11/08/2009

Shoppers in NYC are seeing more and more sales
In Manhattan, during this bleak-is-the-new-black economy, buyer’s remorse has morphed into an entirely different kind of guilt.

11/01/2009

Travel Getaway: A primer for seeing Harvard and Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — This country’s first college town is full of far more American history, smart shops, cool museums, inviting restaurants and all-around entertainment than your average city of 95,000 residents.

10/25/2009

This week’s getaway: Finding an outlet for your frustration
Ironically, no recession-inspired, Yankee-thrifty vacation in Maine would be complete without a spending spree. I’m talking about outlet stores, for which a couple of towns — Kittery and Freeport — are famous. Hey, you’re probably going to buy gifts for the holidays anyway, so why not get them for 40-percent off?

10/18/2009

Winslow Homer’s house in Maine to be a museum
Down a narrow road that traces the Atlantic shore in southern Maine sits a series of large, shingled homes. Many are weather-beaten, with flower gardens grown a bit wild.

10/11/2009

Authentic Chinese food in a New York minute
NEW YORK — If you’re a foodie who’s too broke to fly to China, I have three words for you: Go to Flushing.

10/04/2009

Pedal into the past on Governors Island
Like so many New Yorkers, I’d never been to Governors Island, though it lies alluringly close to the southern tip of Manhattan — about 800 yards away.

09/27/2009

Fame N.H. foliage highway is a half-century old
New Hampshire’s famed foliage route, the Kancamagus Highway, is celebrating its 50th birthday, so it’s about time everyone learned how to pronounce it correctly.

09/20/2009

On Vermont’s Mount Snow, chairlift not just for skiers
WEST DOVER, Vt. — The birds up here have it made.

09/13/2009

Getaway: Hobnobbing with the New Yorker crowd
Several years ago, on a Sunday morning, my girlfriend and I met writer Calvin Trillin on a corner in New York City, shook hands and set out with him to eat our way toward Brooklyn, walking through Greenwich Village, into Little Italy, then Chinatown.

09/06/2009

Famous chefs make it their way in New York’s ‘pop-up’ restaurants
Cesar Ramirez was not happy that we were late. The other guests looked none too pleased, either, when he ushered us to the table 15 minutes after our scheduled reservation. Everyone had a drink. That helped. But the cooking could not begin until all had arrived.

08/30/2009

There’s still time to savor summer on Cape Cod
To say Cape Cod has a little something for everyone sounds overly boosterish, like maybe we’ve read too many chamber of commerce pamphlets. But the well-toned, bent arm extending from the southern Massachusetts coast has a long list of attributes to keep a family busy for a week. Ice cream shops, a historic drive-in at Wellfleet, free nightly baseball games (weather permitting), batting cages and driving ranges, fishing, lots of bike paths (plus bike rentals) and miles of seashore to explore.

08/23/2009

Framingham, Mass., offers an idyllic Garden in the Woods
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Trillium, goldenstar, five spot, wild bleeding heart.

08/16/2009

Obama visit will add to Vineyard’s diverse history
OAK BLUFFS, Mass. — When Barack Obama kicks off his flip-flops on the Martha’s Vineyard sand next week, he’ll be adding a modern note to the island’s black history that stretches back three centuries.

Getaway: Cupcakes are icing on Manhattan cake
NEW YORK — This city is crazy for cupcakes. There are cupcake classes and cupcake tours, lines down the block at cupcake bakeries, a cupcake tea at a five-star hotel, and a cupcake truck with 6,000 followers on Twitter.

08/09/2009

This Week’s Getaway: Take a trip back to Colonial days at the Wayside Inn
SUDBURY, Mass. — Almost every little town in New England seems to have an olde inne where Paul Revere changed horses or Abigail Adams left her spectacles. But Longfellow’s Wayside Inn near Sudbury, a leafy village about 20 miles west of Boston, is the genuine article.

