Tag Archives: Travel

Nox hotel Galway

20 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Food / Eating Out, Travel

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The lovely people at the Nox hotel Galway contacted me a couple of months to see if I wanted to come and stay for a night. Obviously I said Yes! I do have a bit of love for Galway and seem to go for a visit every year. Last year I was there twice in the space of a month, for my mams birthday and the Connemarathon half marathon. So after trying to work out a date, it was pretty busy couple of months with getting married and Christmas 😂we settled on visiting last weekend.

Location

I didn’t know a huge amount about the Nox Hotel and presumed it was a bit out of the city but actually the location is pretty good. After we checked in when we decided to go into Galway for a look around. We ordered a taxi at reception which arrived in seconds and it was €7 into Eyre Square. As it was a dry evening (surprisingly since it is January!) We decided to walk back to the hotel, and it only took about 20 minutes strolling.

Food

Where do I start, the food was really good! I am still thinking of my main course 😍

For starters I went for the chicken wings in cajun spices, and my other half got the Caesar salad.

For mains I went for the Supreme of Chicken, with black pudding & potato terrine (with a sneaky side of chips) and he had steak (love the plate!)

We didn’t opt for dessert and just enjoyed some cocktails 😁

We also had breakfast the next morning in the hotel, this was a buffet in the bar/restaurant and there was also a breakfast menu you could order off. We stuck to the buffet option, and has some emm coco pops before our fry… We had lovely cappucinos as well, I definitely feel that they can be a bit hit or miss on hotels, either too hot or not enough foam but these were lovely and you can see for yourself.

Decor

I loved the hotel decor, not going to lie most of our conversations involved the decor and what we could do with our new house. The hotel is a gorgeous mix of blue, grey, gold and yellow. We are currently decorating our house and every room is pretty much these colours, with a bit of rose gold/copper mixed in.

Bar area

Entrance to the ladies toilets

Reception seating area

Double Bedroom

Another reception sitting area

Service

The staff in the Nox hotel are all amazing. I am not just saying that because I was invited to stay. Yes we recieved some pretty amazing service but I did observe the staff treating everybody else the same. At the buffet breakfast, I presume a lady had been waiting for some bacon, the waiter found her at her table, gave her bacon directly from the kitchen and checked everybody else was ok (it was pretty busy when we went down but the food was constantly being refilled)

Even the reception desk were great, they booked taxis and had maps of Galway available for everybody.

I will definitely be back for a visit, the location is pretty good. Yes you can go stay in Galway city centre but you will pay a lot more. The food is great, the cocktails are great and the service is brilliant 🙂

Amanda xxx

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New York..it’s all about the food..

14 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by in Food / Eating Out, Travel

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New York is an amazing city with loads to do and see and of course eat. After our visit in April I have put together a list of a few of the places we had food in.

1. Ruths Chris

A steakhouse near Times Square, pretty sure reservations are needed. It is a dressy place so definitely dress up. It is pretty expensive (steaks are aboit $50-$60 with no sides) but they do a great set menu for $55 and you get a 3 course meal and a side with your steak. Food was pretty good and steaks are still sizzling when they arrive at your table.

I got the caeser salad to start, I am always afraid to get too heavy of a starter before steak.

For mains, obviously a steak! I got creamed spinach as a side, not a fan😝 (it wasn’t this particular one that was bad just my first time trying it) 

For dessert I got a chocolate coffee tart, it was pretty good and I am not a fan of chocolate cakes 

I would definitely give this place a 10/10 food and service was great. 

2. Guys Kitchen

Ever watched Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives? I am always starving after watching that show so when I found out Guy Fieri had a restaurant on Times Square we had to go. We imagined it would be crazy busy and booked online but when we got there it was pretty quiet (which was nice after walking through crazy Times Square). The waiter recommended the burger so I ordered it and it was huge, a layer of mac and cheese on the burger! 

