Mike J

Since this list is so international, I thought I would ask for some advice.

I have two daughters, one almost 16, the other almost 19. The 16 year old is a fashion nut and dancer, the 19 year old is brainy and not too girly, loves history and high tech. We are going to Europe starting beginning of July, and will be at 3-5 days in each of London, Paris, Venice and Rome.

The daughters have been assigned to plan Paris (younger one), and Venice (older one). Rome is pretty well planned out (have a private tour guide), London is quite open. Besides all the usual tourist haunts, what recommendations can people provide? For example, something in high fashion or ballet in Paris would totally thrill my almost 16 year old, or 18th century history for the older one.

Restaurants are always a challenge as well. Which ones can you recommend that can give us a great local experience without breaking the bank (given the economy and that I have to pay for four!) :-)

As usual, any help is appreciated!

Cheers,

Mike

Flying Finn

In Venice you can get the worst food in Italy (seriously, some of the tourist stuff is just crap) so very important to know where to go. Here are some places that locals like, are good and not expensive (all relative, it's still Venice):

-Trattoria alla Madonna. One of my absolute favorite in Venice near Rialto bridge. Good for lunch & dinner. Not fancy at all but real good food and cheap. Not easy to find (good thing because means not many tourists) but a real gem. Try Spagetti Vongole with white sauce, best Vongole in Venice.
-Acquapazza. Again, good for both, lunch & dinner. Great foor, not expensive and the owner looks like Tony Sporano's cousin...
-Antico Panificio. Good pizzeria for lunch, quiet place.
-Paradiso. Good dinner place, near Rialto on paradiso street.
-Osteria Antico Dolo. Again, nothing fancy, tiny place w/ great food. After crossing Rialto, one block right behind Rialto market.
-Da Ivo, great little place for dinner where a lot of famous people go to. Have the fiorentina (t-bone steak), maybe the best steak in Venice and even though populated by famous, not that expensive.

Then when you do some "Island visits", for Murano:
-Trattoria al Gatto Nero. Good place for lunch.

And I'd say one must is to visit Torcello island and have lunch at hemingway's favourite restaurant, Locanda Cipriani. Island itself is quite nice with colorful little houses and a famous bridge with no handrails and it has the church tower that is leaning more than Pisa.
Locanda Cipriani is right by that church and is a great place for lunch or dinner, nice to sit outside, rest, enjoy some Procecco and enjoy great food. Not expensive either.

Then if you want to go for the "scene", check out Harry's Bar. VERY expensive but maybe worth the visit, it's a landmark near Piazza San Marco.

Arena993

We went to Murano when we visited Venice a few years back and took the guided tour of the glass factory. They did a demonstation on blowing glass that lasted about a 1/2 hour and was very cool to watch. Murano is famous for their glass. As far as Venice goes (we were on a tour) our guide gave us the best advice and said to just "get lost in Venice". In other words hit the back streets off the beaten path there are so many cool shops, bars and places to eat that are not slammed. The Ferrari store is a good place to window shop. San Marcos Square is nice, but see it and start walking the back streets. Our best meal was in a small wine shop. You can't get lost because on every corner of a building is the way back to the main streets or canal. Did the gondola thing and it was OK so that may be something to fill an hour. One of the best pieces of advice is to use the pay toilet setups. They are very clean and maintained perfectly. With all the people there you can imagine what a public restroom is like plus the lines are loooong. The pay ones are better I had my wife with me so there was no choice in the matter. You will also be surprised that there are many leaning towers not just the famous one in Pisa. Pisa was not worth going to. The tower was neat, but the carnival atmosphere (people selling crap) was a put off. Enjoy the trip. I spent a couple of days in London and saw Hyde Park and Harrods as well as ate some great Indian food. Have a great time

Mike

Flying Finn

+1 on Getting lost in Venice. That's definitely the way to go. And when you do it, go far.

Also same for Indian food in London...
London is maybe my favorite city, Hyde Park is a must, Buckingham, nice museums, Harrods (just send wife & girls to upper floors and go the the pub on the bottom floor) and indian food is the best outside of India. And use the tube for moving from place to place, excellent way to move around.

Mike J

Yup, agree with London...one of my all-time favorites as well. I have been there perhaps 10 times, but only twice for pleasure...even the 100 year old subways are fun to ride, lots of noise and creaking.

