If you’ve never been to New York City, you may be surprised to know that there is so much more to this great city than skyscrapers, lots of people, and really fantastic parades. While it is in fact the wonderful people of this city that make it the exciting place to visit that it has become, there is so much more to this city than what you’ll see on the television shows and in the news.

New York City is a city full of exciting people from all kinds of backgrounds with all kinds of hopes and dreams of the future and experiences of the past. You will find artwork here like few other places in the world, you will see more nature here than in most big cities around the world, and you will enjoy seeing more cultures and nationalities represented in the space of an hour in this city than most people who live elsewhere experience in their entire lives. New York City is the true melting pot of the world and the rest of America is simply trying to catch up.

You will find music and art that is representative of the many cultures that call this grand city home. You will experience the sights, sounds, and scents of worlds that are exotic and foreign simply by walking down neighborhood streets where people are cooking dinner at night. You will hear more languages in one day than you probably ever dreamed imagine and while you may stand around with sensory overload thinking anyone would be crazy to live like this, most of them are looking at you thinking you’d be crazy to live anywhere else.

This is perhaps the greatest thing about visiting New York City. You get to experience for a moment the excitement that comes from living in this fascinating city. You get to understand what it is like for those living there. And you get to understand first hand what it is like to be alone in a city of millions and yet by being there, being one of them, belonging somehow to this giant community of strangers from different cultures, different pasts, and different futures.

Most people visit New York with certain preconceived ideas and certain goals for their visits. Hopefully the preconceived ideas will all be challenged and the plans that you have made are flexible. There is so much to do and see that you could go one block each way from your hotel and probably notice something new each and every single time you went by. My point in this is that you need to leave time to experience the wonderful things you won’t discover in the guidebooks. There is only so much of this city that any one person could possibly find to write about. I can imagine that there are New Yorkers that could eat in a different restaurant each and every day without eating in the same one twice in five or ten years. I find it hard to believe that a guide book is going to be able to hold everything you might find interesting in this city and if you spend your entire visit with your head in the book you might miss something truly worthwhile.

That being said, it is a good idea to make plans according to your budget and the things you wish to see, I’m just urging you to leave room in that schedule for change. The Statue of Liberty is great, but it takes a while to get there and back. Could it be that you take some photos, buy some post cards and do two or three other activities that you could have enjoyed in the space of time it takes to get there and back? Plans are made to change whenever possible-especially while on vacation. I seriously recommend that you reserve two hours minimum each day to do something that you discovered rather than something you planned.





By: Jake J Saab

Accounting is a very complicated task that needs a lot of concentration so as to manage it properly. The reason for this is that there are innumerable small calculations that eat up a lot of time. Also, one needs to tally them with the accounting books and any discrepancy can cause great fuss. The whole confusion and mess can cause a lot of tension and when you are in a jiffy to sort out things, you are bound to make mistakes in most cases. Hence, accounting New York professionals allow you to complete all such accounting tasks in a fast yet perfectionist way. The expertise in maintaining accounting ledgers from the very start give them an edge over others and overcome monetary confusions within seconds.

After all, who would like to spend hours at the end of the year in looking for the route cause of the mistake and whose mistake it was? With all accounting records in place, generating invoice, trial balance, billing statements, payment records, inflow and outflow of cash, profit-loss account and the final balance sheet doesn’t take much time. Experienced and qualified accounting professionals in New York must be hired to have error-free accounting records. Also, it is important to look for certified public accountants that have a certification from the licensing authority of the New York state.

Generally, these accounting New York professionals are quite occupied during the tax season as everyone is in a hurry to seek their assistance and pay their taxes on time. After all, paying taxes on time is an essential part of making sure that your business runs smoothly. However, only the services of expert accountants aren’t enough. It also needs your cooperation as the important documents and other related details must be provided by the business owner to the accountant beforehand without any delay. As soon as the accounting experts have all the necessary information, they calculate the tax amount that has to be paid by you and briefs you about the procedure of filing it. Usually, the tax amount is also filed by these professionals only.

Internet is the best medium to look for accounting professionals in your nearby area in New York. Finding an accounting expert in your area will help you avert the inconvenience of traveling to a far off area and also reduces the wastage of time. An Accounting New York professional keep a daily record of the income and expenses of the firm and maintains error-free financial books. This helps them make long winding calculations easily in very less time.

