Queens Travel Guide
Tags: Museum Travel / Science Travel / Kids Travel / Travel With Children / Queens / → All Tags
An Alternative to Manhattan's Big Museums: The Hall of Science in Queens
People crowd places like New York City's American Museum of Natural History to give the kids some scientific edu-tainment. But if you're looking to change it up, check out the underrated New York Hall of Science in Queens.
Although its name sounds kinda boring, NYSCI is New York City's only hands-on science and technology center with more than 450 hands-on exhibits that explore biology, chemistry and physics.
Tags: Travel Snapshots / Holiday Travel / LGA / ORD / Airports / → All Tags
O'Hare Delays Make LaGuardia at Christmastime Look Like A Walk In The Park
We knew we'd encounter the holiday travel rush from our West Coast-to-East Coast flight last night, especially at our final destination, LaGuardia. But it ended up being the least eventful leg of our trip—because of an almost four-hour delay for our connecting flight in Chicago's O'Hare.
O'Hare is known for its frequent takeoff tardiness, but this time the culprit was the small storms in Chicago and East Coast, which delayed flights to New York and D.C., among other places. We saw at least one cancellation, but most flights were just delayed several hours.
Tags: Neighborhoods To Know And Go / New York City / New York Travel / → All Tags
Neighborhoods To Know And Go: NYC's Astoria
Of the five boroughs of New York City, Manhattan is obviously the most visited, most well-known, but whether or not tourists realize it, they actually set foot in another borough first. This is Queens, otherwise recognized as the home of both LaGuardia and JFK airports, but it's a whole area simply packed with unique neighborhoods and small, family businesses, all the things that visitors expect from Manhattan but no longer find.
We focus in particular on the Astoria section of Queens, between the East River and LaGuardia, a neighborhood that—like the typical idea of NY—flourishes with immigrant populations ranging from Greek to Arab and everything in between. In addition, it's ever so slowly becoming the new Brooklyn, as more Midtown professionals and creatives make their homes here after being priced out of both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Indeed we find ourselves coming here more and more often, in quest of the best Greek souvlaki and views of the city.
Join us in Astoria, after the jump.
Tags: Travel Snapshot / LGA / Plane Spotting / Blimps / US Open / Baseball Travel / → All Tags
An Evening Of Baseball And The Goodyear Blimp At LaGuardia Airport
Hopping off a flight and returning to New York's LaGuardia Airport yesterday evening, we looked out of the terminal at a pinkening sky, enhanced by the high-wattage lights of both the Mets' Citi Field and the US Open's Arthur Ashe stadium.
We've shown you the same view before, but reversed: LaGuardia as seen from Citi Field. This time however, we have a few extra visitors: the moon, and the Goodyear Blimp. There's no doubt that LaGuardia greets its arrivals with some of the best scenery of the NY-area airports. Or would you rather watch the sun set behind Newark?
Bonus points: can you spot the plane on final approach, just about to head over the stadium?
Related Stories:
· Watch For Fly Balls And Landing Planes At NY's Citi Field [Jaunted]
· Travel Snapshots [Jaunted]
[Photo: Jaunted]
Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Baseball Travel / New York City / LGA / Jetblue / → All Tags
Watch For Fly Balls And Landing Planes At NY's Citi Field
We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.
Finally, there is a huge benefit to being cheap and buying only the highest, nosebleedingest seats at a Mets game at Citi Field: it means you're that much closer to the airplanes landing at neighboring LaGuardia. We had the opportunity to take in both a Saturday evening and a Sunday afternoon game at the new stadium recently, and we spent just as much time watching the action in the skies as the action on the field.
Even for those who aren't baseball fans, it's a great way to get out on a sunny day, enjoy a hot dog, and point your binoculars to the clouds for some excellent plane spotting. Even without binoculars it's great, but they help in identifying planes with minimal livery.
Tags: Crime / JFK / Baggage / Lost Luggage / → All Tags
Two Airport Workers Caught In Baggage Theft Sting At JFK
Reason number 1,679 to avoid checking baggage: yesterday, cops nabbed two JFK airport workers, one a TSA agent, who had been going through passengers' baggage and blatantly stealing items of value.
It seems that the airport and Delta Airlines had noticed an unexplainable amount of missing items from luggage over the past year, and so set up a sting operation to test for sticky fingers among ground crew. The police checked a bag, filled with a laptop, two cell phones and an iPod, onto a flight from JFK to Miami and easily caught the pair of thieves pilfering the goods before the luggage had even boarded the plane.
To confuse matters for the unlucky passenger claiming the bag at its destination, the pair then tore off the bag tag. If convicted, each man faces up to 4 years in prison, so let's hope there's some more condeming evidence back at their homes to keep them out of our baggage claim forever.
Related Stories:
· Sting nabs stickey-fingered JFK airport workers going through luggage [NY Daily News]
· Airport employees caught in theft sting [ABCNews]
· You Know That Thing You’re Afraid Happens to Your Luggage After You Check It? [Daily Intel]
· Travel Crime Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: tttallis]
Tags: New Routes / Airline News / New York City / LGA / Southwest Airlines / → All Tags
The Hawk Has Landed: Southwest Claims Its LaGuardia Gate
Please commence with your offerings to the LCC gods as finally, finally Southwest Airlines has claimed a stake in the crowded New York City airspace. Both arriving and leaving New York-LaGuardia for the first time this last Sunday, SWA made a literal splash as the airport's firetrucks welcomed the inaugural flight with traditional arcs of water.