08/02/2009

Getaway: Going with the flow on Lake Champlain
Shhhhh . . . listen . . . and imagine how quiet it must have been when Samuel de Champlain first explored Lake Champlain exactly 400 years ago.

Getaway: Going with the flow on Lake Champlain
Shhhhh . . . listen . . . and imagine how quiet it must have been when Samuel de Champlain first explored Lake Champlain exactly 400 years ago.

07/26/2009

Visit the summer glory of Williamstown
Much has been made of New England’s colorful autumns, but my cup is filled by its deep green summers. I carry memories of them from working at a summer stock theater in western Massachusetts in my college years. The theater has closed. But the rounded old peaks are still here, so in June I returned to the Berkshire Mountains to spend a few summer days in Williamstown.

07/19/2009

Travel: For a weekend or a week, nothing says summer quite like Cape Cod
Cape Cod is cedar-shingled cottages, salt marshes and splashes of blue hydrangeas. Families explore tidal flats and order ice cream at the clam shack. Couples meander down the beach, and dogs frolic in the surf. It’s what summer vacation should be.

07/12/2009

Travel Getaway: A delicious drop in prices at New York restaurants
New Yorkers never do anything by halves. Restaurant Week, for example, actually runs nearly three weeks, from July 12 to July 31. So now is a good time to take a not-so-expensive bite of the Big Apple.

07/05/2009

Travel Getaway: George Washington sipped here: A guide to Boston taverns
BOSTON — From its tea party to its battles to that famous midnight ride, it’s no secret Boston played a major role in our country’s pursuit of liberty.

06/28/2009

Lobster-rich Maine won’t cost you a tail and a claw
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine is well-known for its lobsters, but you needn’t pay lobster-dinner prices to visit Portland and the state’s southern coast.

06/21/2009

Travel Getaway: CoCo water resort making a major splash in Danvers, Mass.
DANVERS, Mass. — CoCo Key Water Resort knows its target audience. It is young, exuberant, and not worried about taking a bath (albeit a well-chlorinated one) with hundreds of strangers.

06/14/2009

Travel Getaway: There are hiking trails for every level on Mt. Greylock
ADAMS, MASS. — At 3,491 feet, Mount Greylock is the tallest peak in Massachusetts. It has a road to the top as well as a hotel, a snack bar and a viewing tower. And it’s got dozens of miles of hiking trails where you won’t see a soul.

06/07/2009

See vistas that a Hudson Valley artist called the ‘center of the world’
HUDSON, N.Y. — Artist Frederic Edwin Church built Olana, his grandiose, Persian-inspired villa, atop a hill on 250 acres in the Hudson Valley so he could be close to the natural beauty that inspired him. When not traveling the world, he could look out the windows to see the lush landscapes of the Hudson River, the Catskill Mountains and trees stretching for miles — and paint them just as he saw them.

05/31/2009

Be on Broadway and beyond, without breaking the bank
Sure, New York City is the culture capital of America, and an easy drive from here. But can you afford the price of admission?

05/17/2009

Travel Getaway: New Amsterdam still lurks in New York City
NEW YORK — New York City is constantly being rebuilt, paved over and reinvented, so it’s not easy to find remnants of the colony of New Amsterdam 400 years after Henry Hudson sailed up the river that bears his name.

05/10/2009

Travel: For a quick visit to Europe, try New York
NEW YORK — On a recent day, I gazed at the Arc de Triomphe, visited the world’s largest gothic cathedral, dined on Viennese schnitzel and spaetzle, saw a few Rembrandts, and shopped at one of Spain’s largest fashion retailers.

05/03/2009

Salem in springtime? Why not?
SALEM, Mass. — Salem was calling me, thanks to two recent novels: The Heretic’s Daughter, by Kathleen Kent is about one of the women accused in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, and Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader, which takes place in a modern-day Salem, filled with tourist-trap witch shops, Wiccans and colorful characters.

