Stephen Emms

For all of the stick we give the UK – the grey skies, the pigeons, the Greggs sausage roll packets littering the pavements – it’s actually a pretty gorgeous country. In London alone, you can be goggling over the Barbican’s brutalist beauty one moment, the next, you might be basking in the tranquility of Hampstead Ponds. Add the turquoise coasts of Cornwall, the rugged mountains of Snowdonia and the fairytale wonder of Scotland’s highlands and islands to the mix, and you’ve got a country which is as good looking as they come.  When we set about curating this list of the most beautiful places in the UK, we called on our network of expert travel writers. These guys have have personally experienced the pinch-me moment of seeing every place on this list IRL – so we can guarantee you there is no catfishing going on here. Of course, you’ll find the usual suspects – you can’t argue with the magic of the Isle of Skye, after all – but you’ll also find some more surprising beauty spots to add to your travel bucket list.  Chiara Wilkinson is Time Out’s UK features editor, based in London. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts.RECOMMENDED:🚂 The UK’s 12 most beautiful train stations🇬🇧 The 35 best things to do in the UK🏝 The 30 most beautiful places in the world🏠 The 25 best Airbnbs in the UK

Does anything conjure up an image of beach bliss quite like the Med? Surrounded by 22 countries and bordered by three continents, the Mediterranean Sea boasts miles and miles of coastline – not to mention hundreds of islands. And while there are certain seaside spots where you’ll need to fight for space on the sand (we’re looking at you, Barceloneta), there are plenty of other secluded stretches of coastline across the Med. Our selection of alternative beach spots, chosen by Mediterranean-based travel writers, takes you beyond Europe to North Africa and the Middle East. From wild, flamingo-frequented beaches in Spain to a culture-packed port city in France, this is where to find the Mediterranean’s best alternative (and affordable) beach breaks. There’s plenty of room to lay out your towel here. Grace Beard is Time Out’s deputy travel editor, based in London. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts. RECOMMENDED:🗺 Europe’s most underrated destinations🌆 The best European city breaks🚫 The travel destinations that want tourists to stay away

Voleu fer del 2023 l'any per viatjar a un lloc diferent? Aquí tenim alguns suggeriments bastant espectaculars. Hem demanat a la nostra xarxa de periodistes i editors de viatges que responguin quin és el destí turístic més ignorat del món. La llista conté des de petites illes i pobles de costa fins a enormes llacs i grans paisatges, i constitueix una gran inspiració per viatjar.Què és, exactament, allò que fa que un destí estigui infravalorat? Estem parlant de llocs que no apareixen sovint a les llistes de viatges? Llocs que no reben la seva part justa de turisme? Llocs que són joies ocultes fora de les rutes turístiques i que ofereixen excel·lents alternatives (o també tranquil·les) a llocs populars de la mateixa regió? Les destinacions d'aquesta llista pertanyen com a mínim a una d'aquestes categories. Des del veí ignorat de Bali fins a una àrea verge de bellesa natural a Zimbàbue, aquests són els llocs més infravalorats del món per viatjar aquest any. NO T'HO PERDIS: Les 10 millors destinacions per viatjar el 2023

Want to make 2023 the year you travel somewhere new? Well, we’ve got some pretty spectacular suggestions for you. We asked our global network of travel writers and editors to tell us what they think is the world’s most overlooked travel destination. The resulting list spans everything from tiny islands and seaside towns to massive lakes and whole countries – and makes for some serious travel inspo.  What, exactly, makes a destination underrated? Are we talking about places that don’t regularly appear on top travel lists? Places that don’t get their fair share of tourism? Places that are legitimate hidden gems, off-the-tourist-trail, or offer great (or quiet) alternatives to popular spots in the same region? The destinations on this list fall into at least one of those categories. From Bali’s overlooked neighbour to an untouched area of natural beauty in Zimbabwe, these are the world’s most underrated places to travel to this year. RECOMMENDED:🏰 The most underrated travel destinations in Europe💘 The most romantic places in the world🌈 The most colourful places in the world

