London's Top Five Hotels

The guide we're currently working on is for the capital of the England, London.  A few weeks ago we published a list of London’s top five sights.  Well today here is a list of our top five favourite hotels in London

The Hoxton

Possibly London's coolest hotel, the Hoxton in Shoreditch just screams cool in every way.  Mismatched furniture in the foyer, an American style grill on the ground floor and seven concept rooms with names like 'The Hoxton Cabin' make this a fantastic place to stay.

The Ampersand

 Probably the best hotel for anyone wanting to visit London's museums, the Ampersand is a 111 room hotel with inspiration for the styling taken from the V&A, Science Museum, Natural History Museum and the Royal Albert Hall, all of which are in immediate vicinity to the hotel.

The Fox and Anchor

The Fox and Anchor looks like a pretty plain, standard London pub.  Nothing about the building would make you think that inside there are six individually styled hotel rooms.  Each room is named after a local landmark and styled to reflect the history of the place.

The Zetter

The Zetter is a cool, quirky boutqiue hotel in the Clarkenwell district of London.  Everything is all about contrasting styles in a theme which could probably be called modern-vintage.  If you can then get a rooftop suite for a panoramic view of London and a massive TV

Metropolitan by COMO

The COMO Metropolitan hotel is a stylish boutique hotel in Mayfair.  It boats the best views of Hyde Park of any modern hotel.  The staff at the hotel are always happy to help, just ask at reception and anyone behind the desk will be able to put a package together for you.

That's our favourite five hotels in London.  All of which can be found in the soon to be released Trippa London guide, keep your eyes out for a launch date.  Our other guides include Trippa Seville, Trippa Berlin, Trippa Barcelona, Trippa Stockholm, Trippa Oslo and Trippa Cardiff 

Oslo International Film Festival

Oslo is a city we've not taken a look at for a while for no real reason actually, but this week marks the start of the Oslo International Film Festival, an annual event showcasing the best indipendent films that the world has to offer. We looked at the Reykjavik International Film Festival not that long ago, the Oslo event is a much smaller affair but still just as interesting for any film buffs out there.

The OIFF starts on the 20th of November with psychological thriller 'Tom at the Farm', it premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the award for the best film at the whole thing. The following four days are full of a wide selection of feature length films, short films and three documentaries which will be shown in two locations in Oslo.

A wide variety of Genres are on offer, ranging from the dark journey of discovery from Dirty Young Loose, a heartwarming and touching story about a group of developers in the 80's in Computer Chess and a fast paced violence comedy called Why Don't You Play In Hell? Almost all of the films are being shown with English subtitles but some are being shown with Norwegian. Check when buying tickets to avoid any confusion.

The festival is taking place in Filmens Hus in Tancred and Lillebil. To see a full selection of films on offer take a look at the OIFF website. Tickets for each of the screenings can be bought from Filmweb or Cinemathique. If tickets have sold out then turn up to the cinema and you may be lucky in getting a space if someone else has cancelled or just hasn't turned up.

If you are visiting Oslo for the International Film Festival or just happen to be in the Norwegian capital over the coming weeks, then make sure you download the best free Oslo travel guide for iPhone.  It’s free of charge and features the best sights, hotels, restaurants and shops that Oslo has to offer.

Alexander Rodchenko: Reykjavik Art Museum

We've not taken a look at Reykjavik for a while, but now it's time we went back there I think to take a look at one of the exhibitions that is appearing in the fantastic Reykjavik Art Museum. November is an excellent time to visit the most northerly city in the world, made even more interesting this year by this exhibit being on.

We're taking a look at Alexander Rodchenko - Revolution in Photography, the exhibit which has traveled the world and even stopped off at the Southbank center for a while, but now is in Reykjavik.

The exhibition looks back at the work of Alexander Rodchenko, one of the most important and influential artists of the early 20th Century.

Reykjavik Art museum are proud to be hosting this exhibition, which should appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in art, political history, photography or graphic art. All of the pieces being shown at the exhibition are from the collection of the Moscow House of Photography Museum/ Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.

If you're not aware of the life and works of Alexander Rodchenko - born in St. Petersburg in 1891, he worked as an artists and designer from 1915. Utilising multiple forms of media, he started out his career as a painter and scultop, before moving onto photography in 1925. He was a pioneer of photography and graphic design, designing book covers, adverts, and posters in collaboration with Varvara Stephanova, his wife and closest colleague.

Rodchenko's art is linked closely with the changing Russian Society of the time. Industrialisation and the Russian Revolution were both taking place.

The exhibition has been running for a month already and will continue to run until the 12th of January. Visit on the 17th of November though at 15:00 to hear Benedikt Hjartarson, an assistant professor at the University of Iceland, discuss the works of Rodchenko in more detail.

Entry to the museum costs 1,200 ISK, opening hours are 10:00 - 17:00 Daily.

Our guide to Reykjavik can be downloaded today free of charge through the iTunes store.

What's On, November in Stockholm

November is here, so we're taking a look at the best things to get up to Stockholm, the capital of Scandinavia and quite possibly the coolest city in the world.

November 6th - 17th; Stockholm International Film Festival

Watch some 170 films at Stockholm’s annual International Film Festival.  There will be a range of films, from Hollywood blockbusters to low budget independent releases, making sure that there is almost certainly something for everyone over the 12 days that the international film festival is running.  Tickets for any of the screenings requires a membership card has to be bought for 220 SEK which will grant you access to 12 free screenings, then individual showings have to be bought separately. If you would like to see more information about the festival, a full run down of everything that is going on and to buy tickets and your membership card then follow the link at the top of this page.

November 23rd - Christmas; Christmas Markets

Anyone who's prepared will be thinking about getting their Christmas shopping done now, those people who obviously don't enjoy the rush of last minute queues and fighting knee over elbow to get theior hands on the last box of reduced roses will probably love a good Christmas market.  Germany is known for being the best place to go for a good Christmas market, but Stockholm can certainly hold it's own in the shopping area.  These are our three favourite across the cities islands

Gamla Stan Market - Open since 1915, this market with its little red stalls have sold warm “glögg”, gingerbread, cheese, sweets, arts and crafts.  Open from the 23rd of November, right the way up to the 23rd of December, each of the stalls opens at about 11 every morning.

Skokloster Castle - Open on November 30 and December 1 only, you don't get much of a chance to enjoy the christmas atmosphere in a Baroque castle, but if you can, make sure you do.

Skansen - Skansen is the Swedish living history museum and celebrates all Swedish festivals.  Christmas is no exception.  Come along yo buy Christmas treats, hear carols and spread some Christmas cheer.  Open every weekend from the 30th of November right the way until Christmas.

November 30; LIGHTS Festival

LIGHTS is the winter counterpart for the annual Summerburst dance music festival in Stockholm.  LIGHTS will be held in the brand new Tele2 Arena, turning it into Scandinavias biggest and most illuminated indoor club.  Over 15,000 electronic music fans will gather in the space for a night of fun and this brand new indoor dance and electronic music festival. Tickets cost 510 SEK for over 18’s, 795 SEK for over 20’s and can be bought through the link above.

Hopefully any one of these events should be enough to convince you to make the trip to the coolest city in the world.  If you are making the trip, then make sure you download the best free guide to Stockholm available for iPhone through iTunes.

Photo Via:  Verity Borthwick