It would be better to enquire about the experience and fee charged by the accounting expert beforehand. Getting an experienced yet affordable accounting professional in New York is surely great luck. Checking the track records of the accounting professionals in New York can help you get a good idea about the efficiency of the professional you are aiming to select. So, it isn’t very difficult to select the right accounting New York professionals, if you know what to look for.





By: Peter Terry

America is such an unfriendly place. I take a photo on my holiday in New York an they stop me and write down my details.

New York is an impossible place - an overbuilt island with a nasty climate, horrendous traffic and . . .magic. What’s not to love? Our day trip to Manhattan was typical John and Laura - last minute. It was post Christmas and very cold after a snowstorm. The sky was bright blue and the wind was piercing as we stood at the bus stop in John’s New Jersey hometown - Kearny. I, weak and pathetic after years of mild L.A. weather, huddled in a nearby store while John, the native, stood in the cold without gloves or scarf. He deigned to wear a hat, at least. I had in my pocket $40, an American Express card and a lipstick. Oh yes, and a one use camera. Little did I know we wouldn’t be back in Kearny for almost two days.

We took the excellent DeCamp Buslines bus over, warm and comfy. I watched the gritty landscape pass by, crumbling and winter-cracked overpasses, plenty of graffiti, salt-beaten cars. This is not a romantic way to get to NYC but a warm one. My dad the Scottish immigrant actually arrived via ocean liner and his first sight of America was of the Statue of Liberty. He even passed through immigration at Ellis Island. Now that’s an arrival in New York. We got off at the grungy Port Authority where a taste of the winter wind had even John admitting he needed a scarf. He bought a post Christmas bargain for $6. One thing you can do and want to do in New York is walk and we were soon warm enough as we marched out into the late morning and headed to the Metropolitan Museum. The place was thronged with families off school and work, plenty of art students and a well-organized staff. I was finally warm and very reluctant to get into the long coat check line and surrender my security blanket, but the line moved fast and we soon had our coat tags and dove into the crowds. John knows his modern art and we visited a lot of his favorites after an elegant snack in the café. The American Express card got its first of many uses there. We then traded off putting up with exhibits for each other. I examined the vintage baseball card collection for him and he joined me for the costume exhibit, focusing on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s elaborate clothing. God those two could really dress - but then again maybe that was all they really had to do. . .

A couple of hours in a museum was plenty for us so out into the air we went. It was warmer at last. I hadn’t been to New York since a lone high school trip many years before, so I had to see some of what I had seen before just to compare notes with myself. Central Park was easy since it borders on the Met. Yep, still a big beautiful park. In winter kids were sliding down the modest hills and dogs romped - well they were dogs whose owners lived on the park so maybe they sashayed. The Plaza Hotel was also on the list of places to revisit. The lobby was as lavish as I remembered but it seemed smaller. Do all things shrink year by year? Or are they so big in your memory the present can never match the past?

Before the Grand was dinner - we decided to walk around and look for a likely place. John has no trouble asking local-looking people where they like to eat and they were happy to help. What’s this rumor about bitter New Yorkers? Of course I was introduced as the visitor from L.A. so they had all the more reason to be sure I got something besides sprouts, tofu and sunflower seeds. We stopped in for raw oysters and champagne at a small but packed restaurant. It got to be around 9 and we figured we had a shot at getting into Balthazar without a reservation. Sure enough, we only had to wait about 45 minutes at the bar, pacing ourselves on the drinking by this point, believe you me. Dinner was quite wonderful, though I let myself get talked out of a local fish - cod - and talked into Chilean sea bass, which is unavoidable in L.A. restaurants The waiter had obviously spent his childhood pushing cod around his plate and pretending he’d finished it. John’s ravioli was phenomenal and led to him to keep perfecting his pasta and ravioli from scratch.

We rolled to the Grand with no bags to check in - I didn’t even have a purse. I don’t lug purses around as they are a drag to carry and a magnet for muggers. We stopped at a bodega and bought a toothbrush, toothpaste and contact lens solution for me - $9, not a bargain but who cared? We then hit the hotel and noted the hopping scene at the bar - and walked right past it. We fell into bed and slept blissfully - though by morning’s light we discovered the room was tiny. Didn’t this used to be an old SRO hotel? They certainly didn’t increase the room size when it was converted to a profit center. John pointed out the view from our window and what it was missing - the World Trade Center. Solemn moment.

