Destination Travel Guides

Texas-The Longhorn State is a Great Place to Visit

Texas is a beautiful state to visit for many reasons. First of all, there are so many different things to do that you could move to this state and never accomplish all there is to do! Next, the weather is beautiful year round so no matter what time of the year you can travel Texas will be waiting for you with the sun shining. Texas is really growing and each year millions of tourists visit the state for all the fun things the state offers and many individuals decide to call this state home. The following activities are some things you should take advantage of if you are visiting this great state. Keep in mind, however, that Texas is huge, so you might want to focus on activities in the area you will be traveling and check out other offerings on a subsequent trip.

The Alamo
The Alamo is where the Texas army was attacked by the Mexican army. Although there were thousands of soldiers in the Mexican army the 182 Texans stood strong and fought for their independence. They lost to the bigger army, but their fight for independence was well documented at the Alamo. This is an amazing place and full of Texas history, so it is a great place to visit.

El Mercado
El Mercado, or the Market, is an astonishing place where tourists can buy handmade goods and get a real feel for the Mexican influence in Texas. Being so close to Mexico there is a lot of culture mixing and in El Mercado this is very obvious although at times it seems to bend more towards the Mexican influence than the Texan.

The Riverwalk
If you are in San Antonio then you should definitely check out the Riverwalk. A great walkway that winds along the river sets the stage for dining and shopping. This is a very popular place to visit and is really beautiful and enjoyable at the same time.

Houston Space Center
NASA’s Johnson Space Center is another place that is worth a visit if you are in the Houston area. Learn about space exploration, see items and footage from space, and if you are lucky you might even meet an astronaut or see a launch!

Sea World
If you are in San Antonio then Sea World should definitely be on your list of things to do. There are many aquariums, exhibits, and shows for you to take in and see plenty of live marine life. You will love the killer whales and dolphin shows. This is a great destination for couples with or without children!

Of course, these are not the only things to do in Texas. In a state that covers more than 262,000 square miles and has more than 600 miles of shoreline there are hundreds of activities to keep you entertained. Enjoy golf, the beach, shopping, fine dining, and more when you visit Texas!

San Miguel - Sophisticated Small-Town Mexico

Eleven months out of the year, San Miguel de Allende is a quiet and calm–yet uniquely sophisticated—small town located in the high desert three hours north of Mexico City. The other month—September—is so frenetic and crazy that you will swear you’ve stepped into a mad, Mexican version of Mardi Gras. You see, San Miguel isn’t your typical small-town Mexico, even though it looks the part from the outside.

The town is named after two important figures: San Miguel, the monk who founded the town in 1542, and General Ignacio Allende, one of the key leaders of Mexican independence from Spain. For years, San Miguel was nothing more than a stop over for travelers headed to and from the silver mines of Zacatecas, but it always lie in the hotbed of Mexican intellectualism—the state of Guanajuato. Though it was home to independent thinkers, artists, writers, and wealthy citizens from Mexico City, San Miguel found itself fading away in the early 1900s. As is the case with many dying neighborhoods and towns, the artists were responsible for bringing the town back to life.

In the 1930s two important events took place. The Bellas Artes art school was founded, and an American artist and teacher, Sterling Dickinson, moved there. Dickinson spent his time teaching children and serving the community by assisting with many public works. Today, his name is found all over town, while the Bellas Artes school draws students from all over the world.

The American invasion began in earnest following World War II, when G.I.s discovered (partly through the efforts of Dickinson) not only the town and its many art schools, but also that their education grants would go much further. Soon the word was out, and the 60s brought such characters as Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Jack Kerouac, Neil Cassidy, Alan Ginsburg, among others. And the visitors keep on coming. In addition to the numerous retirees that call the town home, students still come for summer courses, and even Hollywood has recently gotten into the act. Numerous music videos have been shot in San Miguel, along with the recent hits, The Mexican, starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, with Johnny Depp and Antonio Banderas.

