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Tags: Cheap NYC / New York City / New York Travel / Travel Deals / Fall Travel / → All Tags

Jaunted's Four Favorite New York City Deals This Fall

New York's "NYC: The Real Deal" campaign promises major savings for tourists (and locals who don't mind putting on their tourist disguises) this fall. It's such an embarrassment of riches, you could feel a bit paralyzed looking at all the deals—but there are four we're definitely checking out:

Comix Comedy Club (353 W. 14th St.):
Apply your 15 percent ticket discount to "The Daily Show And Friends" October 28 (featuring your favorite correspondents trying out their too hot for TV stuff) or Craig Robinson of "The Office" (Nov. 19-21).

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Tags: Theatre Travel / Culture Travel / Free / Cheap NYC / Events / → All Tags

All Of The Nation's A Stage For A Free Night Of Theater On Oct. 15

Gleeks and other theater nerds will be thrilled to know that they can catch complimentary shows in more than 120 cities across the country on October 15, the designated Free Night of Theater. But theater newbies benefit, too. They get a chance to dip their feet in the theater pool instead of having to dive right in and become full-fledged patrons of the arts.

The fifth annual Free Night aims to expose theater to the masses, especially those demographics that are typically underrepresented in theater audiences. It's the perfect time to try out a new company that you've been meaning to see or one that you've never even heard of. Offerings include everything from experimental companies to musical-theater troupes, and ballet companies to classical music concerts.

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Tags: Music Travel / Recession Travel / New York City / Cheap NYC / Central Park / Los Angeles Travel / Seattle Travel / Events / Baton Rouge Travel / → All Tags

Jaunted's Nationwide Guide To Free Music Events

'Tis the season for stadium shows, reunion tours, and outdoor festivals, but with ticket prices sometimes looming in the hundred-dollar range, even the prospect our seeing some of our all-time favorite acts isn't enough to coax out our credit cards. In these lean times, we're in search of the best deals, not the best laser light extravaganzas, so it's that splendid word—"free"—that chimes like music to our ears.

Zero-dollar entertainment can be found from coast-to-coast, from classy classical to celebrated jazz and blues artists. Below, we take you from West to East in search of worthwhile free music experiences. We can't promise synchronized dancing, but you will get a heavy dose of culture.

Jaunted's Nationwide Guide to Free Music Events:

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Tags: Museum Travel / New York City / Cheap NYC / → All Tags

MoMA's Garden Parties Are Yours For $20

Think of it as your own personal culture oasis: New York's Museum of Modern Art becomes a Brazilian celebração Thursday nights in July starting today.

The museum opens occasionally at night for us non-major donors, but "MoMA Thursday Nights" will add live musical performances and a cash bar to Thursdays between 5:30 and 8:45 for the same price as a regular entrance. August's musical guests will focus on China in conjunction with a special multimedia exhibit on the second floor.

Given New York's recent ark-building-motivating weather, outdoor concerts are a bit dicey, but you can always flood back into the museum and wile away the hours in the galleries—you'll just have to leave that cocktail behind.

Resident tip: If you live in New York and dream of going to all four parties, shell out for a membership; $75 will get you in free those four nights and the rest of the year. Dual members, defined as "two people receiving mail at the same address," will make it up even faster, earning back a $120 membership in just three Thursday trips. That card will come in handy for the colder nights, too, since it gets you into MoMA's movies for free.

Related Stories:
· What Not To Do: Paris Loses a Picasso [Jaunted]
· Computer-Chair Travel: Taking In Museums Through the Flickr Commons [Jaunted]
· Museums coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: ogil]

Tags: Boats / Circle Line / Queens / Brooklyn / New York City / Cheap NYC / → All Tags

Circle Line Shouts Out Queens and Brooklyn

As far as New York City tourism goes, we're starting to think this whole outer-boroughs-are-the-new-inner-borough thing might be for real, because even one of Manhattan's stodgiest tourist attractions is getting in on the Brooklyn and Queens love.

