My Ideas & Notes
Day 1 Tuesday, December 20
Day 2 Wednesday, December 21
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Food & Drink
Sahara Café
This brand-new addition to the city's long list of cafes really stands out for its subtle, modern...
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Food & Drink
Hergetova Cihelna
The main draw here is the riverside terrace with an unparalleled view of the Charles Bridge -- pl...
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Food & Drink
Pálffy Palác
This restaurant is a real treat, rain or shine. In bad weather, eat in the 17th-century baroque d...
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Food & Drink
La Degustation
Without a doubt, this is one of the city's best dining spots. It is housed in an Old Town corner ...
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Food & Drink
Jáma (The Hallow)
This place has been popular for several post-revolutionary years and draws an agreeable mix of Cz...
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Food & Drink
Tretter's New York Bar
This wildly popular cocktail bar, situated a couple of blocks from Old Town Square, is modeled lo...
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Food & Drink
Cukrkávalimonáda
This cozy spot serves simple but excellent salads, sandwiches, and pasta dishes. The warm atmosph...
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Food & Drink
Grand Café Orient
Round off your visit to the cubist House of the Black Madonna with a pit stop at this lovingly re...
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Food & Drink
Kavárna Obecní dum
An afternoon here feels like a trip back to the time when Art Nouveau was all the rage. The refur...
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Food & Drink
Pivovarský dum
Good Czech beer is not made only by the big brewers. This very popular microbrewery produces its ...
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Food & Drink
U medvídku
Bright and noisy, the "House at the Little Bears" serves a better-than-average vepro, k...
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Food & Drink
Café Savoy
This lovingly restored 19th-century cafe recalls Prague's coffeehouse heyday under the Austro-Hun...
Day 3 Thursday, December 22
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Activity
4 (Prague) Old Jewish Cemetery
Just 1 block from the Old-New Synagogue, this is one of Europe's oldest Jewish burial grounds, da...
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Activity
4 (Prague) Old Town Hall & Astronomical Clock (...
The Heart and Soul of the City of Spires The glorious architectural confusion of the oldest se...
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2 (Prague) Estates Theater
Mozart Lives On in This City of Music Prague has enjoyed an unparalleled cultural renaissance ...
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2 (Prague) U Fleku
Raucous and Rowdy, the Czech Beer Experience "Wherever beer is brewed, all is well. Whene...
Day 4 Friday, December 23
Day 5 Saturday, December 24
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Food & Drink
Bistrot Bruno Loubet
A collective cheer went up among London's restaurant-goers when Bruno Loubet returned to the capi...
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Food & Drink
Bocca di Lupo
The hugely popular "mouth of the wolf" is a smart restaurant with an open kitchen, tile...
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Food & Drink
Café Spice Namaste
Walk into this large restaurant divided into two dining rooms and you're instantly cheered up by ...
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Food & Drink
Cambio de Tercio
This is the place for exciting, modern Spanish cooking. The menu has wide appeal. It offers conve...
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Food & Drink
Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester
Alain Ducasse is the name here, but it's talented Jocelyn Herland who earned three Michelin stars...
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Food & Drink
Cassis Bistro
Marlon Abela is something of a star -- a restaurateur who owns top restaurants in London (includi...
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Food & Drink
Club Gascon
Pascal Aussignac set up Club Gascon in Smithfield in 1998, bringing the rich tastes of his native...
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Food & Drink
Galvin Bistro de Luxe
The Galvin brothers, Chris and Jeff, opened Galvin Bistro de Luxe in 2005, considered at the time...
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Food & Drink
Ottolenghi
The cool, sleek, white interior of this traiteur-cum-cafe has become the meeting place for the ch...
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Food & Drink
Bar Boulud
French-born, U.S.-raised, superstar chef Daniel Boulud opened the doors of his first London ventu...
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Food & Drink
Hereford Road
Once a butcher's shop, and now a restaurant in the St. John mode of British no-fuss, no-fancy coo...
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Food & Drink
Le Café Anglais
This is a grand brasserie in feel with huge windows, high ceilings, and banquette seating, locate...
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Food & Drink
Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley
Diners at this claret-colored, cosseting restaurant are treated to all the goodies expected from one of London's top venues. Marcus Wareing began as a protégé of Gordon Ramsay but then took over the restaurant independently and blossomed. The three-course, fixed...
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Food & Drink
North Road
Nordic cooking is notoriously under-represented in London, but this venture from Danish chef Chri...
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Food & Drink
Pied-à-Terre
You could easily walk past the entrance to one of London's best restaurants without a second glan...
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Food & Drink
Savoy Grill
Opened a few months after the glorious Savoy Hotel reclaimed its place among London's icons of discreet luxury, the Savoy Grill, run by Gordon Ramsay, is everything we hoped for. The Art Deco-inspired interior is a real gem, with sparkling chandeliers, walls tha...
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Food & Drink
The Goring
Still family-owned after a century in business, this favorite, comfortable hotel offers afternoon...
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Food & Drink
The Square
One of our favorite London restaurants, The Square has remained consistently true to its aim of s...
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Food & Drink
The Wolseley
With its vaulted ceilings and pillars, polished marble, huge chandeliers, and Art Deco interior, ...
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Food & Drink
Tom Aikens
Chef Tom Aikens has a remarkable capacity to shrug aside life's mishaps (an abrupt departure from...