The town center of San Miguel is a Mexican national historic monument, and features the Parroquia, the famous pink, Gaudi-inspired church that dominates the plaza and the downtown area. Laws are in place to keep out too much commercialism, and you won’t find too many American chain restaurants. If you’re looking for quality Mexican home cooking, though, San Miguel offers a wide variety of cuisine—from tacos on the street, to five-star restaurants to satisfy even the most demanding palate.

Much has changed recently. Today, land and property prices are booming, and San Miguel boasts some of the more pricey real estate in Mexico. Visitors wishing to spend time in this charming town, can find hotels to fit any budget. If you are planning on a long-term stay, furnished houses and apartments are available for affordable rates. For as little as $400/month, one can find fully furnished and remodeled old houses with gardens, cable, internet, and all the amenities of home. The internet is full of offerings, but they are usually much higher than what one can find asking around on the streets and tiendas. Local expats will tell you—the best way to find bargain housing is by asking in the neighborhood shops.

But back to September…

If a month-long, wild party is what you are looking for, then September is the month to be in San Miguel. This month is the month for Mexican Independence, and since General Allende is from here, the celebration goes on and on. The town begins filling up at the beginning of the month and by the time the 16th (Independence Day) rolls around, the party is in full swing with up to 200,000 in the small town. On the 23rd, is the Pamplonada, or Sanmiguelada—the annual running of the bulls, in which, like its famous cousin in Spain, thousands take to the streets to celebrate and chase the bulls in a dangerous, yet popular, festival. If you are thinking about going in September, you must book reservations far in advance. The towns population triples or even quadruples in this month, and people can be seen sleeping in their cars, tents, alleyways, and anywhere else due to the overflow of visitors.

City Of New York

New York City, officially named the City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States, and the most densely populated major city in North America. The city is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture, and is one of the world’s major global cities (along with London, Tokyo and Paris) with a virtually unrivaled collection of museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations, and stock exchanges. The city is also home to the United Nations, along with all of the international missions associated with it.

History

Long before the arrival of European settlers, the New York City area was inhabited by the Lenape people, including such tribes as the Manahattoes, Canarsies and Raritan.

Major events in New York history include

• In 1524 the first European explorer enters New York Harbor
• European settlement begins with the following the 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson
• Founding of the Dutch fur trading settlement in Lower Manhattan in 1613 later called New Amsterdam
• English ships captured the city without struggle in 1664
• The Dutch formally ceded New York to the English in the Treaty of Breda at the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667
• The city was renamed New York, after James, Duke of York, and became a royal colony in 1685
• After the Civil War, the rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply, and New York became the first stop for millions seeking a new and better life in the United States, a role acknowledged by the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886
• In two separate actions in 1874 and 1895, New York City (and New York County) annexed sections of southern Westchester County known as the Bronx
• In 1898, New York City took the political form in which it exists to this day.
• 9/11 changed the political map of the world

Place of interest

Tourism is a major local industry, with hundreds of attractions and 39 million tourists visiting the city each year on average. Many visitors make it a point to visit Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, United Nations Headquarters, the American Museum of Natural History, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, and the Brooklyn Bridge, among other attractions. There are over 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland found throughout New York City, comprising over 1,700 separate parks and playgrounds. The best known of these is Central Park, which is one of the finest examples of landscape architecture in the world, as well as a major source of recreation for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Other major parks in the city include Riverside Park, Battery Park, Bryant Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, Washington Square Park, and Forest Park.

Museums & Art Galleries

New York is a city of great museums with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s assemblage of historic art, the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum’s 20th century collection, and the American Museum of Natural History and its Hayden Planetarium focusing on the sciences. There are also many smaller specialty museums, from El Museo del Barrio with a focus on Latin American cultures to the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design. A number of the city’s museums are located along the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue.

In addition to these museums, the city is also home to a vast array of spaces for opera, symphony, and dance performances. The largest of these is Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which is actually a complex of buildings housing 12 separate companies, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Other notable performance halls include Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

New York City boasts a highly active and influential theater district, which is centered around Times Square in Manhattan. It serves both as the center of the American theater industry, and as a major attraction for visitors from around the world. Broadway theaters are considered to be of the highest quality in the world.

