CitiPond at Bryant Park

Until recently temperatures in New York City have been rather mild, considering we are almost into November.  So it may come as a shock that as of tomorrow, there will be outdoor ice skating available in Bryant Park.  But the weather should be just right for the first day of twirling on the ice, so come on out and enjoy the opening celebration of Citi Pond at Bryant Park.

The Bridges of Central Park

Central Park is an integral part of New York City.  For Manhattanites, it offers a welcome respite from the noise of the city streets; for visitors it offers the historic and beautiful design of Frederick Law Olmstead.  Many of the classic views of the Park feature its 36 bridges and arches.  Here is a look at some of the better known Central Park bridges:

• Balcony Bridge, at West Drive and 77th Street, features benches on its east side.  For the best view of this bridge, rent a rowboat at the Boathouse.
• Bow Bridge, located mid-park near Bethesda Terrace, is made of cast iron and is one of the most recognizable bridges in the Park.
• Bridge No. 24, located on the south side of the Resevoir, is also made of cast iron and is a popular warm-up spot for runners. 
• Dalehead Arch, at 64th and West Drive, is one of the many bridges popular with musicians for the amplification of sound.
• Denesmouth Arch, near East 65th Street, is between the Children's Zoo and Central Park Zoo.
• Dipway Arch, located mid-park at 60th St., has benches built into the walls.
• Driprock Arch, which goes over a path connecting Wollman Rink to Hechscher Park, features a red brick facade.
• Gapstow Bridge is surely one of the Park's most famous.  This graceful stone structure is near East 62nd Street and offers lovely views of the city and the Park.
• Glade Arch, one of the first designed by Calvert Vaux, was restored in the 1980s.
• Glenspan Arch is a great place to be on a hot day.  The rustic, lush setting and the nearby waterfall help you forget how overheated you are.
• Greywacke Arch, near the Metropolitan Museum, is decorated in a Spanish-Moor style.
• Huddlestone Arch is an engineering marvel, made of huge, uncut stones with only gravity and friction (no mortar of any type) holding them together.
• Oak Bridge is no longer made of oak, but it retains the look of the original.
• Ramble Stone Arch features rough hewn stones and a picturesque look.
• Riftstone Arch is built, like Huddlestone Arch, without mortar of any type.
• 77th Street Stone Arch is the only double-arch bridge in the Park.
• Trefoil Arch, near East 73rd Street, is named for the decorations on its east side.
• Willowdell Arch, perhaps most noted for its proximity to the Balto statue, this arch is similar to Dipway Arch in look and with its built-in benches.

12 More Money-Saving Travel Tips

The first set of 25 Money-Saving Travel Tips from the editors of The Insider Travel Guides was a huge success, so we are releasing our second set:

1. Whenever you can, schedule your air travel for Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday, Those are the off-peak days for business travelers and week-long vacationers, so you're more likely to get a good deal.
2. Don't forget to compare all the additional fees, like those for baggage, reserved seats, etc., when you compare flight prices online.  These can vary from airline to airline and so can really affect your bottom line.
3. Planning a weekend get-away?  Consider staying at a hotel ­located in the business district of your destination city.  Hotel chains like W Hotels, Westin hotels, and Sheratons (all members of the Starwood hotel company) are not only bursting with amenities, like health clubs and room service, that entice business travelers but make a weekend stay pleasant, too, but they also frequently drop their prices by up to 50 percent on weekends.
4. For longer trips, we have long been proponents of hotel alternatives, such as renting a vacation condo or staying at a bed & breakfast. So we were delighted to see the rise of online services that link travelers with private homes, whose owners rent out their apartments or houses on a nightly basis. Staying in a private home is the ultimate way to have an insider's view of the place you are visiting. And it can often provide a much more affordable option to pricey hotels.  Check out web sites like AirBnB, istopover, 9Flats, Roomorama and Wimdu to learn more.
5. Sign up for flash sale sites that offer travel deals, like Groupon Getaways, Jetsetter, Living Social Escapes and TravelZoo to receive time-sensitive but almost too-good-to-be-true prices on hotels, flights and more.
6. And while you're at it, sign up with sites like Bloomspot.com, Google Offers, Groupon, LivingSocial, Yelp, Yipit and Zozi for the location you are going to, so you can save on restaurants, sporting events, museums and attractions, and other activities throughout your trip.
7. But as helpful as the Internet can be in finding travel savings, for the best last-minute deals, you are often better off in dealing directly with discount airlines and with hotel properties by phone.  Note: while an airline's toll-free hotline generally yields the best last minute airfare deals; for the best hotel deals, you should call the location where you want to stay directly and speak with the manager, who has the best incentive to fill unreserved rooms.
8. Whenever you are driving, follow the tips in The Insider's Guide to Saving Gas to make sure you aren't spending more for gas than you absolutely have to.
9. You can avoid the now-standard $25 fee that most airlines for checked luggage when you fly JetBlue or Southwest Airlines, neither of which has yet adopted the fee. Or you can shave a few dollars off (usually $2 or $3) by checking in online. But if you have lots of luggage and/or heavy or over-sized items (think skis, snowboards and golf clubs), you might do better to have the items shipped ahead. The Postal Service, UPS and FedEx provide this service, of course, but you can also try one of the companies that have risen up to take on this task. Check out our list.
10. If you are traveling with children, consider places that welcome your kids with wonderful freebies. For example, Holiday Inn lets kids stay and eat free, which can ending up saving you a lot.
11. Many hotels offer freebies for adults, too. Look for free parking, free newspapers, free Internet, free gym and pools, and best of all, free meals, like the cooked-to-order breakfasts offered by Embassy Suite Hotels.
12. Take at look at the nine suggestions in The Ultimate Guide to Free Travel -- while all of them might not be for you (house-sitting, for example, might be more work than its worth), you might find something that that will allow you to enjoy a wonderful vacation - for free!

