New_york travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Jeff Pan is the founder of the Brooklyn Loftstel, who went from a business student to backpacker relief. The name is a concept of a loft and hostel put together. The Loftstel has only been around for 2 years and today have been risen to a place, where international students stay while visiting the US.

Jeff is a really creative and faithful person. Jeff spent 2 years exploring the world with his own eyes, starting in Europe, and ending up in Thailand. He was one of thousands of foreigners who have come to Phuket Island to help communities rebuild from the Dec. 26 tsunami.

While traveling he came up with the idea of housing a hostel, which is the only affordable option for backpackers. What makes Loftstel stand above the hostel crowd is its unique vision to create a space for the longtime guest. Most of the residents are international students on internships or people looking to relocate to the states.  Typically people stay anywhere from 1-5 months.

You can found out the Loftstel to 4 different locations in the United States, (NYC, DC, PA & LA) and has the hopes of expanding to Europe in the near future.  Currently there are around 30 full time employees that maintain the business across the country.  A regular housekeeping system and respectful tenants keep each Loftstel very clean.

Guests at Loftstel are interested in having a different experience that goes beyond the surface layer.  As Jeff says, “people have a real chance to get to know the city, and even time to make up their own mind about George W. Bush.”

All of their room options include the following amenities: free wireless internet (if you have a laptop), free public computer to check your email, phone with free long-distance calls, HBO on demand & Wii on our flat-screen TV, detergent & dryer sheets with use of our washer/dryer, owels & linen are provided, kitchen access with cookware & dinnerware, personal locker & closet storage (bring your own lock), sleeping masks and ear plugs, funky design to make you feel right at home, a great place to meet other students from around the world.

The Guggenheim Museum, NY is a romantic comedy museum in six levels. There are jokes to get, videos to watch, shoes to kick off, colored lights to see, recorded sounds to hear and yes the bed, which is a part of hotel room exhibition by the German artist Carsten Holler.

The picture displays ”Pierre Huyghe’s Opening” (2008). The 10 participants – Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Rirkrit Tiravanija, along with Ms. Gonzalez-Foerster and Mr. Höller — have exhibited and sometimes collaborated together.

The larger aim of the museum is to create an experience of community in a time when everything- technology stress, shopping couspires against human connection.

The museum enterance is spectacular with fabilous white-on-white movie marquee of neon and fluoresent lights hanging  from white lighted chains.

Inside you may see a sclupture by Mr. Cattelan which is a large full-color version of Pinocchio floating face down in an elliptical pool.

The opening salvo is ”Are We Evil” with a period rather than the comfort of a question mark.

” The Red Kimona”, directed by Walter Lang in 1925 is in an area customized with beanbig chairs and functioning espresso bar.

If you don’t join in, you may find yourself reflecting on the way art creates freedom, by overcoming, sooner or later, the opposition it first meets.

If you are going to visit the Chanel Pavilion in Central Park, you may be think it’s bloody unbelievable. The Pavilion is designed to display artworks inspired by Chanel’s chain-strap handbag.

A year ago such a dubious undertaking might have seemed indulgent, but today it looks delusional.

It is not just the economic turmoil, the pavilion sets out to drape an aura of refinement over a cynical marketing gimmick.

The Pavilion was first shown in Hong Kong and Tokyo. It will be on view in New York through Nov. 9. Chanel is paying a $400,000 fee to rent space in the park. This is the video project by the Japanese artist Tabaimo.

Opening the Pavilion in Central Park is a great democratic experiment, an immense social mixing place. The Chanel project reminds us how far we have traveled from those ideals by removing the boundary between the civic relm and corporate interests.

Koreatown is a place in New York City packed with kimichi, karaoke joints, Internet cafes and spas. Also famous like K-town, that is generally bordered by 31st and 36th Streets and Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenues. The Koreatown area of Manhattan is primarily a Korean business district, as few people actually live in the area. Most Korean residents of New York City live in the outer boroughs, especially in and around Flushing, Queens.

One neighborhood in Koreatown can be described as a mix of Korean lounges, Irish bars, sooty office buildings, vintage architecture and discount clothing stores.

The Empire State Building built in 1931 towers over the neighborhood.

Street performance entertain a crowd on 34th Street at Fifth Avenue.

Koreantown’s central locations make it easy to get anywhere in New York City. Penn Station, Port Authority and Grand Central Station are all within a 10-block radius.

