Florida shopping

In Pinellas Park Wagon wheel is a weekend flea market with about 2000 vendors. Seven blocks of fine shops and restaurants line Tampa’s Swan Avenue in Old Hyde Park Village is best place for shopping. For unique gifts, shop for natural sponges on Dodecanese Boulevard in Tarpon Springs.

Art lovers can browse through the art galleries on Main Street and palm Avenue in downtown Sarasota. A British telephone booth or an Australian boomerang is available for a price at the unique shops of Harding Circle on fashionable St. Armand’s Circle, wet of downtown Sarasota across the Ringling Causeway. For a great display of shells, coral and jewelry, visit the Shell Factory Tamiami Trial, North Fort Myers.

Colorado River and Creeks photos

US Tourist Photos

Hotels in San Francisco

The hotel Maxwell is a handsome and stylish hotel which is a block from Union Square. Rooms have a clubby, retro feel with classic Edward Hopper prints on the walls. There more than 150 rooms and a restaurant and health club also available.

Sir Francis Drake Hotel: A Beefeater costumed doorman welcomes you in to the regal lobby of this 1928 property. The guest rooms look neoclassical with boldly striped fabrics and mahogany and cherry wood furniture. On the top floor, Harry Denton’s Starlight Room is one of the city’s plushest skyline bars.

Clarion Bedford Hotel: Pass under Art Nouveau arches to enter the bright lobby of this handsome 1929 building. Most of the light and airy rooms with white furniture and canopied beds have gorgeous bay and city views. Frequent package deals make this hotel always a good buy, an even better bargain.

Brooklyn, New York Tourism

Brooklyn Heights was New York’s first suburb, linked to the city first by ferry and later by the Brooklyn Bridge. In the 1940s and 1950s the Heights was an alternative to the bohemian haven of Greenwich Village – home to writers including Carson McCullers, W.H.Auden and Norman Mailer. In the late 1960s the neighborhood was designated New York’s first historic district.

The Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims was a center of abolitionist sentiment in theyears before the Civil War, thanks to the oratory of the eminent theologian Henry Ward Beecher. Willow Street, between Clark and Pierre Pont streets is one of Brooklyn Heights’ prettiest and most architecturally varied blocks. Pierre Pont Street ends at the Brooklyn Heights promenade, a quiet sliver of park lined with benches offering a dramatic vista of the Manhattan skyline. Just off the promenade’s south end, Montague Street, the commercial spine of the Heights, offers a flurry of shops, case and restaurants.

Pittsburgh best hotels

Pittsburgh best hotels are Monterey Bay Fish Gratta, Cashbah, Café Zinho, Primanti Brothers, Road to Karakesh, etc. Monterey Bay Fish Gratta restaurant on top of Mr.Washington offers more than 20 kinds of fish, sautéed, char-grilled, blackened, and other preparations and an unrivaled view of the down town skyline. pastas and meat dishes round out the menu.

Casbah: An eclectic menu influenced by the cuisines of southern France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Tunisia includes dishes from grilled quail with red grape relish and saffron basmati rice to salmon steamed in grape leaves with lemon-pine nut vinaigrette. The extensive wine list includes more than 40 labels available by the glass.
Café Zinho : A converted garage full of odds and ends furniture holds this lively bistro style restaurant in Shadyside. It serves first rate sandwiches and salads all day and the seasonal dinner menu lists vegetarian rice bowls and dishes with mussels, lamb and game, often prepared with Mediterranean touches.

Lake Tahoe Ski Centers

Lake Tahoe has more than 15 world class downhill resorts and nearly a dozen cross country ski centers, all within an hour of one another. Elevations range from 6000 to 10000 feet with vertical drops up to nearly 4000 feet. More than 150 lifts operate during the season, which usually lasts from November through May.

Diamond Peak has 22 mi of groomed high elevation track, including skating lanes. Diamond Peak has 7 lifts, 30 runs and a 1840 feet vertical drop. Heavenly Ski Area straddling the Nevada California border has 26 lifts, 72 trails (including the longest run in Tahoe) and a 3600 feet drop. Mt. Rose has one of the highest base elevations in the area with unequaled powder skiing, 5 lifts, 41 runs and a 1440 ft drop.

