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Sunday, March 22, 2009

City Of New York

New York city

City Of New York
New York City, officially named the City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States, and the most densely populated major city in North America. The city is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture, and is one of the world's major global cities (along with London, Tokyo and Paris) with a virtually unrivaled collection of museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations, and stock exchanges. The city is also home to the United Nations, along with all of the international missions associated with it.

History

Long before the arrival of European settlers, the New York City area was inhabited by the Lenape people, including such tribes as the Manahattoes, Canarsies and Raritan.

Major events in New York history include:

¢ In 1524 the first European explorer enters New York Harbor
¢ European settlement begins with the following the 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson
¢ Founding of the Dutch fur trading settlement in Lower Manhattan in 1613 later called New Amsterdam
¢ English ships captured the city without struggle in 1664
¢ The Dutch formally ceded New York to the English in the Treaty of Breda at the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667
¢ The city was renamed New York, after James, Duke of York, and became a royal colony in 1685
¢ After the Civil War, the rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply, and New York became the first stop for millions seeking a new and better life in the United States, a role acknowledged by the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886
¢ In two separate actions in 1874 and 1895, New York City (and New York County) annexed sections of southern Westchester County known as the Bronx
¢ In 1898, New York City took the political form in which it exists to this day.
¢ 9/11 changed the political map of the world

Place of interest

Tourism is a major local industry, with hundreds of attractions and 39 million tourists visiting the city each year on average. Many visitors make it a point to visit Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, United Nations Headquarters, the American Museum of Natural History, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, and the Brooklyn Bridge, among other attractions. There are over 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland found throughout New York City, comprising over 1,700 separate parks and playgrounds. The best known of these is Central Park, which is one of the finest examples of landscape architecture in the world, as well as a major source of recreation for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Other major parks in the city include Riverside Park, Battery Park, Bryant Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, Washington Square Park, and Forest Park.

Museums & Art Galleries

New York is a city of great museums with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's assemblage of historic art, the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum's 20th century collection, and the American Museum of Natural History and its Hayden Planetarium focusing on the sciences. There are also many smaller specialty museums, from El Museo del Barrio with a focus on Latin American cultures to the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design. A number of the city's museums are located along the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue.

In addition to these museums, the city is also home to a vast array of spaces for opera, symphony, and dance performances. The largest of these is Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which is actually a complex of buildings housing 12 separate companies, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Other notable performance halls include Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

New York City boasts a highly active and influential theater district, which is centered around Times Square in Manhattan. It serves both as the center of the American theater industry, and as a major attraction for visitors from around the world. Broadway theaters are considered to be of the highest quality in the world.

Shopping

Shopping is popular with many visitors, with Fifth Avenue being a famous shopping corridor for luxury items. Macy's, the nation's largest department store, and the surrounding area of Herald Square are a major destination for more moderately-priced goods. In recent years 23rd Street has become a major location for "big-box" retailers. In southern Manhattan, Greenwich Village is home to hundreds of independent music and book stores, while the East Village continues to prevail as purveyors of all things "strange" and unusual which you can't find anywhere else. The "diamond district" (located on 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) is the city's main location for jewelry shopping, and SoHo, formerly the center of the New York art scene, is now famous for high-priced clothing boutiques, and the art galleries are now concentrated in Chelsea. There are also large shopping districts found in Downtown Brooklyn and along Queens Boulevard in Queens.

Food & Drink

New York is the best restaurant town in USA and one of the finest in the world. New York has literally thousands of restaurants to choose from (more than 25,000, in fact), encompassing nearly every cuisine in the world. Some of the big names are Eleven Madison Park, The River Café, Boat Basin Café, Veritas. Like restaurants, thousands of bars and cafes are there in the city. A few old noteworthy among those are: McSorleys Old Ale House, Revival, Push Café and White Horse Tavern.

