Taking off Travel blog

On my recent trip to Florida, one restaurant chain stood out for both taste and value - Sweet Tomatoes (also known as Souplantation in some areas). We happened into it one afternoon after rejecting the nearby Italian restaurant we’d been considering.

Sweet Tomatoes, Dania Beach

When we walked in we were greeted by a salad bar several feet long, and this on its own would have been enough to keep us happy. Not only did it have a huge selection of fresh individual salad items (including a couple of things I’d never heard of), but it included three lettuce based salads, two pasta salads and potato salad. You could put as much on your plate as you wanted, though we discovered that if you were too full of salad you would miss out on the other items on offer. To accompany your salad you could choose from water, iced tea, lemonade, strawberry lemonade and soda. Read more »

Where The Locals Eat

There’s nothing worse than heading to a new city on business, arriving late at night and wondering where to go for a good meal. I should know. I once went on a business trip to Spain and by the time I had got my bags and found a taxi to my hotel, it was already nearly midnight. I know the Spanish eat late, but the local kitchens were closed and I found myself at the Spanish version of Mickey Ds - not what I wanted after a long trip. The next day, I was prepared and I asked the locals I met at the hotel where I could score a good meal so I could have a great dinner that night. When it comes to getting a good meal, you can’t beat local advice - and that’s the premise behind Where The Locals Eat.

Top Eateries In Each State

Where The Locals Eat gives you easy access to the top 100 restaurants in the 50 largest US cities. Since these are where you are likely to be doing business, then this is a great place to find restaurants serving your favorite dishes. The site balances ‘lengthy surveys of serious diners and hopelessly hooked restaurant habitues with the opinions and extensive research of certified foodies’ to bring you the top choices and they are constantly being updated. You can search the site by city and distance to select a restaurant within walking distance of your hotel. Read more »

Yet another fun thing about traveling to another country is seeing bad English translations. Japan leads the category (again) in this one! The category has its own name: “Engrish” and there’s no shortage of examples of it online. Here are some of my own pictures of Engrish from my trip to Japan, along with some links to additional endless “Engrish!” Read more »

Charlene wrote a glorious article on wine and hiking last week. Although mixing strenuous activity with my imbibement isn’t my cup of tea (or glass of pinot noir, as the case may be), her mention of Roshambo winery out of Healdsburg, California piqued my interest.

Roshambo injects a playful hipness into their whole operation - from their industrially-decorated tasting room/art gallery (now at Cornerstone Gardens) to their Roshambus (a tour bus cum-wine-tasting mobile), decorated by local artists, which will bring their wine to the masses. But is it all style and no substance? Read more »

It’s the middle of winter. I’m stuck indoors, with nothing to do but surf the intarwebz and think about sweets - and chocolate, glorious chocolate. Walking tours of local chocolate stores are a dime a dozen – so how about a chocolate travel tour? They come in two flavors: (no pun intended).
Tour Type 1: The Pretty Side of Chocolate
These tours are gentle and refined. We walk. We talk. We eat samples of chocolates. We visit chocolatiers’ beautiful shops. Read more »