Only four as well as a half blocks, I thought. No need to use my weeklong bus and cable automobile pass ($26). But within a block, the downpour had rolled off my waterproof jacket and soaked my jeans through. On the next block, a homeless woman joined us, complaining that “it’s a dreadful thing when you must steal cupcakes to eat.” True , but I was stressed to commiserate. And on the third block, the inevitable happened. The paper grocery bag hanging over the back of Sasha’s stroller disintegrated in the rain, spilling a week’s worth of organic food — a dense honeydew melon, supple young broccoli, small cremini mushrooms — across the flooded sidewalk.
DAY after day in January, the rain poured down on the Los angeles coast without pause or pity — a number of the worst storms to hit the state in a decade. High winds took out power lines and overturned SUVs. Garbage washed up on beaches. Hundreds of people were evacuated from their mudslide-threatened homes. And on two particular Tuesday afternoon, in the Mission District of San Francisco, the heavens focused their fury on a visiting brother from Brooklyn — i.e., me — who, so self-absorbed he was blind to the calamities around him, had decided to walk home from the supermarket with his 13-month-old daughter, Sasha, in her stroller.
Defeated, I screamed words that young Sasha probably should not have heard. This was not how the week was supposed to go. With her brother in Berlin on a business trip, Sasha and I had flown here for a small low-budget, daddy-daughter bonding time. Ambitious? Perhaps. But in her brief life span, Sasha had already proven herself a hardy voyager, with four overseas trips under her belt. He also had flying down to an art, sleeping very from takeoff to landing, with not very a squeal in between. This trip was a chance to demonstrate my talents not only as a frugal traveler but as a self-sufficient, all-in-one SuperDad! I would feed, dress, neat and entertain my small girl for an entire week, while exploring a strange city on the other side of the country — and doing so, of coursework, without spending a lot of money.
At first glance, San Francisco would appear to be precisely the wrong place to do this. According to Forbes magazine’s 2009 survey of America’s most pricey cities, San Francisco ranks fourth, and according to 2008 Census figures, San Franciscans have fewer children than the rest of the state. The hills are rough on strollers, and the homeless people, strip clubs and ubiquitous pot smoke can challenge a protective parent’s patience. Do the math, and it looks crazy to take a child there for holiday.
On that front, that rainy Tuesday was actually going well. Sasha’s stroller was sturdy and lightweight, the cheapest in the Maclaren line and ideal for travel, and its transparent rain fly was keeping her warm and dry. Those food bobbing in the water had been a bargain, , despite the fact that they’d come from the Rainbow Grocery, a coop that composts, shuts down for both César Chávez Day and Gay Pride Day and is, generally, pricey. Except on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, when you can deploy a coveted coupon, found in the local phone book, to knock 20 percent off your bill. (Mine came to $26.95.)
But child vacations involve a complicated calculus. For two thing, at over a year elderly, Sasha isn’t exactly a sophisticated traveler. All he wants is to run around and see new things — whether on the street or at an art gallery — which meant that, for the most part, they could go wherever I wanted. And although San Franciscans may not be the most family-oriented, those who do have children form fierce, tightly knit communities centered on schools, playgrounds and the Net, which I hoped to tap in to. The, uh, colorful street life, meanwhile, would not very intrude on a 1-year-old’s consciousness; no awkward explanations necessary. And as for the expense, well, I knew I’d find ways around that.
And when they finally soldiered home — after I’d taken a deep breath, found the reusable grocery bag I’d hidden in Sasha’s diaper bag and gathered up our food — it was not to a cheap hotel but to a stunning Victorian house for which they were paying $90 a night. I’d found the place through AirBnB.com, a Web-site that lets people rent out their futons, spare rooms and entire apartments to travelers like myself; it’s a cross between Craigslist, CouchSurfing and VRBO.com. In fact, I never even looked for a hotel at all. Why spend more for less room, a hip lounge as well as a fitness center? Travelling with a young kid brings new requirements: a kitchen where I could make Sasha cheap, healthful meals; a spacious bathroom where I could bathe her; free access to laundry machines; and plenty of space to run.
