Tr
aveler's USA Notebook

Your guide to travel news,  discoveries, delights and pleasures

 

Welcome travelers! Welcome professional travel journalists! Welcome Mensa members! Welcome TATLER readers! Welcome human rights activists! Welcome vegetarians! Welcome hipsters, hustlers, high-rollers, hyphenated scenesters, and the whole EU!  Wilkommen, bienvenue, baby! We invite you to eavesdrop on tips and tales that professional travel writers like to swap with each other. But shhh . . . don't tell a soul.


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Spotlight Story

 Magnificent Madrid

 

It's hip, cosmopolitan and lovely to look at. [more]

Theatre

Elephant Room —  full of fractured, physical comedy, mixed with magic — is now playing at Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse, a venue known for its provocative, edgy fare. [more]

Spotlight Getaway

That Philadelphia Freedom

It’s civilized here. It's a big, small town. And it’s the birthplace of American independence.
[more]

Places

A fresh look at some welcoming destinations.

PLUS

The Thimble Islands
 Daytripping with
Captain Kidd in Connecticut

Planning Tip

The solar system on $10,000 a day. The astrology of travel.

Health Tip

 There's travel fever . . .and then there's travel fever

Dining

Good taste in good taste and it's vegetarian.

 

Editor:
Norman Schreiber

Special Correspondent: Debbi Kempton-Smith

Pacific Rim Correspondent
Jan Prince

Contributing Editors: Joel Benjamin, April Burbage, Robert Rattner, Fern Siegel, Debra Griboff and Giles the Unflappable.

 

Traveler's USA Notebook
P O Box 205 FDR Station
New York NY 10150 USA
voice 001 212.751.
6680  
fax 
917.210.3304

 


NewsNewsNews

Cool  hotels; hot restaurants;
 deals, sights, sites &  more

  Mind Your Manors in Irish Castles

Get your own bit of Downton Abbey with the six-day “Castles & Abbey of Ireland" package from  Dooley Vacations.

WHERE: Ireland

WHEN: 16 July-22 August

FEATURES: One night at Dunboyne Castle Hotel in County Meath; two nights at Lough Eske Castle (seen above) in County Donegal; two nights at Galway’s Glenlo Abbey; one night at the Fitzpatricks Castle in Dublin; round-trip economy class airfare to Dublin from New York, Boston, Chicago or Orlando; standard shift economy (3-door) car rental for the duration of this trip with unlimited miles; all local taxes, hotel service charges, government taxes/fees/facility charges on airfare.

HOW MUCH: $1399-1495/person (depending on city of departure).

NOTES: Enjoy culture, scenery, history, and some of that it’s good-to-be-king pampering. Upgrades in rooms, eats, spa treatment, etc. also are available

More Info: call 877-331-9301 Click here

New Rooms At the Inn By the Sea

Inn by the Sea

Cape Elizabeth, Maine ... Portland area boutique hotel Inn by the Sea is debuting 10 new ocean view, luxury one and two bedroom suites in June 2012. These freshly-constructed additions look out on the Atlantic Ocean and two acres of restored habitat, a haven for endangered New England cottontail bunnies. The suites have decks, gas fireplaces, dining tables, kitchens, lavish marble-countered bathrooms with oversized tubs, outdoor patios, flat screen TV's, ipod docking stations, complimentary high speed Internet, and L'Occitane bath products. Add to the picture a heated outdoor pool, lawn games, a sandy beach, the SPA at Inn by the Sea, view-centric Sea Glass restaurant (which has several vegetarian choices) For more information call 207.799.3134 Or click here.   

 

Out (and about) in Philadelphia

The Downtown Marriott in Philadelphia, located at 1201 Market St, is a block away from Center City’s Washington Square West, a district with many gay-friendly restaurants, bars and businesses. Thus, the hotel has launched an “Out in Philadelphia” package.

WHERE: Downtown Marriott

WHEN: Thursday through Sunday Now-22 June

FEATURES: Deluxe overnight accommodations; a Gay guide to Philadelphia; and breakfast for two in the hotel restaurant.

