Just a New York minute!

REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE NEW YORK POST:

Today, I can tell you that there is a palpable sense of hope and renewal at Ground Zero that was crystallized by Saturday morning's September 11th Memorial & Museum's planting of the first group of swamp white oaks.

The approximately 5-year-old trees are now about 20 feet high and are set into mini pits on Memorial Plaza about 20 feet apart. In a few years, they will spread their branches to form a great canopy of shade over the entire plaza.

Each of the 416 eventually 85-foot-tall oaks will someday produce massive amounts of giant acorns. And if each of the hundreds of thousands of tourists takes just one home and plants it in his yard or at a local park or school or house of worship -- mosque or otherwise -- it will distribute the message of hope and renewal around the world.

Now that's spreading the love.

LOIS WEISS - NEW YORK POST September 1, 2010

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/tj_maxx_shops_downtown_9WVzfQorHBMhQZV59RXvEJ#ixzz0yHapjjFA

In a word, no.

However (and there's always a "however" or a "but") it does appear that New York City hotel rates have bottomed out. We've done a cursory analysis of future hotel rates, including discussions with hoteliers on yield and occupancy projections, and it appears that the 2-year across-the-board drop in nightly rates has or will soon come to a halt.

The good news for consumers is that current hotel prices represent a bargain compared to what we project rates will be in the futue. Of course, prices in New York City are highly dependent upon seasonality so taking that into account here is our recommendation for finding the lowest current prices:

• Summer (now through the first week of September) prices are very attractive
• Christmas week (around December 19 through the 28th) is another great time to be in New York City
• January and February are lower-priced, too.

What does this mean for vacationers planning a trip to the Big Apple next year? Prices will no doubt be higher than in 2010 but will still be below the high water mark of 2008. With 2010 rates 30% or more lower than they were in 2008 it will take several years for hotels to return to those levels.

New York City Vacation Packages (NYCVP) makes it very easy to see a game at the new "Cathedral of Baseball" - Yankee Stadium.

NYCVP has tickets to most summer home games, with transportation included from midtown Manhattan to the game and back via motorcoach escorted by a genuine "Yankee Insider." Along the way guests will be entertained with stories, legends and facts about the Yankees, the Stadium and the City during a Hidden Secrets of the NY Yankees tour of uptown Manhattan and the Bronx.

Transportation and ticket vacation packages are available for most home games between July 1 and September 4, including the July 17 Old Timer’s Day festivities and game. Visiting teams during the summer include the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays, LA Angels of Anaheim, Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and the Oakland A’s. Prices begin at $363.50 per person based on double occupancy including accommodations for 2 nights, game ticket and transportation, all state and local taxes, and admission to popular New York City sites and attractions like the Empire State Building and the American Museum of Natural History.

Past NYCVP Yankees baseball vacation travelers have raved about their experience:

We would like to give another special thanks to our Yankee tour guide. Cannot tell you how impressed we were with his knowledge of NYC and the Yankees! You could not have hired a better person for this job! Thank you Chris! Our trip was designed around taking my father to his first Yankee game. Chris made it that more special with his insight, presentation and presence! Thank you again to your entire NYCVP team. You guys are simply magnificent!!!!! The Gast Family, San Diego, CA

We purchased a Yankee package from NYCVP.  The bus ride was invaluable.  The guide provided us much more than a bus ride to the Yankee game.  He provided us some insider tips we would not have known otherwise (i.e.: Celebrity homes, movie locations, schools etc...) and also gave us a tour of buildings etc... that we would not have seen.  His story telling abilities were very enjoyable.  The transportation to and from the game was very smooth.  We were traveling with children and I was concerned that it would be complicated but the tour went smooth for everyone. I will definitely recommend NYCVP to others and check you out again on our next trip to New York! Thanks for helping us make lasting memories. The Fritz Family

The highlight of the trip was a Yankees game for my son and me. Our tour guide was extremely informative. His love for the Yankees made the experience that much better for us. He provided us with an excellent trip to Yankee stadium, providing information about what we were passing by on the way, but also Yankee information that the normal tour group would probably never know. CAJ, Milo, IA

For information on NYCVP’s NY Yankees Baseball Vacations call your professional travel agent or NYCVP at 877 NYC-TRiP, or visit their website www.nyctrip.com.

Here's a new feature we're really excited about - a booklet/guide for families detailing 21 "Hidden Secrets of NYC for Kids and Families." There's more to do in New York City than the obvious (Empire State Building, Toys R Us, Madame Tussauds) so we've compiled a listing of some great out-of-the-ordinary spots where families can play, talk, laugh and generally do stuff they'd never find on their own.

Hidden Secrets of NYC for Kids and Families can be a part of any vacation package. Just ask your NYCVP Personal Vacation Planner about it, or add it yourself to any package you find on www.nyctrip.com.