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Food & Drink
69 Colebrooke Row
Showing that size certainly isn't everything, 69 Colebrooke Row is one of London's smallest bars ...
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Food & Drink
Draft House Northcote
For anyone serious about their ales, a visit to the Draft House is a must. It's an attempt to rec...
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Food & Drink
Holly Bush
The Holly Bush is the real thing: authentic Edwardian gas lamps, open fires, private booths, and ...
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Food & Drink
Mark's Bar
Attached to noted restaurant Hix, this dark and stylish bar offers up a slice of Manhattan deep i...
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Food & Drink
Vertigo 42
For a truly unique London experience head to Vertigo 42, the champagne bar at the top of Tower 42...
Day 6 Sunday, December 25
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Activity
13 (London) Tate Modern
Welcoming more than four million visitors a year, Tate Modern is the world's most popular modern ...
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Activity
9 (London) British Museum
The "BM" has been number one for a long time. It was the country's most popular museum ...
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9 (London) National Gallery
Its collection may not be of quite the same monumental scale as some of Europe's other great gall...
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9 (London) St. Paul's Cathedral
London's skyline has changed dramatically during the past 3 centuries. Buildings have come and go...
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8 (London) Victoria and Albert Museum
Of the three great South Kensington collections, the V&A is perhaps the least ostentatious, w...
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7 (London) Hampton Court Palace
The 16th-century palace of Cardinal Wolsey can teach us a lesson: Don't try to outdo your boss, p...
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7 (London) Tower of London
On a sunny summer afternoon, the Tower, one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the world, ...
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Activity
7 (London) Westminster Abbey
The Abbey is not just one of the finest examples of ecclesiastical architecture in Europe, it's also the shrine of the nation where monarchs are anointed before their God and memorials to the nation's greatest figures fill every corner. From the outside, it's a ...
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Activity
5 (London) Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens
Once a favorite deer-hunting ground of Henry VIII, Hyde Park is central London's largest park. Wi...
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5 (London) National Portrait Gallery
Most galleries acquire their collections according to some notion of quality, with the aim of dis...
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5 (London) Natural History Museum
It seems fitting that one of London's great museums should be housed in such a grand building, a ...
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Activity
5 (London) Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
These world-famous gardens are home to thousands of elegantly arranged plants, but Kew Gardens, a...
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Activity
5 (London) Wallace Collection
Located in a palatial setting (the modestly described "town house" of the late Lady Wal...
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4 (London) Dulwich Picture Gallery
Just 12 minutes by train from Victoria station, this houses one of the country's most significant...
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4 (London) Regent's Park
Designed by 18th-century genius John Nash to surround a palace for the Prince Regent (the palace ...
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Activity
4 (London) Saatchi Gallery
The capital's largest gallery of contemporary art recently decamped to the grand three-story surrounds of the Duke of York's HQ building, a former military school. The man behind it, British mega-collector Charles Saatchi, is known for upsetting mainstream opini...
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Activity
4 (London) Sir John Soane's Museum
Sir John Soane's House is a magical, labyrinthine space and a must-visit for anyone with an inter...
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4 (London) Somerset House
Until around a decade ago, most of this grand riverside building was closed to the public. Since ...
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4 (London) Tate Britain
The Tate family of galleries has grown significantly over the past couple of decades, with offspr...
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Activity
2 (London) Hitting the Markets
Located west of Notting Hill, Portobello Market is the granddaddy of all Saturday street markets....
Day 7 Monday, December 26
Day 8 Tuesday, December 27
Day 9 Wednesday, December 28
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Food & Drink
Guildford Arms
This pub dates to the late 19th century, designed by architect Robert Macfarlane Cameron. Through...
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Food & Drink
Restaurant Martin Wishart
Despite a vaunted Michelin star and local awards, chef and owner Martin Wishart is the antithesis...
Day 10 Thursday, December 29
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Activity
5 (Eginburgh) Edinburgh Castle
Impregnable and Most Famous Icon of Scotland One of Europe's loveliest capitals owes much of i...
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4 (Edinburgh) Palace of Holyroodhouse
Official royal residence and onetime home of Mary Queen of Scots The Queen's official residenc...
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3 (Edinburgh) Scottish Parliament Building
After much controversy over its cost -- the better part of £500 million (about $925 million at th...
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1 (Edinburgh) The Real Mary King's Close
Beneath Edinburgh's City Chambers lies a warren of now hidden alleys where once people lived and ...
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1 (Edinburgh) Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour
Trace the footsteps of such literary greats as Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sir Walt...
Day 11 Friday, December 30
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Food & Drink
Simply Heathcotes
Installed in old registry offices, this restaurant is spacious and with a contemporary decor. It'...
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Food & Drink
The River Restaurant
This is the most stylish, sophisticated, and sought-after restaurant in Manchester and the region around it, a culinary landmark that's on virtually everybody's list of "important" dining spots. Set one floor above lobby level of the also-recommended hotel, it...
Day 12 Saturday, December 31
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Activity
4 (Manchester) Imperial War Museum North
Usually identified as one of the most striking museums in the north of England, it contains thous...
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Activity
4 (Manchester) Manchester Art Gallery
Following an extensive expansion and rejuvenation, this gallery today is the proud owner of one o...
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3 (Manchester) Manchester Town Hall
Alfred Waterhouse's (1830-1905) Manchester Town Hall is one of the great public buildings of the ...

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