04/26/2009

Little-known N.Y. area science museums worth the trip
Think science museum in New York City, and you naturally think of the American Museum of Natural History. The dinosaur rooms and the Rose Planetarium for Earth and Space have always made it a must-see for tourists. But just a bridge or tunnel ride away are two equally worthy local favorites that you may never have heard of.

04/19/2009

It’s always Earth Day at Connecticut trash museum
STRATFORD, Conn. — In a waterfront industrial area near the Bridgeport line, the trucks keep dumping trash and the school buses keep dumping children.

04/12/2009

Travel: More to Boston’s Fenway neighborhood than the Red Sox
BOSTON — Pardon the Fenway neighborhood for feeling a little unappreciated.

04/05/2009

Travel Getaway: Hobnobbing with the locals in Portland, Maine
A onetime tent city and longtime blue-collar enclave, Portland’s Munjoy Hill neighborhood has become a hot spot in Maine’s biggest city. Taking up the eastern portion of the peninsula, the area has shops, restaurants, galleries and a theater, but it doesn’t have the bustle of Old Port, the sumptuous mansions of the West End or the museums of downtown’s Arts District.

03/29/2009

Travel Getaway: A fest of orchids at ‘Brazil in the Bronx’
It’s time for the New York Botanical Garden’s seventh annual orchid fest.

03/22/2009

Travel Getaway: Fun at the Blue Hills is only a short hike away
Thirty-five miles north of Providence, the Blue Hills Reservation is a 7,000-acre playground for everyone, and almost all the activities there are free.

03/15/2009

Travel Getaway: If you’re heading for New York, bring the skates
No one is suggesting that you drive all the way to Manhattan just to go ice skating in Central Park. But if you’re planning to be there before April 5, the end of the public skating season, consider bringing your skates along.

03/08/2009

Travel Getaway: New space museum honors N.H.’s Shepard, McAuliffe
CONCORD, N.H. — First, a rocket landed gingerly outside the door. Then, a huge space shuttle model took form inside.

03/01/2009

Travel Getaway: You can bank on a fascinating tour at the Fed in NYC
NEW YORK — The stock market was in the middle of another spectacular gyration. The economic crisis was palpable throughout Manhattan’s downtown financial district, yet the atmosphere inside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was eerily serene, almost like a church.

02/22/2009

This Week’s Getaway: Northampton, Mass.: Where art and Main Street meet
Growing up in western Massachusetts, I frequently wondered why my parents hadn’t stopped their wagon in a more interesting destination such as Boston or New York. To quiet my mutterings, they would throw me into the car and drive up Interstate 91 to Northampton. On the ride back, I would be a very content kid, and not just because of the ice cream cone from Herrell’s.

02/15/2009

New York museum celebrates the true spirit of sport
NEW YORK — The word “courage” gets tossed around a lot in sports, often in reference to a player who makes an important shot or sinks a winning putt.

02/08/2009

Ahab would love New Bedford’s Whaling Museum
If you’ve ever wondered what life aboard a whaling ship was really like, you might read Herman Melville’s classic Moby-Dick, or Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea, which described the sinking that inspired Melville’s classic.

02/01/2009

Provincetown in winter is easy on the wallet
“A dozen oysters, please,” I asked the man behind the seafood counter in Provincetown, Mass.

01/25/2009

There’s more to New York City’s Chinatown than food and shopping
NEW YORK — The Year of the Ox begins tomorrow, and stores all over Chinatown are selling bright red decorations to mark the new year. But while it’s easy to pick up cheap souvenirs at shops around the neighborhood, it’s also worth spending a day seeking out the unfamiliar. You can sample new dishes, listen to a two-stringed fiddle called an “erhu,” or even visit a Buddhist temple.

01/18/2009

North-central Vermont is so tasteful
It’s one thing to find a group of restaurants that is not only acceptable but compelling — you actually want to go eat in them — within 20 miles or so of one another in what amounts to the middle of nowhere. It’s another thing when that middle of nowhere is north-central Vermont, more or less defined by Route 89 and the northern ski country. And it’s even more amazing that these restaurants — all owned and run by their chefs and partners — make concerted attempts to define themselves by using as many local ingredients as they can, even in winter.

