Travel Advice : New York, Boston and CT.

[edg]

Heading out September-ish and getting my plan on. Looking for advice on :

What to see? Planning to catch a basketball game, wander around the city, go up empire state etc. but anything else that should really be in the plan? In boston want to check out Hahvad but pretty loose on other plans.

Where to eat? Looking for cool places to grab lunch more than fancy restaurants - think more the CT Pizza thread, and less the [ame=http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159506]new york resturant beta[/ame] thread. Also seem to remember reading about a chinese restaurant that has funky dumplings with soup in them? Recommended?

Where to drink? Completely open to either cheap or stylish, in either city.

And any leads on camping/hiking possibilities? Seems impossible to find much info online...

Cheers for your thoughts.

edg

[lionelhutz]

There's good day hiking within a day's drive of the city if you feel like heading to the catskills. Usually sept is a good time for that.
Also- if you really want a unique experience go charter striper fishing around manhattan. A number of companies do charter trips - both private- and large boat out of statten Island, the Bronx and Brooklyn...
Sept is good time for stripers too (at least I think so)

[BigDaddy]

September is a great time in New England. The weather is good, tourists are gone and colleges are hopping. You might consider a trip out to the Vineyard or Cape Cod. There's some camping on the cape, but cool B&B's, too. The mountains in New Hampshire and Vermont have tons of great places to camp and hike. I'll add more info as time permits.

[Woodsy]

loads I could go into but the basocs for now:
1:like London NYC isnt cheap, but can be cheaper with some insider knowledge. if comingin Sept look to come in the early part of the month. UN General Assembly makes the room rates shoot sky high and it is usually the last few weeks. Where are you looking to stay? are you coming solo? the ACE hotel is new and funky and affordable.
2:for what you are talking about food wise I would do food carts in midtown, dumplings downtown, and pizza loads of places. CHowhound and midtown lunch are good resources and I am sure Bean dip will chime in with cheap eats.
3:I woulod fly into NYC and go north. 3 intl airports make for cheaper flights. places like Kayak, etc let you search NYC that covers all 3. for hiking etc, you will need a car.
if doing non car transport, regional trains to CT ar cheaper (although slower) than AMtrak. there are also a ton of good busses that go to Boston now ( avoid any leaving from China town, take the ones that leave from midtown like Bolt or Limo Liner)
4:basketball? check the NBA schedule, but not sure its on.
if you come early, baseball will be in swing and should be pennant races for all 3 teams
5:go up top of the rock, not empire state: trust me walk across the bklyn bridge, take the Staten island ferry, etc.
again i could go on here
11: we need to get a drink while you are here, maybe get a group together

[tex1230]

I would happily take you on a tour of Fairfield County's Falling Down....err....Drinking establishments

[Hong Jong Fuey]

Also seem to remember reading about a chinese restaurant that has funky dumplings with soup in them? Recommended?

Joe's Shanghai
24 West 56th Street
http://www.joeshanghairestaurants.com/

On the cheaper side and soup dumplings are very good.

[Stu Gotz]

I would happily take you on a tour of Fairfield County's Falling Down....err....Drinking establishments

Any recommendations you might want to share?

[BeanDip4All]

edg- how long do you have in the area? and how long were you thinking of staying in each part? I'm assuming you'll be renting a car? how many people, any kiddos?

I've got some great recs for you, but sort of want to flesh out your itinerary a little more so I can customize a bit here....

[tex1230]

Any recommendations you might want to share?

Depends on your tastes...New Place down the street from my office - 1020 Post in Darien - nice bar, lots of Fairfield county cougars
One block over at the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Ernies...the kind of dive you'd expect in the inner city, not Darien

Great views @ Splash in Westport (both of the MILFs and of Long Island Sound)

Plenty of bars in Stamford ranging from dark Irish pubs to twentysomething meat markets...

I'm currently a big fan of the Bar & Grill on 7 (in ridgefield) - mainly because it's stumbling distance from my house

edit: if you're into $20 martinis and rich women with too much makeup, I'll start listing the Greenwich watering holes...

