We live in an age when we can happily seek out other people’s opinions on what is and isn’t cool, cultured and connected… Here are a few sites I find helpful…

To begin with, Superfuture covers off all the major cities and many, many more. Take your pick from Tokyo, NYC, Sydney, San Fran, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Los Angeles and Shanghai (and that’s before you’ve even clicked on the ‘other cities’ link to get through to all the rest)… When you’ve found your favoured city it’ll be broken down in to key areas for you and you can meander through their maps as you wish. Here you’ll find any hotel worth it’s hot plates, any restaurant worth it’s radish and all the stores worth their sales in gold. I don’t know if I lost the flow there, but what the hell…

Also on the site is SuperFuture’s Concierge service which been operating in Tokyo for 6 years and in 2006 has expanded to Shanghai, Paris, and Amsterdam. Primarily a tour service for creative professionals coming to cities on business for a few days (i.e. fashion buyers, retailers, designers, advertising, press, fashion, design, art, marketing and trending execs etc)… Superfuture Concierge is tailored to exact needs and budget requirements, customising tours that are designed to maximise time and minimise the confusion. Smashing (rather ‘Added Service’ too huh?)… The site itself holds the esteemed opinions of around 42,000 people - all terribly trendy types who wouldn’t dare pop anything on the site that made them look silly. They have a separate bit for hotels, news, search options and Supertalk - a fashionable forum where people try and out-do each other’s egos and esteem… Still, you know the credibility is cool enough…

If you’re more interested in flicking through the leaves of a little book, Time Out’s Bars and Clubs books are updated every year and are written by savvy, stylish people that know their audience… You can also go online here… Over 1000 places have been rated, ranked and drunk at - some people have the best jobs right?

Urban Junkies too, have a vast archive of places to eat, drink and be very merry - if you don’t sign up for their daily dose of Junk - do. It’s the best breakfast with which to begin the day… Squaremeal is super for lunch…

For venue hire, ‘funky’ food and suppliers, you can always try this dreadfully named Funky Venues… (Sorry, but does no one know what the word funky actually means anymore?!)… If you have other places/sites/suppliers you’d recommend - do pop and post a comment below… Sharing, caring and all that Jimmy Jazz…