Meanwhile in the terminal, Southwest doled out breakfast to hungry passengers, entertained with a lounge singer, and indulged in everybody's favorite form of service with a smile: gift bags.
Tags: Jetblue LAX Inaugural / JFK / Jetblue / Travel Snapshot / → All Tags
Headed to Hollywood: Jetblue Cuts The Ribbon On LAX Route
Writing this, we are currently sitting onboard Jetblue's BetaBlue, the pride of their fleet with its LiveTV and limited WIFi-enabled capabilities, and we're sitting at the gate at New York-JFK about to jet to LAX on the inaugural flight.
Since this is a huge deal for the LCC—it's not every day that an airline scores some slots at one of the country's busiest and most high-profile airports—we'll be bringing you coverage of all the fun and frivolity that comes along with Jetblue celebrations.
You can even track us at Jetblue.com this morning: Flight 671.
Stay tuned throughout the next two days for more Jetblue surprises, including the requisite Hollywood partying; Lohan has nothing on us.
Tags: T5 at JFK / Jetblue / JFK / Music Travel / Airports / → All Tags
Jetblue's 'Live at T5' Will Get JFK's Groove Back
For air travelers flying in and out of Jetblue's new Terminal 5 at JFK, it's easy to imagine the spacious food court and area around the Infohalo as being the perfect spot for a performance. And for New Yorkers, it's easy to confuse this Terminal 5 with the popular Manhattan music venue also called Terminal 5.
It's no wonder then that Jetblue has begun their own concert series in the airport, pairing up with Superfly Productions and Bowery Presents of the Terminal 5 music venue to bring acts beneath the Infohalo throughout the summer and early fall. The six-month "Live at T5" series began last week with Dan Dyer and will last through Thanksgiving weekend, injecting a little groove into the airport rigamarole.
Although future performers have not been announced, don't be surprised if before your next flight to Portland, Maine, you find yourself sipping a smoothie and swaying to live salsa.
Related Stories:
· Jetblue's Live at T5 Announcement [Twitter]
· T5 at JFK Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Jetblue]
Tags: Southwest Airlines / Airline News / New Routes / LGA / → All Tags
Southwest Will Now Be Landing at LaGuardia on June 28
The not-so-well-kept secret is no longer a secret anymore! Southwest Airlines has just gone public with its LaGuardia announcement, offering fares for as low as $49 one-way starting June 28th.
Naturally, we wanted to see how much it would cost to fly across the country. While LaGuardia to Las Vegas and Los Angeles was promoted at $99 one-way, we looked at a flight from LGA to LAX on June 28 returning July 2 and found a "Wanna Get Away" fare for $291 one-way. But there was a stop at MDW and travel time was 8 hours and 30 minutes. The return trip was $240. Meanwhile, we found a flight on American Airlines (on Kayak.com) for $369 with one-stop.
Similarly, an advertised flight from Fort Lauderdale to LaGuardia was $99 one-way but when we tried to book it was $119 each way with a stop in Baltimore. Northwest/Delta had the same trip non-stop for about the same price.
Not that we're dissing Southwest's East Coast Shuttle, if you will. It just might be hard to get people to switch from their tried and true shuttle airlines with these so-so rates and layovers.
What do you New Yorkers think? Will you fly Southwest?
Related Stories:
· Southwest Airlines coverage [Jaunted]
· Landing at LaGuardia this Summer! Service begins June 28 [Southwest Airlines]
Tags: Accidents / LGA / Airline News / American Airlines / → All Tags
Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Airplane Shrapnel
This is not shaping up the be a good year for domestic departures out of LaGuardia as another jet, under similar circumstances as Flight 1549, was forced to make an emergency landing just after takeoff yesterday morning. The flight, American Airlines 309 to Chicago was just out from LGA and heading over Queens, NY when it lost one of its two engines, raining shrapnel onto warehouses below.
Although the flight made a safe landing at JFK 18 minutes later, with all 88 passengers and 5 crew members unharmed, the dangerous possibilities of the engine shrapnel did not go unnoticed.
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Museums / Hip-Hop Travel / Run-DMC / Hamburgers / → All Tags
A Little Hip-Hop History with Your $1 Hamburger?
When you want a recession-friendly meal, you probably don't head directly to a museum. No, museum food just makes us think of $13 nicoise salads and the like.
But the Hollis Hip-Hop Museum is neither your typical museum or your average eatery. OK, museum is a bit of a stretch, seeing as how it is located entirely inside the Hollis Famous Burgers restaurant in Queens. While it might not supplant MoMA or the Met as New York's cultural epicenter anytime soon, it does have hundreds of items of hip-hop memorabilia, with a special emphasis on native sons of Queens, including a tribute to RUN-DMC's Jam Master Jay, who lived five blocks from the museum before he was shot and killed in 2002.
The museum has enough street cred that Darryl McDaniel (the DMC of RUN-DMC) turned out for its grand opening last week. And we like the pricing: $1 burgers and free admission. Beat that, MoMA!
Related Stories:
· Putting Together a Hamburger, a Neighborhood and Hip-Hop [NYTimes]
· Museums Travel Coverage [81]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [NYTimes]