Grand Central Terminal (popularly called Grand Central) is a Terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms 44, with 67 tracks along them. They are on two levels, both below ground, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower. The monumental railway station was constructed in 1903-1913 for the New York and Harlem Railroad Company. It is a grand Beaux-Arts building which serves as a transportation hub connecting train, metro, car and pedestrian traffic in an efficient way. Grand Central Terminal is home to five fine restaurants, twenty casual restaurants, and about fifty unique specialty shops. The terminal hosts large public events in its 12,000 square foot Vanderbilt Hall.

The terminal opened in 1913, after about 10 years of construction. Over the years, the terminal suffered deterioration and possible demolition. Founded to oversee the station’s replaning, the Grand Central Corporation envisioned the project as “Terminal City”- a multi-lot development linking the new station with hotels, apartments, and office buildings running along 42nd Street and up Park Avenue. This plan, often described as a “city within a city” can be understood as the precursor to ideas explored later at Rockefeller Center.
Outside, the station’s facade has the grand scale of the interior. Modeled on a Roman triumphal arch, the facade symbolizes the triumph of the railroad. Jules Coutan’s central sculptural group depicts Mercury (the god of commerce) supported by Minerva and Hercules (representing mental and moral strength).
The interior of Grand Central is also amazing sight and will transport you to another time. The Main Concourse seen here is an immense space 120 feet wide, 375 feet long and 125 feet high. Each of the four clock faces are made from opal, and both Sotheby’s and Christie’s have estimated the value to be between US$10 million and US$20 million. Besides train platforms, Grand Central contains restaurants (the most famous of which is the Oyster Bar and also the bar at Michael Jordan’s The Steak House overlooks the busy terminal), fast food restaurants, bakeries, newsstands, a gourmet and fresh food market, an annex of the New York Transit Museum and more than forty retail stores.
The terminal, a thruway for millions of commuters every week, offers many a chance to conjure up to romance of train travel. In 1963 Grand Central Terminal was landmarked. This innovative complex, integrating the train system with an intricate web of urban conditions, will be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. Grand Central holds many secrets that you only need to look closely to see. Visit the Grand Central Terminal’s official website to print out a great itinerary for your tour – Official Web Site

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is founded in 1937 and it is a modern art museum located on the Upper East Side in New York City. It is operated by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and is often called simply The Guggenheim. It is one of the best museums in New York City. The main part of the building is a very unusual shape, and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

This unique Building was completed at 1959. The location of the museum is at the corners of 89th Street and Fifth Avenue (overlooking Central Park). Outside the museum looks like a spirall, becoming wieder at the top. Paintings are displayed along the walls of the spiral. The diameter of the spiral as it curves upwards allows for the entrance of light at each level installing in the visitor a sense of luminosity and tranquility. At the different levels the various sectors of the exhibition are divided by separating elements which receive external light from a continual series of glass window slits, the main font of illumination, which introduce an interesting co-efficiency of variability linked to the alternating of day and night. The creator’s words shows clearly the “magic power” of the building – Entering into the spirit of this interior, you will discover the best possible atmosphere in which to show fine paintings or listen to music. It is this atmosphere that seems to me most lacking in our art galleries, museums, music halls and theaters.

The building has become a cultural icon and it is one of the most attractive places in NY.

The Armory Show is accompanied by nine younger, smaller, less prestigious fairs.

Given a downhill screwing economy there is no doubt that all aspects of the art world, fairs included, this situation may be temporary. But even without the anxious funders, there is a point at which critical mass fosters inertia. There is nothing wrong with art fairs that fewer of them wouldn’t cure.

But the Armory Show goes smoothly. There are no shrink-inducing moments and there is almost nothing that makes you stop in your tracks. Yes, there is the annual tape-’n’-things sculpture by Thomas Hirschhorn. This one, “Tool Table,” is, for a change, bloodless and cerebral: a sea of mannequin hands clutching de rigueur books (Nietzsche, Sartre, Thomas More) or tools (hammer, saw, trowel). It proves how much Mr. Hirschhorn’s work needs some form of sex or violence.

At Blum & Poe, Chiho Aoshima abandons her usual high-gloss surfaces to create a soft, cartoony, urban wrap-around mural on paper, melding photography and digital manipulation with clouds as old as Japanese screens.

