What's On, April in London

It’s the first of April tomorrow, which means that summer’s just around the corner.  The first of April also means though that it’s time to do another one of our regular What’s On features, and this month we’re going back to London to see what the capital of England has to offer.

International Pillow Fight Day - Saturday April 5th - Trafalgar Square

Kicking off at 15:00 in Trafalgar Square, turn up with a feather pillow or two and let battle commence.  It’s a locally organised, free of charge event which promises to be a lot of fun.  Once you’ve swung your pillow around for as long as you can, if the weather’s good enough travel with the crowd to St James’ Park and lounge on the grass with your pillow under your weary head.

London Coffee Festival - Friday 4th April - Sunday 6th April - Old Truman Brewery

Coffee lovers unite!  The London Coffee festival is back for 2014 at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane.  Following from two industry days, the public session has a whole host of things for you to get involved in.  One of the most interesting new additions is the Milk & Sugar event, which combines coffee with fashion, design and food.  Workshops are available, tickets for which need to be booked through the London Coffee Festival Website.

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier - Wednesday 9th April - August - Barbican Centre

It’s the first major exhibition devoted entirely to Jean Paul Gaultier, Frances most rebellious designer.  The show brings together over 140 outfits ranging from couture to ready-to-wear garments spanning the last forty years.  The exhibition has already been to Stockholm and New York and now London’s Barbican centre will play host to it for the next three months.  Tickets should be bought through the Barbican website.

Berwick Street’s Record Store Day - Saturday April 19th - Berwick Street Market

Although most of the music that is currently sold in the world is done by mp3 download, people still love buying vinyl.  Record Store Day is a global event which encourages people to buy a record from their local independent store, and Berwick Street Market is having a day of live music to celebrate.  Pop along to the free event to see seven bands play live on the main stage while smaller events take place inside various stores.

If you decide to pop along to any of these events, make sure you download Trippa London for iOS or Android, the world’s best travel guide for the city.  If you’re not planning a trip to London any time soon, why not take a look at one of our other smart city guides like Trippa Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Cardiff, Helsinki, Marseille, Oslo, Palma, Seville or Stockholm

DesignMarch in Reykjavik

As Northern Lights season is starting to draw to a close now, people are flocking to the worlds most northerly city to set up camp in one of the many hotels before taking advantage of the extra long days and explore the beautiful countryside.  If driving around the island and seeing volcanoes, geysirs and waterfalls isn’t really your thing, but you still want to travel to Reykjavik, why not take a look at DesignMarch, the most important annual design event taking place in Iceland.

Running for the sixth time this year, DesignMarch 2014 is the biggest and most important one to date.  Taking place across four days (27th - 30th of March) over 100 individual events are taking place across the city, turning it (for a limited time anyway) into the home of design.  Showcasing everything from fashion to furniture, architecture to food; the DesignMarch will be exhibiting the best of local and international names right alongside each other.

One of the most exciting things to look forward to at DesignMarch are the DesignTalks which take place on Thursday the 27th in Reykjaviks Harpa centre.  From 9:30 am to 4pm you can expect talks from such leading figures in the design world as Marco Steinberg,  Mikael Schiller and Calvin Klein to name a few.  Tickets for DesignTalks are available from the Harpa website here.  For anyone particularly interested in fashion, make sure you reserve tickets for the fifth annual Reykjavik Fashion Festival which runs alongside DesignMarch and DesignTalks in Harpa over the same dates.

For all other events taking place at DesignMarch, take a look at the full program listings on the website.  You can see  brief run through of each event taking place along with its location and times.  Details are also available on the best places to stay and how to get to Reykjavik for anyone who’s never been to the city before.

So that was our little roundup of DesignMarch, if you’re planning on making the trip, don’t forget to to download Trippa Reykjavik for iOS or Android.  If you’re not planning on visiting the worlds most northerly city why not take a look at one of our other guides, say Trippa Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Cardiff, Helsinki, London, Marseille, Oslo, Palma, Seville and Stockholm which are all now available on over 90% of Smartphones.

Streat Helsinki

Last week was a busy week for us, we hit the halfway mark on Trippa Paris and all of our guides became available for Android as well as iOS.  Take a look at our destinations in the menu to see our list of guides now available for over 90% of Smartphones.  One of the most recent guides we wrote was for Helsinki; so when we found out about Streat Helsinki taking place this weekend, we just had to do a feature on it.

A festival of street food, Streat Helsinki is a concept with a mission of praising and pioneering the countless opportunities and potential of street food in Helsinki, as well as spreading the word abroad through global partners.

Streat Helsinki kicks off this weekend with a trio of events, aptly named Eats, Talks and Parties.

Eats sees the streets between Market and Senate Square packed full of the best street food you’ll find in Helsinki.  It’s not just Nordic food that’ll be available though, expect dishes from vendors who’ve taken influence from as far afield as Mexico, Morocco and Asia.  For a full run through of all the street kitchens that will be available at Streat Helsinki, take a look attheir website.

