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Articles Tagged ‘New York Vacation’

Haunted Halloween happenings in New York City

Friday, October 17th, 2008

new york hotels
By Samantha Chapnick

You probably already know about the Halloween parade in Greenwich Village. But if you want to check out some local Halloween haunts on your New York vacation, here are a few suggestions.

The Carrousel at Bryant Park. 4-6 p.m on October 31. Meet Clifford, do pumpkin painting, listen to stores and ride the carousel ($2/ride).

5th annual Chelsea Market Jam-BOO-ree! October 31, 2:30 to 5 p.m. Chelsea Market, an indoor gourmet food arcade and socialspace is holding a combo trick or treat/fair with free candy and treats, Pumpkin Master Hugh McMahon carving a 500 lb pumpkin, juggling, face painting and handmade halloween decor.

The Scholastic Store. October 26, 6-7 p.m. 557 Broadway (between Prince and Spring streets). Cost: $10 per child. Clifford fans can spend Halloween with the big red dog himself when The Scholastic Store has its after-hours party. Each child will make a spider cupcake, design a Halloween mask, listen to a scary story, play Halloween games and do the "Monster Mash" with Clifford.

The 2008 Halloween Fun Fair. Oct. 18, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Outdoors at the P.S. 87 School Yard, 160 West 78th Street between Columbus Ave/Amsterdam Avenue. Rain: Location moves to Holy Trinity Church, 213 West 82nd Street (Amsterdam Avenue).

Central Park Pumpkin Festival. October 25th, 3-8 p.m. The Pumpkin Festival Includes a scarecrow competition at the Bethesda Fountain, a haunted house, pumpkin picking at Cherry Hill, a 20-foot-high Jack ‘o Lantern Tower at Naumberg Bandshell, and performers from the Big Apple Circus.

Bronx Zoo Boo at the Zoo: Every weekend in October, the Bronx Zoo is filled with Halloween activities including magic shows, spooky stories and pumpkin carving. If you can’t make the trek to the big zoo, most of their affiliates (Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park, Aquarium) are doing similar events restricted to the weekend of the 25th and 26th.

Trinity Church, 89 Broadway. It’s cocktails and crafts at the Little Church that Did. Trinity Church, the one that miraculously stood after the twin towers collapsed, makes a great spooky attraction any time of year with its skull-adorned gravestones, famous cemetery residents (Alexander Hamilton for one) and Gothic Revival architecture. On Halloween, it holds its free Spooktacular party with crafts, face painting, treat-giving and storytelling by ghosts who roam the graveyard (4-6 p.m.). For adults (6-8 p.m.) the North Churchyard comes alive with dancing, music and a Haunted Hamilton cocktail. This revelry is following by an airing of the silent film Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde accompanied by the Church’s pipe organ.

Foley’s NY Pub. 18 W. 33rd St. 8-11 p.m. Adults can revisit the pagan roots of Halloween at Foley’s NY Pub. Come in costume. Do some serious karaoke and the serious drinking. Not necessarily in that order.  Did we mention that the reward for all this revelry is prizes?

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Samantha Chapnick is a New York writer who scours international destinations looking for what hasn’t been found.

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Planning a successful family reunion

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Harvestfestival
By Donna Mulligan

Each year my (very extended) family gathers for a long weekend reunion in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. We couple our reunion with the dates of an annual Harvest Festival. This allows our extended family of 20 or more to earmark this particular weekend on a yearly basis.

Although the destination for our reunion has always remained the same lake retreat, we have varied our accommodations from year to year to year. From hotel rooms to time-share condominiums, individual family cabins and private home rentals. As our families grew out of strollers and baby proofing, our accommodation needs changed also. The kids find it exciting to explore a new resort and their amenities each year.

The most important element in planning and achieving a successful family reunion is to be flexible. Sometimes our extended cousins and their families can make it, some years they can’t. Sometimes all my siblings fly in for the event, sometimes they just can’t. Every family member knows they are always welcome.

Another tip is to let everyone enjoy what they want to do. We all have different interests, and the weekend should be a pleasant, not dreaded, event. Whether it is fishing, or shopping, hiking or tubing, or simply watching the boats on the lake, we intentionally don’t plan on everyone doing everything together.

Reunions are a special time for grandparents. My mom looks forward to this reunion all year and has an overwhelming sense of pride seeing her children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews all together.

Honestly, I have a very close family. I look forward and enjoy this time with them every year.

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Donna Mulligan is a full-time working mom to 3 hockey players, ages
18, 16 and 12. Her family’s favorite travel destinations include
Killington, Vermont, the Adirondacks, Florida’s Gulf coast, and Quebec
City.

(more…)

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NYC Restaurant Week serves up affordable summer dining

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Midtown_manhattan
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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New York auction houses show finer things for free

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Nyc
By Samantha Chapnick

Eric Clapton‘s Fender Stratocaster "Blackie,"; Marilyn Monroe‘s $1.3 million dress that she wore singing Happy Birthday to JFK, Marlon Brando‘s annotated "Godfather" script, Picasso‘s "Boy with a Pipe," and The Magna Carta? What do these things have in common?