And at the Murray Guy, large images by the German photographer Barbara Probst display the same woman photographed at the same instant from all angles, stretching one second into three-dimensional space, like Cubism.

Ice theatre (or theatre on ice) is a branch of figure skating which merges the technical jumps and spins with unique choreography, ice dancing, pairs moves, synchronized skating, and theater in order to tell a story or act out an emotion or idea. It is a relatively new branch of figure skating, but it is also growing quickly. Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY) is a dance company committed to developing figure skating as a performing art. Founded in 1984 by Artistic Director, Moira North, ITNY is a non-competitive, artistic outlet for some of the top international figure skaters, with choreography commissions by innovative contemporary dance makers such as Jacqulyn Buglisi, Ann Carlson, David Dorfman, David Parsons, Joanna Mendl Shaw and more.

ITNY is based at Sky Rink, Chelsea Piers, and tours their work to rinks and stages throughout the country. ITNY is also the first figure skating company to receive grants as a dance company from National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

For more than 20 years, the Ice Theatre of New York has strived to change the face of figure skating. While emphasizing skating as an art form, ITNY integrates into the sport contemporary dance, music and visual effects. The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has recognized ITNY as a not-for-profit dance company. Ice Theatre performers all have a background in international competitive figure skating, which in some cases includes the Olympics. Company member Alyssa Stith, a competitive skater until the age of 17, called performing with Ice Theatre a liberating experience.
At present, around 400 people are employed by Holiday on Ice. Each show tours for four or five years, mainly in Europe and South America, but also in new markets like Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe, bringing millions of fans a unique combination of fantasy and entertainment.

New York is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting cities of the world for high-quality, artisan chocolates. What better way to experience them then to take a unique tour of some of Manhattan’s finest chocolate shops and bars. Your gracious guide will talk about chocolate and its history and will shortly introduce you the various boutiques you will visit, after which you will step inside Charbonnel et Walker at Sax Fifth Avenue. There you will taste various fine chocolates that will change your palate’s sensibility forever. Do you like it white? Dark? Sweet? Semi-sweet? Bittersweet? Unsweetened? Milky? With caramel and tons of nuts? Melted on a velvety scoop of ice cream? Home made? Through a straw? No matter what your preference is for the devilish delight, the Chocolate Tour of New York is sure to leave you speechless…for good reason.

One of the great ways to bring New York City back to your friends and loved ones is with a box of delicious truffles from one of New York City’s top chocolate shops. These boutiques offer visitors exceptional chocolate and many can be found only in New York City. These New York City Chocolate shops are great sources of Valentine’s Day and anniversary presents, and several of them serve up delicious chocolate treats for you to enjoy while you visit. Most popular tour is the Luxury Chocolate Tour, which will take you to the posh Upper East Side where all the international stores have nested and all the interesting people have gathered. The street cafes and the hoard of French bistros make you feel like you landed straight into the heart of Paris. The trip will be about 2 hours long and it costs no more and no less than $70, giving you a happiness high like you have never experienced before.

As soon as you walk into Marie Belle, the aroma of freshly brewed chocolate calls you in, all of the sudden you are transported back in time. The experience started at the Cacao Bar where you can relax and drink the Aztec Hot Chocolate, which is the darkest and richest hot chocolate we have ever had. There are 4 flavors -Aztec Original, Aztec Dark, Aztec Mocha and Aztec Spicy and 4 recipes – Hot Chocolate, Ice Chocolate, Chocolate Pudding and Spicy Hot Chocolate Nightcap with Tequila. There are beautiful and fun chocolates displayed like jewels in antique cases and boxed in gorgeous packages. Some chocolates look like works of art. Others are fun things like chocolate rocks and chocolate olives. Marie Belle’s chocolates are handmade, with over 20 exotic flavors, including Earl Grey Tea, Saffron, Spices, Cardamom, Lemon and Hazelnut.

Kee’s chocolates – This tiny shop set a few feet off of Spring Street is definitely a must see on any tour of New York’s chocolate shops. Kee’s chocolates are amazingly fresh. Flavors are eclectic and unusual (sesame, passion fruit, pumpkin), but we thought the best were the white chocolate with green tea, Creme Brulee and the key lime.
The Chocolate Haven is his own real chocolate factory. There was chocolate everywhere, lining the windows, on small stands between the counter and the door, and for a good twenty feet along the counter. The flavors include: Love Potion, Golden Espresso, Fresh Squeezed Lemon, and Liquid Caramel, Cinnamon Praline, Grand Cru (red wine in dark chocolate), Heart of Passion (passion fruit), Wicked Fun (spiced with chilies), Fresh Coconut, Bin 27 Port (port wine in dark chocolate), Almondine, and Raspberry Fruit.