01/11/2009

Weekend Getaway: At New Britain, Conn., museum, American art is the thing
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — In 1903, museums and collectors tended to look to Europe and the Far East for their art, but a central Connecticut institute received a $20,000 gift with instructions to buy only American “modern oil paintings.”

01/04/2009

Kids’ slice of Big Apple is sweet
There’s always something in New York City even a lifelong New Yorker hasn’t seen. Start a family, and eventually the allure of those once-unappealing tourist attractions seems palpable.

12/28/2008

Travel getaway: Pub crawling in Burlington, Vt., in search of local brews
BURLINGTON, Vt. — There may or may not be a craft beer heaven, but this vibrant city wedged between Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains is close. Located at the epicenter of Vermont’s microbrewery scene, Burlington is bustling with pubs and taprooms. Finding one that serves craft on draft is not only easy, it’s the rule.

12/21/2008

Travel getaway:
NEW YORK — Retail visionary R.H. Macy was friends with legendary showman P.T. Barnum — two rich guys hanging out in the 1860s.

12/14/2008

Big Apple attractions for you and your little sprouts
NEW YORK CITY — At the New York Botanical Garden, floriphiles take a back seat to the annual arrival of the model railroad. The garden shows off more than 1,000 feet of track, a dozen locomotives and even ladybug and butterfly trains through Jan. 11.

12/07/2008

Lots of spots in Manhattan for a spot of tea
NEW YORK — Manhattan’s legendary Fifth Avenue is home not only to some of the world’s most upscale stores but also to some plush respites for afternoon tea. The Gotham Lounge in the Peninsula Hotel is all upholstered chairs and floral carpet and dark wood tables. The newly renovated Plaza famously offers afternoon tea in its Palm Court. But with tea service starting at $55 and $60, respectively, these venues might be a tad expensive for the browser more inclined, by interest and wallet, to window-shop than buy.

11/30/2008

It’s prime time for shopping and sightseeing in NYC
NEW YORK — Some 11 million people visited New York City last year between October and December, according to NYC & Company, the city’s marketing and tourism organization. Even if that number drops this year due to the economy, you’re likely to find Manhattan plenty crowded over the holidays.

11/23/2008

Furniture just like the Colonists used, only new
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — It’s a handcrafted wooden chest with two rows of side-by-side drawers, a type found in 17th-century New England. But it’s not an antique. It’s a brand new reproduction of a chest made in Plymouth Colony between 1660 and 1700. The artisan who made it, Peter Follansbee, works at Plimoth Plantation. “Peter’s work is a real lost art, rediscovered,” said Plimoth Plantation spokeswoman Jennifer Monac. “He makes about 20 pieces per year, including specialty boxes, chests, chairs, cupboards, etc. Boxes can start at $800 and go from there. Chests start at $5,000 and up.”

Reliving the Pilgrims’ story: It never gets old
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — In this storied harbor town where the Mayflower landed nearly 400 years ago, generations of Americans have claimed and reinterpreted the Pilgrim story.

11/16/2008

Spending time in N.Y. without spending a fortune
NEW YORK — You don’t need big bucks to enjoy the Big Apple big time. Travel like a New Yorker on the subway. Eat like a New Yorker on the street. And see the city like a New Yorker by visiting public spaces, landmarks and famous places, many of which can be enjoyed for free. Here are some strategies.

11/09/2008

From whimsical to serious at Cape Cod art museum
COTUIT, Mass. — The whimsical paintings of Ralph and Martha Cahoon, filled with sailors, ships, lighthouses and mermaids, would be reason enough to visit the Cahoon Museum of American Art. But the collection also contains some masterpieces of marine painting, tonalism, impressionism and folk art.