Saturday 02.11.13 | theguardian.com1

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City secrets from Tokyo to LA ≥ Page 2-4

An alternative look at urban travel

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Meet the locals

NEIGHBOURHOODSPECIAL

32 Travel Saturday Guardian 02.11.13

Michael Easton, early 40s, lawyer

Marrickville is ever-changing.

Greeks, who arrived in the 50s and 60s, live next door to Vietnamese who came in the 70s and 80s, who live next door to Anglos like me. It’s full of creative types but is best known for its Vietnamese food. Hanoi Quan (346b Illawarra Road) is my favourite – try the chicken or pork vermicelli. People come from all over Sydney to get their yeeros (doner kebabs) from The Yeeros Shop (431 Illawarra Road). Marrickville used to shut down at 9pm but there’s been a boom in new bars and venues. Camelot (opp Sydenham station, camelotlounge.wordpress.com) and Lazybones (294 Marrickville Road, lazyboneslounge.com.au) are best for music; BJs (395 Illawarra Road, facebook.com/beejayscafebar) and Gasoline Pony (115 Marrickville Road, facebook.com/TheGasolinePony) have a laid-back feel. At weekends, locals head to Addison Road Markets (addisonrdcentre.org.au) or to Henson Park for the football.

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Insiders’Guide

Hosts with the most

One of the draws of Airbnb is the chance to live like a local. On a world city tour, photographer Todd Selby captures the homes of five arty owners and explores their favourite hang-outs

In the world of interiors photography Todd Selby is something of a trailblazer. Eschewing the staid, overly styled images of the genre, his blog (theselby.com) is as much about homeowners – their holey jumpers

and all – as about their covetable apartments, houses and cabins, which are often filled with piles of books, artistic detritus and the normal signs of habitation. It is the human quirks and idiosyncracies – in both personalities and properties – that make his blog and follow-up book, The Selby is in Your Place, so compelling, especially for the Insta-Pinning generation.

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So it stands to reason that, when on the road, he likes to stay in people’s houses: “I travel 75% of the time, and it’s kind of a bummer to always be in a hotel.” Airbnb offered the chance to explore a different side of some of his favourite cities, by shacking up with the hosts in situ on a speedy global tour.

The element that puts lots of us off – accommodation in owners’ homes, rather than empty flats – was, says Selby, the big draw. You have to choose the hosts with care, he says. “I like to spend time reading through comments to get an idea of who they are.” And by selecting properties as much for the personality of the owners as the look of their homes, he tapped in to a world of suburbs that only the locals know.

Normally, when I’m in LA, I go to Venice and stick around the beach. Azza and Chris live in a more up-and-coming neighbourhood by Lincoln Boulevard – north-east of the more well known Abbot Kinney. But I loved it so much I’m thinking of getting a place round there. It doesn’t look much when you first drive by (especially compared with more picturesque parts of Venice such as the canals) but when you get into the side streets there are all sorts of little hidden gems. There are lots of cool cafes such as Deus (on the corner of Venice and Lincoln Boulevards, us.deuscustoms.com), which also houses a motorbike showroom and florist, and it’s still off the beaten path with a real local scene. The clothes at Tradesmen (1807 Lincoln Boulevard, tradesmenlosangeles.com) were really cool and I liked all the small passages where you can ride bikes or just walk along with no cars at all.• airbnb.co.uk/rooms/915336, $115 a night

Hannah Henderson, 34, co-owner, General Store Venice shop-generalstore.com

I’ve lived in Venice for over 10 years

and have watched it change a lot, especially in the past year or two. Abbot Kinney has sadly become overrun with chain stores, so smaller shops have ventured to Lincoln Boulevard, creating a more independent destination – it’s where the best new stuff is popping up. Taking a stroll down the side streets off Lincoln – Nowita Place, Marco Place, Amoroso Place – is a great respite from the city. They are quiet, have tons of character and give you a glimpse of what it’s really like to live in Venice. For drinks, Moon Juice (507 Rose Avenue, moonjuiceshop.com) is the best, and a new bakery/lunch spot called Superba Snack Bar (superbasnackbar.com) has just opened a little further down at number 533. Go to the beach! ditch the car and explore by bike: you can ride up the coast or around the Venice canals. everything is close together and easy to get to.

