Top Rooftop Bars & Restaurants in Europe

When you design an exploration of a city, it’s not a bad idea to think like a photo journalist assembling a portfolio of that city. Like that photographer you need to combine detail shots, middle range shots and expansive panoramas. For an agent assembling an itinerary that can mean that kind of micro experience one has in a small specialty shop for a detail, a walk in the park or a museum for mid-range perspective and finally a panoramic experience of the city. Going through my notes and talking to friends I’ve put together a list of panoramic aeries for you to add to your itineraries in 10 popular European cities. One of the most popular ways to spend an evening for people visiting Europe is to have a drink or a meal overlooking the city.
Berlin’s Dachgarten-Restaurant on top of the Reichstag is recommended as the easiest way to get access to the dome. The dome’s rooftop restaurant is open daily from 9 am to 4:30 pm and from 6:30 pm to midnight. Tables can be reserved at kaeferreservierung.berlin@feinkost-kaefer.de. The rooftop terrace of the Hotel de Rome (www.hotelderome.com/dining/terrace), which features lounge chairs, cool drinks, design and an amazing view of Bebelplatz also comes highly recommended.. It’s open daily from noon to 10 pm between April and October weather permitting.
Istanbul has several roosts with a view. Mikla, located on the roof of the Marmara Pera Hotel is one of the city’s most elegant dining venues and has wonderful skyline views. If you’re looking for a hip bar high up, consider 360 (www.360istanbul.com) whose name says it all. This rooftop lounge offers a view that takes in Topkapi Palace and Sultanahmet. Its central location on Istiklal Street makes it popular with trendsetters in Istanbul, who congregate for sunset cocktails and modern Turkish cuisine as well as a DJ with dancing..
There are several food and beverage outlets in the Eiffel Tower (www.restaurants-toureiffel.com), the most famous panoramic view of Paris. Among them, Le Jules-Verne (www.lejulesverne-paris.com), operated under Chef Alain Ducasse. The problem with viewing Paris from the Eiffel Tower is that you can’t see the Eiffel Tower from it. For that try Restaurant Les Ombres (www.lesombres-restaurant.com), which I am told makes you feel like you can, “touch the Eiffel Tower.”
Thanks to the world’s most beautiful piece of architecture, the Parthenon, Athens will always be a magic city. No matter where you are in town, you’re always turning a corner and noticing the Parthenon in the distance. The best place to view the Parthenon from a distance is on Lycabettus Hill. Clients can take funicular train up from the hip Kolonaki District and find their way to Orizontes (www.orizonteslycabettus.gr/en/restaurant), one of the best restaurants in Athens.
With its romance of exiled kings and kingdoms, the mysterious Alhambra and the spirit of Garcia Lorca haunting it, Granada is as romantic a city has Spain has to offer. Even if your clients choose not to stay in a Parador, their ambience and the quality of their kitchens makes them solid recommendations as places to dine. The terrace of the famous Parador Granada Hotel San Francisco (www.paradores-spain.com/spain/pgranada.html) is a 15th century convent which is part of the Palace of Alhambra. While it’s difficult to book a room, you can always have a drink or a good Andalucian meal on the terrace.
For over 120 years, drinking or dining at the Hotel Eden’s Terrace Bar and its adjoining restaurant La Terrazza dell'Eden (www.edenroma.com/en/laterrazzadelleden) have been Roman rite of passage. It’s the place you want to enjoy a great Italian meal while drinking in the glorious panorama of the eternal city and its seven hills. It has been a favorite of celebrities, politicians and others. It was known as Frederico Fellini’s favorite place to catch some Roman sun. The Terrace Bar’s Lucio Masci is famous for his mixology skills.

While it may not be the classic panoramic view, the rooftop bar and restaurant of the Hotel U Prince (www.hoteluprince.com/terrace) overlooking Prague’s Lesser Town Square offers a great view of the Astronomical Clock with its hourly ritual dance of charting the paths of the sun, the moon and the stars. On the hour a skeleton rings his bell as the 12 Apostles peer out from their windows.

Madrid’s La Terraza del Urban restaurant, atop the Hotel Urban (www.derbyhotels.com), offers a great menu and the best place in the city to get the bird’s eye view with a cocktail. Cocktails begin at 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. and dinner is served from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Caucasus to Debut in 2014

The 2014 Winter Olympics are going to introduce travelers to a part of the world that most of them know very little about, the Caucasus Mountains. Let's begin with the first question that people may ask: What continent is it on? If Istanbul is a bridge between Europe and Asia, then it must be in Asia, right? Wrong. Istanbul connects the Roman definition of Europe to Anatolia, a province they called Asia Minor. In other words, the Bosphorus seperates Europe from Europe. The EuroCentrics who run popular Geography tell us that a continent is a large body of land surrounded on all side by ocean and then they tell us Europe is a continent, but the Continent is not a continent at all but a very large peninsula off the mammoth continent of Eurasia, that runs from Shanghai to Normandy. That's right, I count six continents. Sticklers will list five, saying North and South America are one land mass since they are connected by the Isthmus of Panama. The Eurasia controversy may rear its head when the 2014 Winter Olympics find themselves in Sochi, a city at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains and overlooking the Black Sea.

Sochi, a city and resort area in the Krasnodar Kray that stretches along the Black Sea Coast at the foot of the western part of the Caucasus Mountain Range is attracting all kinds of investment these days, as Russia sees an opportunity to add some sorely needed dimensions to a tourism that is basically stuck in Moscow, St. Petersburg and on Volga River cruise ships. The Black Sea Coast has long been popular with Russian travelers, but hasn't really attracted outsiders to its beaches. Ski resorts in the Caucasus could be an attraction that puts the Black Sea on the map for foreign tourists. I've travelled the length of the Black Sea in Turkey. That part of the sea won't be attracting swimmers as the water is pretty murky. Don't know about the Russian shoreline.

