City Weekend Breaks: An injection of culture
March 24, 2009
When people are looking for holidays this year many are now finding that with the current financial climate that they have to forget about Caribbean holidays and think closer to home. Whilst there will no doubt be some disappointed holidaymakers out there, that doesn’t mean that UK tourists can not have a good time this year.
There has been a resurgence of the city break holiday in recent years with cities like Rome, Prague and Venice increasing significantly in popularity thanks to the cheap flights boom of the early 2000s. This trend has not faded in recent years and is becoming the annual holiday for many couples and single travellers who are after a different kind of vacation.
It’s not just abroad that these city breaks are becoming popular during these financially unstable times; there are many cities in the UK that are proving popular such as Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff. These modern cities have had an influx of hotels which are being snapped up for weekend breaks whether it is for tourists or events like Stag or Hen Weekends and Birthdays.
As well as this modern breed of UK tourists there are still plenty of attractions and sights to see of a more traditional sort, Cities like Manchester and London are home to many excellent Museums and Galleries for those who are looking for a slice of culture during their stay.
London can provide even more in the way of culture with many stage plays taking place in the city making it perfect for the musical fans. Hotels in London can get snapped up pretty quickly during key events as obviously thousands of tourists will be in town as well as the usual crowd of tourists seeing the Palace and Big Ben.
There is a seemingly never-ending list of sights to see in London with attractions like the O2 arena in Greenwich which aside from being an excellent live music and sporting arena has many shops and eateries surrounding the former Millennium Dome.
As well as the capital city there are other city breaks that are popular with all tourists including Dublin, a short ferry or catamaran ride across the Irish Sea drops tourists off in the historic city which is home to one of Ireland’s greatest exports: Guinness, around St. Patrick’s Day it can get pretty hectic with every bar filled to capacity.
So as people are worrying about where they’ll be able to afford this year for their holidays there is a growing interest in vacations closer to home that can offer a different kind of holiday for those interested in more than just lounging on a beach. For holidays with culture and a wider variety of activities then city breaks can offer so much more for your money.
Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms at 1984 Prices
March 16, 2009
To celebrate its 25th birthday, London’s Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms is offering visitors 1984 admission prices for one day only on 4th April 2009. Prices will be reduced from £13 to £2, the museum’s entry fee when it opened on 4th April 1984.
Visitors are encouraged to join in the birthday celebrations and turn up wearing 1980s style costumes. The museum staff will be taking photographs of people in 1980s gear and awarding a prize to the best dressed. Early birds will also be rewarded, with the first 25 visitors through the doors at 9.30am being offered a free bacon sandwich in the cafe.
Classic 1980s dishes including, Victory Soup, Shepherd’s Pie and Apple Crumble and custard will be available all day in the cafe with significantly reduced prices which will suit today’s credit crunch budgets.
Phil Reed, Director of the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms says, “4 April 2009 is a landmark birthday for the museum. In the past 25 years, over 5 million people, including heads of states from all around the world, have visited us to discover what life was like inside Churchill’s authentically preserved secret headquarters during the Second World War. We are looking forward to celebrating our birthday in style with a 1980s theme running throughout the day. Winston Churchill was a flamboyant dresser so it is a very fitting tribute that people turn up in their 1980s gear.”
“The museum has grown significantly in 25 years with the addition of the remarkable Churchill Museum in 2005, which is dedicated to the life of our war time leader Sir Winston Churchill. This year is the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War and the Cabinet War Rooms becoming operational, and we will be launching a new exhibition later this year to mark this, so it is an exciting time for us. We hope that our 1984 pricing will attract hundreds of new and repeat visitors to join in our fun birthday celebrations.”
Visitors will also get the chance to enter an exclusive raffle. The first prize, valued at £650, is a private VIP tour with the Director of the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms for up to four guests. Winners will enjoy privileged access inside the War Cabinet Room and the Map Room. The rooms have been perfectly preserved since 1945 and it was in the Cabinet Room that Churchill announced “This is the room from which I will direct the war.” The winner will also receive a bottle of Churchill’s favourite tipple, Pol Roger champagne, and four souvenir guidebooks, along with a signed copy of ‘Churchill’ written by Churchill’s granddaughter, Celia Sandys.
Second prize, valued at £220, is an Elite Dinner Cruise for two with ‘star treatment’ on London Bateaux. This luxurious treat includes champagne on arrival, a sumptuous five-course a la carte meal with fine wines, followed by after-dinner dancing.
