Dublin your fun
After a short walk from the Gare du Nord we arrived late in the evening to find the hotel’s ground floor bistro full to the brim with an achingly cool Parisian crowd.
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
The 10th arrondissement might still be a little rough around the edges but it’s brimful of character. The area is characterised by quirky bars and risqué shops – a nod to its past as the city’s red light district. At weekends the pavements throng with the city’s fashionable crowd.
THE ROOM
Well appointed but on the small side. Every room is uniquely decorated with high-end finishes and co-owner and hotshot graffiti artist André Saraiva has stamped his unusual
style throughout. A delicious breakfast is available for a supplement of ten euros, and it is more than just croissants. Piles of pancakes, crispy bacon and eggs or a big veggie breakfast are on offer. In the evening, the dining room turns into a bustling brasserie, with French favourites such as steak frites or buttery sole.
THE SERVICE
Laid-back but efficient. The staff are helpful and friendly but stay in the background until you need them. There aren’t any phones or TVs in the rooms but the 24-hour room service can be called from your mobile.
THE SCENE
The hotel is great for travellers on Eurostar as it is a short walk from the station. Though the area is not the fanciest, it is full of authentic charm – the perfect place to stay for a romantic weekend in Paris. Expect comfort with an edge. If you want somewhere quirky, cool, and unique that doesn’t break the bank, it’s ideal.
LOVED
The luxurious Hermes products in the bathroom and the artsy, eclectic decor.
HATED
The room was small for a stay longer than a night or two and we would have liked breakfast to be included in the price.
BOTTOM LINE
Rooms from £60 per night.
CHECK IT OUT
hotelamourparis.fr.
THE FOOD
CHECKING out Ireland’s capital is cheaper and easier with the Dublin Pass sightseeing card and new app. The five-day pass has been reduced and costs less than £90. It includes an airport transfer, bus tour and entry to more than 25 top spots, such as the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin Zoo, Teelings Distillery, Croke Park Stadium and Malahide Castle. See dublinpass.com. GERMANY has stunning rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, beaches and cities galore. And the home of Aldi and Lidl is nearly always good value too. Here’s our lowdown on a top destination for a break in Europe. Reuniting this divided city has created one of Europe’s top short breaks. There’s a trendy innovative vibe which comes in part from the big international community settled here.
The galleries and museums, particularly on Museum Island, are special, but so are the summer beach bars that spring up along the banks of the river Spree through town.
Go on a Trabant Safari, get tickets to a cabaret, taste Berlin’s speciality currywurst and learn about Cold War spy exchanges. GO: Fly with EasyJet from £48 and stay at the Circus Hotel, circus-berlin.de, where double rooms cost from £75. No other European country has rivers that can match Germany’s. There’s the Rhine, with its castles, the Elbe, with its paddlesteamers, the Moselle, with vineyards, and the Danube, with monasteries. You can even combine the Rhine and Danube via the Rhine-Main canal to get all the way to the Black Sea. GO: Commit to a fully hosted experience with Viking, vikingrivercruises.co.uk, eight days on the Rhine from £995. Or try day trips on the best bits, which in the case of the Rhine is the section between Koblenz and Bingen, where KD Rhine, kdrhine.com, runs regular boats. Germany may not be on the Med but it makes up for it with two northern shorelines.
The North Sea coast is famous for shallow seas and low-lying Frisian islands, including uber-trendy Sylt. The Baltic coast has grander, old fashioned resorts like Heiligendamm and Rügen plus a tradition of nudity. Both shores are well equipped with strandkorbs – hooded beach chairs you can rotate towards the sun and which shelter you from the breeze. GO: Hamburg sits neatly between the coasts. Fly with Ryanair from £35. Spa hotel Seehotel Binz Therme is typical of the Baltic coast. Doubles from £98, binz-therme.de. Southern Germany is brought to a crunching halt by the Alps. In winter there’s skiing and in summer there’s cycling and hiking, with plenty of cablecars. Resorts such as Garmisch- Partenkirchen,Pa Ruhpolding and Oberstaufen are wedged into Alpine valleys with trails through glossy meadows. Cheese, butter and beer are so sold at pathside kiosks.
Hardcore hikers don’t have to descend into th the valleys at night thanks to a network of mountain huts with restaurants and dormitories. GO: Munich is served by British Airways, flights fr from £90. Mountain huts are mapped on al alpenverein.de. A nation that was a patchwork of kingdoms until 150 years ago is a nation of castles and royals. O Our own royalty is drawn from its Hanoverians an and the Saxe-Coburgs.
There are Hanoverian castles near Hanover b but the one everyone makes a beeline for is