Universities

New York City is served by the publicly run City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university in the United States, which has a number of campuses throughout the five boroughs. The city is also home to a number of other institutions of higher learning, some of national or even international reputation, including Columbia University, Fordham University, Manhattan College, New York University, the Juilliard School, The Cooper Union, Marymount Manhattan College and The New School. New York City is also a major center of academic medicine. Manhattan contains the campuses of the world-class Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and NYU Medical Center and their medical schools. New York City is home to several of the nation's top schools of art and design, including Pratt Institute, the School of Visual Arts, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Parsons School of Design

Sports

Although in much of the rest of the country American football has become the most popular professional sport, in New York City baseball arguably still stirs the most passion and interest. A "Subway Series" between city teams is a time of great excitement, and any World Series championship by either the New York Yankees or the New York Mets is considered to be worthy of the highest celebration, including a ticker-tape parade for the victorious team.

Hotels & Accommodation

The City of New York is known as the "city that never sleeps", but its visitors have to. The city hosts a large number of accommodations options.

Luxury Hotels

New York has many "grand dames," classic elegant hotels that have been around for years and endured majestically. The St. Regis, the Waldorf, Tribeca Grand Hotel, Ritz-Carlton New York, Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers - are some to mention about.

Budget Hotels

Besides all those luxury hotels, a large number of budget hotels are available in New York City. They are comfortable, homely and light weight for the pocket. Some of them to mention are - The Whitehouse Hotel of New York, The Pioneer, Chelsea Center, Guesthouse and Harlem YMCA. Except these hotels and guesthouses, Skyline Hotel and Travel Inn are rare exception among affordable hotels for their services and facilities.

Tours and Sightseeing

To know and see the New York City with no tension way, a number of tour operators are there for travelers help. These tours contain city and outskirt of the city sightseeing. Tours may vary from its contents or theme. It may be a helicopter tour of Big Apple or may be a double-decker bus tour. Some fair tour agencies are there in the city. Tours can be booked from tour agencies or some hotels arrange them for its patrons. Another easy way to book any of these tours is online tour ticket booking. Some helpful websites for this purpose are: http://www.newyork.com/
http://www.allnewyorktours.com/
http://www.thereservationcenter.com/

Transport

The airport authority owns and operates the four major airports in the New York City area, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Jamaica, Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, La Guardia Airport in Flushing, and Teeterboard Airport in Teeterboard, New Jersey.
Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. Other than cabs, New York City has a mass transit system. Unlike most of America's car-oriented urban areas, public transportation is the common mode of travel for the majority of New York City residents. The city is served by an extensive network of parkways and expressways, including four primary Interstate Highways enter the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. The world-famous New York City Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It is the most extensive subway system in the world. The subway system connects all boroughs except Staten Island, which is served by the Staten Island Railway via the free Staten Island Ferry. In addition to these, city residents rely on hundreds of bus lines, both publicly and privately operated.

Many private ferries are run by NY Waterway, which provides several lines across the Hudson River, New York Water Taxi, with lines connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and other operators

What You Need To Know About– New York City

Christmas Extravaganza new york

What You Need To Know About– New York City
New York City is unknown to none. One of the vibrant and significant metropolises on the globe, the city of New York is considered to be one of the most expensive cities in the world. The dream to vacation in New York seems to materialize only for the rich. However, this is not actually the case like. There are more than a thousand methods to explore the wonderful city while keeping an eye at your pocket.

The Outlandish Attractions

New York is deemed to be city that is awaken 24 hours a day. This is because of the lively places like Chinatown- a famous site for films, Downtown, Central Park, the East Side, Little Italy (swarming with Sicilian culture and known for its sausage that is shipped across the world), Greenwich Village(that speaks the language of Bohemian artists through their work of art) and West Side. The Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty (marked one amongst the wonders of the world) and the Rockefeller Center summon people from every corner of the world.

Visiting the New York museums will be lifetime experience. Some of the eminent museums, their saga being sung by the whole world are nestled in New York. These are – the African-American Wax Museum, the Hudson River Museum, the Alternative Museum famous for striking art, the China Institute that parades the Chinese culture, the Hispanic Society of America, the National Lighthouse Museum, Saint Paul’s Church National Historic Site that is assumed to be the oldest church in New York and last but not the least the Skyscraper Museum.

The Kids’ Amusement
Children can have a gala time in the New York City for the Central Park Zoo that is located in the middle of the Fifth Avenue and 64th Street is open throughout the year. The zoo has some of the exclusive species of plants and animals. To educate the children and adults about wildlife, the zoo organizes a program at the Wildlife Theater. The best part of the zoo visit is the negligible amount for tickets like just $1 ticket for kids between 3 to 12 years of age. But this is not enough for the young ones. They can enjoy ice skating at the Rockfeller Center and Central Park at very cheap prices. The Wollman rink too has a good name in this regard.