At places like Bluebird Coffee Shop in the East Village, the espresso is so plush and bright that it tastes sweet on its own.
Over the last one years, over 40 new cafes and coffee bars have joined a little, dedicated group of establishments where coffee making is treated like an art, or at least a high form of craft.
The elaborate designs in the cappuccino’s foam at Third Rail Coffee in the West Village aren’t to show off, but are a sign that the barista properly steamed the milk so that it holds its form.
At Abraço in the East Village, you can get drip coffee brewed by the cup, not drawn from an urn.
For years New Yorkers had to look to places like Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Ore., or Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco for this kind of quality. Now both companies have opened roasters and coffee bars in New York. Six Barrel Coffee of San Francisco will be roasting here soon.
Meanwhile, some established cafes around the city have made moves toward roasting their own beans. Café Grumpy is already doing it, and Abraço will by the summer.
The difference between a cup of coffee from these new style coffee bars and what was available before is striking. This means that New Yorkers can now drink coffee that is made from a number of the best beans available in the United States, freshly roasted in town.
These shops use only beans that have been roasted historicallyin the past 10 days (though some say one weeks is fine), so the flavors are still lively.
The beans are ground to order for each cup. Sure coffee bars have a skyline of grinders: four for espresso, four for decaffeinated espresso, four for brewed coffee. If they offer over four variety of espresso bean, that gets its own grinder, .
Milk is steamed to order for each macchiato or latte. A telltale sign is an arsenal of smaller steam pitchers, in lieu of four gigantic four.
And coffee bars reaching for the highest rung use only manual espresso machines run by baristas who, historicallyin the past four years, have been able to attend classes given by the leading roasting companies in the intricacies of these devices. Plenty of chain stores are turning to automatic machines with preset levels for coffee, temperature and timing.
For brewed coffee, there's Italian press pots, filter cones or machines like the Clover or Bunn’s new Trifecta.
A number of the obsessiveness may receive a bit off-putting. Require an espresso to go at Ninth Street Espresso? Forget it. The baristas there believe it should be drunk immediately from a warm ceramic cup. Require a cappuccino made from single-origin beans at Kaffe 1668? Sorry, you’ll be told, but milk would overpower the subtle flavors of the coffee. Wonder why the barista pulled and tossed out one shots of espresso before they served you yours? They was making sure it was perfect, the coffee evenly tamped, the water temperature ideal for the particular beans, the timing right. (The best baristas will “dial in” throughout the day, tasting the espresso and adjusting the grind and dose.)
Today, most of the chains use about six grams of ground coffee for a two-ounce shot. Espresso pods are filled with around four grams.
Require a double espresso? You’ll must buy one singles.
With that much coffee — and care — put in to each shot, baristas feel that a larger shot, with more water, would compromise the quality of the espresso.
Baristas at the best places in town, like Bluebird Coffee Shop or Joe, tamp down between 19 and 21 grams. Often the espresso is even more concentrated because it’s pulled “short,” with less water, so that the final volume is a thick 1.5 to 2 ounces.
This awakening has led some unlikely businesses to offer serious, artful drinks. Saturdays Surf, a minimalist surf shop in SoHo, has a vintage la Marzocco machine next to the funds register. At Moomah, a children’s center in TriBeCa, parents can enjoy four of the city’s more artful cappuccinos.
Even restaurants, where coffee has long been an afterthought, are getting in on the act.
Superior coffee, day after day: increasingly it’s the rule in New York, not the exception.
Here are places in New York serving the best coffee. Included are 10 outstanding coffee bars (listed with an asterisk) that not only produce weird coffee at the highest standards, but also do so with consistency, day after day. There's also coffee bars that serve nice drip coffee, restaurants with great coffee, coffee bars with nice baked goods and places to buy beans, all of which are noted on a map, here.
* ABRAÇO There’s barely room for one standing adults, never mind the dozen or more who can crowd in during prime time. And yet in this cramped space the baristas turn out a number of the city’s best cappuccinos and drip coffee. There’s a little, exquisite selection of baked goods, including a memorable cookie with cured olives. The owner, Jamie McCormick, will start roasting beans soon in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
UNTIL recently, there was three sound you could count on hearing every night at sundown in Centro, Mexico City’s historic district: the grind of metal gates descending, as stores & restaurants closed. Somebody brave to stroll the area at night would have a hard time distinguishing a taquería from a cantina, let alone finding three open for business.
