New York Travel: Zabars

I’ve been meaning to go to Zabar’s for years. I finally got a chance after my visit to the American Museum of Natural History and boy was it worth it!
Zabar’s opened in 1934, with a 22-foot-wide shop along NYC’s Broadway at West 80th Street. The business has grown and now occupies the entire block front. Think hand-sliced meltingly delicious smoked fish, artisanal cheeses, fresh-baked batches of rugelach and special coffee blends.

On my trip to Zabar’s I picked up a tongue sandwich on rye from the deli. The young man behind the counter gave me some mustard and pickles in small containers for the road. I also grabbed a black and white cookie from their café, some potato latkes from their fridge and a Nova Salmon on a bagel also from their fridge. I would suggest having one sandwich prepared by the deli. If you can grab some other items from their fridge then it leaves cash for bakery items and maybe a Zabars shopping bag or two to take your boring lunch to and from work when you get home. 
https://www.zabars.com/home

New York CityPASS: Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises

When I travel to New York, I try to do as much as possible without killing my credit card. I bet you feel the same! I always grab a New York CityPASS which covers my art, history and culture needs in one pass. The New York CityPASS is for the traveller who wants a beautifully curated trip that they can instagram about and also experience NYC at its finest.
Let’s talk about the New York CityPASS:
• One simple purchase.
• Nine consecutive days of validity, including the first day of use.
• Expedited entry at many attractions.
• Instant delivery with convenient mobile or printable ticket options.
• Adult C$ 183.42
• Child C$ 150.07

Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
• One regularly scheduled Landmark Cruise, Harbor Lights Cruise or Liberty Cruise, or a ride on the BEAST (available May-September)
• (Substitute another cruise of greater value for $5.)
• $37.00
• $37.00
• Ages 3-12, $31; Ages 2 & under, free

What did I love? I took the Liberty Cruise which would have cost $31 without a CityPASS. This express cruise takes you to the Statue of Liberty from their midtown pier. Plus shows off some spectacular views of the NYC skyline and dozens of landmarks along the way. It is one hour in length and a perfect fit into your busy schedule.
I had no plans to catch a Circle Line cruise but figured because I was close to the Vessel, I would grab a ticket. I am glad I did! It forced me to slow down and enjoy New York through a different lens. There’s nothing like experiencing New York on the water with some summer rays and a drink in hand.

Hot Tip: Go early in the morning to avoid people who sleep in and want to get onto the later cruises. I grabbed the 10:30 a.m. cruise on July 4th. I booked my ticket at their booth on Pier 83 a few days before. Good thing I did, it was sold out when I arrived for the cruise on July 4th. Make sure you bring a jacket or a hat with you especially on sunny summer days. Even with the breeze off the water you can get a wicked sun burn.
https://www.circleline.com/
https://www.citypass.com/

New York CityPASS: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

When I travel to New York, I try to do as much as possible without killing my credit card. I bet you feel the same! I always grab a New York CityPASS which covers my art, history and culture needs in one pass. The New York CityPASS is for the traveller who wants a beautifully curated trip that they can instagram about and also experience NYC at its finest.

Let’s talk about the New York CityPASS:
• One simple purchase.
• Nine consecutive days of validity, including the first day of use.
• Expedited entry at many attractions.
• Instant delivery with convenient mobile or printable ticket options.
• Adult C$ 183.42
• Child C$ 150.07

Guggenheim Museum
• General admission to the Guggenheim’s collection, plus special exhibits
• $25.00
• $18.00
• Ages 11 & under, free (admission prices may be lower during exhibition changeover periods)

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum located at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. The museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, under the guidance of its first director, the artist Hill von Rebay. It adopted its current name after the death of its founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, in 1952.