The lucky third prize winner will receive a year’s free Friends of Imperial War Museum membership. This allows free admission to all exhibitions and free entry to The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, HMS Belfast and Imperial War Museum, Duxford. This winner will be able to take their family on a day out to a museum of their choice, as they will also receive Family tickets (2 adults and three children) worth £60.
Some of the many highlights of the Cabinet War Rooms include the Map Room, the communications hub during the Second World War, left almost exactly as it was when its doors were finally closed in August 1945; Churchill’s bedroom, strategically placed next door to the Map Room, and the War Cabinet Room, where Churchill held meetings with key advisors, selected Cabinet members and his Chiefs of Staff, while, outside, the bombs rained down on London.
Visitors can also enjoy the Churchill Museum, which uses cutting-edge technology and multimedia displays to bring to life the story of Winston Churchill, who was voted the ‘Greatest Briton’ in a nationwide poll in 2002. From Churchill’s childhood to his ‘finest hour’ and later years, visitors will not only learn more about his political exploits but also the man himself, his successes as well as his failures. Interactive displays allow visitors to further their learning and engage in a debate on many of the key decisions taken by Churchill.
Central to the Museum is the state-of-the-art Lifeline exhibit – the world’s largest interactive display - a 15-metre-long interactive table on which visitors can access information from every year of Churchill’s life, even drilling down to specific weeks and days. The Lifeline puts key events in Churchill’s life in context and engages users through a variety of animations and sounds.
Website: www.cwr.iwm.org.uk
RYA Dinghy Sailing Show at Alexandra Palace
February 5, 2009
Boating enthusiasts have only a few weeks to prepare for the world’s biggest dinghy show, which is set to take place at Alexandra Palace in London next month.
The Royal Yachting Association’s (RYA) Dinghy Sailing Show takes place between Saturday March 7th and Sunday March 8th and is set to include a wide range of maritime attractions.
These include a behind the scenes look at Britain’s success at the 2008 Olympic Games, with medal-winners from the event set to be in attendance, along with RYA Team GBR manager Stephen Park.
Laser sailor Paul Goodison will provide hints and tips on sailing faster - while a number of prize draws are also planned, with dinghy accessories for the holidays up for grabs.
Tickets can be purchased both in advance and on the door and are currently priced at £9.13 for adults and £4.35 for children.
Described as one of the most “visually unique” venues in the English capital, Alexandra Palace is located in Wood Green making it easily accessible for people staying in London.
Given the popularity of the event, many enthusiasts have already started to book their hotels. Many of the London hotels are already offering massive savings in order to attract customers.
Online booking website LateRooms.com is offering cheap London hotels with up to 75% discount. LateRooms offers hotels ranging from luxury apartments to boutique hotels. In particular Mount Mansions which offers 5 star luxury apartments is offering its Junior Suite double for £89 for 2 adults. These apartments are approx 2 miles from the venue.
There are many alternatives available in the area during the event. However visitors are advised to book their rooms as early as possible to avoid any disappointment.
Lines of London - A debut exhibition of Edd Horder’s drawings and 3D models of London
January 14, 2009
Edd Horder’s debut exhibition “Lines of London” opens to the public from Thursday 29th January to Sunday 1st February, held at The SaLon Gallery on Westbourne Grove.
During the past year Edd has been walking the streets of London, sketchbook in hand, capturing the iconic views of this vibrant city. Avoiding the flashes of tourists’ cameras Edd has encapsulated various sights and brought them together as detailed, clean, line drawings.
Carrying his sketchbook wherever he goes, Edd decided that drawings of his personal travels was not enough, what was needed for him, was a group of drawings of the city in which he lives. Inspired by his drawings of both his travels around South America and now London, Edd has brought them to life with some fascinating 3D models. A new direction in his work, these pieces add a fresh, creative dimension to these linear drawings.
What started as a side line, drilled in by crazy art teachers and an enthusiastic artistic mother, Edd has finally been given the opportunity to show off his work on a large scale. From the pages of his sketchbook to major pieces of work hopefully this exhibition will illustrate London in an inspirational light.
Londoner’s New Year Wishes for 2009
December 30, 2008
Sex, love, money and the perennial British favourite, better weather, are top of Londoners’ wish-lists for 2009.
This is according to voice-to-text company SpinVox which, since the start of the festive period has been capturing seasonal and New Year wishes at its Wishing Well, a 7.2 metre-tall triangular audiovisial installation in Covent Garden’s East Piazza.