The burger was nice, not as great as I was expecting from watching the show. The waiter was very friendly but our mains did arrive when we were still eating our starters and on a small table it got cramped very quickly. 

Probably wouldn’t go back it was nice but there is plenty of choice around, 6/10 as the food was nice but just a let down from what I was expecting.

3. Juniors Cheesecake.

 I was excited about going here as I had heard some really good things about it. It was ok, I think we went on a Saturday night and it was crazy busy. They were pretty quick at getting us a table so fair play on that. The food was good but we had to wait a long time for it, not really sure what happened but people beside us who ordered the same time as us had eaten and paid before we got our food. However the waiter was did apologise for the wait. I got the pulled pork and my boyfriend got the southern fried chicken.

The portions are huge and the food was nice but I don’t think I would go back. It was a bit of a hectic atmosphere and didn’t feel like you could relax and enjoy yourself. Most of the tables people were leaving probably withing 30 minutes of sitting down. Also no cocktail menu! They make any cocktail you want but don’t do menus for them, I like to look and decide on what looks good 😢 Also we did try the cheesecake and it was nice but never took a picture 🙈

Overall a 5/10, atmosphere brought this place way down for me.

4. Chelsea Markets 

Leaving my favourite until the end 😍. Chelsea Markets is located in the Meat packing district and is an old large building. When you go in there are loads of counters and stores selling food, clothes, anything really, there are also designer sale pop up shops. The food is great, there is an amazing counter that sells tacos 😍 Los Tacos, and they are only about $4 each. I am not the only one who thinks it since this place is 14th of 10007 restaurants in New York on TripAdvisor!

Also I found a doughnut stand, they make them fresh as your ordering and you can pick what you want them dipped in 😍 definitely worth visiting the doughnutery.

Chelsea Markets get a full 10/10 from me 😀

Has anybody got any suggestions for restaurants in New York heading back in 2 months and can’t wait!!

Amanda xxx

New York City – Time for cocktails

23 Thursday Jun 2016

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New York is huge and there is definitely no denying that, it is even too big to write about everything in one post (it would be a novel!). I went in April for a week for my 30th 😢 and had an amazing time! We were really lucky with the weather and had a few really sunny and warm days. I tried to take as many pictures as possible but a lot of the time I was too distracted and enjoying the moment. Here are a few out my favourite places to drink and also least favourite.

First up is one of my favourite places Suprema Provisions, from what I can tell it only recently opened. The cocktails here are amazing, I think it was the best Kir Royale I ever had! I do have to admit though we did go back a second day and there was a different bartender working and the cocktails weren’t great. When my boyfriend ordered a Moscow Mule, the bartender handed him a Moscow Mule with a twist…pretty sure the bartender didn’t know how to make it and it looked and tasted like vodka on the rocks.

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On our first night after walking around exhausted we went to Rogue on Avenue De Americas. The food was really good and so were the cocktails 😍. I tried to be healthy on my first night and went for the grilled chicken and vegetables, and some margeritas. It was happy hour when we there so I had two $5 margeritas. They came in a variety of flavours and the raspberry one was really good, I tried the passionfruit one and it was good but a little bit sour.
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We went to a few other places when we were walking around that did get great drinks, and I have no memory of the names or locations.

There was one place I was excited to try and that was The Smith , there arr three of them in New York. I had seen a few bloggers talking about it for brunch and was excited to try it out. We didn’t get there for brunch but decided to go one evening and have a couple of drinks at the bar and then some dinner after. The cocktails weren’t great, maybe I went for a bad choice but I struggled to drink it and then went for wine. I don’t really know much about wine apart from knowing I normally like Sauvignan Blanc, and it wasn’t nice either (happy we hadn’t ordered the bottle). So after a quick look at the food menu we decided to go elsewhere, the food at the tables did look really good but not what we were in the mood for. We left and went to a gorgeous Italian on Bleecker st, il fill you in on that again.