Talks brings together some of the most influential foodies, journalists and restaurant owners from around the world to share their knowledge of the current international food scene.  Hoping to achieve something historical, this street food conference is a must for anyone who takes street food seriously.

Finally, Parties is exactly what it sounds like, with a bit of a difference.  Held in the Helsinki’s old slaughterhouse on Friday night, drinks and food will be put on especially while Finnish rapper Gracias and DJs Otto Talvio and Katerina will be providing the music. For full details on how to get to the abattoir, take a look at the parties page here.

If you fancy a trip along to Streat Helsinki, make sure you download Trippa Helsinki before you go for either iOS or Android.  If you’re off on a little holiday of your own somewhere else soon, why not try  Trippa Reykjavik, Trippa Barcelona, Trippa Helsinki or Trippa Cardiff .

Top Five Paris Hotels

We’re almost ready to publish Trippa Paris now, just a week or twos worth of work left to go into it.  While you wait though, here’s a run through of our top five favourite Paris hotels.

Mama Shelter – From €89

We first took a look at Mama Shelter when we wrote Trippa Marseille.  The Uber-cool hotels are located all around France and even have a branch as far away as Istanbul.  The Paris one is located quite far out of town, but the Gambeta Subway station is just around the corner to get you wherever you need to go.  The hotel was designed by the popular Philippe Starcke and focuses on minimalist, clean lines and dark colours.  All rooms come with free Wifi and a 27” iMac for watching free on demand films and TV.

Shangri La – From €600

Boasting (probably) the best view of the Eiffel Tower of any Paris Hotel, the Shangri-La Paris is a luxury five star hotel just the other side of the Seine River to the worlds most recognisable structure.

On the opposite end of the spectrum to the Mama Shelter in so many ways, the Shangri-La is all about lavish opulence, with mahogany and plush furnishings in all of the rooms and carved marble in all of the bathrooms. Priced at the other end of the market as well, a stay in the Shangri-La should be reserved only for the most celebrated of occasions.

La Belle Juliette from €350

A hotel dedicated to (probably one of the less well know icons of Paris) Juliette Récamier, this luxury four star hotel can be found a short walk away from Notre Dame and the Abbey of Saint-Germain des Pres on Rue Bonaparte.

One of the smaller hotels to feature in our guide, this 34 room hotel boasts a more personal touch.  Each room comes with all the standard facilties along with free access to the hotels pool which can be found in the basement.

R Kipling – From €139

For fans of the old British Empire, R Kipling has a postively British stately home feel ith a hint of the orient.  Think portraits and chesterfield sofas spread all around Asian themed blue and green pastel coloured walls.

Rooms come with everything you would expect from a four star hotel including free Wifi, minibar and fully soundproofed rooms.

Hotel De Nell From €400

If you had to pick two words to describe the Hotel de Nell, they’d almost certainly be chic and minimalist. Unlike many of the luxury hotels that the city of Paris offers, clean lines and simple colour schemes are the name of the game here.

This small boutique hotel boasts not only spacious, luxury rooms but an excellent bar, restaurant and wellness centre for you to relax and unwind at the end of every day.

That was our roundup of our top five favourite Paris hotels (in no particular order).  Keep your eyes peeled for the Trippa Paris app to be launched on both iOS and Android, hopefully later this month.  If you’re off on a little holiday of your own soon, why not try  Trippa Reykjavik, Trippa Barcelona, Trippa Helsinki or Trippa Cardiff  in the meantime

What's On, March in Stockholm

Tuesday 4th March - Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday)

Just like most other countries around the world, Swedes like to celebrate the 41 days of suggested fasting before Easter by having a binge. Although the official name is Shrove Tuesday, in the UK it’s called Pancake day and in Sweden it’s called Fat Tuesday.

Although I do love Pancakes, if you’re in Stockholm today make sure you indulge in some Semlor, cardamom-spiced buns with its top cut off and its insides scooped out and replaced with almond paste and whipped cream.

Thursday 13th March - Art on Ice

A global tour, on the 14th of March expect to see Art on Ice coming to the Ericsson Globe Arena.  The show features the very best figure skaters and guest artists on stage with great live music, singers, an orchestra and dancers.

Tuesday 25th March - Våffeldagen (Waffle Day)

The history of this day stems from much confusion, mis-pronunciation and a vague link to a religious holiday.  After much research I still couldn’t fully work out exactly how this day came to be, but that’s not really important.  What you do need to know is that pop into any cafe in Stockholm on this Tuesday and order as many Waffles as you like, just because it’s tradition.

Throughout March - The Visible, Contemporary Swedish Photography

This exhibition actually started last month and runs through until May, but it’s a must for any keen photography fans in Stockholm.  It’s held at the Artipelag centre and more details about exhibitors and prices can be found here.

So that was our roundup of the biggest events in Stockholm to be taking place this month, if this has whetted your appetite for a little trip to the heart of Scandinavia, why not download Trippa Stockholm for iOS or Android.  If you just fancy getting away then take a look at our list of destinations including Trippa Reykjavik, Trippa Barcelona, Trippa Helsinki and Trippa Cardiff to name but a few.