Circle Line, the iconic green-white-and-red cruise line that has been shuttling visitors on circumnavigations of Manhattan since 1945, is adding two new ships to their fleet this week: Circle Line Brooklyn and Circle Line Queens. The ships will still take the same route—no full circles of Long Island or anything—but the company is acknowledging that visitors are now just as excited about seeing Brooklyn and Queens from the outdoor deck as they are for the Manhattan skyline.

On Saturday, June 20, Circle Line is welcoming the new ships by throwing a block party on the river. Starting at 10:30am, Circle Line will transform Pier 81 (at West 41st street) into a 1940s-style carnival, complete with jugglers, stilt-walkers, a dunk tank, and—most enticing to us—free cruises to the Statue of Liberty.

When they launch a Circle Line Staten Island, then we'll know Manhattan is really in trouble.

Related Stories:
· Circle Line [Official Site]
· Race You To The Top: Statue of Liberty's Crown Tickets Available Saturday [Jaunted]
· The Simple Pleasures of Life: Pedal Boating in Prospect Park [Jaunted]

[Photo: lemoncat1]

Tags: Cheap NYC / New York City / Events / Central Park / Beaches / Tel Aviv / Israel / El Al / → All Tags

NYC Keeps the Faux Beaches Coming By Trucking In Tel Aviv

New York City may not be the first location that comes to mind when you think "tropical vacation," but for those who don't mind sandy strolls lacking the exotic, the Big Apple is fast becoming the worldwide leader in faux beaches.

Already featuring three locations of Water Taxi Beach, NYC will be trucking in yet another sandy lot this Sunday for the one-time-only Tel Aviv Beach in NYC event.

As part of the city of Tel Aviv's 100th anniversary celebration, organizers will bring a slice of the Mediterranean to Manhattan, putting together a 1,300-square-foot beachfront by the bandshell in Central Park. The beach vibe will come complete with backgammon and paddle ball (omnipresent activities along the Tel Aviv shore), while sunbathers will be serenaded with live Israeli music and a midday DJ set pumping out Euro club hits.

And for those who aren't quite sated by Israel-on-NY, representative of El Al will be on hand offering special airfare deals. L'chaim!

Related Stories:
· The Tel Aviv Beach in NYC [Official Site]
· Marathon on the Mediterranean [Jaunted]
· Where Does Bar Refaeli Dine When She's Home in Tel Aviv? [Jaunted]

[Photo: shyb]

Tags: New York City / Statue of Liberty / Travel News / Cheap NYC / Monument Travel / → All Tags

Race You To The Top: Statue of Liberty's Crown Tickets Available Saturday

Crack your knuckles and get your typing fingers at the ready for this Saturday, when reservations for the soon-to-reopen State of Liberty crown become available. This will be the first time the public will be allowed back up in Lady Liberty's head since 9/11, and the park service isn't taking this lightly. There are some major limitations and stipulations if you're game to go.

Only about 254 people will be able to climb her everyday, meaning groups of 10 about three times an hour. On top of that, the crown is opening on July 4, meaning that its first few months of visitors will just love the fact that the interior of the statue can be up to 20 degrees warmer than the outside.

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Tags: Film Festivals / Free / Cheap NYC / Movie Travel / Food Travel / New York City / → All Tags

NYC's Free Food Film Festival Has All Our Favorite F Words

If you can match us when it comes to cheapskate-ness, nothing bugs you more than the price of dining out nowadays—excepting maybe how much it costs to go to the dang movies. If you're smelling what we're cooking, then we have a feeling you may be as excited as we are about the upcoming NYC Food Film Festival.

From Saturday June 13 through Friday June 19, the festival will present a series of short films and features that all focus on our favorite topic—food. Better yet, each evening will be accompanied by food that matches the movie. You can take in a screening of Big Night while feasting on the timpano pasta made famous by the movie, or check out the new film Know Your Mushrooms while sampling a wild mushroom tasting menu.

Most (not all) of the screenings/tastings are free and take place at a variety of indoor and outdoor venues, including Jaunted fave Water Taxi Beach. Organizers only ask that you bring two cans of food with you to benefit the Food Bank for New York City.

Food. Film. Free. How can you go wrong?