What did I love? I loved that I just happened to bump into Basquiat’s “Defacement”: The Untold Story” on the day I visited the Guggenheim. The line was super short since I visited early in the day and I was able to take my time taking photos for my instgram and sat down a few times to take his work in.
This exhibition takes as its starting point the painting The Death of Michael Stewart, informally known as Defacement, created by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) in 1983. The work commemorates the fate of the young, black artist Michael Stewart at the hands of New York City Transit Police after allegedly tagging a wall in an East Village subway station. Originally painted on the wall of Keith Haring’s studio within a week of Stewart’s death, Basquiat’s painting was a deeply personal lamentation that has rarely been exhibited in a public context. With The Death of Michael Stewart as its centerpiece, this exhibition examines Basquiat’s exploration of black identity, his protest against police brutality, and his attempts to craft a singular aesthetic language of empowerment. Several of the works on view by Basquiat illustrate his sustained engagement with the subject of state authority in the paintings depicting police figures. Other works explore his canonization of historical black figures, especially the jazz legend Charlie Parker, who was perhaps Basquiat’s favorite hero to depict on canvas. An early self-portrait, created the same year as The Death of Michael Stewart, suggests Basquiat’s keen self-awareness as a black artist navigating a predominantly white and often hostile art world. It is being shown until January 2020.

Hot Tip: Go early in the morning to avoid people who sleep in and want to get into the Guggenheim late in the day. Plus you have more time to walk around and take breaks. Make sure you take a lot of photos of this iconic Frank Lloyd Wright building. I have visited it many times thanks to CityPASS and it never gets old!
Lastly, try to do the Guggenheim first, and then walk down south the shady party of the street to The Met and then the Met Breuer. If you feel adventurous, walk north before heading to Met and grab a delicious lunch care of Russ & Daughters at the Jewish Museum first.  🙂

The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation

https://www.citypass.com/

New York CityPASS: The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters

When I travel to New York, I try to do as much as possible without killing my credit card. I bet you feel the same! I always grab a New York CityPASS which covers my art, history and culture needs in one pass. The New York CityPASS is for the traveller who wants a beautifully curated trip that they can instagram about and also experience NYC at its finest.

Let’s talk about the New York CityPASS:
• One simple purchase.
• Nine consecutive days of validity, including the first day of use.
• Expedited entry at many attractions.
• Instant delivery with convenient mobile or printable ticket options.
• Adult C$ 183.42
• Child C$ 150.07
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
General Admission, including three consecutive days at The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters, plus Audio Guide
$32.00
$19.00
Audio Guide, $7. Ages 12-17, $12; ages 11 & under, free. For New York State residents and New York, New Jersey and Connecticut students, the amount you pay is up to you.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially “the Met”, is the largest art museum in the United States. With 6,953,927 visitors to its three locations in 2018, it was the third most visited art museum in the world. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the eastern edge of Central Park along Museum Mile in Manhattan’s Upper East Side is by area one of the world’s largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from Medieval Europe. On March 18, 2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side; it extends the museum’s modern and contemporary art program.

What did I love? I loved that with my CityPASS I was able to hit The Met, The Met Breuer and The Met Cloisters within a few days! Talk about a savings! I was even get able to get a $10 discount on items from their gift shop. I always like going down to their basement and using my discount to get further savings on some gift items for friends and family. This time around, I scored some notebooks, a travel pouch and some pins.

I also loved catching the Camp exhibit that was profiled during the Met Gala. I have never seen so many people in one space in my life and it was intense. But that being said, the Camp exhibit had Anna Wintour’s stamp of approval. Not only was it beautifully curated but it captured a wonderful diversity of pieces. My favourite were the Erdem prairie dresses that reminded me of night gowns I wore as a child and the Cardi B’s Thierry Mugler dress.

Hot Tip: Go early in the morning to avoid these people who sleep in and want to get into the Met properties late in the day. Plus you have more time to walk around and take breaks. You need a few days to cover The Met. I have been many times and I still haven’t seen everything.
I also like to visit the Temples of Dendur once a trip. Make sure you take time to check it out and take some selfies for instagram. It’s stunning.

