Antiquing in Essex

Today is a good day for taking a daytrip from Boston to Essex and roaming through the antique stores where you can find all kinds of collectibles and Americana. While you're there, don't miss the fabulous fried clams at Woodman's.

Newburyport Yankee Homecoming Starts Today

This annual celebration runs from Saturday, July 24th to Sunday, August 1st. Located in a charming waterfront town about 30 miles north of Boston, this weeklong event includes a sparkling smorgasbord of parades, fireworks, riverside concerts, craft fairs, art exhibitions, road races, and much more. Visit the Yankee Homecoming web site for a day-by-day schedule of happenings.

Summer In The City

We have long loved the outdoor movie screenings and concerts that New York City hosts each summer.  Whether you take the kids... or hire a sitter and make it a date... be sure to pack a picnic basket to truly enjoy the show!
Outdoor Movie Screenings
Bryant Park Summer Film Festival
Summer On The Hudson: Movies Under the Stars
Movies With A View: Brooklyn Bridge Park
River Flicks 2010 for Kids and for Grownups
Rooftop Films: Underground Movies Outdoors


Outdoor Concert Series
Central Park SummerStage
Celebrate Brooklyn!
New York Philharmonic in the Parks
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts 2010
NBC’s Today Show Toyota Concert Series
Good Morning America’s Summer Concerts
Broadway In Bryant Park
RiverRocks

Take Me Out To the (Minor League) Ball Game

Love a great baseball game but don't want to shell out the big bucks at Yankee Stadium or Citi Field?  We recommend that you check out one of these minor league teams instead:

Staten Island Yankees:

Richmond County Bank Ballpark
75 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY
(718) 720-9265
siyanks.com


Brooklyn Cyclones:
KeySpan Park
1904 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
718-449-8497
brooklyncyclones.com

Boston's Summer in the City

This summer, the Boston Harbor Hotel is again one of Boston’s hottest outdoor entertainment venues with its Annual Summer in the City series, which features four free nights of entertainment each week through September 3rd. Boston visitors and residents can beat the heat by enjoying Summer Soul Tuesdays, Timeless Tunes Wednesdays, Blues on the Barge Thursdays, and Movies by Moonlight Fridays. For a full schedule of events, click here.

Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center

This summer, Lincoln Center will again host a program called "Midsummer Night Swing" - a dance party that runs for 20 nights on the plaza at Lincoln Center. Each night features a different style of music and dance (a salsa night, a big band swing night, a tango night, etc.) with special guest dance instructors and musical performers.

Travel Deals at CheapOair

Budget conscious travelers who want to savor the summer while it still lasts should check out the amazing new deals at CheapOair using this special banner link:

Keeping Cool in Boston

"Hazy," "hot" and "humid" are three little h-words many of us would like to purge from the meteorologists’ vocabulary this week. While a few folks thrive in 95-degree, 95% humidity days, if you hate the heat you certainly are not alone. Living without air conditioning can be torturous during the summer months, but lucky for you, you are a friend of The Boston Insider! From tips on where to go, what to do, even what to eat, we've good some great ways to help you keep your cool!  Click here to read more!

Photo Tips from the NY Times

We've written several times before about the value of photos as mementos from your travels and we've offered an assortment of insider tips and tricks to help you take the best photos possible.  Our interest in vacation photography led us to read the recent New York Times article about self portraiture.  Although the focus of that piece was to provide tips for photos meant to be added to social web sites (and the like), several of the ideas are general enough to be helpful when you are taking photos on a trip, too. 

1. "Don't photograph yourself from below. Shoot either straight-on or from above, whether you are lying down or sitting up. If gravity is going to do anything, it might as well help."
2. Turn up the flash:  "It blows out wrinkles and gives the photo a modern look, especially with a little over-the-top vamping."
3. "Make the camera-phone your friend... Its low-resolution quality is kind to wrinkles and blemishes, and it can even be upsized with Photoshop to improve its quality and clarity while still keeping its candid, on-the-fly look."
4. "A camera trick: An additional flash evens out harsh sunlight."

Go Hawaiian!

The Insider Travel Guides have a new relationship with Hawaiian Airlines, and we are encouraging you to fly Hawaiian whenever your travels take you to these beautiful Pacific islands.

Hawaiian Airlines ranked as the nation’s #1 carrier for service quality and performance in 2009 in the 20th annual Airline Quality Rating study. In consumer surveys by Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and Zagat, passengers rated Hawaiian the top domestic airline offering flights to Hawaii. Now in its 81st year of continuous service, Hawaiian offers nonstop service to Hawaii from more U.S. gateway cities than any other airline. Hawaiian also provides more than 150 daily jet flights between the Hawaiian Islands.

So when you're planning your flights to and among the Hawaiian islands, why not go Hawaiian?

Celebrating the 4th of July in New York City

There will be fireworks displays all over the U.S. on Sunday as the nation celebrates Independence Day, but we think one of the best 4th of July festivities will be right here in New York, where major Revolutionary War battles like those in Brooklyn Heights and Fort Washington once took place.  Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks is the place to be for the year's best show of spectacular explosions. The 2010 edition of this annual extravaganza will feature more than 40,000 bursts of pyrotechnic color and a special musical score with the theme "American Harmony." The show will get underway on July 4th at 9 pm and is visible for free from almost any unobstructed view of the Hudson River in Manhattan or New Jersey, but if you're lucky, you'll snag a seat at the Intrepid where the viewing is all but guaranteed to be terrrific.