There are two Locations for Martine’s Chocolates: in Bloomingdale’s (6th floor) and Martine’s Chocolates Too(400 East 82nd Street., right off First Avenue). There is an assortment of truffle flavors, caramel, champagne, cognac, Grand Marnier and Raspberry. Martine’s truffles are made fresh daily without preservatives – so the truffles need to be refrigerated and eaten within a few days. There are chocolate barks of all sorts, marzipan, chocolate covered fruits and nuts. There are also many amazing chocolate creations, animals, flowers, hats, fruits and vegetables, hearts, holiday items, angels and others like the American Flag, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, New York Skyline, etc. You can even have a creation custom-made for your own special occasion.

Ice skating at Rockefeller Center is a quintessential New York City winter experience. The Ice Skating Rink at Rockefeller Center first opened on Christmas Day in 1936. The Ice Skating Rink at Rockefeller Center can accommodate approximately 150 skaters at a time and the rink is 122 feet long and 59 feet wide. Tree A state of Prometheus, the Greek god of fire, left, overlooks the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink under a 79-foot tall Christmas tree in New York. The Rockefeller Center, at 50th Street and 5th Avenue, is a spectacular mountain of branches covered with around 5 miles of lights. The Tree is picked out every year by helicopter search, then cut down and brought to its new home at Rockefeller Center in early November. It opens each October for the winter skating season, handling up to 150 skaters at a time, more than 250,000 of them each year.

While it’s a delight to watch kids and adults alike gliding (and tumbling) around the ice, it makes even more sense to get out on the slick stuff yourself, if only because you’ll have more space. Indeed, the crowds yearning to catch a glimpse of the happy scene can easily become so thick (especially in the evenings) that it can be a struggle to wrestle your way to a decent vantage point. So rather than remain a sardine-packed spectator, it’s far more relaxing to pull on a set of skates and become a peaceful participant.
Adult admission is $8.50 on weekdays, and $11 on Sundays and holidays. Child and senior admission costs $7 on weekdays, and $7.50 on Sundays and holidays. Skate rental is $6 per session. If you live in New York City and often return to skate at Rockefeller Center, you can purchase 10 tickets at once for $75 for adults and $60 for kids and seniors. If you want a chance to show your stuff on the ice, try stopping by the Rockefeller Center ice-skating rink on weekday afternoons or during the early morning hours. Otherwise, you’ll have to fight your way through crowds of tourists like this one just to get near the ice.

The building probably featured on more postcards than any other contemporary building. Even the whole area, the Flatiron district, was named after the building. Originally the Flatiron building featured an observatory on the top floor, but taller buildings have taken over this function. It is still however a popular tourist attraction, and one of the most photographed landmarks in New York.The Flatiron Building was constructed between 1901 and 1903 at the intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue, at the time one of the most prominent sites. It is located near Madison Square at the end of the Ladies Mile, one of Manhattan’s most important shopping districts at the turn of the 19th century.The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago’s Daniel Burnham as a steel-frame skyscraper clad in Flatiron Buildingwhite terra-cotta. At 21 stories and 307 ft (93 meter), it was one of the city’s tallest buildings. It was not – as is often incorrectly thought – the tallest building in the world or even the tallest building in New York (these titles belonged to the Park Row building, built in 1899), but its singular shape and prominent location soon made it one of New York City’s most famous landmarks.

Broadway, as its name implies is a big, wide avenue that runs the entire length of Manhattan in New York City. It passes through the middle of the Theater district concentrated around Times Square and has lent its name to those spectacular musical productions known as the Broadway play. No visit to New York City would be complete without seeing at least one Broadway musical production.

People flock to New York City to see a real Broadway show and there’s nothing to beat the total experience: the hustle-and-bustle on the streets, pre-theater dinner, the opening curtain, the buzz at intermission and maybe an after-show stroll down the Great White Way to a post-dinner cocktail or supper. New York City Theater is contained within a thin strip of Manhattan, from 53rd to 42nd streets, between 6th and 8th Aves, called the Great White Way. There are approximately 36 theaters crammed into this small area of the city, most of which host world famous productions nightly. Total Broadway attendance in 2005 was just under 12 million. This was approximately the same as London’s.