HOW MUCH: $179 to $229

NOTES: When booking, be sure to mention the promotonal code (ZJL)

MORE INFO: call 800-834-6418 or Click here

 

Elephants, History, Fashion & Denver

Denver Set your calendars for springtime 2012 for a new wave of Denver fun.

For one thing, the Denver Zoo’s new Asian Tropics Center will open. It will showcase powerful elephants and rhinos, and is being constructed according to strict environmental and energy conservation standards—which makes it gray and brown and green all over. The Zoo declares that the 10-acre, $50 million Asian Tropics Center will be the largest bull elephant habitat in the world. Tapirs, small clawed otters, fishing cats and flying foxes also will call  the new complex home. A mere few yards of water will separate visitors from the animals on display. For more information, click here.

Meanwhile History Colorado (née the Colorado Historical Society) is using that same period to open the History Colorado Center—a three-story, $110 million multimedia museum. You not only get to see assorted artifacts and ephemera of Colorado’s past, you get to experience the state’s history. Gasp and gawk as you are drawn into such virtual exploits as  mining, ski-jumping and model T Ford motoring. For more information, click here.

And if it’s 2012, might someone be mentioning the Titanic? Which leads us to noted Denverite Margaret Brown (a/k/a “the Unsinkable Molly Brown”). We are told that the Molly Brown House Museum is prepping fascinating programs and exhibits to honor the centennial year. For more information, click here.

Elephants? Multimedia history? Molly Brown and the Titanic? Wow! But wait! There’s more. How about “Yves Saint Laurent — A Retrospective?”

Denver Art Museum contains the only North American runway, so to speak, for the exhibit marking the legendary designer’s 40-year career. Photographs, drawings and films plus 200 haute couture garments tell the ST. Laurent story. The exhibit runs from 25 March, 2012-25 July 2012. For more information, click here.

 

Run to the Sun

 

Monterey Roadside Attraction

Monterey When you motor along Highway 101, near Monterey, you’ll know you’re in wine country—especially since you’ll see roadside art salutes  to vintner life and culture. Although the eight paintings by John Cerney and  Dong Sun Kare are called murals, most are presented as 12-foot high plywood cutouts. The painting titles are Jeff Meier, (Winemaker and Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer of J Lohr Vineyards & Wines)(seen above); Karl Wente  (Wente Vineyards); Touring Monterey Wine Country a  Tribute to Grape Growers;  Toast to Monterey Wine Country; Silhouettes; and In the Vineyard. For a map showing locations of the murals, click here. To see the murals online click here. And for more information about Monterey Wine Country, click here.


Library Hotel exterior

Courtesy of Library Hotel

All Dewey-Eyed at The Library Hotel

New York,   Midtown Manhattan! Center of the Universe! Madison Avenue, spiritual home of  Mad Men;  Grand Central Station; 42nd street; the stone lions outside on the broad steps of the massive, marble Beaux-Arts library. And there, just one block from the New York Public Library (and not far from the Morgan Library) is a quiet haven: the Library Hotel at 299 Madison Avenue. Right now, the Library Hotel is offering 15% off on prepaid online bookings. (Or should that be on-lion bookings?)

According to Wikipedia, "Hotel Denouement from Lemony Snicket's The Penultimate Peril was modeled after the Library Hotel."

Traveler must be frank. This is not your rock ‘n roll hotel. It is calm, clubby and (like its namesake) a sanctuary.  As soon as you enter this 60-room brick and terra cotta boutique hotel, you see that the hotel owner (HKHotels) used  the library both as a geographical reference and a fountain of design. 

Say you’re in town to do a bit of business – maybe see your publisher. Wouldn’t it be great to stay in a  hotel where you’d be proud to have a few appointments and meetings in a lovely, clubby setting? 

Upon check-in,  the first things you see are a back wall which  resembles an elegant card catalog cabinet, books in the lobby, and complimentary bookmarks waiting for you at the registration desk.

Courtesy of Library Hotel

Library Hoel Floor signThe designers—the Stephen B. Jacobs Group and its affiliate Andi Pepper Interior Design—named the hotel floors and rooms for Dewey Decimal System categories. The fourth floor is Language; eighth is Literature; ninth is History.  