LOCAL’SGUIDE

Lincoln, Venice Los Angeles

9th arrondissment Paris

The rapid rise of AirbnbWhen Airbnb launched in 2008, it was billed as a temporary service, something to mop up an overspill of tourists during conferences or events. But within six months, hosts started listing spare bedrooms and their apartments. Soon the directory was being seen as a serious alternative to hotels. But its rise hasn’t always been smooth. In 2011, a Californian user had her apartment trashed, leading to Airbnb offering a host guarantee and a customer service hotline. And there’s also its battle with New York state: a law introduced in 2011 to curb illegal hotels conflicted with Airbnb rentals, making many illegal. But users continue to sign up; the site has 500,000 properties across 192 countries and is valued at $2.5bn.Vicky Baker

Pierre Louis Pelletier, 37, manager of the Hotel Amour hotelamourparis.fr

The ninth, or SoPi (South Pigalle),

has amazing nightlife and a bobo vibe. There are so many bars here now: Le Mansart (1 rue Mansart) is affordable and has a big terrace; The dirty dick (10 rue Frochot) is best for cocktails, plus it stays open all night long. An excellent local bistro is Le Pantruche (+33 1 48 78 55 60, lepantruche.com), with a two-course lunch for €18, and Le Coq Rico (+33 1 42 59 82 89, lecoqrico.com) is a popular new restaurant specialising in all types of poultry. You have to go to rue des Martyrs to see all the bakeries, cheese shops and fresh food in general. Follow this with a trip to Galeries Lafayette (galerieslafayette.com), a department store on six floors. For sightseeing the Sacré Coeur and Montmartre are nearby.

I usually stay in Le Marais, so it was fun to explore a quaint little neighbourhood I might not go to otherwise. Marty de Montereau’s home is a sprawling apartment full of cool art. He has roommates, so it wasn’t just him looking after me – it was all of them. Marty showed me all the best places: avenue Trudaine, which has every kind of restaurant, the best bakery (Arnaud Delmontel, 39 rue des Martyrs, arnaud-delmontel.com), the best cheese shop (La Ferme Saint-Hubert, 36 rue de Rochechouart, la-ferme-saint-hubert-de-paris.com), the best wine shop (La Maison du Vin, 26 rue de la Tour d’Auvergne). We were drinking and eating well from the start and Marty is a really enthusiastic and sociable guy.• The property, from £61 a night, is currently offline but will be available again from January 2014

Le chic … Marty soaks up the bobo street life (above)and his Paris apartment (left)

Art attic … Scott’s loft/studio space (above) has a creative vibe, while the area has charm – and lots of coffee shops

LA-di-da … (from top right) host Azza, Venice beach, Todd in situ and (left) the Lincoln pad at night

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Marrickville

I usually stay in Bondi at the beach, so when I told friends I was staying in Marrickville, they were in shock: “You’re in Marrickville? Wow!” It’s an area where a lot of artists live and is not a tourist destination at all. It has a charm to it, with nice parks, but also a bit of grittiness and a factory feel that reminded me of Brooklyn. There was an incredible Italian cheese factory, Paesanella (paesanella.com.au), and a crazy coffee bubble, with a roastery pretty much every 15 feet, all of them busy. I especially liked Cornersmith on Illawarra Road (facebook.com/Cornersmith).

The property I stayed in, with host Scott Brundson, was awesome – an old bakery that has been converted into a home. The bit you can rent is a giant studio and loft space in the former baking area. Because the room is above Scott’s wife’s art studio it was really

Marrickville Sydney

fun, with art nights where their friends come over and get creative by working on paintings and ceramics. They invited me down to have a go myself, and that’s something a lot of their guests do. The eggs at breakfast were from their chickens in the backyard.• airbnb.co.uk/rooms/360141, from £67 a night

NEIGHBOURHOODSPECIAL

4 Travel Saturday Guardian 02.11.13

Marie Murakawa, 26, communications manager at creative agency UltraSuperNew ultrasupernew.com