The Broadway Theatre at Broadway and Fifty-third Street is one of the few legitimate theatres that was built as a movie house. B.S. Moss, a mogul who operated a chain of movie houses that also featured vaudeville, built this theatre in 1924. Designed by architect Eugene DeRosa, the house had one of the largest seating capacities (1,765) of any theatre on Broadway, thus making it ideal, in later years, for the staging and performing of musical comedies.

Late in 1946 Duke Ellington’s version of “The Beggar’s Opera,” which he called “Beggar’s Holiday,” opened, with book and lyrics by John Latouche. It starred Alfred Drake and featured Avon Long and Zero Mostel; it was not a success. The year 1948 brought a revival of “The Cradle Will Rock,” also starring Alfred Drake, which moved from the Mansfield. Leonard Bernstein appeared in this as a clerk. The Habimah Players from Palestine presented a repertory of “The Golem”, ” The Dybbuk,” “Oedipus Rex,” and other plays in 1948. Many of the musicals that you think of as “Broadway musicals” were first presented Off-Broadway, such as a “Chorus Line”, “Ain’t Misbehavin”, “Hair”, “URINETOWN” and Little shop of horrors. And, of course, the world’s longest running musical, “THE FANTASTICKS”, is an Off-Broadway classic.

It’s been a good year for the Great White Way. Flush with the success of such musicals as “Spamalot” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” Broadway will close the books on 2005 with its biggest box office take for a calendar year. That’s an estimated $825 million through year’s end, up 10% from 2004’s $749 million, according to data from the League of American Theatres and Producers.

Check out the entire list of hot New York Broadway tickets! These are hot Broadway events that you don’t want to miss! Nothing compares to the experience you’ll receive seeing a New Broadway show! Ticket Solutions can provide you with New York Broadway tickets to any event anytime! It doesn’t matter your mood or taste, we have tickets to your favorite Broadway plays and events. You don’t want to miss out on “Wicked”, “Rent”, “Chicago-The Musical”, “Blue Man Group”, “Jersey Boys”, “The Producers”, “Phantom of the Opera”, or “The Color Purple”, plus many more.

Located in New York, at 46 meters tall , the Statue of Liberty symbolizes freedom throughout the world. Construction of the Statue began in France in the year 1875, by sculptor Auguste Bartholdi. The final completion date of the individual sections was in June of 1884. The Statue of Liberty National Monument officially celebrated her 100th birthday on October 28, 1986. An inspiring symbol of America, given as a gift from France in honor of the first centennial of the United States.

Nearly a century after her dedication, Lady Liberty began to deteriorate. In the early 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan created the Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Commission to restore the statue to her original beauty. More than $230 million was needed to restore the statute. The statue was closed for two years and reopened on July 4, 1986 with a centennial celebration. In 1984, the United Nations designated the Statue of Liberty as a World Heritage Site. More than 5 million people visit the statue each year. Between 1892 and 1924, more than 22 million passengers saw the Statue of Liberty as they passed through Ellis Island and the Port of New York. This landmark of freedom became a National Monument in 1924 and a major tourist attraction in the 20th Century. The statue, made of copper sheets with an iron framework, depicts a woman escaping the chains of tyranny, which lie at her feet. Her right hand holds aloft a burning torch that represents liberty. Her left hand holds a tablet inscribed with the date “July 4, 1776″ , the day the     United States declared its independence from England. She is wearing flowing robes and the seven rays of her spiked crown symbolize the seven seas and continents. There are 25 windows in the crown which symbolize gemstones found on the earth and the heaven’s rays shining over the world. The seven rays of the Statue’s crown represent the seven seas and continents of the world. The total weight of copper in the Statue is 31 tons and the total weight of steel in the Statue is 125 tons. Total weight of the Statue’s concrete foundation is 27,000 tons. Wind sway: winds of 50 miles per hour cause the Statue to sway 7.62cm and the torch sways 12.70cm. This American Park Network guide to the Statue of Liberty is provided to enhance your appreciation and enjoyment of the monument. Standing at the entrance to New York Harbour, it has welcomed millions of immigrants to the United States ever since.