Luxe girl’s guide to living it up in London

If you’d like a short cut to the most fun, funky and cool things to do when visiting London and a host of other cities then read on for my Luxe guide review and giveaway…

Let me introduce you to my new best friend – let’s call her Luxe girl. She’s petite and perfectly formed and she’s going to be our guide while we’re in London. She’s lived here all her life and knows all the fab places to go. Darling, she said as she greeted me with a mwah, mwah – we’re going to have such fun! She definitely knows all the best places and they know her – the concierges and the maitre d’s smile as they see her coming.

After all, you can’t do everything while you’re in the big city so why not just follow Luxe girl’s advice for the most fun, the most funky, the most chic and forget about the rest. Luxe girl’s pocket guide will fit in the teeniest designer handbag. No need to lug a heavy guide around like a tourist – you have the insider knowledge now.

Luxe girl’s already quizzed me on my taste and budget before suggesting where I should stay. For ravishing chambers evoking the age of empire with biedermier, steamer trunks, muslin and silk she recommends Anouska Hempel’s Blakes. For effortless casual English chic, there’s the townhouse of Portobello Hotel or if my trust fund’s running low I’ll head east for the Hoxton Hotel for buzzy contempo style and just round the corner from the arty White Cube in Hoxton square.

With just a miniature pocket guide to fit all her recommendation this gal is mistress of the one liner. As we sweep through the capital, she can sum it all up perfectly. Darling, she says – let’s start with brekky at Princi, a gorgeous all day Italian caff I know, then grab a picnic box at Inn the Park to eat it in leafy St James Park. For afternoon tea it’ll be full on macaroon madness with rococo cocoa at Laduree – then we’ll start the evening  with a Bloody Mmm at the Grenadier before dining at Maze – their posh tapas are mini mouth marvels, not to mention the perfect garden view then we’ll head out east for funked and fizzy retro kitsch cocktails at Callooh Calloy. Boy, this girl knows how to eat!

But after all that deliciousness, we may be ready for some chilled out personal pampering. Luxe girl flicks her perfectly groomed fringe and taps her manicured finger nails thoughtfully before she whispers her beauty recommendations in my ear. We book our mini mani at Iris Chapple, buff up our trotters at Margaret Dabs and with a 30 minute blow dry at the Blow dry bar we’re ready to hit the town once more. We’ll save the impeccably luxurious Mandarin spa for the end of our stay when we need some serious recovery time.

But Luxe girl, I say – all this fun is all very well but I feel I should do the culture thing too – isn’t London steeped in history after all? No problem – she says. I suppose we should tick off the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, but if we want to avoid the great unwashed, then I have a few lesser known gems up my sleeve.

For art in a stately setting we’ll head for the Wallace collection and try lunch in its pretty courtyard cafe or Kensington Palace with Di’s frocks on show and tea at the Orangery. For more contempo international art we’ll head for the Tate Modern beside the Thames and we’ll make sure to wear our flats, as we skip up Wren’s Doric column for a bird’s eye view at The Monument.

Perhaps we’ll take a break from the sightseeing with a stroll through the park – there’s Green Park, Hyde Park or St James Park to choose from, or spend a day at the Royal Botanic gardens at Kew. Or we could head for the markets – delicious foodie delights at Borough Market or fragrant flowers at Columbia Market.

Oh and don’t even get me started on the gorgeous shops Luxe girl showed me – just save up your pennies and be ready for the credit card to take a hit.

After my visit to London with Luxe girl I’m ready to throw away all those fat guidebooks with information overload. Luxe girl will tell it to you straight – what’s fab and what’s not. Luckily Luxe girl London has some equally stylish friends in cities all over the world who can guide you around their cities too.

Luxe city guides are $9.99, pocket sized and perfect for a stylish few days. The Luxe pocket guides are created by insiders for your city visit selecting only the very best, so you don’t waste your time on the rest -there are over 30 different cities you’ll be longing to visit.

And there’s more….

Limited Edition Boxed set

Luxe guides currently have a limited edition boxed set in a mouthwatering choice of colours Cerise, Chartreuse, Amethyst and Azure at $55 containing the five guides of your choice – strictly while stocks last.

Mobile Guides

And for those of you who can’t live without your mobile, Luxe  mobile guides are available for a multitude of handsets and a year’s free updates sent directly to your mobile – cool or what? Choose from 7 cities including London, Paris and Rome – oh and there’s New York too.