 

The rooms are sub-categories. Traveler stayed on the General Knowledge floor (okay, the tenth) in 1000.006, the “New Media” room. The “.006” means it is a junior suite. (Bear in mind, when you’re booking, that rooms numbered “.001,” “.002” and “.005” are “deluxe rooms;” “.003” and .”004” are “petite” rooms. The official “Love Room,” by the way, is1100.006; but any room can be set up temporarily as a love room as part of a special package. For the room menu, click here.

Likbrary Hotel New Media Room

And, yes, there are books galore, special ones, in every room. Our junior suite’s own little library is chockablock with books – all related to New Media, including Clicks and Mortars, What Liberal Media?, and Fast Forward.

Our New Media room, like the hotel, is quiet, classy, civilized and gemutlich,   It is done in hushed but cheerful tones of tan, sand, beige, brown and white, with a checkerboard patterned carpet in hues of stone and sand. Pale wood blinds dress five windows, which is amazing for a New York hotel room.  Two windows look all the way up and a bit of the way down Madison Avenue. You’ve a long marble-topped workspace for fiddling with your laptop (with a handy outlet above the desktop level), collating reports, or meditating on your collection of tourist brochures and the snacks you bought at the excellent Grand Central Market (it’s in the station).

Library Hotel Sitting AreaThe usual amenities plus are here:  flat panel TV; safe; down blankets; sofa (which pulls out to make an extra bed): waffle bathrobes; slippers; hand held hairdryer; iHome mp3 dock/alarm clock radio; multiple phone lines (and phones) with voice mail are here. A DVD player is standard equipment in each room and there’s no charge for the DVDs you borrow from the hotels DVD (-er-) library based on the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 films of the 20th Century. But why would you? Grand Central Station is awesome, and just round the corner.

Shampoos and goos are Zero% brand (no sulfates, no animal testing, thank heavens, pure, odorless, but not much fun) from Gilchrist and Soames. Alas, it is necessary to request a shower cap. (Apparently, the many Europeans who stay here do not bother with such frivolities.) Sorry, tourists – no coffee and tea maker in these rooms – but you can get a cuppa 24/7 at the most amiable  “Reading Room” on the second floor. Lingering over coffee, newspapers and magazines  is encouraged—  and what divine, unlimited coffee, cappuccinos and espressos they are.

The Reading Room, too,  has its fair share of books, mostly best-sellers and popular page-turners.  It’s got a library vibe, except nobody’s going “shush.” And you can stare at Madison Avenue through the large windows.

Speaking of free stuff, also included are:  free WiFi throughout the hotel; free bottles of water on arrival; free coffee, baked goods and fresh fruits served all day; daily evening wine and cheese receptions (5:00pm - 8:00pm); the free
 “European style” continental breakfast buffet. The Library Hotel doesn’t have an exercise room; but it does provide guests with a free pass to a sports club a short hike away.

 Up top on the 14th floor  is the Writer’s Den, a mahogany-paneled lounge with a working fireplace, a nice bar, and surprise, surprise, a pretty Poetry Garden, an enclosed rooftop bar with wraparound terrace (see right). At sunset, you can watch the skyscrapers play their dazzling, secret little games, bouncing wild red-orange lights off one another. You would never see this from down below, and it makes you wonder what these buildings get up to when no one’s looking.

The Library Hotel is artfully located. It is a only few blocks but many decibels away  from the frantic West Side Broadway action. It is only a few blocks away from the United Nations, a leap from the elegant Grand Central Station and —crucially —  it is just one block from the Airport coach, you know, the big bus that takes you to whatever airport you need. If you are coming in, exhausted, from a long flight, you’re just steps from where the airport buses drops you off. And if you need a 5.30 am bus to take you to the airport for only a few bucks, Bob’s your uncle: No taxis, no nerves, you’re right here. Bus stop,  located at 41st Street between Park & Lexington Avenues, goes to Newark BusGrand Central Station stop at 125 Park Avenue, between 41st and 42nd Streets, is for both JFK (JFK) and LaGuardia (LGA) Airports.