We got a late check out and debated what to do. Well, eating was going to happen, but first some great walking and a truly wonderful cup of coffee at a place we ducked into. Don’t ask me the name. New York is teeming with picturesque side streets with tiny cafes, shops, galleries and what not. We ended up at Veselka around 2 p.m. This is a classic Eastern European restaurant at 10th and 2nd Avenue. I got stuffed cabbage and borscht and even went for dessert. We read the NY Times at our window table and watched the world go by. But the break was over. One of the people we were to meet at last returned a cell call. Okay, I admit it, we turned the phone off for hours so as to be unreachable. I mean, ahem, conserve the battery. We arranged to meet him in midtown and walked all the way (40 blocks or so, but John the native assured me they were the short blocks, not the crosstown blocks). The walk took us across the strange diagonal which Broadway becomes and I started to get a feel for the geography of the city, something that’s hard to do in a cab, bus or car. We met my friend for drinks at another “guys’ bar” with an after work crowd culled from Wall Street. John had a White Russian that seemed to be made with maple syrup. More of a beer and scotch place I guess.

Then it was time for a hellish run to the Port Authority, both needing to find a bathroom and desperate to catch the bus in time to make it back to Jersey and a long-arranged night with the family at the Scots-American social club. Back in Jersey, Manhattan was a vision across the water again. John’s brother-in-law Joey kept the wine and beer going as it was his night to tend bar, but after the night before we kept it light. I persuaded my native hosts to go back to Manhattan the next day, this time to hit the Natural History Museum. We drove over with John’s Pop at the wheel of his car, nice enough to drive to a city he hates. He used to have a sidewalk stand in the Village, where John sold his original paintings as well. He reminisced about those days, and the really old days, when he met John’s mom at a Catholic dance in 1949 and by age 18 was married.

We tried for close to 25 minutes to find parking near the museum and actually succeeded. Pop and I were on the lookout for a spot while John napped, still catching up on sleep after another night back on the lumpy mattress. He woke up just in time to find a spot for us, claiming we needed his expertise. Okay, but who drove up and down ten square blocks until we found an undiscovered street? Now I was feeling the real New York. Scour the place for parking or pay the astounding rate of $24 for 2 hours. Pleased with our find, we trudged to the museum where a huge line meant we could not possibly get in. What to do?

How about a trip to Hoboken? But first I felt I had to see Ground Zero. It was a crisp December Saturday as we edged through typically hellish traffic down to the tip of Manhattan. Everyone had warned me that it was just a big hole in the ground surrounded by a chain link fence. We couldn’t park or get much closer but circled a little. I could see the fence was decorated - and perhaps still is - with tattered mementoes of the dead. Pictures, ribbons, poems, posters. A faded picture of a young woman stays in my mind. She is smiling in a stiff pose; maybe it’s some kind of studio shot. I glimpsed hawkers selling shirts, flags and buttons - the post Christmas vacation crowd had a festive feel but I didn’t get close enough to feel the other vibe I knew was there. The sad one. And the angry one.

So it was back through the Lincoln Tunnel to Jersey. We toured Hoboken, where both John’s parents were born. We drove past Sinatra’s birthplace, very well marked and easy to find within the two square miles which is Hoboken. We then prepared to double or maybe even triple park, per tradition, outside Biggie’s Clams. It was a 1940’s social club/illegal gambling joint that served food so good it had become mostly a restaurant by the ’50’s. I had raw clams on the half shell and was very content. East coast seafood is cold water seafood, somehow brinier and crisper than the Gulf seafood where I grew up. Maybe there is an argument for cold climates after all.

We were soon back at Pop’s, greeted by his cat Duke, standoffish as ever. The guys had managed to find a New York Times for me after three tries at local Kearny newsstands. They watched football and I read the paper. We drank hot tea and ate cake and it was hard to imagine that the high rises of New York were so close to this cozy middle class street. There was more eating that night. Italian food, of course. Huge portions for your average “gavone” - Italian for what I had become on the trip -someone who eats everything in sight. But, New York in the winter is made for eating…when in Rome.

Laura Glendinning is a travel writer, and Vice President of LinkParis.com.





