Baby, it's cold outside, but it's the perfect time to get cooking in NYC. Credit: Randy Le'Moine Photography.
By Jennifer Olvera
There’s no denying January is a dreary time of year. Given it’ a long stretch far from any significant holiday – sorry, but Valentine’s Day doesn’t count – it’s a wise time to spice things up. Here’s an idea: take a cooking class in early 2012, while settling in to affordable New York hotels. (more…)
By Samantha Chapnick
Staying at a New York hotel tailored to your taste makes your journey far easier and more enjoyable. It offers the chance to meet like-minded visitors and locals, and find insider information not available at other spots. Here are my favorites:
Bibliophile
Library Hotel
• Adjacent to the main branch of the New York Public Library (the one with those gorgeous lions Patience & Fortitude outside) and Bryant Park (where many literary events take place all summer).
• Rooms organized by the Dewey decimal system by interest.
• Each room has 25-50 books relevant to that room’s theme.
By Polly Fitz
Warning: If your New Year’s resolution has anything to do with eating less or depriving yourself of gourmet goodies, this article is not for you. For the rest of you — reason to rejoice. Restaurant weeks, those all-about-eating events where restaurants offer special reduced price menus, are here to offer a ray of sunshine in your otherwise gray winter. Here’s a roundup of some of the biggies. (If you plan your travel right, you could hit them all.)
San Diego
Sunny San Diego is a no-brainer when it comes to January vacation destinations. So it hardly seems fair that it adds its Restaurant Week to the list of already enticing attractions. Regardless, book your San Diego hotel soon if you plan to partake. The 5th annual San Diego Restaurant Week runs January 11-16, with more than 150 restaurants offering three-course meals priced at $20, $30, or $40 per person depending on the menu and location.
New York
Perhaps no city in the U.S. has more valid foodie bragging rights than the Big Apple. To see what all the fuss is about, plan your vacation January 18-23 or 25-30 during New York Restaurant Week. Choosing a New York hotel will be easy compared to deciding which of the more than 250 participating restaurants you want to try. The good news is, with three-course lunches for $24.07 and dinners for $35, you can afford to be indecisive.
Los Angeles
The 2nd annual dineLA Restaurant Week lasts for two weeks — January 25-30 and February 1-6 — and includes more than 130 restaurants. L.A.’s event has a tiered pricing system: $16 lunches and $26 dinners at "Deluxe" restaurants; $22 lunches and $34 dinners at "Premier" restaurants; and $26 lunches and $44 dinners at "Fine Dining" restaurants. The list of restaurants and their pricing is on the Restaurant Week Web site.
Chicago
The Windy City is known as a food town — both for its quantity and quality — where you can dine on everything big steaks and deep-dish pizzas to the unique tastes of Grant Achatz’ molecular gastronomy. So whether you like a lot of food or like food a lot, put February 20-27 on your calendar for Chicago Restaurant Week. Diners can choose from $22 three-course lunches or $32 three-course dinners at more than 130 restaurants.
Denver
Add a gourmet twist to your ski vacation by planning around Denver Restaurant Week February 21-27. You can work up an appetite on the slopes at Loveland (less than 60 miles from Denver) during the day and refuel with gourmet dinners at night. A record 198 participating restaurants are offering multi-course dinners for $26.40.
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Polly Fitz is an editor for Orbitz who likes writing about travel and food but prefers to actually go places and eat.
NYC Restaurant Week is back for its summer session, with discounted prices at more than 230 top dining spots across the city.
The event runs from July 21 to July 25 and July 28 to August 1, when the restaurants will offer three-course prix-fixe lunches for $24.07 and three-course dinners for $35.
American Express cardholders can make reservations through June 25 at www.nycvisit.com, and general reservations start on Thursday, June 26.
The long list of notable restaurants includes Eleven Madison Park, Mai House, Artisinal, Gramercy Tavern, maze by Gordon Ramsay, Le Cirque, City Hall, Fig & Olive, Park Avenue Summer and Tribeca Grill.
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By Lena Katz
I don’t know about you, but I don’t spend nearly enough time at the Four Seasons Wailea. Or the Banyan Tree Phuket. Or any Shangri-La, anywhere. I am a strictly business traveler, and sadly, those hotels don’t often fit into my itinerary.
And I’m a travel writer, so I can only imagine how much worse the plight is for a corporate type. You’re dreaming of Shangri-La, sleeping in a nondescript Kansas City hotel, and wondering, "Why is life so unfair?"
Apparently a lot of hoteliers have started to wonder the very same thing, because at the annual American Lodging Investment Summit in January, the hot topic was … drumroll … the resurgence of the "new, cool, comfortable" business hotel.
Whether in the Caribbean, Hawaii or the big city, that hotel category is starting to get a lot more attention, just because business travelers have such endless need of it. Road warriors get understandably tired of lumpy beds and instant coffee. They want a little something extra … and they’re about to get it.
The W Hotel Group (and its parent company Starwood) have probably made the biggest splash, with their well-publicized launch of the Aloft brand, a "vision" of contemporary, bright-and-styley city hotels that promises to revolutionize the concept of corporate lodging.
Hilton Hotels has devised a (warning, cheesy pun ahead) tasteful promotion for its Homewood Suites chain: free personal grocery shopping for guests who want to utilize their en suite kitchens, and free beer, wine and "light dinner" (Monday-Thursday) for those who want to utilize the sit-around-and-do-nothing feature.
Meanwhile, other hotel groups are expanding their established business travel brand into under-the-radar destinations.
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