Hope that was of some help!

Amanda xxx

New York City: Getting Here

26 Tuesday Apr 2016

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So greetings from New York, we are here since Thursday and leave on Thursday 😦 I was spoilt with a trip to New York for my 30th.

We flew here with Aerlingus and it was a great flight, the flight was approximately 6 and half hours and it flew by (excuse the pun) with all the movies and tv shows. I watched Brooklyn as I had heard great reviews and hadn’t gotten around to seeing it and it was brilliant! Such a nice film and another great role played by Saorise Ronan. I started watching a few other films but they struggled to keep my attention after Brooklyn. I also watched a tv show called Newsroom, season 1 episode 1 was on the flight. Definitely going to watch more when I get home.

Also as my boyfriend travels a lot, we had access to the Aerlingus business lounge! Ha ha I was so excited by this, more coffee and pastries, think 8.30am was a bit early for the spirits.

Food on the plane was pretty good, and I have to say the coffe was great, it was proper brewed coffee and I could have dranks loads. We did get some wine aswell and prosecco of course 🙂

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When we arrived in New York we decided to use the metro to get to the city, instead of paying $75 for a taxi. So we got the airtrain from JFK to Jamaica, this cost about $5 each and we then had to get a seperate ticket for the subway. The metrocard can be topped up for the airtrain so keep that for the return trip. We bought a 1 week subway ticket that cost $30 but you get unlimited trips so definitely worth it. We got off the subway about 2 streets away from our hotel and to be honest it was probably quicker than a taxi in New York traffic! We got the E subway and that brought us to about 7th avenue 52nd st.

I will talk to you all soon! Any tips for my last few days here let me know!

Amanda xxx

Shopping Haul April 2016

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Fashion, Shopping

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Hope everybody is enjoying the great weather today!

With my birthday last month I feel like I have spent the past month shopping!! I got some great pieces in Zara and River Island. I am heading off to New York on Thursday and probably one of the only people who actually goes out and buys new clothes for going. I decided a few weeks ago that I really had to stop buying black clothes, and did I? Maybe, kind of 😂

I got these gorgeous shoes in Zara, the colour is fab and they were a bargain for €39.95. I have to admit Zara have some great pieces at some great prices! Click here to purchase.

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I am in love with this bomber jacket I got in Zara, depending on the weather I will either were a long or short sleeved top underneath. Its not exactly a jacket to keep you warm. Zara have some gorgeous bomber jackets and the prices are quite good, this one was €39.95. Click here to purchase.

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I bought 3 of these sleeveless tshirts, they are long length with a slit on each side. I got the white, khaki and stripe ones, they might have more colours online. These will look great with some chunky statement necklaces. Plus they were a bargain at €5.95.

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I got these jeans in River Island, everytime I went into the shop I kept looking at them so I decided to try them on and loved them on. They come in a few different denim colours aswell ans have a distressed ankle effect. These are €55 and in store now.

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I also got this necklace, love simple and cute it is. Looks pretty expensive and it was only €10! Click here to purchase.

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Anybody buying anything over the next few weeks, River Island have 25% off with U magazine until the 2nd of May.

Hope you like these pieces!

Amanda xxx

Tenerife – Destination Guide

08 Friday May 2015

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This is my third time in Tenerife, twice in the past two years and before that I was 12 🙂 We were pretty lazy this time, we wanted a sun holiday in May and the Canary Islands seemed the best option, so we booked our flights and even the same hotel again because we liked the area.  We are staying in Los Christianos in a Sol hotel who are part of the Melia group, its worth joining when booking as they do great rewards for discounts on bookings.  We booked half board as they give you the option of breakfast and lunch, however at check in they got us with an upgrade to all inclusive for €10 each a day.

I decided to split this blog in two, one on the destination, food, drinks and shopping. The second blog will be on what I wore.

