We all have friends who love to travel. For those particularly obsessed with travel, I’ve chosen more than 20 travel gifts every single one of your travel junkie friends will love. And yes, all these travel gifts for travelers are under £30! These are great for almost any occasion: Christmas, Secret Santa, Birthdays or as a travel farewell gift.
I heard about Mr Foggs House of Botanicals opening and I thought: a House of Botanicals? I need to visit right away! After doing some research, I learned two things. First, there are many Mr Foggs, and this is the newest one. Second, Mr Foggs is part of the same group as the must-visit iconic bar Cahoots so this made me even more eager.
Upon arrival to Mr Foggs House of Botanicals which is located on a corner of Fitzrovia, we were greeted by the lovely doormen and let in. We quickly learned that the downstairs area of the bar is walk in, while upstairs is reserved for bookings. Both areas have different cocktail menus. The downstairs area is filled of lush greenery and nice people chatting, and most are standing up. If you were to try and imagine how the area looks like, it is a little bit like if there were a bar inside of the Kew Gardens’ greenhouse. If you look up, you’ll find bird cages filled with plant and flowers which hang from the ceiling.
This year as part of Pablo’s birthday gifts, I got him a 2.5 hour tea workshop in London. A friend of mine had been to it and told me it was awesome so I went ahead and booked it. After over a month wait – yes all other the workshops were fully booked – the day of the workshop arrived. I really enjoyed the experience so sharing it with you guys.
That seems like a lot right? But well it happened and it did quite naturally. Pablo had been camping in Scotland with his best friend over the past week and he had a great idea. He suggested I’d come over for the weekend as he knows how much I love camping and the outdoors. So I did. Camping in Loch Lomond it was!
The smartest way to get to Scotland was obviously by air in order to optimize the little time a weekend has. I searched for flights in Skyscanner and Momondo, but as nothing was cheap I ended up booking a flight directly in British Airways to Glasgow with miles and paid £25. The flight would depart from London City Airport which is great as it’s almost in Central London. What’s also great about this airport is that it’s small and geared in a way you are not expected to arrive tons of time in advance. For instance, it doesn’t even have a lounge and targets business people mostly. I left work and in around 40 minutes was in LCY ready for my 18.15 flight.
I landed in Glasgow 19.35. Obviously, I didn’t have any checked in luggage so I came out right away. The guys were waiting for me in arrivals ready to go. They had booked a rental car using Rentalcars which is what we usually use. We went back to the car and they took me for a surprise dinner to Hug and Pint. From outside it just looks like a pub but it’s actually an Asian inspired vegan restaurant! They suggest you order 2-3 dishes per person. We had the black pepper aubergine, the peanut noodles, the mushroom pudding, lentils, plain rice and a few beers. It was yummy but we had to be quickly on our way. Before leaving Glasgow we quickly dropped by the Brewdog pub, after all it is a Scottish brewery, and had a few more beers.