When you’re in Japan, eat Japanese and only Japanese. And for the real deal the best place I’ve ever been in Japan is Toufuya Ukai. Traditional private dining rooms all open up onto beautiful gardens that are quite magical to walk through before and after dinner. It’s a sensational place for lunch or [...]

Dinner at The London is special but ramp it up a level and experience The Chef’s Table. 8 guests right slap bang in the middle of the kitchen with 12 courses of the most sensational food and with wonderful accompanying wines. There’s nothing on the menu you’ll ever had made at home, that’s for sure. [...]

Photo by Mikhail Gherman
Shibuya is an easy area to spend a day. Start the day with an early lunch and some great retail at my favourite spot: Margaret Howell (1-13-8 Jinnin-Shibuya-Ku) for great clothes and home wear put together in a lovely way. The café serves wonderful light lunches outside on the terrace.
Allow a few [...]

After a few days in the metropolis it can be nice to escape. A perfect day trip is the Kamakura area an hour’s drive or train ride south west of Tokyo. The series of 5 or 6 beaches lining the coast from this point are refreshing after the heat and intensity of the city. [...]

One of the best things about Manhattan is how easy it is to escape when you’re ready for some R and R. Long Island (especially Montauk) is just across the river and down the road and if you head due north, up the Hudson Valley, there are hundreds of amazing spots just an hour or [...]

Photo by Geoff Mason
What have Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Vice President Dick Cheeny, Bill Gates, Michael Douglas, Burt Reynolds, Joan Crawford and myself all got in common? We’ve all stayed at Huka Lodge in New Zealand’s central North Island. Her Majesty can’t get enough. She’s stayed there three times!
As you might have figured out [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex7XPth9P2Y

Broadway may not have the cool factor it did back in the day but there’s still something very cool about going to a show. My first Broadway show, well actually it was off Broadway, was sensational - Grey Gardens. There’s something about the history and the vibe and the fact those entertaining you are real, [...]

Picture by J Isaac Swanenburgh
Fiji’s surrounding waters, the brightest blue I’ve ever seen and filled with tiny and gorgeous coral atolls, is one of the most breathtaking places on earth.What never fails to amaze me about it is that from the time your plane touches down in Nadi Airport to the time you step onto [...]

Things I Like About Autumn:
- Baking ANZAC cookies
- Planting spring bulbs
- Lighting the fire for the first time
- Persimmons
- And, best of all, the first walk on a beach when it’s kind of chilly and you have to rug up a little bit
The best place in the world for this last one is [...]

I may be a vegetarian but one of my pet hates is vegetarian restaurants. They’re just not necessary. Plus I had a very bad experience with one in Paris years ago which involved my meal being a plate with a mountain of grated carrot and not much else. Could have been worse. My guest’s plate [...]