To date, over 2,000 wishes have been made at the well by calling a designated phone number - 0207 818 0880 - and leaving a voice message.
In minutes each message is automatically converted to text and projected across its walls in a beautiful and inspiring flow of wishes and simultaneously displayed at the www.spinvoxwishingwell.com website.
These messages have been a mixture of the touching, the poignant, the funny and the plain bizarre!
Since its launch on December 12th, the Wishing Well has seen countless wishes of a sexual nature, two marriage proposals, 75 declarations of love, countless recession/money-related wishes as well as an array of hopes for better weather in 2009!
There have been over 30 requests for animals as Christmas presents. Girls Aloud are the most wished-about celebs with Rachel Stevens and X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke also scoring highly.
To mark the New Year, SpinVox has unveiled its top ten favourite wishes cast in the Wishing Well over the festive period:
The SpinVox wishing well top ten
1. I wish everyone would smile once a day in 2009.
2. I want more kisses than ever before in 2009.
3. I wish George Bush had been hit by that shoe.
4. I wish I can be in love forever.
5. I wish I could travel to work by jetpack.
6. I wish that mini cab drivers would not use SatNav all the time and believe it always works.
7. I wish I’d stopped on my 8th pint.
8. I wish people would stop moaning about the credit crunch.
9. We wish that the Queen would come and stay for a night.
10 I wish people would stop wishing, wishes only come to people who don’t wish.
The SpinVox Wishing Well remains at Covent Garden’s East Piazza until January 5th. To leave a wish, visitors call 0207 818 0880.
Photography Courses in London
December 12, 2008
Just ten minutes from Kew Gardens is the Eye Photographic Workshop’s London studio, where participants learn the intricacies of a Canon SLR (single-lens reflex) digital camera, across a two-day period.
The group spends time in the studio and out and about in the surrounding area - including stunning Richmond Park - resulting in a portfolio of accomplished images to take home on CD and a newly-honed eye for photography.
The relaxing two-day course costs £585 pp including tuition, use of all necessary equipment, CD to take home and lunch on both days.
For more information go to www.eyephotographicworkshops.com.
London Fine Dining Breaks
November 4, 2008
A couple of nights in a luxury hotel like Blakes - which has been voted in the top fifty “Best and Hippest Hotels” in the world - just has to be the ultimate city break for lovers and hedonists. And, better still, if it could be one which gives you the chance to dine one evening at Blakes and the other at Ambassade de l’Ile, one of London’s newest and most talked-about dining venues. Now this is possible as Blakes has introduced a bespoke package called “Stimulate your Senses”.
This exciting offer has just been launched by Blakes in conjunction with Ambassade de l’Ile, which is the London outpost of chef proprietor Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex’s two Michelin star restaurant Auberge de l’Ile in Lyon. Ambassade de l’Ile is a close neighbour of Blakes and opened last July.
Knightsbridge is right on the doorstep and has some of the world’s foremost fashion stores such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols and the designer stores in Sloane Street nearby.
Each room at Blakes is individually designed by the International Designer Anouska Hempel.
Blakes Bar is one of London’s hottest stops for cocktails and voted as one of the top six hotel bars in London. Start with cocktails in the bar and then continue the evening with a delicious five course dinner served in the gourmet restaurant.
A special tasting menu has been organised at Ambassade de l’Ile for the other evening. It serves contemporary French food, based on traditional styles and values.
The Stimulate Your Senses offer includes:
- Two nights in a Directors Double at Blakes
- Chilled Champagne on arrival
- Set five course dinner in Blakes Restaurant
- 7 course Tasting menu at Ambassade de Ille
- Continental breakfast each morning
- Complimentary Wi-Fi during your stay
- Late check out to 2pm
This is at a special promotional rate of £850 per two night stay exclusive of VAT and subject to availability. The offer is valid until 31st May, 2009 (excluding New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s day).
For further details and to book please visit http://www.blakeshotels.com/package_senses.html
London Audio Tours from £5.99
October 8, 2008
Wander around the urban landscape of some of London’s more intriguing areas and uncover quirky stories, little-known landmarks and bijou shops, pubs, restaurants and tearooms. With a Soundmap audio tour, it is as though you have engaged a most interesting local character to personally unveil their favorite haunts and fill you in on local gossip, putting an end to bland tourist trails.
The audio tours are available in three formats: as a download from www.soundmap.co.uk, direct to an internet enabled mobile phone (text ‘Soundmap’ to 60300), or ready-loaded on an audioplayer in branches of Waterstones nationwide.