Luxe Guide Giveaway

Luxe girl has kindly offered to send one of you, dear readers a perfectly formed, petite Luxe city guide to stick in the back pocket of your skinny designer jeans. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me where you’d love to go and I’ll choose one of you at random in a week or so to be sent the guide of your choice.

So will it be Bali, Bankok, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Cambodia, Chiang Mai, Cambodia, Dubai, Florence, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Miami, New York, Paris, Phuket, Rome, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sydney, Tokyo, Venice? … the world’s your lobster as they say.

If you’re tempted, then head over to the Luxe City Guides Website to find your own personal Luxe girl to guide you around. Luxe Guides kindly send me a free Luxe Guide London for the purpose of this review and another to give away to one of my readers.

Oh, and one last tip when visiting London – Luxe girl loathes weather talk, so shut up about your damn weather!

Update: This giveaway was won by Arlene – many thanks to all those who left a comment for this giveaway.

Photo Credits:  Westminster Abbey from wallyg , Afternoon tea from Laduree, Portobello hotel from Portobellohotel.com, Kew Gardens from Heatheronhertravels

More fun things to do in London

To Kensington Palace and tea at the Orangery – in London
They’re changing the guards at Buckingham Palace
An artistic lunch at the V & A – in London

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

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Travel tips and Clean Water from Tripbase

A while ago I was asked to contribute some travel tips in a game of tag where each blogger shared their tips and then nominated a few other bloggers to do the same. The project was organised by Tripbase and so many bloggers were soon involved that it soon became difficult to find anyone to tag that hadn’t already shared their tips. You can read my travel tips here.

Now all these tips and travel secrets have been collected to make a series of e-books that you can download for free and with a wonderful bonus attached. For every free e-book you download here, Trip-base will donate 1$ to a fantastic cause called Charity Water with a mission to provide clean drinking water in developing countries around the world.

Clean water is something that my family and I just take for granted – we turn on the tap and it’s there. But for many families around the world, this isn’t the case. Women and children may walk for miles every day to find water in dirty pools or rivers, even though they know this water could make them sick, but may have no choice if it’s all that’s available. Through projects such as building wells, Charity water can give communities the clean water they deserve, freeing time for more productive activities and improving health.

There are several free e-books in the series to download from travel tips, tips from the US, Italy and countries around the world, to beaches, foodie and family travel.

My tips on staying in Religious guest houses and on meeting locals through social networking sites are in my article here and you’ll also find them in the Travel tips guide along with tips from many of my blogging friends.

Sherry from Ottsworld has obviously been asked too many personal questions about whether she is married, and reminds us that we don’t HAVE to answer all those personal questions but can turn the tables and ask the locals questions about themselves instead (Travel tips – P15)

Nancy from What a Trip advises us to use social media like Twitter to get advice from local Visitors Bureaus who are there to help us plan our trip and get the best deals. (Travel tips – P15) and also suggests that we take a quick photo of our luggage so that if it goes astray we can provide the information to find it again more easily (Travel tips – P37)

Anil from Foxnomad urges to try the places that locals flock to but may be less known to the average visitor – there are no real secrets in the world of travel, just places that someone could be waiting to recommend to you or for you to discover (Travel tips – P19)

Barbara at Hole in the Donut suggests that if you’re the sort of person that likes to research and book hotel accommodation ahead of time, an additional web search for your chosen hotel name + discount voucher coupons could reveal a further 10-20% discount on room prices especially from major hotel chains. (Travel tips – P24)

Keith at Velvet Escape has a tip for when you are in a hotel and want to check in to your flight online but don’t have direct access to a printer. If you check in and then save a PDF you can e-mail it to your hotel reception and ask them to print it for you before you leave. (Travel tips – P38)

Mara from Mother of all trips is a girl after my own heart when she urges the benefits of a bit of realistic planning, to avoid wandering aimlessly around or ending up at somewhere that’s closed on your chosen day. (Travel tips – P54)

Ms Gourmantic, like many other writers extols the benefits of leaving the guide book behind and experiencing a place fully with all your senses, rather than through someone else’s interpretation. (Travel tips – P53)

Liz from Travelogged makes us aware that in Greece you don’t flush the toilet paper but put it in the bin instead. Although I know this as my sister lives in Greece, it often catches me out when I go over and is a great relief when I come home again and can flush without fear of the consequences! (World tips – P.69)

In the world tips e-book I also mention London’s lesser known museums such as the Denis Severs House (not really a museum, more a Georgian house that’s a living stage set of the past) and the Geffrye Museum in East London with room sets of domestic English interiors through the ages. (World tips – P. 86)

If you want to check out these and many more travel tips, do go to Tripbase and download one or more of the free e-books so that Tripbase can make the donation on your behalf to the Clean Water project.