By: Laura Glendinning

Holiday accommodation in New York is always very hard to find, and to find something at a reasonable price is even harder. Manhattan is the most popular region for tourists, with Times Square been the heart of the district.

The city has four distinct seasons, ranging from freezing cold winters to quite hot summers. Spring and Autumn are often regarded as the best time to visit as it is not too cold or too hot.

A lot of Europeans come across during the cold winter months to shop and are amazed at the beautiful blue sky but surprised at how cold it is. If they are lucky and there is a snow fall, they will flock to Central Park and join the locals sledding and some even ski on Pilgrim Hill. Most tourists try to avoid New York in the summer when temperatures are often unbearable, however the temperature at easter is often perfect.

Tourists like to visit Fifth Avenue where there are several parades held there each year and also free concerts. St Patrick’s Day Parade consists of tens of thousands of locals covering the entire area in a sea of green costumes and floats on March 17th each year. The parade starts at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street at 11am each year.

During May they celebrate Martin Luther King; in fact most New Yorkers like to celebrate with parades most months and many of these parades start on Fifth Avenue.

The city offers a wide range of accommodation catering for most price ranges. A new popular form of accommodation is the renting of holiday apartments and homes in the heart of the city. Holiday accommodation here is often very hard to get hold of.

New York is also famous for the large number of restaurants that it has. It is said that there are over 17,000 and just about every imaginable taste is catered for. New Yorkers are hard people to please when it comes to their food and as a result restaurants offer excellent service and quality of food to please them. New Yorkers also like good value for money and in order for restaurants to survive, they have had to offer extremely good value for money.

The city also has a great selection of antique shops and art galleries. It is regarded as the entertainment capital of the world with ballet, dance, concerts, opera and theatre. Most tourists come back to New York year after year as the City has so much for them to see and do.

There are also plenty of coffee houses, grills, steak houses and Chinese restaurants offering a very good choice of cheap food with quick friendly service. For people in a rush, New York offers some of the best fast food outlets in the world. It does not matter if it is day or night, you can always get something to eat twenty four hours a day in New York.

Most coffee houses are also open twenty four hours a day in New York and many serve hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. There is something special about having a strong black coffee in New York sitting in a Coffee House watching the rest of the City go about their work as you relax taking in the atmosphere.

As well as having some fabulous shops on Fifth Avenue (Most of the famous department stores are based here), New York is also home to Trump Tower. It is worth a visit to Trump Tower just to experience the sheer elegance and opulence of the boutiques.

New York truly is the city that never sleeps, but if you’re there on vacation you most certainly will want a good nights sleep. Holiday homes and holiday villas are both available for rent in and around the city, but your best bet for quality holiday accommodation is a hotel.





By: Andrew Gibson

Hi!
This summer…I’ll be in New York on Holidays…!
Which type of cloths do you use to wear? What do you usually eat?And Which Pubs…Local, bars, discos do you attend?
Thank you very much everybody!!!!
Alex

Which cities would be best as holiday destinations? New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas? I was thinking Los Angeles because of Hollywood and stuff, but I’ve also always wanted to go to New York and Vegas. Where else is good? Also - and forgive my horrible geography - but how far away are these cities from each other? How long does it take to travel between these 3 cities, and how can I travel to and from (like train, etc.)? I really want to visit all 3 cities in the one trip, hopefully without racking up a huge debt…any way you can travel cheaply?

My mom and I are planning a trip to New York for the Thansgiving Holiday. Any suggestions for hotels and restaurants? Whats the difference between midtown and downtown? Sights to see? Subway, bus, cab, walk - best transportation?

We all know that any living being cannot exist without food and water; but we do not realize this fact in our day to day lives where most times we eat to live. This can be seen in the hectic lives that most of us our leading, rushing to meet unrealistic deadlines and grabbing a bite while our work continues uninterrupted. However there are some people who give priority to their comfort and happiness and take time out to enjoy a sumptuous meal, whether at home or at their favorite restaurant. A steak lover forms an integral part of this category of gourmets. Steakhouses in New York or other city have identified this segment and try their level best to cater to this class of gourmets. A New York City Steakhouse is therefore a much favored destination for any person who is fond of steaks.