Living in midtown means never having to say “Taxi!”. Step out the door and you’ll find the city buses that take you to toney Madison Avenue boutiques and art galleries, as well as the fabulous museums that populate Manhattan’s Museum Mile. Or grab the crosstown bus on 42nd Street and zip over to the Theatre District in Times Square.

For more information about the Library Hotel, click here.

Library Hotel

299 Madison Avenue

New York NY 10017

212.983.4500

877.793.READ Toll-Free USA

 

 


 

 

 

Kosrae Village

Diving in Micronesia

KOSRAE, Micronesia; Kosrae Village, an eco-lodge  and dive shop on this South Pacific island is offering a “Divers Delight” package. Here are the  details.

WHERE: Kosrae Village

WHEN: Ongoing

FEATURES: Six-nights, seven-days accommodations; four days diving- (two tank boat dives and one night boat dive); and Nitrox (training included if needed).

HOW MUCH: $936-999 per person (assuming double occupancy)

NOTES:  When diving, you’re likely to see hard coral reefs, tropical fish,  turtles, rays, sharks octopi, shrimp, reef fish, rainbow runners, barracuda, schools of parrotfish and eagle rays. If you’re a newbie diver, the dive shop seen above) can provide PADI certification.

More Info: click here.


A New Book for Travelers

700 Places to Volunteer Before
You Die: A Traveler's Guide

by Nola Lee Kelsey   (pub. Dog's Eye View Media, 2010)

 Not Your Stockbroker's Vacation

A quirky encyclopedia of ways to do good and feel good, 700 Places . . .is more than a compendium of lists and global resources; it helps the hopeful, bewildered traveler find out how to save the world in ways tailored to his or her own temperament.  

Too huge and too valuable to lug around, this delightful, 500-page doorstopper makes a stunning gift. Start with you, then look around you; 700 Places . . will do more than awake any jaded traveler or surprise and shift your slug-like coach potato friends into action.  It sets merry fires crackling in brains and souls yearning for adventure, romance, and yes, the meaning in life. It's pure logotherapy.

Nora Lee Kelsey's book first addresses the central question: how to think about what to do and how to do it.  How does one choose the right volunteer project?  Should one pay for the privilege of volunteering? (The answer is often, surprisingly, yes - especially if you want a shower.)

Opportunities to do one's duty or as the Buddhists have it, 'to alleviate the suffering of all sentient beings' range from building villages in Africa to laugh-out-loud but still tender, small-scale projects, like the $30 a day Sloth Sanctuary in Aviarios, Costa Rica.

The author writes, “This unique animal rescue center cares for over 100 endangered sloths and the numbers continue to increase. Many are orphans...Sometimes babies fall from a tree and their mothers are too simply too afraid to descend to the ground to retrieve them because of their natural fear of predators, humans, and dogs....Adult sloths arrive with life-threatening injuries from power lines, encounters with cars, dogs, even cruel humans. Baby sloths are quite delicate...” Check it out at www. slothrescue.org and to check out the book, go to Amazon.

Give it to a kid, give it to your recently-retired Gran, give it to yourself...and to hell with that spa in Davos.

 

JThink Sicilyoin the Villa People 

Italia Think Sicily’s new brochure is ready for your perusing pleasure. The company, which arranges stays in Sicilian villas (and other venues) states, “There is always something to do, whether it be lounging on golden beaches, hiking in the mountains, visiting ancient  archaeological sites, skiing on Mount Etna or shopping in Palermo’s fashionable boutiques..” 

The 200-page, amply illustrated publication gives you the lowdown on 70 villas, 11 sea-front apartments and townhouses, and 12 wineries, retreats and boutique hotels, It also provides much information about Sicily. To get your copy (or someone else’s) click here.


WHEEL LIFE

San Francisco is letting the world know that it is a great place to go biking. Several spaces are particularly bike-friendly— Golden Gate Park (off limits to cars on Sundays on John F. Kennedy Dr.)  the 1.5 ,mile long Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands offers great glimpses of the city, bay and Pacific Ocean, Marina District (with its scenery art deco buildings and the Presidio), Ocean Beach (Great Highway) and its three bicycle lanes, and more. For detailed advice, visit the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Web site resources page.

 

  



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