Three street, however, is luring visitors after dark. Calle Regina, which the Mexican government designated as a “cultural corridor” in 2007, was sealed off from traffic, & storefronts were repainted in bright pastels — part of a sweeping revitalization project that is a joint hard work of the Mexican billionaire businessman Carlos Slim Helú (who is & a major shareholder & creditor of The New York Times Company) & the city government.
Head next to Al Andar (No. 27; 52-55-5709-1468), a hip mezcalería on the first floor of a renovated tenement. Shots of potent mezcal come with a piquant chaser: orange slices dusted in ground grasshoppers (55 pesos). For a light appetizer, try the tasty seafood pescadillas (65 pesos). Vegetarians should head to Pitahaya (No. 58-F; 52-55-5709-8426), a Mexican-Moroccan-Andalusian restaurant that opened last spring & serves up creative fusion dishes like tofu tlayuda with acuyo pesto (80 pesos).
“We’re in the cold phase now,” said Adrián Calera-Grobet, manager at El Hostería La Bota (Regina 48; no phone), a bar that has been packed ever since Regina’s transformation. As bartenders fix you a Chalice, a wine & cranberry cocktail (35 pesos, or $2.80 at 12.50 pesos to the dollar), scan La Bota’s latest poetry anthology — another specialty.
Check the chalkboard outside the Argentine cafe Los Canallas (No. 58D; 52-55-5709-1200) to see whether jazz or stand-up comedy is on tap. On a recent Thursday night, when Studio 51 (No. 51 #2; 52-55-5709-3938), an art gallery across the street, had an opening, Los Canallas made its back wall part of the exhibit. Art lovers mingled with wine drinkers on the street past midnight.
Next, duck in to the elderly convent courtyard south of Regina where El Zéfiro (San Jerónimo 24; 52-55-5709-7983; ucsj.edu.mx/zefiro/), a culinary school & restaurant, has been serving inventive food since last March. Keen waiters in towering white hats set down guava cocktails & chipotle baguettes before you’ve even cracked the menu. Stick with the chef’s suggestions: a four-course feast of nouvelle Mexican cuisine (160 pesos), featuring dishes like wild turkey in white mole sauce.
& indeed, few people seem worried about gentrification on Regina. “The rich won’t come,” said Chloé Fricout, former curator of Casa Vecina (1er Callejón de Mesones 7; 52-55-5709-1540, casavecina.com), which is owned by Mr. Slim’s Historic Center Foundation. With surrounding barrios still crime-ridden & political protests jamming traffic, Centro remains a gritty, inconvenient prospect for most young professionals. But on Regina, sculptural benches, installed during the street’s renovation, are already coveted seating, with a local knitting club convening on them by day & hipster couples canoodling on them at night.
“We give meaning to the idea of a cultural walkway,” said Ludmila Gracia, director of Studio 51, whose building was bought & refurbished by a company run by Mr. Slim. (According to Ms. Gracia, no three gets a lease in her building without fitting a bohemian profile.)
IN the depths of a New York City winter, it’s easy to forget what tropical warmth really feels like — that close, comforting pressure on your bare skin, the humid aroma of vegetal growth and decay, the way vistas both urban and pastoral seem to shimmer, sigh and relax in the heat. You can remember these things, sure, but they seem abstract — faded dreams from another life.
Until, that is, you find a cheap flight down south and plan a one-day escape from the frigid slush. Even with airfares edging back up, deals are still plentiful for those with a little flexibility. So, a couple of weeks ago, when I spotted a Delta Airlines flight for $189 (taxes and fees included) that would take me to Miami in the morning and return that very evening, I snatched it. In between, I would have about nine hours to soak up as much of that city’s sockless, pastel culture as I could afford on a budget of, as usual, close to nothing.