Any favorite indian restaurants in London?

ggg1ggg

Chor Bizarre in Mayfair was just amazing - not cheap, though. Cheaper now with the better exchange rate than when I went, though.

http://www.chorbizarrerestaurant.com

Simon W

Lahore Kebab House is one of the best Indian / Pakistani restaurants you'll find. Amazing value for money, very central (although not in the most picturesque part of the city) very clean and a lot of fun. It's noisy - and huge..

http://www.lahore-kebabhouse.com/

Tate Modern for art lovers, all of the museums (nat history, british museum, Victoria & Albert in particular) all free to enter and thoroughly enjoyable.
Walking along the South Bank also a nice way to spend and afternoon.
Tower of London steeped in history but the wait for the Crown Jewells not worth it in myopinion.
Tube is best way to travel around, but I personally detest it. Cabs are expensive, although with the exchage rate around 1.45 it's a good time to visit.

95 C4 993

Bike About Tours in Paris---the best way to see Paris, hands down. I couldnt recommend a better way to see Paris, the sites, and well organized, easy tour on bikes. Very rich in history of Paris.

Hands down, the best thing we did in Paris. Anyone who doesnt do this, is missing out on see a lot of things of historical nature.. Do you know who invaded Paris---find out on the tour! Jim Morrison, Oscar Wild, oldest street, cannon ***** in buildings from the war, oldest bakery, most expensive homes, ect. You will learn and see more and if you dont like it, I will remove my membership and quit posing on Rennlist.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...de_France.html

http://www.bikeabouttours.com/

Stayed here in Paris---blocks from the Effile tower, great homemade jam from the owner. Hotel Valadon
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...de_France.html

Stayed here in Venice---top notch all the way. Rated # 1 in Venice

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...ce_Veneto.html

Simon W

Not many European countries that have not invaded Paris...

geolab

Hi Mike, we're going to handle both tastes, at the same time, that's the challenge.
High fashion depends on dates, I may have someone from Chanel make you visit Coco CHANEL's private apartment, left as is since she deceased, and which inspires a lot of Chanel lines. (not to public)
Ballet ? you have to go to the Opera Garnier, take a guided visit to the palace (history), and attend a ballet afterwards (online booking)
History, walking distance from the Opera, you have the louvre museum and royal palace. Or take a train to Versailles palace for a day, guided tour, very instructive.
Restaurants, and oh restaurants....

best quality for price no alternative is L'Absinthe‎
google l'absinthe paris
It is the second restaurant of Michel Rostang '2 star michelin guide'
plates @ 20 max, menu @ 40, wines 20-40, take 2006 chateau neuf du pape domaine Naylis @ 37 euros. fantastic.

Gallopin ( also google) very affordable for quality and setup. You will be facing the Paris stock exchange, first regulated open outcry financial market since 1803. This is where all the exchanges in the world took the columns idea from (google the words Paris bourse)

Gourmet des ternes : one of the best meat restaurants. Take the Filet 'complette', in a 19th century atmosphere. I had dinner shoulder to shoulder with a formula 1 legend once. Another time next to a president. very moderate prices. like above.

all restaurants in mid Paris

I have tens of addresses if you want more, let me know.
unfortunately I won't be in Paris in July, regards

95 C4 993

This is an artistic point of view. There is an artist who invaded Paris. Most people walk past them in various parts of the world. I have seen it in a few countires where he invaded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_(artist)
Invader (born 1969) is a French street artist who pastes up characters from and inspired by the Space Invaders game, made up of small coloured square tiles that form a mosaic. He does this in cities across the world, then documents this as an "Invasion", with maps of where to find each invader.

He started this project in 1998 with the invasion of Paris - the city where he lives and the most invaded city to date - and then spread the invasion to 35 other cities in the world. Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, London, Manchester, Darlington, Newcastle, Geneva, Lausanne, Bonn, Cologne, Ljubljana, Prague, Vienna, Barcelona, Bilbao, Nice, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bangkok, Tokyo, Katmandu, Varanasi, Melbourne, Perth and even Mombasa are now invaded with his colourful characters in mosaic tiles.

The mosaics depict characters from Space Invaders and other video games from the late 1970s. The images in these games were made with fairly low-resolution graphics, and are therefore suitable for reproduction as mosaics, with tiles representing the pixels. The tiles are difficult to alter and weather-resistant.

Invader installed his first mosaic in the early 1990s in Paris. According to the artist, it was a scout, or sentinel, because it remained the only one for several years. The programme of installations began in earnest in 1998.