They’re all items you could have seen up close and personal, for free, if you went to a viewing at an auction house.

Unless you happen to have many friends whose names are followed with
numbers or preceded by titles, chances are you’ll never see 99% of the
world’s most famous art, artifacts or popular culture items. Most of
the Monets and Picassos live in the living rooms of private collectors
who scooped them up from dealers and auctions. 

Now the good news. Just a few blocks from your New York hotel are
three places where you can spy the world’s best masterpieces without
crowds and for free. Yes, FREE. Hey, that deserves capital letters.

A week or so before an auction, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury,
do a "viewing" where anyone in the general public, for free, can get
inches away from the merchandise. Aside from art, I like to go see the
jewelry.

Although Sotheby’s and Christie’s are known for paintings, they
actually sell some fascinating and relatively affordable items most of
the time, including cigars, arms and armor, cars, wine, manuscripts,
even film scripts.

Insider tips

  • The auction houses coordinate schedules, so they will do
    important auctions in the same week. If you love impressionism or fine
    gems or fancy cars, check the schedules in advance and you’ll catch the
    viewings at both houses.
  • House sales: While they may not have any Picassos left over,
    periodically they will sell the more affordable items at their house
    sales, which are the upscale auction house’s answer to eBay.

Upcoming auctions include:

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Samantha Chapnick is a New York writer who scours international destinations looking for what hasn’t been found.

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New York Restaurant Week 2008: Top 5 under $30

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

Manhattan_skyline_at_1249
By Samantha Chapnick

Still feeling the pain from that holiday spending spree?

For a few days in January, you can spend your New York vacation doing the city’s most luxurious restaurants on a lean budget.

During NYC Restaurant Week (January 21-25 and January 28-February 1) my friends and I become "ladies who lunch" by indulging in prix fixe meals ($24.07 lunch, $35 dinner) at places normally beyond our price point any other time of year.

Although there are over 200 participants, we go for the chic boutiques normally reserved for the, as Robin Leach would say, "champagne wishes and caviar dreams" crowd. 

Come end of January, this is where I’ll be (in alphabetical order):

  • Aureole: If Charlie Palmer’s career wasn’t exactly launched by this Upper East Side brownstone restaurant, it at least catapulted him to stardom. Expect hearty savory dishes and slightly haughty service in haute surroundings.
  • Brasserie 8 1/2: For power brokers who can do without the pretension.
  • Cafe Boulud: Despite its best attempts at humility and legacy, this ain’t Daniel Boulud’s great-grandfather’s family farm cafe. This is a full-scale society spot for very sophisticated French cuisine, with a focus on "La Tradition, La Saison and Le Potager" (the season, the garden and traditional French cuisine).
  • davidburke & donatella: Beauty and style married haute cuisine when these two superstars (the
    award-winning David Burke and the queen of fashion Donatella Versace)
    opened this sought-after spot. The highly lacquered white, accented by
    bold orange upholstery, mimics the cuisine: Basic ingredients like wild
    salmon and asparagus are born again through innovative pairings and
    dramatic presentation. Honshimeji mushrooms anyone?
  • Gramercy Tavern: Restaurant Week reservations here go the very first day they’re available, so you won’t be able to get into this hot ticket. However, it’s first-come first-served at Tavern, their side cafe, which shares the same perfect winter atmosphere: rustic with soft copper lighting, red, brown and gold flora, and mahogany-colored wood-beam ceiling.

Can’t make it during Restaurant Week? There are several restaurants that offer reasonable prix fixe menus all year round. My favorite is Nougatine (at Jean Georges).

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Samantha Chapnick is a New York writer who scours international destinations looking for what hasn’t been found.

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Top 10 holiday travel destinations

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

By Jim Cohn

Where’s everybody
headed for the holidays? Mexico, Caribbean, Chicago and New York flights top our list this year.

Here’s Orbitz’ top 10 list of destinations for
Christmas 2007, based on air ticket sales on Orbitz.com. The list covers flights departing between December 21 and January 2, based on net bookings as of
November 2, 2007.

Domestic

1. Chicago
2. New York City
3. Los Angeles
4. Denver
5. Washington, D.C.
6. San Francisco
7. Atlanta
8. Newark, New Jersey
9. Orlando
10. Boston   

International

1. San Juan, Puerto Rico
2. Cancun
3. Mexico City
4. London
5. Puerto Vallarta
6. San Jose Cabo, Mexico
7. Paris
8. San Jose, Costa Rica
9. Frankfurt, Germany
10. Guadalajara

Jim Cohn is an Orbitz
spokesman specializing in business and leisure travel.

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New York vacation: Celebrity-spotting secrets

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

By Samantha Chapnick

As Letterman’s stage door entrance becomes ever more popular among visitors on a star-seeking New York vacation, it’s time to learn a few new insider places. They’re more niche, but I’ve found them to be more accessible.

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