NY Travel Guide

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The Skywriting That Took New York City's Beautiful Day by Storm

May 21, 2012 at 10:58 AM | by | Comments (0)

In you case you missed it on our Instagram feed yesterday, a single sentence of skywriting appeared above Manhattan on Sunday afternoon and, in the clear blue sky, spelled out "Christine Hall Will U Marry Me."

Immediately Twitter and Instagram went crazy with news and images of the skywriting, as it could be spotted from as far as Riverside Park on the west side of the Manhattan, to where we stood in Astoria, Queens (cause you know we look up at the sound of any airplane engine). The entire stretch of dot-matrix cloud letters could be best read from the middle of Central Park, where it seems the couple were relaxing on what was, weather-wise, perhaps the nicest New York day yet.

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It's Not Too Late to Get Tickets to the Catalpa NYC Music Festival

May 8, 2012 at 1:58 PM | by | Comments (0)

Early Bird General Admission passes for the Catalpa NYC Music Festival are already gone, but there are still a few more chances to get tickets before it's too late.

The Catalpa Festival will take place on Randall's Island July 28-29, 2012 and feature over 40 performers from all different genres like Snoop Dogg, TV On The Radio, The Black Keys, Matt & Kim, and the Cold War Kids.

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Check Out Your New Ride in New York City: Citi Bike

May 7, 2012 at 4:40 PM | by | Comments (0)

It's finally happening, you guys. New York City is getting up off its butt and getting on the bike sharing bandwagon. What's that saying? "Better late than never." Yes, that saying. It very much applies in this case, as New York is way behind a slew of world cities who have had their bike sharing programs up for several years already.

The announcement of the NYC program and debut of the bikes came today, presided over by Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Thanks to a $41 million dollar cash infusion from CitiBank, the program won't rely on tax dollars, but will be named "Citi Bike." London's "Barclays Cycle Hire" is the same idea, except that's been around for nearly two years.

So enough about how late to the party the Big Apple is. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty details of using Citi Bike:

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Less Dash, More Cash: JFK Plans to Trash Major Artwork

May 1, 2012 at 9:29 AM | by | Comments (0)

We usually sing the praises of all types of airport stuff, but most of the time we’re focusing on the lounges, restaurants, or other perks that make this airport or that airport better than the rest. However, there’s another airport feature that we often neglect, and that’s airport art installations. Sure, sometimes they’re a little much or a little weird—we’re looking at you SMF with that baggage claim rabbit—but all in all they usually make up the little things that round out the overall airport experience.

New York’s JFK isn’t exactly known for being on the cutting edge of airport technology, but there is one piece of art that’s putting up a fight to stay put. Airport and airline officials were thinking about sending Star Sifter off to the scrapyard, as the plan was to create some more room for a few new fast food joints. Now there’s a little bit of a fight to save the sculpture, as the artist behind the work—Alice Aycock—isn’t on board with her masterpiece being destroyed to make space for more greasy food.

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New Airline Alert: Baltia Air Lines Brings Russia Closer

April 26, 2012 at 12:37 PM | by | Comments (0)

Baltia Air Lines is the newest option bringing travelers from the Big Apple to St. Petersburg, Russia. Okay so they aren't the only ones running this route, but the website claims that they're America's newest option on it..

Have we confused you yet? Yes, this is an American carrier flying non-stop from JFK to St. Petersburg. Well, they arent flying...yet. There are still some things to iron out, but the hardest steps are completed and the planes are eager to get in the sky. Airport space has been obtained and headquarters have been leased, there's just no passengers with boarding passes.

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Even the Space Shuttle Gets Delayed When Trying to Land at JFK

April 23, 2012 at 9:16 AM | by | Comments (0)

The Space Shuttle is on the move during its retirement, and most recently one of the shuttles hitched a ride atop a modified Boeing 747 to be delivered to Washington, DC. Before its delivery, the piggybacked plane with the shuttle on top did some fancy flying around the nation’s capital, with dips and dives through the city and near some pretty famous monuments. Well now it’s New York’s turn to get its very own shuttle, but unfortunately even NASA and the Space Shuttle aren't immune to weather and airport delays in New York.

Today was supposed to be the day for Enterprise, but it looks like today’s rainy and windy weather will postpone things. We’ve been there before, so we feel for the pilots and crew transporting the shuttle from Washington, DC up to the Big Apple. At least they won’t be stuck at the airport watching the satellite weather feed with spotty WiFi and limited seating.

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Delta Still Believes in LaGuardia

April 19, 2012 at 9:29 AM | by | Comments (0)

It seems like we’ve been following the goings on at Delta’s home at New York-LaGuardia for quite some time. First they were all like, we’re taking over with plenty of flights, and then they let everyone know that they were planning on making the airport experience great once again.

At this point Delta has plenty of nonstop flights out of LGA to destinations across the country, but they’re still busy at work completing the renovations within the terminals.