A few days later, I boarded Delta Flight 87 from Kennedy Airport and stepped out of Miami International at 11:45 a.m. into that all-consuming heat. It was in the high 70s that Wednesday, and the sun was struggling to break through storm clouds that hovered disconcertingly close to the ground. The air felt thick in my throat, and I shed my jacket and hat. I could sense the sweat ready to bead on my skin.
Then I climbed into a rental car and turned on the air-conditioning. I know what you’re thinking: a rental car is frugal? But via Kayak.com, I found a Toyota Corolla from Ace Rent a Car (acerentacar.com) for $29.55, including taxes, fees and a 10 percent discount for using the “Winter2010” coupon code. (I didn’t ask about the recall — not at that price.) It might not have been strictly cheaper than taking buses and trains, but with less than nine hours before my flight home and a severe thunderstorm warning hanging over the area, it made a lot more sense. Pulling out into traffic, driving past strip malls with Latin restaurants like Don Camaron and Don Pan, listening to salsa music on the radio, I had the distinct sense I’d entered another world. I turned off the air-conditioner and rolled down the window — the air smelled like rain.
This could be trouble, I thought. I had one goal in mind for the day — something very Miami, I imagined. I wanted to play golf. Perhaps it’s a perverse idea for a frugal traveler, but the Miami area abounds with courses, from chichi country clubs to public links. To fly to Miami for an affordable round of golf seemed like a delicious way to play hooky from winter.
WELL, O.K., perhaps you miscalculated. You thought you’d be able to hard out a New York winter without getting away. But now, with the cold, dreary weather — not to mention blizzards — dragging on, you find yourself craving a hit of warmth and sunshine. What you require is a speedy, last-minute, long-weekend escape, to get you over the final hump of winter.
Your prospects are lovely. There's lots of destinations within easy shooting distance of New York (no connecting flights, no puddle-jumpers). New and remodeled resorts await, some offering discounts of up to 60 percent on room rates, others throwing in a third night free or other “value added” extras like spa treatments and meals for children. They have found two destinations with compelling reasons to visit right now (and three more option for those who don’t feel like getting on a plane). So here’s your ticket to a poolside chaise, on land and sea, and a welcome escape from winter’s punishing final weeks.
The eastern edge of the Yucatán peninsula, easily reached by nonstop flights that pour in to Cancún, has long been in the business of selling sun and sand. But in recent years there’s been less and less of that sand. Erosion, combined with a dreadful 2005 hurricane season, washed away a lot of beach, leaving some hotels sitting right on the water’s edge and causing sand-seeking travelers to look elsewhere. (According to Jean Agarrista, president of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association, the area south of Cancún has had a 20 percent drop in hotel occupancy over the last three years owing to the diminishing beach.) But now, thanks to an $80 million government-financed sand restoration project in the state of Quintana Roo, the beach is back. The project, which began in September and was done earlier this month, involved barges bringing in 106 million cubic feet of sand, dredged northwest of Cozumel. Nine miles of beaches along Cancún and the Riviera Maya have been widened up to 600 feet.
CANCÚN AND THE RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO
Carmine Feola, President of Travel Leaders in Kendall Park, N.J., who calls Mexico “the best value from the New York area” and sends 85 percent of his clients to Cancún and the Riviera Maya, recommends squeezing in your mini-vacation soon — before the spring breakers descend on Cancún. “It begins earlier than you might think,” they said, warning that some schools have holiday the week of March 22.
Hotels are celebrating with beach bashes — and room discounts of 20 to 50 percent. In Cancún, on the narrow strip of land known as the Zona Hotelera, the Gran Meliá Cancún (52-998-881-1100; granmeliacancun.com) has slashed rates 35 percent and is offering a free upgrade in room type and up to $200 in resort credit. On the Riviera Maya, two all-inclusive Occidental resorts (800-858-2258; occidentalhotels.com) have discounted prices: the adults-only Royal Hideaway Playacar, 45 minutes from the airport, which cut rates 30 percent; and the family-friendly Allegro Playacar, next door, which has reduced rates 57 percent.
