I moved from New York City to Los Angeles. I knew the coasts would be different, but some things really surprised me.

Nov 19, 2024 • 13 min read

Budget travel pioneer Arthur Frommer passed away yesterday at the age of 95, his daughter Pauline Frommer wrote yesterday afternoon.

On a rainy December day in 2022, I did what most New Yorkers loathe to do: I took the train to Times Square. I made my way into a testing center used by the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, somewhere between Margaritaville and Madame Tussauds. No, I had not been subpoenaed; rather, I was one multiple-choice test away from becoming a licensed sightseeing guide. All I had to do was answer 150 questions about history, architecture and transit in the five boroughs.

The prices of food and drinks in the airports that serve New York City, already a pet peeve of many travelers, are set to take a sharp upward turn next year.

Domestic flight deals are everywhere this winter, and low-cost Spirit Airlines has one-way tickets bookable to popular sunny destinations from $45. 

Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines is cutting dozens more flights across the country in a shake-up aimed at directing resources to the most popular routes.

In the now faded photo: my mum, demure in an off-white, gold-trimmed sari, hands half-hidden in a swirl of henna; my dad, suit wrinkled, sporting Jackie O sunglasses borrowed from my auntie to block out the Mombasa sun. It's August 4, 1973, their wedding day. I stand in the same spot 50 years later, under the whitewashed arches of Tamarind, then and now “the best seafood restaurant on the whole coast of Kenya,” Mohamed, my taxi driver, tells me categorically. The views from here have not changed much in the last half century. Across the glinting blue of the creek, on Mombasa Island, colonial mansions hide behind a tangle of trees, and the boxy flat-roofed buildings of Old Town, discolored by the salt-laden Indian Ocean air, press up intimately against each other. Wood fishing boats bob in quiet inlets where my parents once spent weekends learning to water-ski.

When Ivy Nallo and Zack Nussdorf moved to Taghkanic, N.Y., in 2020, they envisioned having a small garden where they could grow enough produce to host dinners on the screen porch. Four years later, the 625-square-foot plot has grown into a one-acre farm with greenhouses and a herd of Mangalitsa pigs, known for their lard. At the end of October, Nallo and Nussdorf opened Restaurant Manor Rock in Hudson, N.Y., a 20-minute drive from their farm. Much of the produce, like the patchwork peppers and the Barbarella eggplants, comes from their land, as does the pork for their loin chops and charcuterie. Nussdorf briefly worked as a line cook at the Michelin-starred Brooklyn restaurant the Four Horsemen. Here, he and the chef Diego Romo, previously of Gem and Estela in Manhattan, are making simple, seasonal dishes, like grilled squid with turnips and potatoes cooked in Mangalitsa lard. Before it hosted a string of restaurants, Manor Rock’s Warren Street space was a townhouse. It was overhauled earlier this year by the design and architecture firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero, who outfitted the restaurant with porcelain sconces, cream-colored walls and a red-oak bar made of trees from Manor Rock Farm. “We wanted it to feel like it’s been here for the last hundred years,” Nallo says. .

Singapore Airlines is upgrading the world’s longest flight with a brand-new first class cabin.

Believe it: there is great skiing in upstate New York. New Yorkers know there are a number of good reasons to venture upstate year-round, but come winter those snowy slopes beckon. And while many picture a winter in New York to be one of sparkling lights of the Rockefeller Tree, crowded streets of fabulous fur coats, or even the tall skyscrapers that evade snowfall, for skiers (or snowboarders) who wish to see all that New York truly offers, there’s no shortage of vibrant ski mountains, towns, lodges, and resorts that are totally dreamy for great winter skiing experiences right near the big city. Some are even less than two hours away.

I grew up in the tri-state area, spent some years in Texas, and then moved back to the East Coast to start my life in New York City.

For first-time visitors, New York City can be as intimidating as it is alluring. With over 8 million residents and 220,000 businesses scattered across five boroughs and 350-plus neighborhoods, it would take multiple lifetimes to fully explore the dynamic and ever-evolving city that many of us Condé Nast Traveler editors call home. In order to navigate the chaos, there are a few ground rules New Yorkers live by—from subway and sidewalk etiquette to unspoken social norms.