[Stu Gotz]

How about small country inns? I was thinking of getting liquored up and fighting the entire wait staff and all the guests.

As for Greenwich, I tried getting into the Round Hill Club, but they wanted no part of my skeezy hijinks.

[tex1230]

Bar at the Roger Sherman Inn in New Canaan is perfect for that...

If you want the Round Hill experience, just go to L'Escale

[Stu Gotz]

Bar at the Roger Sherman Inn in New Canaan is perfect for that...

If you want the Round Hill experience, just go to L'Escale

Now all I need is some Vineyard Vines-type of insult and that shit is on!

And here I muck up another thread.

[edg]

Accommodation is sorted - staying with the lady friend and her parents in Darien. As you can imagine this somewhat diminishes the getting smashed up/chasing tail possibilities for the trip.

Have intermittent access to car, but the rail link is meant to be good to NYC and Boston. Will be in the area for 3 weeks, fingers crossed, so have time on my side, if not convenient transport. Because of that, will be spreading out the sightseeing bits over a good few days, so trying to come up with a collection of good value lunchtime eats.

Thanks for all the ideas so far, knew I could rely on the collective.

edg

[Brock Landers]

Defintley hit Splash in Westport on a Sunday afternoon in the beginning of September. Boston at the end of Sept is nice, mountains early October.

Between the buses and the rails, its easy to get back and forth from NYC and Boston, little more research needed if youre in between (Darien) but theres service on Amtrak from Stamford and Bridgeport to Boston.

Personally, Id hit the Metro North to New Haven, hit some of the pizza places, and then take Amtrak to Boston, when youre coming up that way. Some of the CT coast in Eastern/Central CT is nice, dont even slow down going through Rhode Island.

Let us know when youre around, I live near Back Bay Station in Boston and can point you where you need to be (the bar).

And despite living in SW CT for 5 years, I dont know shit about NYC

[Hong Jong Fuey]

Activities in CT
1. Go to Weed Beach or Pear Tree Point Beach in Darien (your friend needs a resident sticker to park) and watch the sunset. They have grills at the beach, a great gazebo, and you can byob.

2. Rent a kayak in Rowayton (town next to Darien)
http://www.downunderkayaking.com/home

3. Shop - If you are in to that kind of thing - head to Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich. Think lots of wasps, expensive cars, trophy wives, pink pants.

Food in CT
1. Its already been mentioned - but 1020 Post in Darien is good although a bit on the expensive side. Leffe on tap and good mussels.

2. Post Corner Pizza in Darien has good pizza, but my favorite in the area is Colony Grill in Stamford. You can read about it in the CT Pizza Thread. Get the hot oil pizza.

3. Napa & Co in Stamford has a great wine list and a kickass Kobe beef burger. Reasonable prices.

4. Gingerman in Greenwich has tons of beers on tap/bottle and a good menu. Try Elm Street Oyster House in Greenwich as well if you want seafood.

5. Tengda in Darien (Goodwives Shopping Center) has great sushi and asian food.

6. L'Escale in Greenwich is very expensive but has good outside dining on the water. Watch billionaires dock their yachts.

Bars
1. Already mentioned, but 1020 Post in Darien has a bar that gets crowded.

2. Already mentioned again, but Ernies is a decent spot on Wednesday nights. They used to have an ex-porn star bartend there (Jamie) that wore close to nothing when she bartended. I always like going to Ernies b/c you could be sitting next to a plumber or a hedge fund billionaire and not know.

3. River Cat in Rowayton is a decent scene. The also have live music and Fairfield County cougars. Its close to the water as well.

4. Crab Shell in Stamford is directly on the water and a decent scene as well.

[jmf]

Go in LATE SEPTEMBER... You often get an indian summer in early spet and teh weather can suck almost as much as summer. 90 and humid - that sort of thing... I usually go back no earlier than the 20th and haven't missed the weather break yet - but last year the weather broke literally two days before I got there.