Harajuku is at the centre of Tokyo’s

cultural scene. It is colourful with a young, open-minded spirit. I love going to Harajuku Gyoza Lou (6-2-4 Jingumae) with friends. It cooks hot gyoza (dumpling) in front of you at the wooden counter. Two Rooms (3-11-7 Kita-Aoyama, tworooms.jp) to the south in omotesando is a restaurant/bar with an urban vibe and great views. For shopping, Avantgarde (3-22-7 Jingumae, avantgardejapan.com), is a must – its amazing tights are the hottest legwear on the Tokyo street scene. The interior and staff are a must-see – the shop is underground but you can spot it by the tights hanging outside. At Boutique Takonoko (1-6-15 Jingumae) you can embrace the world of Takanoko-zoku, the dance groups that started in Harajuku and created the base of Tokyo’s street culture in the 1980s. dokidoki (4-28-16 Jingumae, dokidoki6.com) calls itself a “sensational lovely” shop selling kawaii (accessories and clothes).

Insiders’Guide

Avril Mackintosh, music producer

Kensal Town is a glorious

“inbetweeny” area of London. It’s laid-back and attracts young people from across the city to its pubs, bars, and food and fashion pop-ups. one of the best places to eat is Comptoir Mezze (20 Station Terrace), a family-run Moroccan-Lebanese restaurant that does an amazing lamb tagine. Locals flock to Paradise By Way of Kensal Green (19 Kilburn Lane, theparadise.co.uk) for contemporary British food and events such as burlesque afternoon tea. The Shop (75 Chamberlayne Road, theshopnw10.com) is a fun, welcoming place to drink – it serves cocktails in jam jars. Regent’s Canal runs through the district and makes an interesting walk or cycle. The best place to see is Kensal Green Cemetery (Harrow Road, kensalgreencemetery.com): it is London’s oldest, and more British royalty are buried here than any other cemetery.

I know this neighbourhood but it doesn’t have any hotels, so it was cool to be able to stay on the canal, waking up to see the area from hosts Florence and Tom’s water tower and to stay in “the amazing round room in the sky”. The room is very simple: it’s circular and completely clad in wood. And it has some great places right underneath it – the Dock Kitchen (342–344 Ladbroke Grove, dockkitchen.co.uk) and also a very cool design shop owned by Tom ( 344 Ladbroke Grove,

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One of the fun things about Airbnb is that you don’t stay in obvious places. Harajuku is known for its intense street fashion: you’ve probably heard of the Harajuku girls, who dress up in crazy outfits, like Baby Doll & Hawaiian Girl, but I’d never stayed here. The hosts, John and LP, are such interesting characters, living a nocturnal lifestyle: their listing says “Sorry for our late checking in but we sleep until 5pm.” Unique is an understatement for their property. The room I stayed in had no furniture, just carpet, plywood and a little balcony. It’s all super-minimalist, but engineered so the bed comes down from behind the plywood and some of it folds up into a desk. LP is an artist, so her paintings are

everywhere. She even has a little art cabin that she built in the middle of the main house. And I have to mention Psycho. In the listing they say: “Our cat thinks he’s a horse and just gallops all night long.” I thought it sounded weird but then, sure enough, the first night I heard the cat go de dum dum de dum dum de dum de dum, and it galloped me to sleep. Harajuku is more of a daytime place but we did go to a fun

local bar in a treehouse (treehouse.jp) and I took them to a restaurant for a performance with dancing

robots (robot-restaurant.com). I liked the fact that we could share

tips: I showed them some of my favourite places and

they showed me theirs.• airbnb.co.uk/

rooms/161232, from £74 a night

Streets ahead … (from top) the creative chic of John and LP’s flat, Harajuku has a vibrant nightlife, including the Robot restaurant (above) and (left) fashion scene

Tower power … the home ‘in the sky’ (top and above right), the Tart bakery (right) and host Florence at a street food stall (above)

tomdixon.net). The host, Florence Dixon, has a bakery inside the shop called Tart (tartbakery.co.uk), which was super convenient for hanging out with her and eating sandwiches. We did lots of cruising around and went to record shops such as Rough Trade (130 Talbot Road, roughtrade.com). We went to a great Persian restaurant – there are lots of international places to eat. It was all varied and spontaneous.• airbnb.co.uk/rooms/265798, from £120 a night