Shopping

Shopping is popular with many visitors, with Fifth Avenue being a famous shopping corridor for luxury items. Macy’s, the nation’s largest department store, and the surrounding area of Herald Square are a major destination for more moderately-priced goods. In recent years 23rd Street has become a major location for “big-box” retailers. In southern Manhattan, Greenwich Village is home to hundreds of independent music and book stores, while the East Village continues to prevail as purveyors of all things “strange” and unusual which you can’t find anywhere else. The “diamond district” (located on 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) is the city’s main location for jewelry shopping, and SoHo, formerly the center of the New York art scene, is now famous for high-priced clothing boutiques, and the art galleries are now concentrated in Chelsea. There are also large shopping districts found in Downtown Brooklyn and along Queens Boulevard in Queens.

Food & Drink

New York is the best restaurant town in USA and one of the finest in the world. New York has literally thousands of restaurants to choose from (more than 25,000, in fact), encompassing nearly every cuisine in the world. Some of the big names are Eleven Madison Park, The River Café, Boat Basin Café, Veritas. Like restaurants, thousands of bars and cafes are there in the city. A few old noteworthy among those are: McSorleys Old Ale House, Revival, Push Café and White Horse Tavern.

Universities

New York City is served by the publicly run City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university in the United States, which has a number of campuses throughout the five boroughs. The city is also home to a number of other institutions of higher learning, some of national or even international reputation, including Columbia University, Fordham University, Manhattan College, New York University, the Juilliard School, The Cooper Union, Marymount Manhattan College and The New School. New York City is also a major center of academic medicine. Manhattan contains the campuses of the world-class Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and NYU Medical Center and their medical schools. New York City is home to several of the nation’s top schools of art and design, including Pratt Institute, the School of Visual Arts, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Parsons School of Design

Sports

Although in much of the rest of the country American football has become the most popular professional sport, in New York City baseball arguably still stirs the most passion and interest. A “Subway Series” between city teams is a time of great excitement, and any World Series championship by either the New York Yankees or the New York Mets is considered to be worthy of the highest celebration, including a ticker-tape parade for the victorious team.

Hotels & Accommodation

The City of New York is known as the “city that never sleeps”, but its visitors have to. The city hosts a large number of accommodations options.

Luxury Hotels

New York has many “grand dames,” classic elegant hotels that have been around for years and endured majestically. The St. Regis, the Waldorf, Tribeca Grand Hotel, Ritz-Carlton New York, Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers - are some to mention about.

Budget Hotels

Besides all those luxury hotels, a large number of budget hotels are available in New York City. They are comfortable, homely and light weight for the pocket. Some of them to mention are - The Whitehouse Hotel of New York, The Pioneer, Chelsea Center, Guesthouse and Harlem YMCA. Except these hotels and guesthouses, Skyline Hotel and Travel Inn are rare exception among affordable hotels for their services and facilities.

Tours and Sightseeing

To know and see the New York City with no tension way, a number of tour operators are there for travelers help. These tours contain city and outskirt of the city sightseeing. Tours may vary from its contents or theme. It may be a helicopter tour of Big Apple or may be a double-decker bus tour. Some fair tour agencies are there in the city. Tours can be booked from tour agencies or some hotels arrange them for its patrons. Another easy way to book any of these tours is online tour ticket booking. Some helpful websites for this purpose are: http://www.newyork.com/.

http://www.allnewyorktours.com/

http://www.thereservationcenter.com/

Transport

The airport authority owns and operates the four major airports in the New York City area, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Jamaica, Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, La Guardia Airport in Flushing, and Teeterboard Airport in Teeterboard, New Jersey.

Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. Other than cabs, New York City has a mass transit system. Unlike most of America’s car-oriented urban areas, public transportation is the common mode of travel for the majority of New York City residents. The city is served by an extensive network of parkways and expressways, including four primary Interstate Highways enter the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. The world-famous New York City Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It is the most extensive subway system in the world. The subway system connects all boroughs except Staten Island, which is served by the Staten Island Railway via the free Staten Island Ferry. In addition to these, city residents rely on hundreds of bus lines, both publicly and privately operated.

Many private ferries are run by NY Waterway, which provides several lines across the Hudson River, New York Water Taxi, with lines connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and other operators

About The Author
Nivedita Balamurugan

Occupation: Traveler

Website: www.thereservationcenter.com

Biography: Nivedita is with The Reservation Center - providers of discounted tours to make your vacations and sightseeing trips in various cities across the world as comfortable and enjoyable as possible

New York City - Without Breaking Your Budget

It’s the Big Apple, baby, and all roads eventually lead – or cross – in its streets. But you won’t be doing your sightseeing there, because it’s too expensive…right? If you’re resourceful, there are many free and/or inexpensive tourist destinations in New York City. Below are but a few – including well-known sites, food, and New York’s art scene.

The Sites - Central Park – Stretch your legs and see the world’s most famous park without spending a dime. Enjoy just walking around the 800 + acres, or visit one of the park’s many famous sites for reasonable prices, including the Central Park Zoo, take your kids to one of the 21 playgrounds, or enjoy one of their many tours. -

Ground Zero – Many New York visitors want to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the terrible events of September 11, 2001. Today, you can take a guided tour of the site for around $20, or visit it on your own for less. While you’re there, you might want to visit St. Paul’s Chapel on Broadway and Fulton Streets near the area. An impromptu memorial has grown there, with messages from visitors in many languages. - Many birds, one stone – A variety of tours exist for a variety of budgets, ranging from the all-day $75 tour including Ellis Island, the United Nations, and many others, to a few hours’ $35 tour including visits to famous New York neighborhoods and museums. For a mere $20, you can take a Harbor Cruise to the Statue of Liberty.

The Food - Ethnic Delights – While you’re in New York, don’t pass up the opportunity to sample the flavors in the world’s biggest melting pot. Whether you stop for a slice of pizza in Little Italy, or grab some Dim Sum in Chinatown, New York’s diverse residents have brought their recipes with them from their home countries and they are ready to share them with you. A unique dining experience in New York can be had for under $10. - Union Square Greenmarket – At Union Square, vendors sell fresh produce, homemade breads, homemade drinks, and even homemade cheese – and they are willing to share. They often offer free samples. The Greenmarket is a project by the Council on the Environment of NYC, and they’ve managed the open-air farmers’ markets in New York since 1976.

The Arts - Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway – So you want to see one of New York’s famous Broadway shows, but you don’t want to break your budget? Consider one of the Off-Broadway or even Off-Off-Broadway theatres, where you will pay only 25% - 50% of what you would pay to see it on Broadway. There are numerous sites advertising discounted Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets; if you plan in advance, you can easily budget a show into your trip. -

Museums – There’s MOMA, the Met, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, the Natural History Museum, and many other world-famous New York City museums. Visiting all of them would cost a fortune, right? Not necessarily. There are several options for the cash-poor here. First, you could arrange to take a tour – for around $50, you can visit most of New York’s most famous museums. But there are plenty of free museums, too – including the American Folk Art Museum, urban art particular to New York at the Urban Center Gallery, and the National Museum of the American Indian, which has the largest collection in the world devoted solely to Native American culture and history. But if you don’t feel a visit to New York is complete without a tour of some of the famous museums mentioned above, then go see them on a “pay what you wish” night – MOMA’s, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim are all “pay what you wish” Friday evenings, and although not everyone is aware of it, the Met and the Brookly!

Museum of Art has a suggested admission, but is “pay what you wish” everyday!

Remember, you can find a vacation that matches your budget as long as you’re willing to be flexible and creative – even in New York. There are many online resources you can use to plan an exciting but realistic vacation to the Big Apple. Have fun, and good luck!

About The Author

Rachel Medlock owns and operates the informational site, MyVacationInfo.com.