Meet the Editor
About Nicole
I'm Nicole — a flight attendant, wine lover, and solo traveller who has spent years moving through cities, sitting at counters, and finding the places worth going back to.
Nicole Takes Flight is where I share what I've actually found: the wine bars where a single seat at the counter feels exactly right, the restaurants where a table for one is welcomed rather than tolerated, the walking routes that connect the small moments worth slowing for.
Everything here is personally tested. No press trips. No algorithmic lists. No recommendations I wouldn't make to a friend.
What you'll find here:
- Solo Sips & Bites — A personally vetted database of wine bars and restaurants across 15+ cities, searchable by location and type.
- Flight Trails — Walking routes that link the wine bars, restaurants, and quiet corners of the cities I know best.
- The Journal — Essays, reviews, and practical guides for women who travel independently.
The best company you can have is often your own. Especially when there's a good glass of wine involved.
— Nicole
What Nicole Takes Flight covers
Solo travel, food, wine and independent travel for women — written from the table, the counter and the train, never from a press release.
Solo Sips & Bites
The reason this site exists: a growing collection of restaurants, wine bars and cafés where eating and drinking alone feels welcome, with the seating, amenity and practical detail I look for before I walk in.
Solo travel guides
Destination guides, 48-hour itineraries and city transport notes for travelling independently, written for women planning their own trips.
Food and wine travel
Wine regions, grape varieties and weekend wine itineraries — plus self-guided Flight Trails walking routes between the bars worth the detour.
From the Journal
Essays on dining alone, travelling solo in midlife and the quieter pleasures of independent travel.
Why you can trust these recommendations
- Every venue is personally researched, and the great majority are places I have sat down in myself — at the bar, the counter or a table for one.
- Every recommendation is independent and unpaid. This site carries no affiliate links, sponsored posts or commission arrangements.
- Listings state what I can verify — seating, amenities, hours, address, website — and stay silent where I cannot.
- There are no star ratings here. I would rather tell you what a place is actually like, and who it suits.
- Everything is written under my own name, and every enquiry is answered by me.
Written and researched by Nicole Everett.