The 10 Best Wine Bars in New York City

Some holiday destinations in Europe can be staggeringly expensive - think Monaco, Switzerland and the Amalfi Coast. However, the continent boasts 44 countries and territories, meaning there are trips on offer for every budget. 

Fall in NYC comes as a relief. The city in summer has its virtues—emptier streets, more easily-acquired reservations at most of the best restaurants—but the heat and the reek of garbage baking in it more than wear out that season’s welcome well before September slouches, sweating, into frame. Flattering it is not that autumn follows on its heels, not only turning off the oven but also invigorating New Yorkers who can now don the jackets they are so proud of and walk at their usual bracing clips without perspiring quite so readily.

Born in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, Nemonte Nenquimo, an Indigenous Waorani woman and activist, traveled a long and arduous path to become one of the earth’s fiercest defenders. In her new memoir, We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People, released September 17, she shares the story of that journey, charting her experience growing up in the forest—a place where months are measured in moons, shamans and plant medicines heal, and dreams and intuition guide one’s path in life—as well as the pain and trauma inflicted by missionaries, oil companies, and governments that have long attempted to erase Indigenous culture and exploit their homelands. Now a leading figure in climate activism, Nenquimo’s book is also the first of its kind to be written by an Indigenous person from the Ecuadorian Amazon, where ancestral knowledge and wisdom about life in the forest have been passed down orally for millenia and the tradition of storytelling never manifests on paper. “For us, stories are living beings,” she writes in the introduction. “Our stories have never been written down. Not like this.”

When most people think of Dubai, they picture towering skyscrapers, glittering lights, and people decked in designer clothes. While that's true to some degree, for me, the city has always been about community get-togethers, roadside shawarma chats, and weekends by the beach.

Sep 30, 2024 • 6 min read

I grew up in New England, and have spent many summers visiting popular destinations like Nantucket, Newport, and York Beach.

Sep 27, 2024 • 10 min read

Autumn is a big season for hotels, especially those that represent the winds of change. In New York City, Standard International debuts its latest hotel concept, The Manner—which feels less like the hedonistic Standards of yore, and more like any of the city’s growing number of fabulous private-members clubs. Across the country in California, a beloved Laguna Beach icon enters an exciting new chapter. Salt Lake City is finally getting a new lifestyle hotel—just in time for another ski season. And the country’s first ultra-sustainable, “carbon positive” hotel opens its doors in Denver to set an example for hotels everywhere. There’s a lot happening, and a lot to explore—where will you go first? These are the most exciting new hotel openings of fall 2024.

There’s never a wrong time of year to visit the Berkshires, the mountainous stretch of western Massachusetts located just 140 miles north of New York City. You can thank the fall’s vibrant display of foliage, summer’s Tanglewood music festival that draws crowds from all over the world, and a steady tide of new hotel openings to take advantage of as cozy winter getaways and for ski season. The region also has strong roots as an artists community, with a robust community of galleries, independent boutiques, and museums. And for city dwellers looking to stretch their legs, the Berkshires is also home to scenic hiking trails and winter slopes for every activity and ability level.

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As a fashion industry veteran, the men’s wear designer Jesse Rowe has been to countless stores. The one he can’t stop thinking about is Marcello, a hidden shop in Fukuoka, Japan. “You walk into a nondescript building, go up a couple of flights of stairs to the rooftop, walk along a stone path, then go down a fire escape to this completely transporting clothing shop,” says Rowe. The designer has brought that spirit of discovery to Zebra Room, a boutique in Germantown, N.Y., that’s equal parts coffee shop, cabinet of curiosities and listening lounge. Housed in a converted barn, Zebra Room devotes most of its square footage to a collection of midcentury Scandinavian furniture that Rowe’s brother imports from Copenhagen (highlights include an Inca chair by Arne Norell). There are also secondhand clothes and goods, from vintage marinière shirts to handmade leather dog collars. A coffee bar (which serves everything from Mexican café de olla to cold brew tonics topped with yuzu) is set up in a cube leftover from an exhibition held by the shop’s next-door neighbors Alexander Gray Associates. Rowe and his wife, the interior designer Loren Daye, clad the plaster installation with hemlock wood to keep with the natural feel of the space, which also has a 1970s cast-iron stove and retains the barn’s bluestone dirt floors. The cube houses Rowe’s record collection and sound system, which the designer has modeled after those in Japan’s kissa cafes. He alternates between vinyl and streaming, but the shop’s soundtrack is always played through a restored vintage SunValley/Dynaco tube amplifier and Klipsch LaScala speakers; similar tube amps, turntables and speakers are also for sale. “I want it to feel like someone’s living room — you might have to yell over the music,” says Rowe.

When the Van Cortlandt family acquired their sprawling Hudson Valley estate in the late 1600s, they couldn't have imagined that it would one day host a jack-o'-lantern festival with pumpkin sculptures including a Kraken, moving windmill, and Statue of Liberty.