OAKLAND, Calif.-
What does a perfect day consist of in Seattle, or Seoul, or St. Petersburg?
Ask Lonely Planet. The travel publishing company’s new book, “The Perfect Day: Insider Secrets to 100 Cities” ($7.99) offers a quick guide to planning 24 hours in cities around the world. It’s ideal for the business traveler who only has a few hours to sightsee in between meetings, or the traveler with an itinerary that hopscotches from place to place for a taste of local flavors.
In Seattle, the guide recommends starting the day at a coffeehouse, of course; there’s one on every corner in the home of Starbucks. Then head to Pike Place Market, where you can shop, browse and snack before checking out Seattle Center, an enormous urban park. Don’t forget the Experience Music Project, where you’ll learn the story behind rock classics like “Louie, Louie.” Take the Puget Sound Ferry and enjoy the view of the harbor and the city skyline, then go for dinner and a stroll in Pioneer Square or the Belltown neighborhood.
In Seoul, Lonely Planet recommends “eating, drinking and getting naked with the locals.” Start out with a spicy cold noodle breakfast in Namdaemun market. Go shopping at Apgujeong, which “The Perfect Day” describes as “part commercial center and part shrine to the Korean cult of beauty.” For lunch, have barbecue at Samwon Garden, then find a bathhouse, where you rotate between hot and cold tubs. Finish up with drinks in Myeong Dong, described as a neighborhood of “teashops, restaurants and neon.”
In St. Petersburg, June and July is the time to schedule your visit, so you can experience “White Nights,” the festive time of year when the sun barely sets and sleep is hard to come by. Start your day in Palace Square, head past the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, through the gates of the Mikhailovsky Garden to the Russian Museum. Then follow the Griboedev Canal past the Kazan Cathedral to have Armenian food at a cheap eatery called Kilikia. From there, walk to Sennaya Place, where Dostoevsky lived and set “Crime and Punishment.” Take a river boat tour along the canals, then catch a performance at the Mariinsky Theatre. For evening refreshment, try a pie at Stolle, or dinner at Cafe Idiot or Fasol, then top it off with a vodka toast at Datcha.
