Tumbrella

London has the worst food, Paris is the most overrated and Brussels is the most boring, according to a travellers survey.

In the poll of nearly 2400 travellers, by survey-happy website TripAdvisor, the British capital was voted the dirtiest in Europe, the most expensive and with the worst-dressed people.

Paris didn’t fair any better, with travellers saying it was the least friendly city and the second-most expensive.

However Paris was also voted as having the best cuisine and best-dressed people, while London was seen as having the best nightlife, best public parks and most free attractions.

“Despite London emerging as the dirtiest and most expensive city, its fantastic free attractions prove that you don’t need to be a millionaire in order to enjoy the capital,” TripAdvisor spokesman Luke Fredberg said in a statement.

Apparently Venice is Europe’s most romantic destination, Dublin the friendliest and Denmark’s Copenhagen Europe’s cleanest city. Prague was picked as the best bargain, while Barcelona and Warsaw (Poland) were seen as the cities with the best and worst architecture respectively.

And the most boring? Travellers voted for the Belgian capital Brussels. Switzerland’s Zurich a close-runner up.

The new issue of TNT Magazine has an entertaining and insightful story about travelling with your parents. It starts:

You go all the way to Australia to get away from the little rascals but somehow they always manage to track you down. Then again, when you temporarily live in the land of sun and beaches, can you really blame your parents for wanting a piece of the action?

They also get advice from Lonely Planet on travelling up the east coast with parents:

There are some brilliant places along the coast for those looking for more sober travel experiences. Port Macquarie is one of the more beautiful NSW coastal towns. Sited on a spectacular headland, the row of tiny coves lining the approach road throw up some great surf.

Instead of Byron Bay, which can get raucous at night, base yourself in nearby Brunswick Heads instead, which has a beach, cafes and easy access to Byron. The Whitsundays access town, Airlie Beach, is packed full of bars and smashed backpackers. Skip it and head straight to the islands or board a sailing boat and cruise the archipelago for a few glorious days.

When in Cairns consider staying in nearby Kuranda, high in the hills behind the city. The village is a lovely little retreat, and much cooler and laidback than its brash big brother on the coast.

Read the full story here.

Elsewhere in Australia, Maryborough is staging its fifth assault on the Guinness world record for the world’s largest pub crawl.

The Queensland town claimed the honour in 2005, but then lost it to London in 2006, reclaimed it again in 2007 and 2008 with a record-breaking 3000 crawlers. This year’s event is being expanded across the Queen’s birthday weekend, Sunday, June 7.

Non-drinkers can participate in the pub crawl too. All it requires is that you have one drink either alcoholic or non-alcoholic in at least 10 of the participating pubs and get the official pub crawl card stamped at each watering hole.

More info at worldsgreatestpubcrawl.com.