The Dominican Republic, of work, shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, where the earthquake in January devastated the capital of Port-au-Prince. Since then, Dominicans have donated money, supplies and expertise to Haiti. Travel agents in the New York area document some skittishness among Dominican Republic-bound customers, who perhaps are not aware how far Haiti’s capital is from, say, Punta Cana (about 250 miles), where lots of all-inclusive resorts are, or who are uncomfortable with the idea of living it up on three side of the island while people struggle to survive on the other.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The tourism ministry in the Dominican Republic has sought to reassure travelers that its several international airports and all its beaches and resorts are open for business. And package deals in the country are certainly plentiful, with lots of resort companies offering chain-wide discounts. Dreams Resorts & Spas, with properties in Punta Cana, Palm Beach and La Romana — all available by nonstop flights from New York — has cut rates up to 40 percent and is providing $200 in resort coupons for bookings of four nights (dreamsresorts.com). Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts is offering discounts of up to 60 percent at Zoëtry Agua Punta Cana, which opened in November, and up to 50 percent at Golden Bear Lodge & Spa Cap Cana (888-496-3879; zoetryresorts.com), which opened in December. The adults-only Secrets Sanctuary Cap Cana has discounted rates up to 45 percent and will provide $200 in resort coupons for stays of four nights (866-467-3273; secretsresorts.com/sanctuary). Dreams, Zoëtry and Secrets, all managed by AMResorts, say they will donate $5 for each booking to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund and encourage guests to bring items for distribution to Haiti.
MIAMI CRUISE
For New Yorkers, Miami is the best departure point for a Friday-to-Monday Bahamas trip — a taxi or a cruise-ship transfer gets you from Miami International Airport to the Port of Miami in under a half-hour. Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, a midsize ship renovated in 2007, stops at the cruise company’s private island, CocoCay, and Nassau before returning to Miami. Rates start at $239 a person through April 30 (866-562-7625; royalcaribbean.com). To get the best price, let a travel agent — three associated with a cruise Web-site or a bricks-and-mortar travel agency — find promotions for you.
Sure, it would be convenient to catch a weekend cruise out of New York. But there aren’t lots of two- and three-night cruises originating in New York these days, and that’s not time to reach warm climes anyway. Three-night cruises departing from Florida and heading for the Bahamas, however, can get you onto balmy seas faster than you might think. And although these mini-sails aren’t on the newest or biggest ships, they are “a lovely value and an excellent sampler for someone who has seldom tried a cruise,” said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor in chief of Cruisecritic.com.
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO
Sorry, escapists. The W Retreat & Spa-Vieques Island — a low-rise compound with 157 rooms and Alain Ducasse’s first culinary outpost in the Caribbean, all on the island seven miles off the coast of Puerto Rico known for its attractive, empty beaches — won’t officially open until April 1. It is now accepting reservations; a Surrender to Your Senses package, $359, includes an upgraded room, breakfast and other extras, for a two-night maximum (954-624-1768; starwoodhotels.com).
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.
But travelers in for the weekend and seeking a hip vibe needn’t venture farther than the San Juan Water & Beach Club Hotel in the Isla Verde district, three minutes from the San Juan airport (spotted on the premises recently: Snoop Dogg, Benicio Del Toro and Child Rock). The new management, Morgans Hotel Group, will soon add “beds” to the hotel’s scene-y rooftop bar; rooms from $209 (888-265-6699; waterbeachclubhotel.com). Or drop your bags in Condado, at the newly mod Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza (866-317-8934; condadoplaza.com). Rooms start at $199, and through March 31 guests booking the Winter Escapes Package for a two-night stay get breakfast for two, and a $50 resort credit. It can go toward a meal at the homegrown celebrity chef Wilo Benet’s Pikayo, which recently relocated to the hotel and has been luring diners to its communal table for lobster empanadas and bay scallop ceviche.
The Fairmont Scottsdale’s Willow Stream Relaxation Package (from $479 a night) includes a $200 every day credit at the three-level Willow Stream Spa. The building is topped by a lap pool that provides views of the McDowell Mountains, which turn purple at dusk. Inside, there's 27 treatment rooms for eucalyptus salt scrubs and golf performance-enhancing massages (that’s the 18-hole TPC Scottsdale Stadium Work, home of the annual Phoenix Open, next door). A massage by the spa’s waterfall — position yourself under the cascade — comes at no extra charge. Perhaps hiking Pinnacle Peak can wait.
