501 Places

One of my top places in the world to visit, the west of the United States is rich with natural wonders and well-managed national parks. I have raved on about the American national parks in this area in a recent post so will spare you my words and just share a few of the favourite [...]

Over the years I’ve encountered many Europeans and Antipodeans who have travelled extensively throughout the world, yet they have never been to America. When I ask them why they have neglected this big chunk of the globe the reply is nearly always the same: “we can do America when we’re too old to do the [...]

The Grand Canyon is surely one of the most famous and instantly recognisable natural wonders of the world. Yet surprisingly few people are aware that just over an hour’s drive from the Grand Canyon, not far from the crowds of the South Rim, is a natural wonder that rivals the beauty of the Grand Canyon [...]

Imagine you are 24 miles through the NY Marathon (for some of us that’s a tough thing to picture). You have ran through the 5 boroughs of the city, and are now stumbling through the final couple of miles on the roads of Central Park. Crowds are cheering you on, and you know there’s probably [...]

New York has so much to offer that it’s hard to imagine why you would want to leave it for a weekend. Indeed while living there we spent most of our weekends exploring different neighbourhoods and tasting a world of food in the city’s endless stream of restaurants. There is however much to see away [...]

After a year in New York where my paycheck barely covered my rent, we found many ways to enjoy a day out on a tight budget, and often for free. So much so that our New York native friends would ask us, the legal aliens, to recommend places for them to visit on a weekend. [...]

We counted over 100 restaurants within 10 minutes walk of our appartment, serving over 20 ethnic types of food. New places would spring up regularly, and it was clear that those who were damned by criticism didn’t survive long. So which were my favourites? We spent a year on the Upper East Side in 2003/04, [...]