We already revealed some of their latest dining updates, shopping opportunities and free iPad usage within the airport, but the airline has just broke ground on even more fun stuff.

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Exclusive: Inside JetBlue's Massive New NYC Headquarters

April 11, 2012 at 4:24 PM | by | Comment (1)

Last week, JetBlue completed the ridiculously crazy process of transferring system operations from a building in Forest Hills, Queens, NY to another building only several miles down the street in Long Island City, Queens, NY. It was a yearlong project of the utmost detail, a far cry from the last time they moved in 2003 and "balanced computer monitors on chairs to cross the street."

For the historical and political side of what convinced JetBlue to cozy up closer to Manhattan, see our previous post. Right now, however, let's take a look inside the new digs where people work every day to manage 14,000 crew and passenger numbers of greater proportions.

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JetBlue's New HQ: 'An Abandoned Industrial Site Now Transformed'

April 4, 2012 at 4:30 PM | by | Comments (0)


JetBlue CEO Dave Barger holds the giant scissors to cut the ribbon

While the country is still fixated on the pilot freakout drama of Flight 191, JetBlue turned the frown upside-down today to celebrate the opening of their new international headquarters. Granted, they only moved down the length of Queens Boulevard in New York City's borough of Queens, but the change of space preludes changes for both the city and for the airline.

You may not even know that JetBlue, now just over ten years old, considered ditching NY for a sunnier spot a couple years ago. Thanks to the efforts of local politicians like good ol' Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and some other wheeling and dealing, JetBlue cemented its claim to the title of "New York's Hometown Airline" by keeping their biz in the Big Apple.

The lucky location? It's the Brewster Building, in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The place already comes complete with an aviation history, as it was once the factory that produced the F2A "Brewster Buffalo" naval aircraft during World War II (plus a time as a Rolls Royce car factory—bow chicka bow wow). As a passenger, this doesn't really matter to you since it's only JetBlue support staff who'll be heading through the revolving doors. And yet, it's cool to know about these things.

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Better Turn Off Those Electronic Devices, as NYC May Be Cracking Down

April 4, 2012 at 8:50 AM | by | Comment (1)

At this point we all know that Alec Baldwin isn’t really besties with flight attendants due to his love with Words With Friends, and if you didn’t know that, his latest Capital One commercial reminds us about no games on the runway. Of course we’d love to utilize our electronic do-dads as much as possible, but we’re definitely going to pay attention for the need to turn them off now more than ever. That’s because it looks like ignoring the flight attendants might just get you something a little bit worse than a stern warning.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey—they’re in charge of the city’s airports—are sick and tired of dealing with passengers refusing to turn off their cell phones. So what they’re going to do is send those offenders from the airport directly to court. Nothing is official just yet, but it sounds like they’re exploring the idea of suing the worst offending passengers. Last year airport police had to respond to over 400 different cases of passengers behaving badly on the runway, and it sounds like they’re sick and tired of the delays.

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Photographing NY's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (in Hipstamatic)

April 2, 2012 at 3:30 PM | by | Comments (0)

It wasn't part of the plan, spending some of our Sunday afternoon with long-dead notable names, but sometimes these things just happen. They specifically happen when, during a spur-of-the-moment rental car weekend trip up the Hudson River Valley, we spot Sleepy Hollow Cemetery coming up on Google Maps Driving Directions on our iPhone.

There was a fork in the road. Go right and continue on to our planned brunch? Go left and head into the thicket of graves, cutting brunch short? Since the best experiences usually result from taking the least convenient option in moments like this, we veered left.

What resulted was a surprisingly happy hour manuevering the inclines and switchbacks of this hilly cemetery to visit The Legend of Sleepy Hollow author Washington Irving, gazillionaires Andrew Carnegie, William Rockefeller, Walter Chrysler, Elizabeth Arden and the Helmsleys. We missed the Astors, so a return is already in order. You need to go. The photography opportunities alone are worth it, as we found out after firing up the Hipstamatic app and playing with our eeriest filters.

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Mad Men-Style 'Draping' is the New Black.

March 29, 2012 at 11:46 AM | by | Comments (0)

Planking. Owling. Tebowing. Draping.

That's right—there's a new viral photo pose making the rounds and it's all because of the hype around the start of the fifth season of AMC's Mad Men. Don't dismiss Draping just yet, however. Unlike with the other poses, where the aim was to make you embarrass yourself for a photo, Draping is all about looking calm and cool, surrounded by whatever environment.

The pose originates with the opening credits of Mad Men, where the silhouette of protagonist Don Draper reclines on a chair, right arm up and extended, cigarette casually perched in hand. It's a simple pose to recreate and one that's perfect for staging a fun travel photo around. We tried it ourselves at NYC's famous graffiti-covered Five Pointz complex in Queens.

Though Draping will likely not even last as long as this season of Mad Men, some fans of the show have gotten creative enough to put together the above video. It's more than a cute attempt at going viral; it's a mini tour around New York City in beautiful spring weather. Enjoy.

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