Moderna Museet is the leading modern art museum in the Nordic Countries, and it is worth the walk from the city if you have a few hours to spend with culture. The museum is located a couple of kilometers out of the city centre, on a beautiful Skeppsholm island that is a destination itself. It is easy walk and takes about 20 minutes from T-Centralen, but there are also public transports available (ferry and bus), and you can always take a taxi.

The collections themselves are pretty standard fare, you can find Picassos, Dalís, and Matisses there among with the local modernists. The exhibitions can be outstanding or then about someone that you’ve never heard ever before (and chances are that you won’t hear again…).

www.modernamuseet.se, Slupskjulsvägen 7-9, Stockholm, Sweden, +46 8 5195 5200

Scandic Park is a typical four star Scandic hotel found in almost every major city in the Nordic Countries. The rooms are big, beds are comfortable, and the breakfast buffet is good. Everything just works, and the price is decent. In our case, we spent less than 100€ per night for four people (two adults + two children). As an additional perk, we got a family room that had a big sofa bed for the youngsters. The hotel has an excellent sauna facilities on top floor with street and park views.

The major perk of the hotel is the location on the trendy Östermalm area. Most of the luxury and fashionable boutiques in Stockholm can be found on and around Birger Jarlsgatan, a few hundred meters from the hotel. There is a good selection of restaurants, cafés and pubs in the neighbourhood, too. The nearest grocery store is just around the corner, There is also a huge park just next to the hotel with a good children’s playground.

www.scandichotels.com, Karlavagen 43, Stockholm, Sweden, +46 8 5173 4800

Mama Roma is a chain of small Italian restaurants in St. Petersburg that offer excellent value for the money, and work especially well with children not familiar with the Russian cousine.

We visited one of their restaurants on Vasilevsky Island, on delta of Neva, and were very happy with the food and the service. The waiters have really limited English skills, but there are English menus available. Knowing a few Russian basic words, like “voda” for water, helps you to get everything you need. The service in general is very helpful, albeit the language barrier can be problematic sometimes. A lot of pointing, waving, and drawing in the air helps.

The food itself is delicious and the portions are large enough to satisfy a bigger hunger. The menu is pretty long, and all typical Italian foods are available.

www.mamaroma.ru, Sredniy pr. V.O., 6, Vasilevsky Ostrov, St. Petersburg, Russia, +7 812 328 0639

A friend of mine who had lived in St. Petersburg for many years recommended Stolle for any and all quick and tasty eats. The café chain that has several stores around the city is focusing on traditional Russian pies; heavy in filling (and fat), delicious in taste.

We didn’t try the café part at all, just bought a piece of pie as a late snack in the hotel. The pies are not small ones — we had half a portion and fed four people (two of them kids) with it and ate second time, too. The available pies depend on the season and your luck, we had excellent salmon and onion pie — there were a couple of other choices available, too.

The clerks do not speak that much of English, but they are ready — as Russians in general, it seems — to go lengths to help you with the purchase.

www.stolle.ru, Vasilievsky Ostrov, 1st Line 50, St. Petersburg, Russia, +7 812 328 7860

Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge is an ideal solution if you are spending a few nights on pleasure in St. Petersburg. It has big and well-maintained rooms, an excellent breakfast buffet, and a top-notch spa. The hotel is operated by a Finnish hotel chain that has three hotels in the city.

The rooms are typical business level hotel rooms; nothing fancy, but everything just works. The bed is good, and the room is big enough to fit an extra bed and a crib. The breakfast buffet that is included in the price is the best I’ve ever encountered so far. And trust me, I’ve ate breakfast in numerous hotels. Both the quantity and the quality of the items is astounding.

The spa is probably the highlight of the hotel. There are almost ten different saunas, one ice room, hot tubs, cold tubs, a huge swimming pool, and a children pool. All of this free of charge in the morning for hotel guests, and around ten euros per person later during the day. The spa was spotlessly clean, everything worked like a charm, and the different saunas were fun to experience. I didn’t know that there is at least five different variations of steam saunas.

The only downside of the hotel is the location — it’s about fifteen minutes walk to Nevsky Prospect and the city centre. Fortunately there are restaurants and services around the neighbourhood, too, but shopping possibilities are limited to groceries.

www.sokoshotels.fi, Birzhevoy pereulok 2-4, St. Petersburg, Russia, +7 812 335 2200

Thaise Snackbar Bird is relatively compact restaurant for fast Thai snacks and meals on Zeedijk street. The snackbar is operated by a larger and more formal Thai restaurant on the opposite side of the street. They have separate kitchens, and there are differences in menus.

The food we had there were just superb, very authentic and rich in flavour. Spicyness was also on a good level. I loved especially the crunchy spring rolls, but the curries were excellent, too.

The restaurant has like twenty places to sit, and it fills really quickly. Fortunately, people do not stay to hang around after eating.

www.thai-bird.nl, Zeedijk 72, Amsterdam, Netherlands, +32 20 420 6289

The hotel selection in Amsterdam is quite polarized; there are really good and expensive hotels, and really bad and inexpensive hotels. Trying to find a hotel that does not cost a fortune, and has good rooms, decent breakfast, and nice location can be hard.

Hotel V somewhat fits the bill. It is a design hotel, in other words, a lot of time and energy has been put to the surroundings, rooms, and generic atmosphere. Despite being in a crummy neighbourhood, Hotel V has been able to execute this pretty well.

Our room was small, as most hotel rooms tend to be in Amsterdam — there are huge ones, too, I’ve even slept in such a room. The room looked way bigger in the pictures, so be warned. The breakfast was excellent, and service in general was nice. Free WLAN is always a good perk.

The hotel location is not the best, it is a bit out of the city centre, though near the museum sector. Tram is a good option, and it takes about fifteen minutes to reach the central station. We had booked a bike special, and rode around the town for a day — excellent way to see the city, and also get to the places.

www.hotelv.nl, Victorieplein 42, Amsterdam, Netherlands

P.F. Chang’s is a good choice for a restaurant when you are tired or lazy to think about the portions, and just want something tasty. The selection itself is huge, as usual in Chinese restaurants, and everything is tasty, as again usual in Chinese restaurants. Nothing is spectacular, though.

The restaurant itself is large, and as most chain restaurants, lacking personal touch. The service is once again excellent, and the food comes pretty swiftly. Price is not bad either. Somehow I see having take away a better choice than hanging in the restaurant, maybe it is the non-personality of the dining hall combined with the mall surroundings.

P.F. Chang’s, 900 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA, +1 650 330 1782