Sitting in the bar at one of my favorite Midtown Manhattan restaurants, Victor's Cafe on 52nd Street, I overheard two well-traveled women from Australia agree with each other that New York City was "colorless." They were referring not to the metaphysical elements of the City, but to the actual color in her structures.

It's hard to differ with their opinion. New York City, for all its wonderful architecture and its splendid skyline, is drab, especially when viewed from above.

That's probably what makes Times Square, in all its neon garishness, even more vivid.

And yet, even though it lacks the blues of Mykonos, the muted reds of Venice, the painted ladies of San Francisco, the whites of Santorini or the pastels of Bermuda, it is the only place on earth that can rightfully claim to be The Greatest City in the World.

Reprinted from RANDOM PHOTOGRAPHS FROM RANDOM JOURNEYS by Joel Cohen

For every passenger booked on a hotel-inclusive vacation through our group department we will donate $5 to the ASPCA! It's so easy to book your New York City-bound group with NYCVP, and now it helps a very worthy cause too.

For details click here. Minimum 10 rooms and 20 passengers. You must make deposit and/or full payment by 4/30/10.

April is Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was the first humane society to be established in North America.  Headquartered in New York City, the ASPCA maintains a strong local presence and has programs that extend their anti-cruelty mission across the country.

I'm really excited about a new tour we'll be offering this spring and summer. It's called the Hidden Treasures in the Rockefeller Center Area and it's escorted by one of our favorite tour guides, Sibyl McCormac Groff.

The tour will be perfect for tourists and locals alike. Sibyl, an acclaimed licensed New York City tour guide whose expertise includes the architecture, artwork and history of Rockefeller Center, midtown Manhattan and New York City, will amaze tour participants with objects, locations and history that they never would know had existed.

The tour operates every Friday from 3-5pm beginning June 11 through September 3. For more information click here.

Other NYCVP walking and sightseeing tours include the Ground Zero/Lower Manhattan Walking Tour, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Escorted Sightseeing Tour and the Ground Zero & Statue of Liberty Tour.

Click Here to view or download New York City travel planner.

By Adrianne Pasquarelli REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM Crain's New York Business

The exhibit, in which 25 to 30 mannequins will model outfits from high-profile designers such as Diane von Furstenberg and Michael Kors, begins June 24 and runs through Labor Day. 

Broadway’s sidewalks between Times Square and Herald Square will soon be teeming with even more beautifully dressed, fashionable figures. But unlike the hundreds of tourists and New Yorkers who walk the street on a daily basis, these new figures won’t be moving.

The Fashion Center Business Improvement District announced a new public art exhibit, appropriately dubbed "Sidewalk Catwalk," on Tuesday. The exhibit, in which 25 to 30 mannequins will model outfits from high-profile designers such as Diane von Furstenberg and Michael Kors, begins June 24 and runs through Labor Day. The figures will be located inside the pedestrian plazas on Broadway.

"There’s no destination in this neighborhood," said Fashion Center Executive Director Barbara Randall. "We wanted to celebrate the Fashion District and express what this neighborhood is all about and its creative talent that is the home of American fashion."

Ms. Randall said that the exhibit will include fiberglass mannequins designed by Ralph Pucci, who creates the figures at upscale department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York. Each fashion designer will use materials from the area, such as buttons and trim, along with heavy duty, weatherproof items—not fabrics—from nonprofit Materials Connection on West 23rd Street.

"We’re hoping they view it as more of a work of art—a sculpture—than an outfit," said Ms. Randall.

So far, 20 designers, from Betsey Johnson to Kenneth Cole, have signed on for the project, and Macy’s is a key sponsor. The department store plans to celebrate the art initiative with special window displays and exclusive merchandise. Meanwhile, the Parsons School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology will have their own mannequins to dress.

"This groundbreaking, outdoor, public runway is destined to become New York City’s major tourist attraction this summer," said Fern Mallis, senior vice president of IMG Fashion—which produces Mercedes Benz Fashion Week—and a chairperson for the project, in a statement. "It will attract every fashion-loving citizen and tourist who would do anything to get inside the Bryant Park Tents."

Incidentally, Fashion Week spent its final days at Bryant Park last month and will move uptown to Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park this fall.

On Sept. 6, after the exhibit concludes, the sculptures will be auctioned off and the proceeds will go to Materials for the Arts, a nonprofit that supplies arts materials to New York City public schools.

We have received word today that the route for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2010 will include 7th Avenue and Times Square, just as it did in 2009. We don't know yet if the entire route will be the same, or if the parade will be shortened as requested by the NYPD.

New York City Vacation Packages will again entertain parade-viewers at parties overlooking the parade. For information on NYCVP's exclusive Insider's View events at the Marriott Marquis and the Sheraton New York Hotel visit www.nycvp.com or click here.