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Australia's best restaurants named
London’s Olympic legacy: Are the Games good for tourism?
Singapore's Raffles Hotel turns 125
Soak in the summer at Tokyo's top 5 water parks
Korea's best bars to wrap up the summer
Pushy guests and porn: Confessions of an Airbnb hostess

Posted: 23 Aug 2012 02:33 AM PDT

Sydney restaurant Quay is an "essential Australian dining experience" for anyone visiting the country, according to Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine.

In its (slightly premature) 2013 GT Restaurant Awards, the publication voted Quay as Restaurant of the Year.

Chef Peter Gilmore sources rare ingredients from all over the country to serve at Quay's immaculate tables with stunning harbor views. A meal at Quay is a taste of the best of Australia, claims the magazine.

The restaurant was also the only Australian outfit to make it onto the most recent list of World's Top 50 Restaurants by S.Pellegrino.

Melbourne restaurant Attica also fared well in the GT awards, winning both Chef of Year for New Zealander Ben Shewry and Sommelier of the Year for Banjo Harris Plane, who must surely have the most awesome name in the food business.

London’s Olympic legacy: Are the Games good for tourism?

Posted: 22 Aug 2012 09:34 PM PDT

by David Clack

London is on a high. The Olympics went without a hitch, it didn't rain (well, not much) and the home nation scored its most medals since 1908.

Underneath the joy, though, there's anxiety -- £10.7 billion (US$17 billion) worth of it, the cost of the city's sporty fiesta.

Visitor numbers to some of London's traditional attractions actually dropped during the Games fortnight. Old favorites like the Tower of London reported a 30 percent fall, as tourists focused their attention on the taut buttocks of the Brazilian volleyball team.

With the Eurozone in a protracted economic malaise, and some arguing that hosting the Games is more damaging than beneficial, what does this mean for British tourism in the years ahead?

Pundits say London's fortunes will be more aligned with Barcelona than Athens.

Singapore's Raffles Hotel turns 125

Posted: 22 Aug 2012 03:10 PM PDT

With all the big flashy brands popping up around Singapore these days, the classic Raffles Hotel might be feeling a bit underappreciated. And old.

The city icon celebrates is quasquicentennial anniversary in September -- 125 years of sickly sweet cocktails, celebrity scribe guests and unapologetic luxury.

The hotel's history is certainly deserving of celebration. Raffles Hotel opened as a 10-room bungalow in 1887, named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore.

In 1904 the Bras Basah wing was added (the familiar neo-Renaissance main building we see today) and introduced many of Singapore's firsts including electric lights, fans and a French chef.

More on CNN: Then and now: The stories behind Southeast Asia's heritage hotels

Soak in the summer at Tokyo's top 5 water parks

Posted: 22 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT

by Kelly Wetherille

"It's not the heat, it's the humidity that'll get you."

I never understood what that really meant until I came to Japan and experienced its obnoxiously sticky summers -- 35 C and over, plus full-bore humidity for weeks at a time. Ugh.

For many Tokyoites and visitors, this means one of two things: either spend the majority of the day in an air-conditioned bubble or do your best to make sure you're near some heat-deflecting water.

If you do manage to escape the office or the broiling tourist trail, the real fun lies at the big water parks in suburban Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures.

Here are five of our favorite temples dedicated to H2O for those days when lesser pursuits don't have a prayer.

Korea's best bars to wrap up the summer

Posted: 22 Aug 2012 02:50 PM PDT

by Jaysen Park

Although most of the bars that open in Seoul spend heady amounts of money on design and rent, there are few places that make it in the long run.

Jaejin "JJ" Lim, a 2009 World Class Bartender Korea Champion and currently the brand ambassador for Diageo Korea, says the turnover is mostly due to Korea's sensitivity to new trends.

That, and boring drinks.

"Many of the bars that open pay so much attention to interior design and far less attention to the actual drinks," says 31-year-old Lim, who is one of the best-known faces on the Korean bar circuit. As part of his job, he consults for bars and concocts new signature drinks for various events all over the country.

diageo Jaejin "JJ" Lim placed fourth in an international bartender competition in 2009.
"It's one of my ambitions to make a signature drink for Seoul along the likes of the Singapore Sling," says Lim.

Pushy guests and porn: Confessions of an Airbnb hostess

Posted: 22 Aug 2012 11:40 AM PDT

by Anonymous

Last year I used Airbnb to book my accommodation for a break in Rome.

For US$40 a night I got my own room at half the cost of equivalent hotel rates, and shared an apartment with a young Italian couple who were my hosts.

The place wasn't as clean as a hotel would have been, but it seemed like a win-win -- they get some extra cash and I get a place to stay that's much cheaper than a hotel.

When I returned home, I decided to be an Airbnb host myself.

If only I'd known what was coming.