Several years ago my aunt and I took a trip of a lifetime. You might say it was a top notch experience.
I had a cousin who lived in San Diego, California. The family gathered there to celebrate my aunt’s birthday. After spending a few wonderful days in San Diego, taking in the sites and visiting Coronado (which I loved), we rented a car and my aunt, two of my cousin’s daughters and I headed up the California coast. Our final destination was to be Seattle, Washington, but first we would visit Victoria, BC. My two cousins (both in their teens at the time) traveled with us as far as San Francisco where they caught a plane back to their home in Kansas City.
What Made This a Top Notch Trip?
Anyone who has ever traveled extensively in America, let alone the west coast of America, knows how varied the culture and terrain is. It is literally like traveling in different countries. Add to that crossing over into Canada and you get even more of a culture change. One feels the British influence very much in Victoria. The entire trip could be labeled top notch, but one of my favorite events of the trip came at the end when we decided to have dinner at Sky City, the revolving restaurant atop the Space Needle in Seattle, WA.
We had very little time to spend in Seattle, yet we wanted to get a taste, no pun intended, of the Seattle area. Sky City turned out to be the best place to get a panoramic view of Seattle, Puget Sound (which we had seen from the ferry that transported us from Victoria, BC) and Mount Rainier. The outstanding menu turned out to offer the best cuisine of the Northwest. It was a perfect ending for our top notch trip!
Top Notch Travel Experiences around the World
Sky City was the second revolving restaurant in the world. The first time a revolving restaurant was opened was in Waikiki, Hawaii. Because of the wonderful experience that my aunt and I had at Sky City, I did some research on revolving restaurants. Today, these top of the world restaurants can be found in 50 countries on 6 continents. Not all of these restaurants are top notch however. Quite a few are tacky tourist traps, but the ones that stand out the world over offer outstanding gourmet cuisine and a spectacular way to view the place you are visiting. Price ranges vary, so be sure to check out the current price range before you make a reservation. The following is a partial list of top notch revolving restaurants that all serve outstanding national gourmet cuisine, as well as offering breathtaking scenery as you dine:
- Munich, Germany: Restaurant 181
- Tokyo, Japan: Top at New Otani Tower
- Sydney, Australia: O Bar and Dining
- Reykjavik, Iceland: Perlan
- Tampere, Finland: Restaurant Nasinneula
- Palavas-les-Flots, France: Brasserie Le Phare de la Mediterranee
- Cape Town, South Africa: Top of the Ritz
- Las Vegas, Nevada: Top of the World
- New York, New York: The View
The last revolving restaurant on our list is in Switzerland and is the highest revolving restaurant in the wold. It sits atop a glacier that is 11,000 feet above sea level.
- Saas-Fee, Switzerland: Drehrestaurant Allalin
So check some of these dream restaurants out and make your next trip a trip a top notch experience! Literally!
