In 2021, I moved abroad to spend six months exploring Europe. I was looking for a change of scenery from New York City and to fulfill my dream of living in Europe.
31.10.2023 - 11:41 / nationalgeographic.com
The passengers who spill off the boat at Governors Island ferry terminal are already in holiday mode. In the eight minutes it’s taken to make the crossing from Manhattan, any daily preoccupations have been cast off. Sunglasses on, day bags slung over shoulders, they consult the map on the information board and then go their separate ways.
Some make straight for the Mexican restaurant just 50ft away, aiming to do nothing but sit in the sunshine with cold beers and tacos. Others rent bright-red bikes, setting off on a leisurely circumnavigation of the car-free island, their baskets full of picnic supplies. A few pad up to QY NC Spa, ready to get into white dressing gowns and slowly rotate through its relaxation rooms, saunas and pools.
The spa’s location, in a former army barracks, gives a clue to the island’s former life. The 172-acre site was used as a US military base for over 200 years and much remains from that time. There are canary-yellow cottages, once used by soldiers and their families; a grand colonnaded Admiral’s House, befitting its commanding officer; and a clapboard chapel and red-brick theatre that served all.
A 2003 ban against permanent residency on Governors Island, part of which is a National Monument, means that many of the buildings stand empty and dilapidated. Their future is, however, in safe hands. Run by a trust whose focus is on public art projects, sustainability and low-key hospitality, the island has been given a fresh lease of life in recent years. Among its new tenants are the Billion Oyster Project, which aims to restore the oyster reefs around New York Harbor, and Circular Economy Manufacturing, which uses solar power to turn the city’s plastic waste into new products such as planters and lighting.
One of the first arrivals was Collective Retreats. On a former car park on the western edge of the island sits a collection of glamping accommodation, from canvas safari tents with shared bathrooms to an extraordinary, wood-framed villa with hanging fireplace and walk-in shower. No matter which option guests choose, they’ll likely spend most of their time on the outdoor decks, unable to quite break away from the views of the Manhattan skyline to one side and the Statue of Liberty to the other.
It’s hard to process that the Collective Retreats site is less than a mile from the most densely populated patch of land in the entire US. The occasional toot from the Staten Island Ferry or calls from barn swallows, warblers and herring gulls provide the soundtrack here. The breeze carries the scent of salt, not fumes. And the main distractions are a game of baseball or giant Jenga on the clover-pocked lawn. Come nightfall, when the day visitors have taken the last ferry home and
In 2021, I moved abroad to spend six months exploring Europe. I was looking for a change of scenery from New York City and to fulfill my dream of living in Europe.
The most famous of New York City’s five boroughs is Manhattan. The hippest is Brooklyn. There’s the forgotten one (Staten Island) and the one that tourists only visit to go to a Yankees game (the Bronx). Then there’s the most interesting one: Queens, a borough of two-million-plus people and among the most ethnically diverse swathes of land in North America.
Anyone interested in food as a window to class could do worse than exploring the options available on the RMS Titanic. The handful of menus that survived the wreck reveal important differences in the way the ocean liner's passengers ate. While third-class passengers dined on rice soup, gruel and cabin biscuits (essentially, a stomach-settling hardtack), first-class diners had a panoply of options.
This is part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2024—find more travel inspiration here.
For those passionate about taking to the open road, maybe a holiday in a converted gas station is the perfect home-from-home. Or, for explorers wanting to get away from it all, an old log mill in the mountains could be the ideal retreat. With a line-up of quirky and distinctive holiday rentals, such as petrol stations and log cabins, Curated Collection x Eclectic Escapes by Marriott Bonvoy is part of the brand’s growing line-up, under its Homes & Villas umbrella. Travelers can book one of 130,000+ premium and luxury homes found across the world, including a reimagined gas station in Schulenburg Texas, and a log mill dating back to 1797 in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.
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