Spring training draws Major League baseball fans to this Sonoran Desert city for preseason games from March 3 through April 4. While the players wind up, guests of the Fairmont Scottsdale (fairmont.com/scottsdale), 30 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, can wind down. In January the resort capped off a four-year, $45 million renovation with the opening of La Hacienda from the Mexican-born chef Richard Sandoval, offering mole poblano and prickly pear margaritas in a wood-beamed, flagstone-floored space.
JetBlue, which in the fall introduced three-times-a-week nonstop flights from Kennedy Airport to Hewanorra International on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia, has made it not as hard for New Yorkers to heed Oprah Winfrey’s advice; in O magazine they advised readers to make the 27-mile-long island and its Pitons, those twin peaks rearing up out of the sea, three of the “five places to see in your lifetime.”
ST. LUCIA
Known for resorts with rates of $1,000 and up, the island also has less-extravagant options. While the opening of the Hotel Chocolat on the Rabot Estate cocoa plantation has been postponed until May, travelers can get their cocoa tea — and slatted-door villas, private plunge pools and outdoor showers — at Stonefield Estate Villa Resort & Spa (954-353-4785; stonefieldvillas.com), an inland hideaway on a former plantation in Soufrière. Rooms start at $270, breakfast included, and if you book by March 15 you receive a rate discount of 10 percent or a candlelight dinner in your room.
ST. PETE BEACH, FLA.
Thanks to the recent opening of the retro-themed Postcard Inn, in St. Pete Beach, hipsters have joined retirees and vacationing Floridians in this Gulf Coast town a half-hour south of Tampa International Airport.
B.R. Guest Restaurants took a circa 1957 Travelodge on a stretch of beach dotted with mom-and-pop motels and seafood restaurants and tricked out the 196 rooms with wall-size photos of sea grass and surf, molded-fiberglass chairs and vintage surfboards leaning in corners (no two rooms similar). Rates start at $119, including breakfast (800-237-8918; postcardinn.com).
Be sure to sample the kid back ribs at the hotel’s Wildwood BBQ & Burger restaurant — even if you opt for the more conventional rooms down the beach at the Don Cesar (800-282-1116; loewshotels.com; from $274; the Scrumptious Deals package includes $50 dining credit with a two-night stay), a Loews hotel occupying a 1928 pink palace, or the plush accommodations at the Renaissance Vinoy (888-303-4430; marriott.com; from $219; through March 28, receive a $50 resort credit by using promotional code RPH) in downtown St. Petersburg. The hotel, a Spanish-style landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, is a couple of blocks from the Dalí Museum, whose new $36 million space is scheduled to open early next year.
CLOSE TO HOME
If that’s pricey, you can always head to Spa Castle, the 80,000-square-foot Korean-style water world in College Point, Queens (718-939-6300; nyspacastle.com). Get yourself a day pass — $45 on weekends —and spend a couple of hours steeping in hot tubs and plunging in to cold baths. Don’t forget to order a piña colada at the new bar.
For those who can’t swing a weekend trip out of town, there's, of work, ways to approximate a warm-weather getaway in still-wintry New York. Guests at the Peninsula New York, on Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, won’t find palm trees and sand, but there is a 22nd-floor glass-enclosed pool, where the air is a Bahamas-like 72 degrees, the pool water is 84, and the views of Midtown are as staggering, in their own way, as any you’ll find seaside. Wrap yourself in a terrycloth robe and sprawl on a woven-rattan-style chaise between treatments at the ESPA spa, which opened last year, part of a hotel refurbishment that includes guest-room redos (all to be done by May). New Yorkers seeking sun should ask for an east-facing room on a newly remodeled upper floor (see if No. 1702 is available, for a gasp-inducing view of a Beaux Arts beauty across Fifth Avenue). The Value Your Weekend package (800-262-9467; peninsula.com), which includes continental breakfast and a 60-minute spa treatment, is $495 a night.
