This post is going to be a little different to my usual travel/beer reports. As there’s relatively little touristy stuff to do in the Bay Area, I wouldn’t want to bore anyone with how we filled our 30 days in the area. Suffice to say, there was plenty of drinking, so I’ll just focus on the pub/brewery scene so that …
Santorini: A Paradise Lost to Tourism.
The Belvoirs recently had a week’s break on the Greek island of Santorini. This island destination was the first ever place I’d taken a foreign holiday, about 37 or 38 years ago (I remember the Beasty Boys were the baddies of the day, in the charts at the time), so I was interested to see how it had changed over …
BoldBelvoir’s West Coast Wander: Pt.8 – Phoenix & Grand Canyon
SATURDAY 15/10/22 Having arrived the evening before, we’d had an early night, as we were up today at stupid o’clock to get the minibus for our pre-booked tour to see the Grand Canyon. We shared our tour bus with (I’m assuming) an African family and although we couldn’t understand what they were saying because it sounded as though they were …
BoldBelvoir’s West Coast Wander: Pt.7 – San Diego
TUESDAY 11/10/22 After a somewhat tardy start to the day (our bus to San Diego didn’t leave until 11 am), we decided to walk to the bus terminal and stop off for breakfast along the way to split the journey. We made that stop at Guisados which, in stark contrast to their glossy website, was much more akin to Ma …
BoldBelvoir’s West Coast Wander: Pt.6 – Los Angeles
SATURDAY 08/10/22 The day started off so well! It is an easy ride from Concord to Oakland International Airport, via the BART then changing to the new 3.2-mile long, elevated, driverless AirTrain link to the airport terminal. We arrived at the airport the obligatory two hours early and were through security and sat in the departure lounge in good time …
The Elbow Room, Hinckley
A venue that every craft beer geek should visit. A great afternoon spent in the Elbow Room @elbowroomalehouse in Hinckley yesterday, attending their ‘Renewal Fest’. Friendly owner, knowledgable barkeeps, awesome homemade scotch eggs and free jelly beans. Oh, and the beers weren’t half bad either! A mega beer list from some stunning US breweries, including Beer Tree, Branch & Blade …
BoldBelvoir’s West Coast Wander: Pt.5 – Road Trip
TUESDAY 04/10/22 Hooking up with Mark and Suzanne again, they picked us up at stupid dark o’clock outside the Pangaea on the corner of our street, en route from Concord, to start our three-day road trip. After a couple of hiccups finding the highway, we were finally on our way and 100 miles and two and a half hours later …
BoldBelvoir’s West Coast Wander: Pt.4 – Sacramento
FRIDAY 30/09/22 Today was primarily spent travelling. Unlike the last flight, everything went smoothly and we were back at Oakland International by mid-afternoon. An hour or so later we were back with our friends Mark and Suzanne in Concord. Of course, this had to be celebrated with a beer and within half an hour we were all on our way …
BoldBelvoir’s West Coast Wander: Pt.3 – Seattle
TUESDAY 27/09/22 The Portland-Seattle Amtrak train we had booked a couple of months previously was unceremoniously cancelled with just one week’s notice, with no alternative routes or transport offered. Nice. We rebooked the 175 mile, three-and-a-half-hour journey on Flixbus which, ironically, departed from opposite the Portland railway station. Whilst checking the line of passengers on board we thought the driver …
BoldBelvoir’s West Coast Wander: Pt.2 – Portland
SATURDAY 24/09/22 The day started off so well. Beautiful sunrise, warm morning sun, and a luxury ride to Oakland Airport, thanks to Mark taking us door to door in his Jaguar XJ. We were straight through security and into the departure lounge within 15 minutes and everything was on schedule. Unfortunately, it started going downhill from there… As we boarded …