Download your free Travel tips e-book here

This article is published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

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4 ways to win a free holiday

If you fancy a free holiday then take a look at some of these competitions around the web that might just get you a nice break without spending your own hard earned cash – of course there’s no such thing as a free lunch but an hour or two of your time might be well spent if you happen to be the lucky winner….

Enjoy every minute in the UK

What’s the prize? 10,000 minutes (7 nights) of holiday in England for up to 4 people. (UK residents)

What do I need to do? Create a 1 minute video of an English experience you enjoy and post it on the Enjoy every minute competition page here by 30 June 2010

If you read my blog regularly, you may have sussed out that a lot of my travel experiences are based on short breaks in the UK or European destinations, where I pack  maximum experience into just a weekend or a few days. In the UK we typically get 20-25 days paid holiday and a number of public holidays too so there’s no need to limit yourself to just one major holiday for 2 weeks in the sun in August.

The folks over at Visit England are thinking along the same lines in their Enjoy Every minute campaign, to encourage us to enjoy every minute of our leisure time whether it’s the 104 weekend days, 8 bank holidays or our holday leave and perhaps explore some of the things on our own doorstep.

To promote the campaign there a video competition with a prize of 10,000 minutes of holiday for the best video. If you’d like to enter, you’ll need to make a 1 minute video that encapsulates a memorable English experience and something that you enjoy doing. Upload your 1 minute video to the Enjoy England site here and the one that’s highest rated by viewers will win the prize and the best will be included in the Enjoy every minute campaign this autumn.

San Antonio Vacation Experience (S.A.V.E) in Texas

What’s the prize? A 2 night break for 4 people in San Antonio and passes to up to 6 local attractions – 12 chances to win from different travel bloggers (US residents only)

What do I have to do? Go to the SAVE website to see the list of different participating bloggers and then do to each individual blog to enter their giveaway – examples of requirements may be leaving a comment or submitting a photo.

To promote San Antonio in Texas, the Visitor’s bureau have created a holiday sweepstake with 12 participating family bloggers, offering weekend accommodation and passes for up to 6 local attractions. There’s plenty for every taste in San Antonio, including the famous river walk with a path that meanders through different neighbourhoods, past restaurants, public art and water taxis or learning more about the missions that started the city including the Alamo.

You need to be quick with this one, as the contest has a short shelf life and some of the individual contests have now finished, but you can still enter the following

The Q family adventures (ends 24 May 2010)

Have baby will travel (ends 26 May 2010)

Travelogged (ends 26 May 2010)

Theme Park Mom (ends 31 May 2010)

Visit West Sweden

What’s the prize? A week’s road trip for two in wonderful West Sweden including air tickets, loan of a Volvo car and your chosen accommodation and dining. (US residents only)

What do I have to do? Visit the West Sweden trip-planner page here and use the trip planner to start planning your dream trip to West Sweden, then submit your trip to the draw by 1st July 2010

This trip  really appeals to me it includes so many of the elements I enjoy. You can travel at your own pace by car through unspoilt wilderness, staying at picturesque country inns and hotels, enjoying gread food and enjoying the different regions of West Sweden. In Dalsland you’ll find pristine lakes and forests, in Bohuslan the rocky coastline is scattered with rocky islands and fishing villages and in Vastergotland you’ll find a swathe of countryside stretching inland and home to historical sites, picturesque manor houses, gardens and atmospheric castles.The coastal city of Gothenburg is the entry point to the region and with plenty of cultural attractions and outstanding cuisine. To find out more go the the West Sweden competition page or visit the West Sweden Website.

A wine weekend at the Chandon Winery, Napa Valley

What’s the prize? A weekend for two at the Domaine Chandon including flights, VIP tour, dinner and luxury accommodation (US residents only)

What do I have to do? Enter the sweepstake at the Chandon Escape webpage and gain extra chances daily by revisiting other places to register your entry until 30 June

Even though I’m not a big drinker I do love the whole idea of escaping to a winery to enjoy top quality wines and cuisine. My mouth is already watering at the thought of the chef’s 6 course tasting menu at the Michelin one-starred étoile restaurant, the only fine-dining restaurant within a Napa Valley winery and I could easily get used to the Meditteranean style luxury of the Villagio Inn and spa. If you’re interested, head over to the Chandon Escape web-page and start registering all the entries you can.
This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

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