While official tourism data suggest a bleak summer, some brave visitors are making their way to the Big Apple. After months of being cooped up indoors, cooking countless meals, tourists are eager to experience new tastes and culinary favorites.
New York City’s Broadway and the museum scenes might be closed, but the sidewalk and rooftop dining options are booming.
There are also open street fairs, verdant parks, breathtaking architecture on every block, bridges, ferries, and bike-riding trails throughout all the five boroughs. If you can get to New York safely, and don’t come from a state requiring quarantine upon your arrival, a fun, food-filled, relatively affordable vacation is still possible.
New Yorkers really like celebrating the New Year, as many times in as many ways as possible. That’s only one of the reasons the two-weeks of merriment for the Lunar New Year are such an exciting time.
The gala welcome for the Year of the Rat, first of the zodiac animals believed to summon wealth, began on January 25, 2020, and will run through February 9, 2020.
Lunar New Year celebrations are filled with colors and culture
Parades, concerts, presentations, and extraordinary firework displays are scheduled throughout New York City. The city’s several Chinatowns and numerous enclaves of Asian communities eagerly share the rich cultural experience with tourists and well-wishers. Among the fetes are longstanding favorites such as Lower Manhattan’s 21st annual Chinatown parade. New additions to the revelry include the first-ever Asian comedy festival and unique mixings of arts and science at the Lewis Latimer House Museum.
Have you ever thought of visiting New York’s branch of the Federal Reserve Bank? It is completely free and well worth the effort of joining a guided tour in order to see the high-security vault. Behind that impregnable door lies over 10, 000 tons of gold reserves, safely stowed 80 feet underground. For those on the tour only a small percentage of that mass of precious metal will be on view. To book your free tour, which is the only way to get a glimpse of the vault, you will need to reserve about 6 weeks in advance of your planned visit. The tour can accommodate up to 25 visitors, takes about 45 minutes, and begins several times during the day between 11:15am and 3:00pm. A visit can be reserved as far as 90 days in advance.
New York Federal Reserve Bank Vault
Self-guided visits are also possible and also need to be booked ahead on-line, and do not include a visit to the vault, but does enable you to see the Museum of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which has an interesting display of the history of money. Self-guided tours are usually available with only one day’s notice.