According to reports Russian, South Korean, German and French investors are moneying up to build $15 billion worth of resorts in the North Caucasus. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev had already announced plans to build several resorts spanning the several republics of the region (Krasnodar Kray, Stavropol Kray, Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia-Alania, Ingushetia, Dagestan and the only one that 99% of non-Russians have heard of Chechnya, and therein lies a whole other can of worms). All of them in combination with Georgia separate the Black Sea from the Caspian Sea.

Resorts are planned for Lagonaki, Mamison, Matlas and Arkhyz among others. A fifth resort is planned for Mount Elbrus, a mountain taller than anything in Western Europe. When completed, the Russians believe these resorts will attract 5 million visitors per year.

Whether you're wandering its streets and alleys or cruising its canals, the heat in Bangkok can wear you down. Thanks to two spectacular aeries you can end those sticky tropical afternoons with a breezy night high above the city in two special bar restaurants: Mezzaluna on top of the lebua at the State Tower (lebua.com) and the Bertigo Restaurant and Moon Bar atop the Banyan Tree Bangkok (banyantree.com). Both places are great for catching a meal, a drink and the best panaramic view in the city.

Mezzaluna offers an almost cinematic grand entrance to their patrons as they come off the elevator and find themselves immediately on a catwalk over the restaurant that leads to the bar. Mezzaluna is part of The Dome at lebua, a top fine dining destination with five different bars and restaurants. Now headed by the twin chefs Thomas and Mathias Suhring. Mezzaluna's menu is redesigned on a daily basis. Vertigo, located on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree Bangkok has the feel of the top deck of a cruise ship with its multi-tiered floor suggesting a bow and a stern separated by a midships.

Here Come Europe's Christmas Markets

The holidays and the holiday season, beginning after Thanksgiving, are a great time of year to visit Europe. You don’t see the crowds of tourists, the bikini tops in cathedrals or the “I’m with stupid” tee-shirts. You see European people observing their holidays their way. The shopping in Europe isn’t bargain shopping for the most part; instead it’s fun and memorable shopping or shopping as experience. Nothing embodies that spirit more than Christmas markets. Every year on Nov. 25, Christmas Markets open in towns and villages all around Germany. These markets, which have become a main stay of European travel during the holidays, began in Dresden in 1434. Dresden’s old city center, like city centers around Germany and increasingly around Europe, will build their wooden stalls and throw up decorations, pour hot mulled wine and serve pastries as they sell artisanal crafts to visitors. This year, Germany is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther, and the states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, where Luther spent much of his life are planning to celebrate Christmas the way that Luther suggested it should be 500 years ago.
In Erfurt, in Thuringia more than 200 wooden stalls fill the vast Domplatz (Cathedral Square) for its Christmas Market (Nov. 23 to Dec. 22). Highlights include the nativity scene, with 14 near life-size, hand-carved figures, a traditional tall wooden pyramid and the 80-foot Christmas tree, lit with hundreds of candles at night. The festive specialty here is Schittchen, a version of Stollen. Made with flour, butter, candied fruits and ground almonds, it makes a fine gift to take home. And the post office has a stall where Christmas cards and postcards can be franked with a special Christmas market stamp. The crypt beneath the cathedral features 24 Advent scenes created by local enthusiasts. Clients can book a guided tour and climb up the cathedral tower to see the 500-year-old Gloriosa, the oldest free swinging medieval bell in the world.
Across the Channel, throughout November and December, Orient-Express’s U.K. day trains, the British Pullman and Northern Belle, will offer a collection of seasonal journeys that include some of Britain’s best Christmas markets, carols at historic cathedrals, exclusive shopping events and more. With each excursion, guests can dine on a brunch served with a Bellini on the outward journey and a four-course meal with wine and champagne on the way home. Clients can do holiday shopping without ever leaving the British Pullman. Guests will travel through the British countryside in the festively decorated vintage carriages of the British Pullman, where many British luxury brands will be displaying their products and offering advice to guests looking for inspiration for gifts for family and friends. Expect to see Harrods, Brora luxury cashmere, Cath Kidston, Ettinger leather gifts, Miller Harris perfumes, Liberty, gun makers Holland & Holland with a range of gifts and accessories, Astley Clarke jewelry and more. Departing from London’s Victoria Station on Dec. 1, the journey is priced £300 ($470) per person and includes brunch with a Bellini and a four-course dinner with champagne and wine.
For a more traditional shopping experience, the Northern Belle will be departing from either London or Edinburgh for a day at the famous shopping streets of these historic capital cities. In London, guests can wander Brompton Road, Sloane Street, and Beauchamp Place and take in the extravagant window displays at famous stores, including Harrods and Harvey Nichols. In Edinburgh, guests can explore the boutiques and galleries while taking in the views of Edinburgh Castle, the famed Scott Monument, a tribute to the Edinburgh writer Sir Walter Scott, and the 17th-century Palace of Holyroodhouse. Priced from £310 ($460) per person, the package includes brunch with a Bellini and a four-course dinner with champagne and wine and departs London for Doncaster, Leeds, Sheffield, Macclesfield, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Warrington on Nov. 12 and Dec. 3. The journey departing from Edinburgh visits Chester, Crewe, Liverpool, Preston, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield, and Bolton and departs Nov. 11, 18 and 26 and Dec. 10.
Other holiday programs include Carols in Canterbury and Salisbury; The Lincoln Christmas Market; Christmas lunch aboard the British Pullman or the Northern Belle; Christmas Dinner aboard the Northern Belle is also offering a special Christmas dinner where guests will truly feel the magic of Christmas in the comfort of the beautifully decorated carriages. Visit www.orient-express.com.