The Children’s Museum of Arts at the Lafayette Street, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and the Children’s Museum of Native Americans (that displays charming puppet shows, singing, dancing and information about the Native Americans) are places worth enjoying and visiting for kids on their destination New York.
With the Kids’ Nights on Broadway program, children between 6 to 28 years get an opportunity to view free plays if an adult with them purchases a full ticket. Some of the loveliest plays like Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King and the Little Women etc. are at display here.

The Christmas Extravaganza

Though the metropolis is vibrant and convivial all 365 days, yet the best time to visit New York City is the Christmas time when the city is bustling not just with people but also Christmas trees, gifts, candles etc. and when the carols are in the air. The magnificence and splendor of the city is at its peak during this season. The city offers a multitude of Christmas shows and there is a huge Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center. The wonderful lightening of this tree fills every heart with feeling of divinity and devotion. The sparkling of the tree and other decorations and preparations in the city mark the onset of the Christmas season and a reason to celebrate.

All in all New York is a dream destination to live your vacations. The place is heaving with luxury hotels, resorts and other places of entertainment, still a budget traveler can experience the wonders of this place. All one needs to do is a little judicious planning and research before heading there. The internet offers complete information about the accommodations including the rents, the rates of hotels and cuisine, which tour to take… and every basic thing that one needs to know. Some prudent planning can make your dream to visit the New York City come true.

Budget Travel In New York City – 5 Tips On New York Travel

Budget Travel In New York City – 5 Tips On New York Travel
The New York area is one of the largest in the world. With approximately 8 million people being in New York City alone and with less than 900 thousand kilometers squared radius, it is the densest city in all of North America! After a long anticipated debut we finally made our way to the Big Apple, and we were so excited we could barely contain ourselves. Going there has been a childhood dream for us ever since we decided to be world travelers and see everything this globe has to offer!

The people, lights, Times Square, Rockefeller, everything seems so exciting! This poised a big question though… What to do? What New York City event to pick? Well, I want to share with you some tips on New York travel that won’t break the bank! These are all an incredible experience and I would suggest doing them all if you can. Keep in mind there is no shortage of things to do in New York City. You’ll never get the chance to do everything, so do what you can, relax and enjoy what this wonderful city has to offer!

1) New York City comedy clubs: This is maybe the best thing I can suggest if you enjoy any sort of comedy at all. It works out really well because they have salesperson on the streets in the middle of Times Square, you don’t even have to look or try to find tickets. They will literally just flag you down and give you a very good price (We only paid $20 for both of us) on the condition that you buy 2 beverages at the club. The nice thing about their special, for those who don’t drink alcohol you can buy any drink of choice. Soft drinks and water were accepted as well so it really can appeal to everyone who enjoys this sort of thing and the cost is very low for the reward. It really was such a great time, the comedians were fantastic and we were very glad we decided to go. Highly Recommended!

2) Times Square: I realize this must be on everyone’s “top of the list” but it really is an amazing sight to see. This experience is something that you will never forget. The lights, people, banners, you don’t even realize how crazy it is until you are there. I must have seen Times Square on television a million times but honestly it really just is not the same. Spend a little time there to take in the atmosphere. There are plenty of very nice places to eat but the prices on their novelty restaurants (Hard Rock Café, ESPN Zone, etc) are very expensive. If you want something for a very good price, check out the side streets and look for the local pubs. I would really recommend going at night to see it lit up. A note to those who absolutely hate crowds of people, if you go to Times Square don’t go on a Friday or Saturday evening when it is the most busiest. We went on both a Saturday and Sunday night… the Saturday was chaos, and the Sunday was very nice and calm in comparison :) All the same, I really enjoyed both of them in different ways.

3) Rockefeller Center: We had the pleasure of going during December month, so we got to experience the Christmas tree and Skating Rink all done up at Rockefeller center. This is also home of the famous NBC Studios (Costs $18.50 for the tour).

4) Central Park: One of the most famous parks in the world and the most visited park in the United States, Central Park is a wonderful place to go on a nice day. Central Park is actually bigger than 2 of the world’s smallest nations; Monaco and Vatican City.

