sjvessey's VirtualTourist Home Page

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I've lived here in London for almost nine years. Which means I can answer almost any question about this city except those relating to hotels. Because since I live here I've never stayed in any. Duh. However I can offer a general answer to two questions which seem to get asked here with great regularity.

a) There are no nice AND cheap apartments for rent in London. A "nice" 2 bedroom apartment with about 1,000 square feet (90 square meters) costs 1,500 pounds a month, minimum.

b) There are no luxurious AND cheap hotels in London.

London is now officially the 2nd most expensive city in the world, after Tokyo. It is easily the largest city in Europe, with between 8 and 12 million people, depending on where you think the city limits are. It offers a cultural, entertainment and culinary diversity that is probably unrivalled with the exception of New York. And on top of that, you have fantastically preserved historical attractions dating back to the 13th century, right there in the center of town. Where else can you see the coronation throne of Edward the 1st, dating from 1296? Where else can you find a pub with a sign on the wall reading "Rebuilt 1667"?

For more specific information and a lot more photos, check out my London pages.

Below are some other places I've been recently. Some of them I've found the time to write about on this site. In other cases you'll just find photos. Or maybe even nothing at all. Perhaps one day I'll get around to fixing that. The photos right here look a little weird, because VT has rather irritatingly truncated them when displaying the thumbnails. However, click on them to see each photo in all its 500x500 glory.

Not illustrated here, but definitely worth a look if you want lots and lots of even more cool photos are my Lahaina (Maui), Honolulu and Seoul pages.

Enjoy!

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Apparently one of the most dangerous countries in the world, Colombia is also a fascinating one. It has a huge amount of natural beauty, and the coastal town of Cartagena would be perfect for a week in the sun. Pictureque, winding streets in the old town lead to bustling squares full of locals whiling the day away (that's because of the very high unemployment rate!), or alternatively you could spend the entire week relaxing by the pool in your hotel.

For more information and a lot more photos, check out my Colombia, Cartagena, Zipaquira (for the breathtaking and totally unique underground Salt Cathedral) and Bogota pages (now 70 percent complete).

If London and New York at the best cities in the world (as some would have you believe), then Tokyo must come in third. I spend five months there and barely had time to venture outside, there was so much going on, so much to see and do. It's a crazy place with enormous contrasts between the old and new. I defy you to not have a great time there.

For hundreds (literally) of photos and a lot more info, check out my Japan and Tokyo pages.

Athens is hot, really hot. But the traffic pollution wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. There's thousands of years of history coupled with fantastic food, all conveniently lumped together within a relatively small city center. The Acropolis remains the top tourist attraction, and is well worth a visit.

China is an interesting country, not at all what you might expect. It's not a democracy. And yet it is. They do actually have meaningful elections, but only 5% of the people (Party members) are allowed to vote. And joining the Party isn't simply a matter of fulfulling the membership requirements. It's more like joining a private member's club, where you have to be recommended by existing members.

China is a long way from exploiting its full potential as a tourist destination, and you may balk at some of the food (bones, skin, gristle, the lot all gets thrown in together with the meat). But there's nowhere else on the planet like the Great Wall.

Malta is a popular summer destination for us Brits, offering practically guaranteed sun, cheap booze and most importantly, an English-speaking local population. It's a small island country reeking of past greatness, now gone to seed, but if you just want to laze around in the sunshine, this could be for you.

One of the greatest cities in the world, possibly THE greatest in the English-speaking world. New York just has to be experienced, rather than read about. Great nightlife, all the styles of food you could possibly imagine, huge museums the like of which you will see nowhere else in the world, and of course that world-famous skyline.

Vancouver, named after Captain Vancouver of the Royal Navy. Impressive mountains form the backdrop to the West Coast Canadian city with its colourful tower blocks, bright red trees and strangely English fish & chip shops.

For more info and photos, check out my Vancouver pages.