Do The Met and the Met Breuer early in the day on the same day since they are close to one another. Try the Met Cloisters on a week day in the late afternoon.
Lastly, this was my first trip checking out The Cloisters in the Bronx. Wow – not only was it a trek to get there but it’s easily accessible by the Dyckman St Subway Station. Make sure you bring a bottle of water with you; the trek up the mountain at Fort Tryon Park is steep. There are a few small shops before you head up. Grab a burger or sandwich to get you up there and down. That said, once you arrive at the Cloisters take your time, sit in the garden, read a book, explore the beautiful medieval artifacts and architecture that was brought over stone by stone from Europe.

https://www.metmuseum.org/
https://www.citypass.com/

New York CityPASS: American Museum of Natural History

When I travel to New York, I try to do as much as possible without killing my credit card. I bet you feel the same! I always grab a New York CityPASS which covers my art, history and culture needs in one pass. The New York CityPASS is for the traveller who wants a beautifully curated trip that they can instagram about and also experience NYC at its finest.
Let’s talk about the New York CityPASS:
• One simple purchase.
• Nine consecutive days of validity, including the first day of use.
• Expedited entry at many attractions.
• Instant delivery with convenient mobile or printable ticket options.
• Adult C$ 183.42
• Child C$ 150.07
American Museum of Natural History
Admission to the Museum and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, including the Hayden Planetarium Space Show or a giant-screen movie in 3D and 2D
$28.00
$22.50
Ages 13-17 w/ID, $22.50; Ages 2-12, $16.50; Ages 1 & under, free

The American Museum of Natural History, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, is the largest natural history museum in the world. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 28 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain over 33 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time, and occupies more than 2 million square feet. The museum has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.
What did I love? On the day I popped over to the American Museum of Natural History, I had walked from the pier down, to Herald Square and then north on 5th Avenue to Central Park. I walked through Central Park and then made my way (with the help of a map) to the Museum. It was a lovely afternoon. By the time I got to the Museum, I was tired from way too much sunlight so the cool space was welcome. I took in the Dark Universe presentation which is in the The Hayden Planetarium. The presentation celebrates the pivotal discoveries that have led us to greater knowledge of the structure and history of the universe and our place in it—and to new frontiers for exploration. Make sure you also catch the blue whale model which was first constructed in the mid-1960s. It was based on photographs of a female blue whale found dead in 1925 off the southern tip of South America. At the time, little was known about blue whales in their natural habitats.
Hot Tip: Depending on your schedule, try to plan out your trip to New York before you arrive. If you can use your CityPASS to see at most 2 attractions a day, you will be fine. More than that, the fatigue of getting to each of them can wear on your patience. These attractions tend to be busy with tourists, so have fun!

https://www.amnh.org/
https://www.citypass.com/

 

New York Travel: New York CityPASS

When I travel to New York, I try to do as much as possible without killing my credit card. I bet you feel the same! I always grab a New York CityPASS which covers my art, history and culture needs in one pass. The New York CityPASS is for the traveller who wants a beautifully curated trip that they can instagram about and also experience NYC at its finest.

Let’s talk about the New York CityPASS:
• One simple purchase.
• Nine consecutive days of validity, including the first day of use.
• Expedited entry at many attractions.
• Instant delivery with convenient mobile or printable ticket options.
• Adult C$ 183.42
• Child C$ 150.07

Here is what you get with your New York CityPASS:

Empire State Building
General admission entry to the 86th floor observatory, plus bonus same-night general admission (May-August between 10pm-closing; September-April between 8pm-closing)
$64.02
$64.02
Actual admission may vary ($57.92-$64.02) depending on date of visit.
Ages 5 & under, free.
Price includes applicable sales taxes.

American Museum of Natural History
Admission to the Museum and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, including the Hayden Planetarium Space Show or a giant-screen movie in 3D and 2D
$28.00
$22.50
Ages 13-17 w/ID, $22.50; Ages 2-12, $16.50; Ages 1 & under, free

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
General Admission, including three consecutive days at The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters, plus Audio Guide
$32.00
$19.00
Audio Guide, $7. Ages 12-17, $12; ages 11 & under, free. For New York State residents and New York, New Jersey and Connecticut students, the amount you pay is up to you.

Top of the Rock Observation Deck
General admission to Top of the Rock®
$41.37
$41.37
Ages 6-12, $34.84; Ages 5 & under, free
Price includes applicable sales taxes.