[Benny Profane]

If you're in Darien, go over to South Norwalk for a night. There's a nice strip with 4 or 5 places, and right around the corner there's a fake Paris bistro thing run by two overworked Euro dudes, and they have 4 or 5 beers I've never seen, and I've seen too many lately.
Since this turned into a Fairfield/Westchester thread, don't drive through Scotts Corners without a pit stop at the Northstar. Any bar with Lagavullan and Caol ila on the shelf is fine with me, although you may have to deal with older dick swingers talking loud about their Porsche or stock market prowess. Just grab their unhappy wife and run. But, be careful - after dark around here, it's just cops, drunks, and deer.

The soup dumpling place you speak of is probably Joe's Shanghai http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/joes-shanghai00/, a bit touristy, but good. There are others serving soup dumplings, I'm sure, but they are the most famous. If it's your first time in NYC, make that your Chinatown experience (don't go to any other Joe's), and then eat at Katz http://www.katzdeli.com/ for the Jewish experience. Oy, vey, the pastrami is to die for, and it's a cool neighborhood. If you like Indian, Sixth street in the East Village has many little places that are all pretty good, but the best is out in Queens in little Delhi. All above is fairly priced. You do not have to spend a lot of money to eat in NYC. Orange Julius for a dog and juice for lunch. Oh, man, I miss that shit.

A basketball game? In September? I'm not a huge fan, but, man, if you want to see some cool b ball, check out the courts on Sixth Ave in the Village at Fourth St. - there are at times some awesome pickup games going on right there in the middle of the Village - hell, there's a major subway stop right under it.
Empire State is classic, a must do in everyone's life, but the new observation deck on top of the GE building in Rock Center is also mondo cool, and less crowds the time I did it. And, you get to see the Empire State to the south. Combine that day with a Times Square jaunt (just walk) and a MOMA visit. Woodsy's right - two free and classic things to do are a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and a ride on the Staten Island ferry.
Do one of the double decker tour bus deals - great and affordable way to canvas the city to scope out other places you may want to go. You jump off and on at many stops.
Check out the new Citifield for a baseball game - it's getting better reviews than Yankee stadium as a place to go, and, the Mets are sucking, so tickets will be easier to get. Use www.fansnap.com to buy, and, the tickets get cheaper the day of the game. Of course, when in Boston, you must try to go to Fenway for a game, even if you aren't a fan of baseball. There is a lot of the essence of that town in there. Tickets are not easy to come by, though - try fansnap there, too.

Boston is a cool town, but I don't know it too well to recommend watering holes. Ride the T if you can. College town, I hear.

[NorthernSpotted...]

3. River Cat in Rowayton is a decent scene. The also have live music and Fairfield County cougars. Its close to the water as well.

The restaurant down the street, which is called The Restaurant, has better food and a kick ass wine list but not as cool a bar scene. Would be a great place to treat your lady to a nice dinner. Not crazy expensive and it's housed in a real cool old colonial house right next to the water, just a classic New England seafood place.

Also, while it's easy and relatively cheap to do day trips to NYC via Metro-North (50min from Darien), you have to take Amtrak to Beantown, which is expensive and not really day tripable. So, if you want to go to Boston you should book a hotel soon. Come to think of it, you should book the train too. Like airlines, it gets more expensive the closer you get to travel dates.

I'm also going have to disagree with whoever said to drive straight through Rhode Island. Newport is awesome and R.I. has some pretty nice beaches. It might also be cool to take a night and a couple days to take the ferry out to Block Island if you can get access to a car. Won't be any tourists left so the island will be quiet and you could probably find some good deals on lodging.

That's all I got for now. Probably not a great big help but I've lived in Fairfield county my whole life so I don't really think of anything around here as being all that "cool" but I'm sure more tidbits will come to me...

...like the dog track in Bridgeport. Only been once but it was fun in a "this is so bizare" kind of way.

[Sea 2 Ski]

Accommodation is sorted - staying with the lady friend and her parents in Darien. As you can imagine this somewhat diminishes the getting smashed up/chasing tail possibilities for the trip.