Let’s face it, the Belgian coast’s only city is probably not somewhere you’ve dreamed of visiting. But like, say, Antwerp (equally underrated, though much, much smaller), Ostend is a very real, authentic port with a fascinating and chequered history. Take the seafront: bombed to bits in World War II, it’s now a mishmash of juxtaposing styles. Don’t miss the gabled Belle Époque-era townhouses, curved-glass 1950s Casino and King Leopold II’s former villa, with its ’gram-worthy marble-tiled porticoed arcade. Oh, and if you reckon the beach will be rubbish, think again: the widest of promenades is fringed by a line of seasonal bars – all palm trees and Ibizan loungers – curling around an epic sandy bay. How to commute all of this? Do as the Belgians do and take your pick from electric bikes and quirky tandems to pedal-driven go-carts for two.  RECOMMENDED: 🇧🇪 The best things to do in Belgium💐 The best things to do in Brussels🍻 The best things to do in Bruges

The Cross restaurant is now known as Wild at The Cross  First things first: The Cross is a venue, rather than a straightforward restaurant. Its concept is, however, a little involved if you weren’t around ‘back in the day’. A reincarnation of the legendary 90s club of the same name, it’s rebooting in what was the long running King’s Cross pub The Driver. Confused? The explanation is simple enough: the same owners, Billy and Gemma Reilly, were behind both, so essentially they’ve revamped one with the name of another from their back catalogue. Anyway: let’s come to this venture fresh. It has a whopping six floors, including a minimal basement club (we liked the look of that), cocktail lounge, ground-floor bar and roof terrace with exquisite urban views. In a slightly strange move, it’s 25s only after 8pm, so keep this in mind if you want to have dinner with anyone who doesn’t remember the original series of Big Brother. Salvaged items and memorabilia from the original Cross nightclub set the tone across the floors, from a vintage cigarette vending machine to a fairground Waltzer car seat – and even a Buddha in the entrance. Sitting sedately amidst the nostalgia is the first-floor dining room. An exercise in high-end plush, it's all polished marble, brass-top tables and bare brick, as well as super comfy banquettes, velour curtains and mid-century glass chandeliers. House music pumps away, unobtrusively referencing yesteryear – except that now, of course, the crowd is here for s

As my friend and I sat by the window in Cicchetti, watching the shiny Bentleys and Mercs glide along the street past Harrods, our inevitable question was: who can actually afford to live round here? Naturally it’s a little hard to fathom for most of us, relegated to the capital’s grittier neighbourhoods. Swanky Knightsbridge always offers the thrill of a foreign city, even if you’re a lifelong Londoner: taking our seats in Cicchetti’s Venetian-inspired dining room felt so luxurious it made us wonder why we so often settle for bare brick, a chalkboard menu and a dangling bulb or two. Why, here you can ogle a polished marble bar, towering lilies in vases, lemons piled high in bowls, and burnished brass by the bucketload. There’s even a colourful mural across the whole of one wall. And look up: that’s your beaming reflection in the mirrored ceiling. The glitzy room proved an appropriate backdrop to nibble what turned out to be mostly textbook cicchetti, those small-to-medium sharing plates served in Venetian bácari, explained the waiter, who suggested four to five dishes between two. Owned by global Italian chain San Carlo, this is a confident restaurant that undeniably knows its game: fillet steak tagliata arrived sliced ruddy and butter-soft, shy under shards of salty parmesan and fronds of rocket. In fact, our old mate rocket found its wily way everywhere: beneath a mound of ruby tuna tartare – almost pâté-like, such was its melt-in-the-mouth consistency – and accompanying d

The other day a takeaway opened near where I live with a slightly pretentious name – no surprise there. But the real shocker is it’s selling penne – penne! – with a chicken and tomato sauce at £12.50 a pop. Which puts into perspective just what good value a pioneer like Lina Stores is. Here, at its chic new Marylebone Village restaurant, exemplary pasta dishes are served beautifully, and hover within the reasonable £7-14 price bracket. Take, for example, a plate of pillowy grass-green ravioli filled with pea and ricotta, drizzled with a richly savoury primavera sauce, and topped with mint, herby peas and shavings of pecorino romano. The price? A snip at £7. And it wasn’t even tiny.  More filling still was the tightly packed bowl of £11 crab linguine, its sheer fishy simplicity requiring nothing other than a crack of black pepper. And let’s not even get started on our meal’s carby highlight (tip: if you’re a couple you need only share two pasta dishes, but we were unrepentantly greedy). A majestic tagliolini – made with three times as many egg yolks as normal – was simply adorned with parmigiano reggiano, butter (lots of it!) and delicate shards of black truffle. And yet even this silken, unctuous miracle still only came in at £12 – yep, 50p less than my local takeaway and it’s got truffles in it. Plus, we’re eating in the heart of W1, for heaven’s sake. The original Lina Stores is one of Soho’s oldest delis, sitting pretty on Brewer Street since 1944 selling Italian ingredien

