This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.
04.01.2024 - 14:40 / cntraveler.com
London couple Fiona Evans and Josh Chan knew pretty early into wedding planning that the typical big English celebration wasn’t for them. “We started looking at venues, and in the United Kingdom, they're very expensive and they have a long waiting time—18 months to two years,” says Fiona, who works in tech. “We didn’t really fancy that.”
The more they researched, the more “detached” they felt about the idea: “We came to the conclusion that getting married was just for the two of us, and that was the most important thing,” says Josh, an engineer in the railway industry.
Londoners Fiona Evans and Josh Chan eloped on a birthday trip to New York City.
The couple opted for City Hall for their wedding, and post-nuptial photos in Chinatown and Brooklyn
The couple, who met playing on a co-ed field hockey team at the University of Birmingham, got engaged in November 2022. They had plotted a short trip to New York City shortly thereafter for Josh’s birthday on April 30. As the dates got closer, the concept started to crystallize: They could just get married in the Big Apple, in what would be a destination elopement. “In the back of our minds, we thought it would be a great opportunity to just do it,” says Josh.
America’s biggest city didn’t hold special meaning for their relationship, per se: They’d just been a few times, and loved the place. “It's lots of fun,” says Josh. “We just really enjoy it.”
The pair tied the knot at City Hall in May 2023, followed by several stops across Manhattan and Brooklyn. The experience was so intimate that they didn’t even tell their family or friends until they got home, invited loved ones over, and pulled out their American marriage certificate (which is recognized in the UK, making them married in both countries). Ahead, the newlyweds explain how they plotted their nuptials, and share their best advice for other couples who might be considering something similar in the city that never sleeps.
The couple made a point to walk to Chinatown for pork buns and photos in front of the century-old Nom Wah Tea Parlor to celebrate the groom's Chinese heritage.
Many NYC visitors are rightfully psyched to snap pics at the top of Empire State Building, along the water with the Statue of Liberty in the background, or under the starry ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. But Fiona and Josh wanted to make sure their wedding album couldn’t be mistaken for a pile of postcards. “I had absolutely no desire to have a picture in Times Square or anything like that,” says Josh.
Instead, the couple stayed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and spent their wedding day hopping back and forth to the borough: They wed at City Hall in Manhattan, grabbed lunch in Chinatown, exchanged vows at St. Ann’s Warehouse near
This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.
Dinner begins at Gori, the tasting menu chef’s counter that opened this month above Anto, a high end Korean steakhouse in New York’s Midtown East, with the presentation of ingredients in a lavish Cartier chest. How to take this: a bit showy, too quintessential East Side? But once the ten courses start to appear, the luxe introduction makes sense. Chef Jeong Muk Kim, formerly of Myomi in Seoul, the youngest chef to earn a Michelin star in Korea, joined this nearly year old restaurant in November and uses strictly elite ingredients such as the caviar, uni and Wagyu in the chest. Even more important: the creations he produces from them for the ten seat counter have flavors so fully developed and enticing that they immediately set up anticipation for the next course.
JetBlue is cutting several routes – and dropping one city altogether – as it tweaks its route map in an effort to improve profitability.
From Barton Creek in Austin, Texas to Switzerland's Aare river, urban waterways around the world offer a cool reprieve from city heat—allowing residents and visitors alike to enjoy the various benefits that swimming affords. But even the boldest of New Yorkers, on the hottest of days, wouldn’t dare jump into the city’s rivers of their own accord.
I began my exploration of the countless bike paths in New York City as soon as I arrived. As a longtime cyclist in London, I knew that cycling is a satisfying way to get to know a city as a newcomer, and it’s no different in New York: you whip through neighborhoods, witnessing the landscape changing character dramatically between blocks. (My first ever bike ride took me past the copper-colored mansions of Brooklyn Heights, along the tourist-crowded cobbled streets of Dumbo, through Hasidic South Williamsburg and ended outside a crummy dive bar on Grand.) Riding a bike also requires a certain mindset, a kind of calm hyper awareness as you assess your surroundings. It means that you really notice things on a bike: potholes and perfectly flattened rats that need dodging, but also scraps of conversations, or the gauzy silhouette of the Empire State Building peeking out behind skyscrapers to signpost where you are.
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Frequent flyers, Chase is changing the face of air travel in New York in a big way with a high-profile new lounge opening today, while a second location is coming in one week—at the busiest of the city’s three major airports.
A Southwest Airlines passenger described enduring what felt like "Chinese water torture" during a domestic flight as she sat under a constant drip of an unidentified liquid.
A luxe flight route that’s on many avid travelers’ bucket lists is finally returning to New York City.
New Yorkers looking for quick winter getaways from the city are in luck: Amtrak is bringing back its popular buy-one-get-one-free sale, which offers free adult companion fares for midweek trips through February. The deal applies to full-fare adult coach tickets for trips within the Empire State on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays on the Adirondack, Empire Service, Ethan Allen, Maple Leaf and Associated Thruways lines, with the exception of 7000-8999 Thruway service.
It’s that time of year again — New York City Restaurant Week is back! The winter edition runs from Tuesday, January 16 through Sunday, February 4, offering diners $30 to $45 multi-course lunches and brunches, plus $60 dinners at some of the city’s most renowned, trendiest and sought after spots. Technically, you have three weeks to book a table an enjoy a dining deal, so get ahead of your plans and take advantage of the discounted pre-fixes at these top New York City restaurants:
As someone who grew up in Wisconsin and moved to New York City a decade ago, I enjoy analyzing the similarities and differences between the two regions I call home.