USA-East Coast

I Love New York

When someone considers a trip to New York City, they usually think of the major tourist spots such as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Those sights, although timeless and truly New York, may eat up a considerable chunk of time and may not be as important to a visitor as other offerings of the city.
The first thing that should be done when planning a jaunt to NYC is to consider the mode of travel; with 3 major airports serving the area, it may make a difference which airline to utilize, if a specific airport is to be avoided or is preferred. (JFK is considered the most difficult to enter and exit, while some consider Newark too far.) With all, however, convenient ground shuttles to the midtown area are available for less than $50 US round trip. If you wish to drive, it's important to check to see if the hotel that's being considered offers parking, and the price. The high priced designer shops are found along 5th Ave. and throughout midtown, but areas downtown offer less expensively priced attire that may be considered trendier.
Some of the more interesting-and free-sights one should not miss would include Ground Zero, Grand Central Station, Central Park, Rockefeller Center and Trump Tower. Its incredible architecture, including the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, the thrilling performances at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Broadway and off Broadway theaters provide unlimited cultural and aesthetic possibilities. This city of contrasts also contains the SoHo section, with its stylish art galleries, boutiques, and bistros housed in historic cast iron buildings among cobblestone streets.
The Statue of Liberty can be visited and climbed or simply viewed from the water on a tour boat cruise or from the Staten Island ferry (which is free). Ellis Island Immigration Museum, near the Statue of Liberty, conveys the experiences of our forebears as they came to the end of their perilous journey and embraced the promise of a better life in the New World.
Among the 150 museums in New York City is one of the world's greatest: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere displaying more than 100,000 works from artists such as Picasso, Monet, Matisse, and Warhol Nearby is Times Square, the brightest symbol of New York's revitalization. Most of New York's best known tourist attractions are concentrated in Manhattan. It has its own civic centers, cultural institutions, shopping district and residential neighborhoods. Its major attractions include: Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Aquarium for Wildlife Conservation and Coney Island. Flushing Meadow-Corona Park and Shea Stadium are major attractions.
Winter in the big apple is glorious. Crisp, sunny days light up its major attractions, basking the Statue of Liberty in a soft winter glow, glinting off the skates of the ice skaters at the Rockefeller Center and lighting up the sprinkling of snow that has stuck to the trees in Central Park.




Sun, Sand and Miami Florida


Miami is the city of Hummers and the famous beach. Blessed with year-round mild climates and unrivaled ocean access, America's southernmost resort city is also a sought-after international recreation destination. Ranked the nation's #1 Healthiest City by Natural Health Magazine in 2002, Miami caters to action-oriented visitors from around the globe with some of the world's top golf, tennis and sporting facilities. Add sparkling waters that are a magnet for boating enthusiasts, fishermen, divers and water sports aficionados to the equation and it is easy to see why Miami is a number one choice for active travelers of all ages and skill levels.
Nothing is staid or boring in Miami, least of all its museums. The Museum of Science north of Coconut Grove, contains more than 140 exhibits, all designed to be hands-on and interactive, coupled with live demonstrations and collections of rare natural history specimens that make discovering and learning a great deal of fun. Other activities include watching the latest IMAX films or visiting the high-tech games at entertainment venues. A few indispensable spots of Miami are mentioned below:
Miami Seaquarium
At least a half a day is required to fully enjoy south Florida's premier attraction. The Seaquarium is world-renowned for its marine life shows and attractions, including performing killer whales and television aquatic star and dolphin, Flipper. Another favorite star is the sea lion Salty and his colleagues, who amuse and amaze with their antics
Miami-Dade Cultural Center
The outwardly unattractive complex of the Miami-Dade Cultural Center, in the rather unsavory area of West Flagler Street, is worth a visit because it houses a plethora of interesting artistic and historic exhibits. The Center contains the Miami Art Museum (www.miamiartmuseum.org), featuring a collection of modern and contemporary works by American, Latin American and Caribbean artists. The Cultural Centre also contains the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (www.historical-museum.org) with exhibits that relate to the fascinating history of the area and the culture, folklore and archaeology of South Florida and the Caribbean.
Vizcaya Villa
Lovers of antiques revel in visiting the magnificent 34-room Vizcaya bayfront villa, built in the Italian Renaissance style in 1916 as a winter retreat for wealthy industrialist, James Deering.
Spanish Monastery
Miami boasts the oldest building in the Western Hemisphere. Dating from 1133 the Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux in North Miami Beach is a hugely popular tourist attraction, although not quite indigenous to the area. The monastery stood originally in Segovia in Spain, but in the early 1950s the medieval building was bought by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, disassembled, shipped to Miami and rebuilt on its present site.
Coral Castle
Moon Pond, Coral Castle
Legend has it that unrequited love led a Latvian immigrant to spend 25 years single-handedly carving a castle out of rock between the Florida Keys and Miami, on the South Dixie Highway.
Greater Miami has miles and miles of beaches beckoning sun seekers, and nearby parks luring nature lovers to discover a fascinating variety of flora and fauna. Miami: the city to which J-Lo fled when she and Ben Affleck were on the outs; the place where the paparazzi camps out for days hoping to catch a glimpse of something or someone fabulous. Beyond the whole glitz, Miami has an endless number of sporting, cultural, and recreational activities to keep you entertained. The sparkling beaches are beyond compare. Plus, there are excellent shopping and nightlife activities that include ballet, theater, and opera as well as all the celebrity-saturated hotels, restaurants, bars, and clubs that have helped to make Miami so famous. For sun, sand, tropical beauty and a whole lot of fun, Miami is the place to be.