Guggenheim Museum
General admission to the Guggenheim’s collection, plus special exhibits
$25.00
$18.00
Ages 11 & under, free (admission prices may be lower during exhibition changeover periods)

Ferry Access to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Flex ticket for one Statue Cruises ferry ride to and from Liberty Island and Ellis Island, audio guides, and admission to the Statue of Liberty Museum and Ellis Island Immigration Museum (Crown Tickets and Pedestal Access not included)
$18.50
$18.50
Ages 4-12, $9; Ages 3 & under, free
Price includes applicable sales taxes.

Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
One regularly scheduled Landmark Cruise, Harbor Lights Cruise or Liberty Cruise, or a ride on the BEAST (available May-September)
(Substitute another cruise of greater value for $5.)
$37.00
$37.00
Ages 3-12, $31; Ages 2 & under, free

9/11 Memorial & Museum
General admission
$28.00
$22.00
Ages 13-17, $22; Ages 7-12, $17; Ages 6 & under, free

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
General admission, including the Space Shuttle Pavilion, the submarine Growler and the film Story of Intrepid
$33.00
$33.00
Ages 5-12, $24; Ages 4 & under, free

Reviews to follow of my time at these attractions! Thank you CityPASS!
https://www.citypass.com/

Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Manhattan View Long Island City

Did you know that Queens is now the new Brooklyn? Well, whilst I was in New York I wanted to stay outside the city, save some money, be close enough to the subway and still feel safe as a single girl travelling on her own. I stayed for ten days at the Holiday Inn Manhattan View Long Island City and it was a perfect fit to my needs. My room had a balcony with city views, a heavenly bed, a massive bathroom with a glass shower, a flat screen television and a fridge for my water and Magnolia Bakery banana puddings. 🙂 I felt like I was a local. Most evenings I would sit out on the balcony and relax with a cup of tea whilst answering emails or listening to music.
The Holiday Inn Manhattan View sets the bar high for Queens area hotels. With views of the unmistakable New York City skyline, the hotel is an exceptional backdrop for both business and pleasure. This Queens hotel is just minutes from Manhattan, New York City’s legendary landmarks. Explore the Empire State Building, Central Park, the Museum of the Moving Image, and the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Broadway, and Madison Square Garden. Holiday Inn Manhattan View is a nearby neighbor to many Fortune 500 companies, offering easy access to Citibank, Citifield, the United Nations, JetBlue, Delta, and Mount Sinai Medical Center. If you want to catch a Mets Game, Citifield is ten minutes away by train.

The hotel is conveniently located within a short drive of all the major New York airports: LaGuardia, JFK and Newark. I was at the Holiday Inn Manhattan View within forty five minutes of arriving at LaGuardia Airport. Forget taking and Uber and save the cash – use your Metrocard!I loved being able to get into the city in ten minutes after rush hour ended around 9:30 a.m.. I would grab a coffee and donut at the Dunkin’ Donuts on the corner and be on my way.
Make sure you make time to get to know Astoria, Queens whilst staying at Holiday Inn Manhattan View Long Island City. MOMA PS1, the Queens Museum, the Noguchi Museum and some yummy eateries like Mu Ramen, M Wells and food trucks await for your foodie soul. Check out gantrygram and foodandfootprints on instagram for trip planning inspiration.
Even during those long days in the city – I would roll back to the hotel around 11 p.m. and walk the two minutes back to the Holiday Inn Manhattan View. I never had any issues in regards to safety. The street was quiet but the hotel is in a sleepy neighbourhood alongside a few other hotels nestled within the same block.
The Holiday Inn Manhattan View offers free high-speed Internet access. Ideal for international travelers and vacationers, this Astoria, Queens hotel is located just one block from the N and Q subway lines and just a few blocks from the E and R subway lines. I took the train from my hotel straight to Coney Island one day, the journey was quick and easy. Start planning today and enjoy the great room rates and deals at Holiday Inn Manhattan View.
I’m never going to hesitate to book another with the Holiday Inn Manhattan View Long Island City the next time I am in New York. I hope you consider them as well!
Holiday Inn L.I. City-Manhattan View
http://www.ihg.com
39-05 29th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101
+1 (718) 707-3700
https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/long-island-city/lgali/hoteldetail?cm_mmc=YextLocal-_-HI-_-US-_-LGALI