The heavily wooded east side remains calm though offering less beautiful views it makes for the best walking
The heavily wooded east side remains calm, though offering less beautiful views, it makes for the best walking. You can reach the summit of Ben Lomond by taking the West Highland Way footpath which passes through the spectacular wilderness of Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.The highland village of Luss provides the setting for the Soap opera Take the High Road. To reach these infamous rose-clad cottages take a short drive from the west bank. Balloch Castle country park and Rob Roy’s cave are the other key sights also within easy reachPerthPerth has grown up in the very heart of Scotland, at the nation’s cross- roads on the banks of the river Tay. Its central situation helped it to remain capital city for several centuries, with the parliament of James I meeting here on several occasions.A fine way to introduce yourself to the city is to walk the slopes of Kinnoull Hill and take the in views Perth and beyond, namely the Perthshire Highlands, the Grampian Mountains, the rolling hills of Fife, and the fertile carse of Gowrie.
Salmon fishing has been a traditional pastime for hundreds of years, and if you’re a keen golfer there are four courses.At the hub of the region is the port of Perth, which has seen Scotland’s best exports, salmon, whiskey and wool, pass through its waters over the centuries. Today The Fergusson Gallery is the main attraction, exhibiting the works of J D Fergusson, the foremost artist of the Scottish colourist movement.Sarah Barrell. Best Discovery
In a state synonymous with Disney World and Miami it’s refreshing to get off the beaten track. The easy-going Barry “Chop” Lege runs boat trips (Swampland Tours) into a vast wildlife sanctuary on Lake Okeechobee. A ranger at one with his environment, he spots all manner of creatures invisible to the untrained eye and enthusiastically explains their habits and habitats. If you want to know the intimate details of alligators, a multitude of birds and the moccasin snake, he’s your man. (He also cooks a mean gumbo.)
BEST HOTELWe can’t ignore the state’s most magnificent hotels, many of which began life as swanky resorts of the 1920s.
Potent symbols of an era of unbridled wealth, they still attract the mega-rich and are worth a look (some give guided tours). For sheer extravagance you can’t beat the elaborate pink castle of the Don Cesar Hotel at St Petersburg Beach. Other contenders are the Gatsbyesque Belleview Mido Resort Hotel in Clearwater; and the epitome of graceful living, The Breakers, at the millionaires’ haven of Palm Beach. In a different vein is the B&B at the Heritage Country Inn, set in rolling ranch country near Silver Springs. You’re lavished with loving care and attention in this turn-of-the-century farmhouse with its six individually styled bedrooms, bearing names like the Plantation Room and the English Thoroughbred Room. We still miss the home-baked cinnamon bread.FAVOURITE RESTAURANTFlorida’s cultural mix produces an exciting range of cuisine. Sarasota has Yoder’s, a small award-winning Amish restaurant, where attentive waitresses in traditional dress bring heaped plates of simple homemade food prepared to old-fashioned recipes.
By contrast, the hot-blooded Columbia, a cavernous Cuban restaurant in Ybor City, Tampa, goes all out to entertain with spirited Flamenco dancing as diners gorge on refined Cuban and Spanish fare.BIGGEST LET-DOWNDisney World is an unearthly place where you’re told to expect all-day fun but have to put up with all-day queuing, rides that break down, horribly expensive and unappetising food, and incessant advertising. Added to this cultural mugging are historical revisions that would shame Clinton, and poor schmucks in cartoon-character costumes who dog your every step.STRANGEST NIGHTEarly evening Fort Lauderdale greeted us with banging hammers and whirring electric screwdrivers as storm shutters were fixed over doors and windows. Hurricane Erin was threatening, and there was no way the media was going to do a Michael Fish. Constant warnings filled the airwaves but we decided to get a meal before decamping to the mainland emergency centre.
At the deserted Ricks Cafe we got the best table overlooking the ocean but the beautiful sunset disappeared behind a shutter, erected with a power tool that drowned out the pianist playing Andrew Lloyd Webber “classics” It was never like this for Bogart. The emergency centre was a run-down high school in a dubious neighbourhood and already full of street dwellers, people from housing projects, and nervous tourists. The grubby classroom made us long for the king-sized bed in the hotel as locals popped their heads round the door stating wistfully: “Here’s where we did math.” We endured about eight hours – the highlight being the colourful company in the soup line – while Hurricane Erin blew past Fort Lauderdale without rustling a leaf. Never trust a weatherman.FAVOURITE MUSEUMRunners-up are the impressive Salvador Dal Art Gallery in St Petersburg and the enlightening Civil War Soldiers’ Museum in Pensacola First prize goes to Sarasota’s Ringling Museum Complex. The passionate project of a 1920s circus multi-millionaire, it boasts a stunning Venetian Gothic mansion – the ultimate combination of American exuberance and European elegance.