London is about juxtaposition, right? We all know the gentrified street by the 1970s estate, or the traffic-choked thoroughfare home to an unexpected small plates joint. Leyton (disclaimer: I live here) is a case in point; its treasures are often tucked away or scattered. Once-forlorn Overground station Leyton Midland Road now boasts a handful of said gems, from local coffee legends Perky Blenders to craft beer bar Gravity Well. Bamboo Mat, a new Peruvian-Japanese arrival, is directly opposite. Occupying the site of a short-lived fish restaurant, the former’s aquamarine interior, with its tiled floor and seafood wall stencils, has been updated with mahogany tables and window-counter seating. But when my friend and I arrived on a Wednesday night the place was, as we feared, empty. It’s a unique opening for this part of east London. Bamboo Mat’s Nikkei menu – the cuisine that fuses Japanese recipes with Peruvian ingredients – has been created by chefs Denis Gobjila and Victor Rosca, who met working at Soho’s acclaimed Nikkei restaurant Chotto Matte. There’s ceviche, tiradito (sashimi in a citrus sauce) and maki rolls (all at £10-£15 a plate), with mains including lamb chops, salmon teriyaki and grilled wagyu. As we took our seats under the fronds of an oversized houseplant, house music gently throbbing in the background, we were served by a Moldovan waiter whose enthusiasm and self-confessed inexperience somehow merged into winning charisma. He explained how fascinated he was w

Sorry, Revolve, but my evening didn’t start so well. Firstly the rain, as I weaved through the glistening Shoreditch streets, was biblical. And I’d forgotten my brolly. Then there was the hellhole of Broadgate Circle itself, with inexplicably limited access – closed footpaths and ear-shattering construction everywhere. And thirdly, at neighbouring corporate pub The Botanist, arriving drenched to meet my friend, I was barked at by the door attendant to remove my (Folk!) cap. Even to this lifelong Londoner, the City and its weird customs remain unfathomably alien. Thankfully, things improved when we ascended to the upper level of the circle and through the doors of Revolve. This new brasserie is inspired by the grand dining institutions of Paris and New York but also invites top guest chefs to take over the kitchen. The reality is less haughty, more homely: despite the chaotic location, the dining room feels tranquil – more laidback neighbourhood hangout than City staple. And as the rain eased, the evening sun streamed in over the restaurant’s parquet flooring, illuminating the handful of couples having tête-à-tête dinner. Things were rowdier beyond the glazed panel in the bar area with the post-work brigade, while the terrace, populated by a brave soul or two puffing away, would surely be buzzing on a warmer night.  The must-order? A fabulous shellfish cocktail – all shredded lettuce and vivid green whorls of avocado Head chef Arran Smith has done time at Scott’s of Mayfair,

‘I’ll leave it up to you.’ Isn’t that a lovely, life-affirming phrase? It’s also a whole way of dining in Japan, summed up economically in one word: ‘omakase’. It simply means that you entrust your meal to the chef, as they know what’s fresh and tasty better than anyone, right? Before we get too excited, a warning. As a concept, omakase is spenny; and at minimal new Fitzrovia opening Rai, we’re talking special-occasion spenny. Here, dinner is art, with each plate – nope, we’re not even talking food yet – made from eye-catching recycled materials and worthy of a ’gram post on its own. As is the interior: arriving at opening time, my friend and I bagged two coveted spots at the stylish, rose-adorned counter so we could watch the chefs calmly at work. The omakase element defines the sashimi and sushi: whether you order à la carte or a tasting menu (from £70 to £150 per person) you’ll be served whatever raw fish is in that day (if it’s anything like our visit, salmon and tuna will feature heavily). For additional wow factor, everything was presented on an outsize driftwood sculpture – cameras out Throughout, knowledgeable server Chris was on hand with the kind of detail that makes a meal an education. Take the soy sauce – I mean, have you given the stuff any thought before? ‘It’s aged for five years to maximise the umami flavours,’ he said, pouring it into petite bowls. He then produced a fat finger of vegetable that looked like a celeriac’s skinny-bitch green rellie. ‘Ever se