Archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery under an office block in London: the remains of the city's first Roman basilica.
28.01.2025 - 21:59 / lonelyplanet.com
Jan 28, 2025 • 8 min read
When it comes to food, London's West End district in the city center doesn’t have the best reputation. Popular with tourists due to the big attractions scattered around the area and packed with major theatre productions, locals tend to associate it with overpriced and underseasoned food that you grab on the go. But I disagree.
There are nine million Londoners, one-third of whom were born outside the UK. Thousands travel into the West End daily to work and play and they’ve got to eat somewhere. My immigrant parents recognised this simple fact and in the 1980s, we opened a Chinese takeaway in Covent Garden.
On weekends we would exchange meals with neighboring Indian and Caribbean restaurants, and we routinely held all our big family gatherings in Chinatown. When Christmas rolled around, Mom would splurge on dinner at a fancy hotel to ensure the most picturesque family photos.
Admittedly, the West End is not the most budget-friendly part of London. After all, it's home to the city's poshest neighborhoods, most iconic attractions, museums and theaters. I’ve fine-dined and partied across the city for decades, thanks to TopTable deals (aka the 2000s' Groupon), media invitations when I worked in television, and opting out of a pension plan completely (not recommended).
All this personal experience has given me a shortlist of tried-and-tested spots, so visiting friends never find themselves eating at chain restaurants in Leicester Square or tourist traps by Buckingham Palace. These are my favorite places to eat in the West End right now.
If I’m alone and catching up on work, then I’ll go to The Hoxton, Holborn for Rondo, their lobby restaurant. It’s a nice spot to remain undisturbed, so bring a book and enjoy the morning at leisure. The Full English breakfast is so filling I’ll usually skip lunch. If you'd rather have something lighter, go for their organic porridge with banana and agave or their farm-fresh eggs with sourdough toast.
How to get it: Rondo opens at 7am and walk-ins are welcome.
My favorite place for breakfast with company is The Riding House Café. They have three casual-chic outposts, including Fitzrovia (tube stop: Oxford Circus). If I’m feeling indulgent I’ll do the malted deep-dish pancakes , otherwise it’s always the large eggs Benedict with Kassler ham.
How to get it: Breakfast is served from 7:30am on weekdays; Bloody Marys are served from 10am.
Russell Square is such a gorgeous stroll but before you enter, stop at the red phone box at its east entrance. Inside there’s a cafe called Walkmisù (tube stop: Russell Square) and the best thing about it is the homemade tiramisu. They have rotational flavors beyond the classic, such as strawberry and pistachio, and usually costs
Archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery under an office block in London: the remains of the city's first Roman basilica.
Food and travel go hand-in-hand. When you get out and explore the world, you should taste all the flavors your new destination has to offer. However, the U.S. is a pretty big place with lots of diverse food offerings. So, to help you narrow down the best places to tickle your tastebuds in America, Clarify Capital created a list of the top food destinations in the country.
Heads up, San Diego. For the first time ever, Royal Caribbean will be basing a cruise ship in the port, starting in October 2026.
Losing your luggage to the mysterious labyrinth of an airport baggage system is every flier's worst nightmare—especially when nobody at the airline can tell you where in the world it ended up. That's why many travelers have decided to take things into their own hands in recent years by attaching tracking devices like Apple AirTags to their checked luggage.
If Miami and Palm Beach had a love child, it would be Fort Lauderdale. Quickly shedding its image as just a spring break destination, the city is redefining itself as a place that lacks the formality of its neighbor to the north (Palm Beach), but has all the trappings of the vibrant metropolis to the south (Miami). And while Fort Lauderdale is quickly catching up on the five-star luxury-resort front, the real-estate (and therefore hotel) prices have not yet approached the levels of Palm Beach's on Worth Avenue. Fort Lauderdale lacks pomp and doesn’t take itself too seriously: It’s a place that still feels accessible thanks to an abundance of public beaches, a lack of gated communities, and a culinary scene that won’t break the bank.
When I was 15, my dad and I took a trip to Los Angeles that changed my life. We didn't have a set agenda, and since we were staying down the road from the University of California, we took a campus tour.
So you've been to London, bumped fists with Big Ben, watched a Premier League game and witnessed the Changing of the Guard.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stephen and Joanna Vargha, a married couple who moved from North Carolina to Cuenca, Ecuador, in 2020 after retiring early. Cuenca is located in the Andes mountains and has a population of about 600,000 people. Their interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The British Pullman, A Belmond Train, has long been hailed as one of the UK’s most sophisticated travel experiences. Since the ’80s, the steam locomotive has played host to elegant travelers hopping onboard for a day spent puffing through the English countryside. The pinnacle of British glamour, guests are treated like royalty as they are whisked past rolling fields, historic castles, and storybook villages.
The best time to visit Barbados is a worthy topic: From long sunny afternoons on idyllic beaches to aimless strolls around the UNESCO Heritage Site capital, Bridgetown, there are umpteen reasons to visit this dazzling Caribbean island of Barbados. However, timing is everything, and the best time to visit Barbados depends on what you seek from a tropical island escape. Whenever you visit Barbados, there are plenty of things to do in Barbados, as well as to experience: toes-in-the-sand bliss; cooling off in the crystal-clear Caribbean Sea; popping on a snorkel and mask to see a technicolor world in the ocean. While choosing the right places to stay is key, there’s plenty to do besides downtime in the best hotels in Barbados, from sampling authentic Barbadian food and meeting locals in beach shacks to exploring Mount Gay, the world's longest-running rum distillery. Excited? This is the best time to visit Barbados.
Jan 30, 2025 • 11 min read
I’m a co-owner of Luaka Bop, a New York-based record label, and last June was accompanying the Staples Jr. Singers, a gospel group from Aberdeen, Miss., on a European tour. For a British Airways flight from London to Paris, three musicians were required to check their guitars, but only one instrument arrived in Paris with us. We filled out the forms and tried to impress upon the employee the importance of getting the guitars before the group’s show the next night. One of the two lost guitars did make it to Paris the next day, but British Airways couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver it, so our tour manager took a cab to the airport only to find it had closed. When the group returned to Britain by train, it was still down two guitars. We got one back a few shows later, and eventually found the other one at Heathrow Airport lost and found — with its neck snapped off and its case destroyed. We ended up with over $5,000 in expenses, which included renting guitars for a dozen shows and purchasing a guitar and case (both used) for Arceola Brown, the musician whose instrument was destroyed. We submitted most receipts with the original claim to British Airways on July 25, then added a few more on Aug. 7 and Sept. 11, for a total of $3,331. (We didn’t keep receipts for the rest.) But beyond receiving a case number, we never heard back, despite several email follow-ups. Can you help?