New Jersey Shore

The New Jersey shore is 127 mi of public beachfront stretching like a pointing finger along the Atlantic Ocean from the Sandy Hook Peninsula in the north to Cape May at the southern tip. There is no one description of what it is like “down the shore”. Things change town by town and some times season by season – winter storms have a habit of rear ranging beaches and board walks.

Activities along the shore include salt water fishing from pier, bridge, dock or boat (licenses not required); all kinds of water sports; bird, whale and dolphin watching and bicycling or strolling on the ubiquitous wood plank or concrete board walks. In Atlantic City are the famed for games ; in Cape May, Victoria bed and breakfasts; and in between in Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant and Wild wood quintessential seaside amusements.

Las Vegas hotels, US Tourism

Las Vegas has many hotels. They are Batista’s Hole in the Wall, Picasso, Mayflower Cuisine, The Broiler, Pamplemousse etc. Batista’s Hole in the Wall decorated with wine bottles, garlic and celebrity photos. Battista Locatelli a former opera singer, roams his domain here, a short walk from the Strip. This Italian restaurant offers lots of specials and all the free wine you can drink.

Mayflower Cuisine is special for Chinese dishes with eclectic accents such as pan seared ostrich with brandy sauce and an Asian Portobello mushroom burrito. Pamplemousse restaurant looks like a little French country inn. Classic French food is served sans menu; the waiter recites the daily specials.

Long Island and its shopping malls

Long Island is the largest island on America’s East Coast – 1682 sq mi and the most varied. From west to east, it encompasses two New York City boroughs (Brooklyn and Queens), congested commuter towns, the farmland of the North Fork, and the world famous summer resorts of the Hamptons and Montauk on the South Fork. It has arguably the nation’s finest stretch of white sand beach as well as the notoriously clogged Lon Island Expressway (LIE).

Long Island is known for its shopping malls. With Fendi, Prada, Burberry ad the like, Americana Manhasset is about as high end as a mall can get. Roosevelt Field has more than 220 stores, including anchors Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Nordstrom. Coach, Nike, and Pottery Barn are some of the names at Tanger Outlet.

New Orleans Sports / Tours

New Orleans is entirely flat and many distances can be easily covered on two wheels. Bicycle Michael’s rents road and mountain bikes can recommend routes including a popular 25 mi city tour. Louisiana Bike Tours conducts guided bike tours of the River Road and of Cajun Country. French Quarter Bicycles rents wheel chairs and baby joggers along with the standard road and mountain bikes; it has a full repair shop.

Canoes, row boats and pedal boats can be rented for lazing along City Park’s lagoons for boating.
Golf: There are four 18 hole courses at City Park, as well as a 100 tee double Decker driving range. Audubon Park has a tightly packed 18 hole course and you can play Tennis here.

Shopping in New Orleans

You will find all types of shopping in New Orleans, but the city is exceptional for antiques and local arts and crafts. Louisiana’s tax free shopping programme grants shoppers from other countries a sales tax rebate. Retailers who display the tax free sign issue vouchers for the 9% sales tax, which can be redeemed on departure. Present the vouchers with your passport and international plane ticket at the tax rebate office at New Orleans International Airport and receive up to $500 in cash back. If the amount redeemable exceeds $500, a check for the difference will be mailed to you.

Most of the French Quarter’s ritzy antique sores, musty bazaars, art galleries and boutiques are housed in quaint 19th century structures. The sleek indoor malls of the CBD include River walk with more than 200 specialty shops and restaurants. Canal Place has more than 40 Tony shops, a food court, and cinemas. The New Orleans Center is connected by a walk way to the Super dome and a hotel. River bend has specially shops and restaurants, many cradled in small Creole cottages.

Transportation around Washington D.C.

Washington’s best known sights are a short walk or a short Metro ride from one another. The Washington metropolitan Area Transit Authority provides Metro rail and Metro bus services in D.C. and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. The base rail fare is minimum and affordable by all. The final fare depends on the time of the day and the distance you travel. All bus rides within D.C. are affordable by all. Metro Tourist Pass entitles you to one day of unlimited subway travel weekdays from 9.30 AM to midnight or all day any weekend or holiday. If you want to know more details contact Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Dial-A-Park is a daily recording of events at National Park Service attractions for the tourists. All tourist and visitor information are available at Dial-A-Park and Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation’s web site.