Thanks for all the ideas so far, knew I could rely on the collective.

edg

You might want to try Stamford Blues and Arts Festival in Downtown Stamford. It usually has headliners like Delbert McClinton, et al, and runs the first or second weekend of September. There's also plenty of decent Italian, Polish, Indian and Pub Food in Downtown Stamford.

I think Norwalk also has Osyter Fest around that time of year as well. I think Los Lonely Boys played there last year.

Tony Bennett is at the Palace Theater on Sept. 12

Magician David Coperfield is in Stamford Sept. 29

Also they are now taping Maury Povich, Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos Shows in Stamford. Come see the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in fights or paternity tests. Hey get an upclose and personal look at white trash America.

Since you'll be in Darien here is a rundown of Stamford.


Tigin- Where to go if you want to watch the EPL and have the Freshest Guiness in town. Usually Live bands on Firday's. (Dining inside or out.)

Bradford's- Good Bar food, open air bar area and wide selection of beer. Bands on Weekends.

Butterfeld 57- Just opened and is generally packed with more of a Joey crowd. T-SHirts apparently violate there dress code.

Capriccio- Italian Cafe style dining. Great for chilling and people watching.

Madiera-Latin/Reggeton depending on the night.

SBC Downtown- Micro-Brewery and good place to go before or after a movie.

Barcelona- Tapas bar. I haven't to this one but the original in Norwalk was really good and the Stamford location looks even better for people watching.

Tieran's- Good Bands but can get really crowded.

Grand-Good Food and club music. Caps violate the dress cold.

Twenty- DJ's on the weekend.

Park 84- Just Opened by Bon Jovi. I haven't been there yet but I would say dress code

Rack and Roll- Place to shoot pool or Hear a live music.

Curley's- 24Hr Diner. Beware of the 2AM last call rush. (Two AM last call in CT)

Chez Jean Pierre. Live Jazz on Wed.

Personal choices
Italian- Il Falco or Pellici's (although there are plenty of Italian places)
Polish- Market
French-Chez Jean Pierre
Indian-Coromandel
Tapas-Barcelona

Also right on the Darien border is Monster B's. Live bands and dining.

[Stu Gotz]

Some decent casinos just a bit north of you - Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

I second the advice for stopping in Newport. It is truly a slice of American history. Newport retains most of its charm from the era of BIG money, with "summer cottages" of the truly rich and fabulous. A weekend here would be quite nice.

Newport Mansions - http://tickets.newportmansions.org/mansion.aspx?id=1000

[bern43]

Boston should be really nice that time of year. Usual tourist places are worth it. Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market for people watching and some fun but sort of cheesy bars (sitting at the oyster bar at the Union Oyster House is always good though), North End for generally decent Italian Food. South End also has a large amount of restaurants, most on the expensive side. Decent dive bars/music over in Cambridge. Tons of good hiking/biking up in NH/VT too. If you're looking for anything more specific let me know.

[Todds]

NY Hiking:
The NYNJTC.ORG maintains lots of hiking trails and helps organize many hiking clubs.

This is one of the larger clubs. They have many hikes and the schedule is online. Most of the hikes can be reached by public transit from NYC. They run some interesting walks in NYC also.
http://www.amc-ny.org/information/schedule.php

If you are on a budget and the weather is nice the Statan Island ferry is a cheap boat ride. Take the round trip. Don't go during rush hour.

[Sea 2 Ski]

Some decent casinos just a bit north of you - Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

I second the advice for stopping in Newport. It is truly a slice of American history. Newport retains most of its charm from the era of BIG money, with "summer cottages" of the truly rich and fabulous. A weekend here would be quite nice.

Newport Mansions - http://tickets.newportmansions.org/mansion.aspx?id=1000

I'm sorry but I need to correct you. Newport is made for bar hoping the weekend of your friend's batchelor party and getting so drunk you decide to take a private cruise around Newport harbour in a borrowed zodiac boat.

[edg]

So much food for thought here guys, thanks a lot. Time to start getting a plan together...

edg

[jce338]

Norwalk Oyster Festival on the 11,12,and 13th of September is fun. South Norwalk has a good bar scene.