Amazing Atlanta

Atlanta is a lively, thriving city, the capital of Georgia, and a center of commerce and the arts. Many visitors come to Atlanta looking for the Old South stereotypes: white columned mansions surrounded by magnolias and owned by languidly moving, elegantly dressed ladies wearing white gloves and hoop skirts, and speaking in a southern drawl.
Atlanta has spent the last 135 years building what has been described as the Capital of the New South and the Next Great International City. Atlanta is the city of Martin Luther King, Jr., father of one of the country's most important social revolutions, and of Ted Turner, who brought the world a revolution of another sort.
The 1960's saw the beginning of downtown development with the rise of the million-square-foot Merchandise Mart, designed by an innovative young Atlanta architect named John Portman. Today, Peachtree Center, a 14-city-block pedestrian village, contains three Portman designed mega-hotels as well as the Atlanta Market Center, 200,000 square feet of retail space, many restaurants, and six massive office towers. MARTA rapid-transit trains began running in 1979, and today most of Atlanta: city center and vast suburbs, is accessible by bus or subway.
There are major art, science, nature, and archaeology museums, a vibrant theater community, an outstanding symphony, a well-regarded ballet company, opera, blues, jazz, Broadway musicals, a presidential library, Confederate and African-American heritage sites, and dozens of art galleries. Add to that entertainment attractions such as Georgia's Stone Mountain Park, a regional theme park, a botanical garden, and major league sports teams, and you have the ingredients for a family friendly city. The culinary spectrum ranges from grits and biscuits to caviar and sushi. Fried chicken and barbecue are available, but Atlanta also serves up Thai, Ethiopian, and Russian cuisine.
Media mogul Ted Turner inaugurated CNN in Atlanta in 1980, following with Superstation TBS, Headline News, and TNT. In 1989, Underground Atlanta, a retail / restaurant / entertainment complex with a historical theme, came into being. In the center of downtown is Woodruff Park, which recently underwent a $5 million renovation. South of the Olympic Village and stretching to CNN Center is the 21-acre Centennial Olympic Park: a major gathering place during the Olympics, with its dramatic Olympic Ring fountain, lawns, and gardens. The Olympic Stadium, the site of the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the track and field events, has been reincarnated as Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team.
Atlanta enjoys four definite seasons. Families keep a lively pace visiting the bounty of fun - filled and educational offerings from the Atlanta zoo to Cyclorama and SciTrek. There is no limit that can be placed on the possibilities of an Atlanta vacation!