A steak is typically made of beef though a New York City Steakhouse can also serve other kind of meat such as lamb, game, pork, chicken and even seafood. A New York City steakhouse also known as a chophouse specializes in different types of steak preparations, depending on the taste and preference of the patron. Delectable side dishes are also served to the patron and some of the most popular side dishes are prawns or cooked lobster tail. Many steak lovers prefer to have the main dish with a starch based side serving which usually consists of potatoes, rice, beans or pasta. A New York City Steakhouse may also serve a small serving of cooked vegetables, creamed spinach, mushrooms, onion rings, tomato or even peas with the main course.

The perfect, soothing ambience of a New York City Steakhouse and the courteous staff add to the wholesome experience of the patron who may have visited it alone or with friends and family or perhaps even office colleagues. As a steak is made using the tenderest cuts of the animal, it carries a premium price tag. Hence a person who frequents a New York City Steakhouse is presumed to be financially well off. Hence inviting friends, family or business associates to a New York City Steakhouse for a luncheon or dinner would be matter of status to the host. The superior quality food and the service par excellence at the New York City Steakhouse only add to the perception.

A New York City Steakhouse caters to every taste of it’s patron by serving steaks that can be raw, very rare, rare plus, medium rare, medium, medium well and well done depending on the preference of the guest. Many countries have their own steak preparations like France which usually serves steaks with French fries and the combination is known as ‘steak-frites.’ Particular styles of cooking steaks have also been named after certain states like the ‘Chicago-styled’ steak and the ‘Pittsburgh rare.’ Also several other kinds of food have also come to be known as steaks without actually being one like the Salisbury steak also known as the Hamburger steak and the steak tartare. It just goes to show that even though the steak may be adapted to suit to the taste and preference of people across the globe, its place as a popular food item, remains fixed.





By: Neil Folley

The sentiments behind the words “I love New York” is one you’d certainly feel the moment you step out of the plane and see for yourself what the Big Apple has in store for you. With a population of over eight million people, thousands of high rise buildings dominating the scene and blinking lights all over, sometimes it’s hard not to be overwhelmed when you first set your eyes on the city that never sleeps.

Although a lot of people believe that New York is one of those big bad cities with crime rates that would make your heart palpitate in fear, official reports actually claim that New York is one of the safest places to be these days, with crime rates reaching an all time low since the 1960’s. If it’s your first time to travel to New York, here are a few tips for you to make your visit in New York safer, cheaper and more memorable.

Where To Stay : If you don’t have some friends with pads in New York that you could bunk in for a night or two then there are a wide range of hotels for you to choose from. Most of the hotels in New York are concentrated in Manhattan but if you’re flying for business purposes then maybe you’d prefer to stay somewhere near Wall Street. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for something quirky and fun, then maybe Chelsea and Greenwhich are good places to start.

Where To Eat : One good thing about New York: the food is a fusion of a bit of everything from the four corners of the globe. If you desire lasagna, then Italian eateries are just around the corner. If you desire some good old fashioned beef stew and yangchow rice then there are a lot of Chinese delis that are willing to deliver food right on your doorstep. From ultra-posh, exorbitantly expensive first class restaurants to bohemian dining to fixed rates for eat all you can buffets, New York will have no problems in satisfying your gastronomical inclinations.

Where to Go : New York has a lot of points of interest to boast of and the list just keeps getting longer and longer. Remember the animation movie, Madagascar? Well, that’s Central Park in drawing but wait till you see the real one and all eight hundred acres of it. And then there’s Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum. They say that a visit to New York isn’t complete until you check out the lifelike “creatures” in that particular museum. And who can forget the Empire State Building, once the tallest among them all high rise buildings? And of course there’s the Statue of Liberty, the very symbol of American welcome. Then there’s the Rockefeller Center, with its famous Christmas tree right in the middle of all the action.

How to Stay Safe : Although New York is considered as “safe”, it wouldn’t hurt to take the necessary precautions and avoid the attention of pickpockets on the lookout for out-of-towners. Don’t make a fuss when going to the ATM and always go out in groups.

How Not to Get Lost : New York is a very busy city so the bustling city may end up overwhelming first time visitors. Hence, it’s advisable that you always carry your map and cellphone with you. If unsure of the destination, don’t just board the subway but instead, spend extra cash for a cab ride. Lastly, enjoy your New York tour!





By: Jake J Saab