The locations for the mosaics are not random, but are chosen according to diverse criteria, which may be aesthetic, strategic or conceptual. Invader favours locations that are frequented by many people, but also likes some more hidden locations. In Montpellier, the locations of mosaics were chosen so that, when placed on a map, they form an image of a space invader character.

The mosaics are built in advance, and Invader travels with them. When he arrives in a city he obtains a map and spends at least a week to install them. They are catalogued, and Invader draws a map indicating their locations within the city. For some time, Invader has employed a professional photographer to take pictures of each mosaic.

One of the more prominent places where the mosaics have been installed is on the Hollywood Sign. The first was placed on the letter D on December 31, 1999. During further trips to Los Angeles, Invader has placed mosaics on other letters of the sign.

Invader also works on another project that he titles "Rubikcubism", which consists making artworks made of Rubik's Cubes. Invader has had solo exhibitions at art galleries in Paris, Osaka, Melbourne, Los Angeles, New York City, and London.

Most recently, Invader placed two of his iconic tile works on the World Of Wonder Storefront Gallery, located at 6650 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, CA. for the 4th annual I Am 8 Bit group show.

In 2010, he was one of the featured artists in the film Exit Through the Gift Shop in which it states he is a cousin of Thierry Guetta (Mr. Brainwash).



There are hundreds of these around the world and I would have never known this very small, but interesting, artist who invaded Paris....and other cities around the world.

The little things you pass by that go unoticed are some times that most interesting.

Mike J

bump in case there are other opinions.....

Raptor

Don't know your lodging thoughts, but a great place for four is http://www.mayfayrehouse.com/ Very clean and convenient and much nicer than two hotel rooms. Close to the Tube, Piccadilly, Green Park. Great area.

ggg1ggg

Also, in London, I found that the pub food was good, but pretty much the same everywhere. It seems a lot of the old pubs are owned by the major breweries, and they replicate the same printed, laminated menu everywhere. It was hard to find an independent pub.

If your daughters are into checking out the typical punk scene, a trip up to Camden Town is definitely worth it, great people watching (and safe). There is a huge outdoor market there that they'll probably enjoy.

The summer is generally great for outdoor markets in London. Depending on the day, it's worth checking out Portabello Road (in Notting Hill) where they have a variety of things from fruit/veg to antiques, Spitalfields Market (on the East End, which itself is surrounded by other street markets on Sundays) in addition to Camden (above).

Definitely NOT worth it: the trip up to the Burberry outlet. Don't let them convince you to go there.

Ran

London is certainly nice though I like all cities, countries, towns, etc. ...
As for Indian food, it is better here than in India. I never go to any Indian restaurant in the US (usually poor even in the best NYC places) but London has great Indian food and often better than the best in India.
+1 on history in museums. Fantastic. In this respect at least glad the British empire existed; they took good stuff and preserved it at least. Some interesting other museums too like Royal Academy at Piccadily, etc. Take a side day-trip to Bray (two storied and 3-starred restaurants too), Oxford, Cotswolds, Bath, etc.

I go to all these places and every single place I go to with my daughter - they almost always agree to serve half portions of the regular menu if children eat less, etc. instead of serving the junk children's menu; very few (only in London) with age discriminatory policies see the light after we have a chat.

LONDON INDIAN restaurants
Cuisine wise best; great service too (Michelin star quality and deserving): Rasoi Vineet Bhatia, Tamarind

Other good ones: New Tayyabs (great experience on Brick Lane if interested), Quilon (different from what you may be used to but authentic and regional), Painted Heron, Zaika, Benaras.

If you are interested in non-Indian restaurant recommendations, let me know.

ROME restaurants:
favourite and if ready to splurge on cuisine and vintage wine: La Pergola (excellent; some say too fussy but often they have not been there - fussy no doubt but in a good functional way). Also La Rosetta and Agata e Romeo.
Otherwise, nice ones abound but stay away from the restaurants right in the famous touristy piazzas, etc.
Try going to restaurants based on area - Both children may enjoy Trastavere besides the usual places.

PARIS restaurants:
Too many and in all price ranges; again, avoid the usual touristy squares, etc. and you should be fine.
PARIS
Without breaking the bank you should be able to find your way into a young dancer performance at the Opera Paris Garnier - as much to see the opera house too. That may sound appealing to your dance enthusiast. Concierges (if you stay in the Hilton/Marriott/type hotels) will send you to the usual cabarets like Moulin Rouge, Paradise, etc. Okay as a one-off but totally touristy.

Regardless of what you do, enjoy and all the very best.