5) See a local New York City Event: Take in a ball game, a musical, or something at the theatre! New York really has everything to offer no matter what your hobbies or interests are! You can usually find something very reasonably priced as well, depending on what you are after.

I realize as most people do, New York tends to be quite expensive but with these travel ideas you can go out and have a really great time and still not spend too much money. There is plenty to see, even just going to see the landmarks and places like Rockefeller, Central Park and Times Square are well worthwhile! I really enjoyed my time just walking the streets and taking in the atmosphere.

If you are planning to stay in Manhattan for a week or so, I would really suggest picking up a copy of “The New York Pass”, spend your week and do everything you can. These passes are actually very reasonably priced (Starting at $55.00 daily and only $139.99 for a 7 day period, per person) and you get FREE access to literally almost EVERYTHING you could want in New York City. Here is just a glimpse of what is here. Keep in mind these are only about a quarter of the free things you get, not even including the other discounted items and special offers.

* Central Park Zoo
* CNN Studio Tour
* Empire State Building
* Madison Square Garden All Access Tour
* NBC Studio Tour
* New York Aquarium
* New York Botanical Garden
* Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour
* Rockefeller Center Tour
* Statue of Liberty / Ellis Island Ferry
* Suede Lounge (VIP nightclub access)
* The United Nations Tour

Well worth the money if you plan to do a lot of sightseeing, Museums and Tours.

Here’s a link to the page directly for those who are interested:
http://www.tropicalbeachdestinations.com/NewYorkPass.php

I absolutely loved my time in New York! I found it really offers you so much, no matter what month, or what day, there is always something for you to do that is interesting. How can you not like that about a city? It has everything and it is a great place to visit. I hope these tips on New York travel were helpful! I know I can’t wait for our next adventure, here in the Big Apple!

Until next time,
Best Wishes and Happy Travels!

Travel to New York: Choose a New York Short Term Apartment

Travel to New York: Choose a New York Short Term Apartment
There are many visitors and families discover that staying in short term apartment while going to New York City will save them lots of money. Apartment will not just accommodate more visitors than hotel room, but staying in apartment can signify saving lots of money just by cooking some food in the apartment. If you are for longer visit, then staying in apartment can give you real sense of living in New York. If you are interested in the New York City short-term apartment rentals, then the agencies and online websites are best mode to find the short-term rental apartment in New York. If you would like to have a more cherished stay than hotel, or making and comprehensive visit to New York City, then Bed & Breakfasts as well as short-term apartments are perfect.

New York Apartments

This is an ideal alternative for the visitors who want a place to hang out for a few days or a few weeks. The purpose can be business or leisure; New York City Habitat has lots of apartments of different sizes at costs that are cutthroat with the hotel accommodations. All of the apartments comprise of kitchen facilities that will allow visitors the choice of dining during their stay.

However, the insist for short-term apartment in New York City is growing radically in past 20 years thus world's largest corporations is establishing their head office in Manhattan, and has increased tourism in as well as around New York. Most business suites and standard hotel rooms have the rates, which vary from $200 to $300 for each night. Over month's time, New York City resident's monthly lodging costs might have average of $7000 or further that is beyond the way from majority of the individuals.

Some of the companies have recognized the business openings in giving short-term apartment solutions as an alternative to hotel supplements for the corporate moving and guests. Cooperating investors, landlords, as well as brokers have made a more reasonable short-term apartment solution by buying apartment buildings plus condominium apartments with a supple by-laws and house regulations, giving furnishings, which go with the standards of few New York's best hotels. Laundry service, maid, as well as other comfort services that was often obtainable as essential. New York City short-term apartment has as well become the great solution for having renovations made on their rented properties as well as those who can pay for an accommodation. People who live in New York for a 1-month, but do not remain long to sign the lease, as well have fueled the requirement for these kinds of apartments.

As for the location and the price, short-term apartments are found easily in midtown and downtown area of New York, because of the focus of tourism and business offices in these areas. Residence terms are generally flexible, that range from 2 to 3 weeks for a year longer. The most comfortable suites in New York's most beautiful buildings are offered for $3500 to $5000 for each month for the studio or the 1-bedroom suites.