FDNY Fire Zone

Fire Prevention Week is from October 9-15 this year, making now a good time to think about a visit to the FDNY Fire Zone.  While intended for children with a real fire engine and gear that kids can play with, the Fire Zone reminds adults of the importance of fire safety, too.  Most kids will want to spend a good amount of time exploring the engine.  But unless your youngsters are very young or easily frightened, you will also want to attend the interactive presentation on how fires start and what to do if you find yourself involved in a fire. 

School Field Trip to Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a great place for a field trip.  Not only do its historical attractions make Philly curriculum-worthy, but its position on the densely populated East Coast means that it is close to lots of schools looking for an easy escape from the classroom.

Looking for an exceptional Philadelphia itinerary?  Consider this one:

1. Stop at the Liberty Bell Pavilion to view this historic symbol.
2. Walk over to Independence Hall for a Park Ranger presentation.
3. Explore the Franklin Institute.
4. Visit Christ Church Cemetery.
5. Head toward the Philadelphia Museum of Art, stopping at the famous Love statue for a photo on the way.  Once at the museum, create your own Rocky Balboa moment by running up the museum's 72 steps.
6. Spend the night at the Battleship New Jersey, where you'll stow your gear in the same lockers that held sailors' personal belongings, chow down in the Crew's Mess, see the ship's legendary 16-inch gun turrets and participate in a simulated launch of a Tomahawk missile.
7. Stop by the Eastern State Penitentiary on the way home the next morning, once the most famous and expensive prison in the world (and home to "Slick Willie" Sutton and Al Capone), but now a haunting world of crumbling cell blocks and empty guard towers.

Philadelphia Restaurants

The Philadelphia restaurant scene has come a long way in recent years.  At one point, there were top notch places like Le Bec Fin on the one hand, the much beloved cheesesteak places in South Philly on the other, and not much in between.  But now foodies will find plenty to choose from in Philadelphia.  Click on the links below to find out more:

Philadelphia Magazine's 50 Best 2011

VisitPhilly.com Restaurant Guide

PhiladelphiaRestaurants.com

Zagat.com

Celebrate Halloween in Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a popular tourist destination for its many historical attractions, including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Betsy Ross's House.  But at this time of year, we also love to visit all of Philadelphia's creepy places.  Here is a list of our favorites:

• College Hall, an administration building at the University of Pennsylvania, which is said to be the inspiration of the house in Charles Addams' The Addams Family cartoons.
• The Mutter Museum - filled with over 25,000 creepy real medical artifacts and oddities, including skeletons, skulls, and internal organs preserved in jars.
• For us, the season wouldn't be complete without a visit to most dramatic haunted house in the Philadelphia area. Do you really want to be scared this Halloween? Then don't miss Terror Behind the Walls, the series of haunted happenings within the former prison at the Eastern State Penitentiary.

5 Things About Philadelphia that Always Make Us Smile

There are plenty of things in Philadelphia that make us smile.  Here is a list of our five favorites:

1. Sitting next to the statue of Ben Franklin on the UPENN campus.
2. Running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Rocky-style.
3. Shopping at the Reading Terminal Market.
4. Meeting up with friends at the clothespin sculpture.
5. Admiring the white lights of the Victorian boathouses on the Schuylkill on a beautiful night.