read question one, top three favorite destination experiences, I first didn’t know what to reply. How is it possible to choose three favorites among hundreds of travel experiences? Each travel experience is special in its own way.

The Swedish ski resort Åre will forever hold a place in my heart, I have loads of good memories from Stockholm (where I lived for two years), thinking of Gothenburg’s amusement park Liseberg always brings a smile to my face, as does Greece, Vienna, Argentiere, Chamonix, Dienten, Grenoble, Lyon, Montbonnot-Saint-Martin, Lanzarote, Montreux, Zurich and New York.

At last I went for my first trip to London in 2005, because I instantly felt at home in the city, as if I had lived there before. When I walked through Notting Hill I knew I had to live in London. A couple of months later I moved from Sweden to spend November through March in the UK.

Next, I choose Paris for the reason that I fell in love with the city at once. The same happened in New York. During those first two weeks — when we discovered Manhattan, rode the subway out to Coney Island and Queens’ Rockaway Beach, attended a gospel service in Harlem, jogged through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, went clubbing in Webster Hall, got an incredibly relaxing massage at a Thai place in the Village, drank delicious fruit smoothies from Jamba Juice, shopped clothes in the Meatpacking District and saw Aida on Broadway – I knew I would live in New York some time in the future, if only for a month or two.

Although New York also felt like home right away I picked Ohio’s famous Cedar Point as my third favorite destination experience. I have always loved amusement parks, particularly rollercoasters — the faster and higher, the better.

Top Accommodations

Guido’s second question, top three accommodations I’ve stayed, was a bit easier. I will never forget the first time I stepped into the Corfu Suite at Blakes in London, our one week stay at the family owned two-star hotel Della, situated among olive trees outside the center of Parga, Greece, or the view from the second highest floor at Milford Plaza in New York.

Memorable Food Experiences

Despite having numerous memories to choose from, I knew my top three food experiences. Above all I remember a three-course dinner at The Conservatory, London, a super tasty breakfast of spinach and goat’s cheese omelette in Bistro 190 at The Gore, and the spicy Indian food at Zurich’s Hiltl, Europe’s oldest vegetarian restaurant.

But these food experiences weren’t far behind: my first taste of the Austrian specialty kaisserschmarrn, a hot bowl of minestrone soup in a cozy mountain restaurant after a long day skiing, a Greek salad from a Skiathos tavern overlooking the sea, the vegetarian lasagna I ordered at a neighborhood restaurant in Parga, far from the tourist traps along the harbor, fresh waffles with jam and whipped cream in Trysil, Norway, my grandmother’s outstanding crepes, the vegetarian lunch buffet at Hermans in Stockholm, pizza slices at Joe’s Pizza in New York, Italian food at one of the restaurants along Grenoble’s Quai Mounier, gipfelis and gourmet dark chocolate truffles in Switzerland, veggie food at tibits in Zurich, sushi in Malmo, homemade organic Italian ice cream from Dolce Sicilia, and wooked bokchoi with tofu at Sol & Ris in Linkoping.

Worst Destination, Accommodation, Food Experiences

Guido also asked about my worst destination, accommodation and food experiences. I must say, even though we saw nothing of the landscape during the train ride through Austria (Innsbruck-Salzburg-Vienna) I did enjoy the trip. The thick fog didn’t clear, but when you have good travel companions where you are is not always that important.

And although I lost both my new USB flash drive and a good night’s sleep because a guy snored loud all night in the 12-bed dorm room at a hostel in Bayswater, London, at least I had a place to stay (I said quietly to myself as I wondered why I hadn’t booked a single room).

When things don’t turn out in the optimal way, one can always laugh about them afterwards. That’s exactly what we did after a dinner at a restaurant in a shopping mall in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria. Despite being a party of eleven, our orders were finished in about ten minutes. I bet they just heated our frozen pre-packed, pre-prepared, over priced meals in the microwave oven. In retrospect I wonder how come we even chose that place, especially since they had no guests apart from us.

No matter how disastrous an experience ends up, one can often find something good from it. Injuring my arm the second day of our five-day surfing class on Lanzarote and being stuck on the beach while everyone surfed wasn’t boring. Of course I wanted to surf as opposed to only participate in the theoretical lessons, but relaxing in the sun, hanging out on the beach and taking new photos, cheered me up in no time.

A similar incident occurred on a skiing holiday in Trysil, Norway. When trying to learn snowboarding, I accidentally fell forward and sprained my wrist (probably because I had most of my attention on the cute guy by the ski lift rather than on my snowboard). When I returned from the hospital I asked myself how I would be able to stay away from the piste for the rest of the week. Thanks to our comfortable armchair on the terrace, hot chocolate, some great magazines and sunny weather, the days went by quicker than ever. The next time I had a go at snowboarding I made sure I wasn’t distracted by anything.

That was four of Guido’s questions. If you’d like to read the interview, head over to http://www.happyhotelier.com/2008/10/07/10-questions-8-for-erica-johanson-of-blissful-travel/

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What is your favorite city, or neighborhood, to walk in?

1. San Francisco (Chinatown, Financial District, Downtown)

2. New York (Tribeca, Little Italy, Soho)

3. Boston (Back-Bay Beacon Hill, South End, Fenway-Kenmore)

4. Chicago (Loop, Near North Side, Lincoln Park)

5. Philadelphia (City Center East, City Center West, Riverfront)

6. Seattle (Pioneer Square, Downtown, First Hill)

7. Washington D.C. (Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Downtown)

8. Long Beach (Downtown, Belmont Shore, Belmont Heights)

9. Los Angeles (Mid City West, Downtown, Hollywood)

10. Portland (Pearl District, Old Town-China Town, Downtown)

If you are looking for a hotel in these Most Walkable Cities check out HotelClub , they offer great hotel deals in all of these cities, from Budget Hotels in San Francisco to Luxury Hotels in Portland.

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3. America is everywhere, but not quite

1. Moscow (1)

2. Bombay (10)

3. Paris (4)

4. Milan (7)

5. Geneva (13)

6. Dubai (3)

7. Abu Dhabi (-)

8. New York (2)

9. Zurich (11)

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10. Stockholm (7)

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