Related Stories:
· NYC Food Film Festival [Official Site]
· Food travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Film festival travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: john w]

Tags: Travel Videos / Cheap NYC / High Line / New York City / Travel News / → All Tags

Surfin' the High Line: Opening Day At NYC's New Elevated Park

Nothing's cheaper than free, and in New York City, we take what we can get. Luckily, what's available beginning this summer is nothing short of awesome as the hotly-debated High Line Park opens to the public.

Built in the 1930s to transport freight through the warehouses of the west side of Manhattan, the High Line is an elevated rail track that stretches from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District up to West 34th Street. The last train traveled its scenic route in 1980, and since then proposals for its future have included everything from completely disassembling it to turning it into a mile-long lap pool.

The final decision to add nature and make it a pedestrian-friendly park couldn't have been more perfect for this year of staycations, and so we headed up a level yesterday in the first few hours of the High Line's public life to check out the greenery and scenery.

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Tags: Brewery Tours / Beer Travel / Best Factory Tours / New York City / Cheap NYC / → All Tags

Manhattan's Only Active Brewery Opens Its Doors for Free Tours

So what are you doing this weekend? Drinking beer? Yea, we thought so. Luckily for New Yorkers and tourists to the Big Apple, Manhattan's only active brewery has begun offering free tours to accompany their award-winning beers.

Perched on Pier 59 on the Hudson River, the Chelsea Brewing Company has been sitting calm and cool since 1996, slowly working its way onto the taps at bars around the city. To enjoy their full beer list, featuring a slew of seasonal brews which just became available on April 10, we spent last Saturday heading into the mouth of the brewery beast itself.

Led by craft beer aficionado (and former NBC page) Ian Phillips, the tour leads curious patrons through the steps of the beer making process, including some hops sniffing and picking anecdotes, and ends with a few pitchers of free beer to taste the results. On our visit, we downed some of their standard Checker Cab Blonde Ale, Sunset Red, and Flower and Shower Wheat and rounded out the eve by using the tour's discount beer coupons to sample some newly-released Imperial barleywine at 11.5% alcohol by volume.

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Tags: Cheap NYC / Tourists / Travel Deals / → All Tags

When New York Starts Getting 'Real', Tourists Save Money

Over at HotelChatter, we've seen the room rates in New York drop pretty drastically. Just today, we learned the Gansevort Hotel has dipped to under $200. These are dead-of-the-winter rates in the spring. It's quite unusual but it's also great for anyone heading to NYC this summer.

And now NYC & Company, New York's official marketing, tourism and partnership organization has just launched a new promotion for tourists, NYC: The Real Deal. The promotion is actually three phases of deals and offers spread out over the summer.

The first phase is "Buy One, Get the Second One 50% Off" and applies to more than 100 NYC & Company member businesses such as museums (the Whitney), tours and attractions (the NYC Ballet), nightlife spots, spas and even transportation (the NY Water Taxis). And yes, it even applies to hotels.

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Tags: Cheap NYC / Spa Travel / New York City / Events / → All Tags

NYC Spa Week Will Cover Your Face in Bird Poop

It's just what we've always dreamed of: paying $50 to have a stranger give us a milk bath. Or how about paying $50 to have the same stranger cover your face in bird poop? If either of these scenarios sound appealing, then get psyched for New York City's Spa Week, April 13-19, when the creme of the city's spa crop discount select treatments to a single Ulysses S. Grant.

Of course reservations are recommended as early as possible, but you've still got a few days to ring up your choice of over 80 spas, like Completely Bare for a bikini wax or Saks Fifth Avenue for a mani/pedi. We however would like to believe that you're the intrepid sort, who might be intrigued by the Geisha Facial at Shizuka Day Spa. Nicknamed the "Bird Poop Facial," the $180 (but only $50 during Spa Week) treatment has reportedly been tried by the likes of Victoria Beckham, so you know it's going to be a winning conversation starter.

For those who would rather not cover themselves in guano, Spa Week is a notoriously prime time for freshening up for spring on the cheap. Register your basic details here first, before the list of available spas and services unveil themselves, and remember that saving money sometimes means loosing inhibitions.

Related Stories:
· Spa Week [Official Site]
· Geisha "Bird Poop" Facial [Shizuka Spa NY]
· Spa Week: April 13-19 [About.com]
· Cheap NYC Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: insideSocal]