Restaurants:

Even though we are all inclusive in the hotel we still enjoy eating out at night. My favourite restaurants include:

1. Melrose restaurant, it is an amazing steakhouse! The staff are very friendly, the kitchen is open and you can sit near it which makes it impossible to decide what to order. I had the ribeye steak and it was huge!

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2. Hacienda Merenda is a mexican restaurant. The food here is great, I am obsessed with nachos and these were definitely worth the trip. The portions are huge, we got fajitas as our main and struggled with these after the starters.

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3. Emperor Chinese, this is a small chinese in Los Christianos, we went here because of a recommendation and it was definitely worth the visit. The staff were friendly and helpful, food was great and really tasty and great wifi (the first place I had full bars). Really can’t fault the place, a lot cheaper then other places for great food and cheaper for our normal wine aswell.

4. Oriental Garden is an asian restaurant that offers a huge range of dishes. They also give all tables poppadoms with mango chutney, veg and mint sauce. Think I overdid it on these and struggled with my dishes.

Restaurants 1,2 and 4 are part of a group called Gourmetland, when you eat in one they give you a voucher for 10% off in all of the restaurants.

Drinks:

I could be considered boring as I am not really into mad nights out on holidays. I enjoy going out for dinner having some drinks with dinner and a few after. I can’t deal with being hungover in the sun.

My favourite wine that we lived on for the week is San Valentin, a Spanish wine that is part of the Torres group.

For cocktails I love Vilaflor in Playa de las Americas, my reason for this could be because the cocktails are huge! There are mixed reviews on Tripadvisor about this place as they don’t have prices on the menu. Our cocktails were €8.75 which is dearer then a lot of the places about but they are also easily double the size, along with great staff, free snacks to munch on and a rose with the bill I think it is worth it.
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Feeling all fancy with my little bottle of cava and bucket:

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Shopping:

Most of my favourite shops are here, Zara, Oysho, Stradivarious and Pull and Bear. The shops are all huge and have a great selections and the huge plus it is cheaper then back in Ireland!

So on that note I am going to go and enjoy my cocktail at the pool, by the time you will be reading this I will probably be back home as I have no internet to upload 😦

Amanda xxx

Malta

06 Monday Apr 2015

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Hi 🌞

I am sure at this stage most people have their summer holidays planned. I am doing a few blogs on a few of my favourite places. My first is Malta! Last year we went to Malta and Sicily for two weeks and it was amazing!

We stayed in Sliema in Malta, we booked an apartment through http://www.airbnb.com and got a gorgeous, modern 2bedroom apartment for about €75 a night.  The apartment was about a 2-3minute walk up a hill from the sea.
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You can get the sliema ferry over to the capital Valletta, we went on a Sunday and nearly everything was closed. We had a wander around Valletta and stopped and had some Wine and bruschetta. Wine is seriously cheap and starts about €2 a glass.

We also did a day trip out to Gozo and Comino. I think it was about €40 euro for the day, it was about an hour to Gozo where we got a bus tour of the island and about 1 hour to explore ourselves and get lunch. We then got bacl on the boat to Comino, where the Blue Lagoon is. This place is stunning and definitely worth a visit.
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Shopping

Shopping in Malta is great, there is a huge shopping centre about a 5minute walk away from the ferry and it has loads of shops. River Island, New Look, Pull and Bear and loads more! http://www.thepointmalta.com

Eating

Malta has some brilliant restaurants. My favourite is Bad Ass burger and it is amazing. The guy who owned our apartment recommended it and we wished we were staying in Malta for longer so we could keep eating there. It is in St.Julians beside Mcdonalds http://www.badassburger.eu.

Another great restaurant is U Bistrot http://www.ubistrot.com. Food was amazing!! image

Another place that I loved (I am obsessed with doughnuts) was the doughnut factory, it opens 8am to 8pm great doughnuts for breakfast and dessert 😄
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Any questions let me know ☺

Amanda xxx