drink (4)

My tip for a hotel is the Marriott in Deira. Away from the glitz so that you can concentrate but close enough to everything that you want, first class business facilities and a rooftop pool. The best restaurants are the Sphinx at the Pyramids and Shabestani Iranian restaurant at the Hyatt.

If you’ve got a deal to celebrate and feel like splashing out, the 23-course tasting menu at Alinea in the Lincoln Park area is a must. It’s an eye-popping $195 at first glance, but with the exchange rate as it is, it does represent excellent value. Everything is exquisitely presented and tastes wonderful.

Cuckoo on Swallow Street is the best late-night spot in London: it looks great, the staff are great, the music is great, the drinks are great, the people are great and the dancing is great. It manages to combine an air of relaxed, intimate sophistication with pumping, head-throbbing dance music. It's worth remembering to dress impeccably to guarantee entrance.

Sketch Gallery, on Conduit Street, is highly recommended. The modern British/French food is divine (the beef tartare is astoundingly tasty) but it’s the interior design, walls adorned by electronic projections instead of wallpaper, that takes your breath away. A great place for a group of colleagues or clients to slurp away at cocktails.