Three Delicious German Joints Around New York

It has been 20 years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which was a pivotal moment in world history. With that wall being torn down, it  not only put a major dent in communism and caused the the Soviet empire to eventually implode. Germans were able to unite just in time for a free David Hasselhoff concert! So strap on your lederhosen and raise a stein, because here are three must visit New York City German restaurants.

Rolf’s: Open in 1965, Rolf’s is the quintessential German experience – in New York that is. This Gramercy Park located restaurant really becomes popular around the holiday season. That is because the entire place is drenched in Christmas decor to mimic Germany’s Black Forest. From the bar to the dining room, patrons will be surrounded by 45,000 blinking lights, giant wreaths, and many Christmas themed dolls. German fare like potato pancakes and wiener schnitzel are inhaled and washed down with an over-sized pint of imported beer. 281 3rd Avenue. Stay nearby at the Gramercy Park Hotel.

Hallo Berlin: Known as New York’s “Wurst Restaurant”, guests at Hallo Berlin enjoy truly authentic German grub from a menu full of both heavy meat and light fish platters. Fill your glass with one of the many great beers available at this affordable Hell’s Kitchen spot. 626 10th Ave. Stay nearby at the Milford Plaza.

Heidelberg: Located in what was once a vibrant German Upper East Side neighborhood, Heidelberg has the look, feel and taste of Deutschland down to a science. Chow down on some of the best wurst available stateside, including the perfectly cooked smoked bratwurst served with potato salad and sauerkraut. Save room for their out of this world apple strudel and indulge with a boot sized (2 liter) draft beer. 1648 Second Avenue. Stay nearby at the Franklin NYC.

Tags: christmas, franklin nyc, germany, gramercy park hotel, milford plaza, new york city

Who Visits America The Most?

Canadians still visit the United States way more than any other foreign country around the world.

Last week I wrote about how America was voted the “most liked” country in the world. So with so much love for the U.S. going around, one question must be asked. Has the world’s crush on Uncle Sam helped with the country’s tourism? In a word…kinda.

Year after year when the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of Travel & Tourism (OTTI) releases their data of which countries have visited America the most, two destinations continuously top the list – #1 Canada and #2 Mexico. That really should not come as a surprise since both countries sandwich the U.S. and are more easily accessible than any other locations on the planet.

So who else is checking out the streets of New York, the Hollywood hills, and all points in between? Well coming in at #3 is the United Kingdom. Even with a decline of 16.9% in tourism through July 2009, the U.K. is still the most popular visitors from overseas.

Another country that visits often is #4 Japan, which also saw a major decline of 17.6% for year-to-year tourism traffic. Coming in at #5 was Germany, and yes just like the rest of the countries listed, Deutschland saw a 7.5% drop in tourists between July 2008 and 2009.

Now if you are wondering why so many people have halted hauling themselves to the U.S., it is quite simple – the economy. Due to a worldwide economic meltdown over the last year and a half, international tourism is down across the board sharply. Just like many Americans have skipped taking worldwide jaunts in favor of more domestic trips, so has the rest of the world apparently.

To help remedy the continuous decline of foreign visitors, Congress is considering a Travel Promotion Act. In it, anyone that shows up to the United States must pay an additional $10 fee. The money collected would be used to start a travel campaign in various countries around the world to boost interest in visiting the United States.

Currently the Commerce Department is not funding any ad campaigns to promote travel to the States. Yes you read that correctly…no marketing at all! The last time the U.S. was promoted was back in 2007, and even then it only received a measly $4-$9 million dollars. What a joke.

On a positive note, with the economy getting slightly…and I stress slightly better, tourism has picked up a bit and that is always a good thing for any country. Below is a list of the top 20 countries that visited the United States between January and July 2009, the amount of visitors, and how much tourism has decreased from the same time the previous year.

1. Canada (10, 108, 302 visitors) – 9% decline

2. Mexico (3,308,779) – 9.9% decline
   

3. United Kingdom (2,149,149) – 16.9% decline
   

4. Japan (1,564,441) – 17.6% decline
   

5. Germany (921,874) – 7.5% decline

6. France (694,340) – 1.1% decline

7. Brazil (469, 985) – a slight increase

8. South Korea (415,509) – 12% decline

9. Italy (379, 641) – 4% decline

10. Australia (376, 614) – 2.7% decline

The remaining 11-20 include: India, People’s Republic of China, Netherlands, Spain, Venezuela, Ireland, Colombia, Argentina, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Courtesy of Forbes Traveler.

Tags: argentina, australia, brazil, canada, colombia, france, germany, india, ireland, italy, japan, mexico, netherlands, People's Republic of China, south korea, spain, sweden, switzerland, united kingdom, united states of america, Venezuela

USA Is The World’s “Most Liked” Country…No, Really It Is

Nein, nein, nein! Warum!!! Yup it’s true. Germany has indeed been dethroned as the “most liked” country in the world. No longer is the land of giant pretzels and beers the most beloved according to a new survey. So what country is “most liked” right now?

The United States of America.

Yeah I was shocked too. But the results from a summer 2009 survey of 20,000 people in 20 geographically and economically diverse countries revealed that the world is seeing the US of A in a whole new light.

According to Forbes, which released the results, “The survey asked respondents to rank 50 countries in six categories: governance, culture, products and services, people, tourism and immigration/investment.” Many are saying that the jump to 1st is solely based on the popularity that President Barack Obama has right now around the world.  “The Obama Effect” has truly been phenomenal for the global image of the United States.

So just how much has the world changed its opinion on the USA? Well according to Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor which conducted the survey, British approval jumped from 53% the previous year to 69% today. Love among the French rose to 75% over the last 12 months, up from 42% in 2008. Tres bien!

This was the first time that the United States came in first place since this survey started back in 2005. Last year USA was ranked seventh in the world. What’s not to love about us? We started two wars, currently suffer from the worst job market in nearly 100 years, lack affordable health care to millions of citizens, fail to provide a decent education to our youth, suffer from an obesity epidemic, refuse to use the metric system, and have “news” stations show balloon boy coverage 24/7 instead of actual world events.

Oh yeah Americans will sleep soundly tonight knowing that people around the world like us…they really, really like us. Take that the rest of the world! By the way the previous paragraph was not some “Anti-American” soap box speech. I love my country, but it does have a few flaws right now.

Here are the results of the survey’s top 10 “Most Liked Countries” around the world with their ranking from last year in parenthesis:

1. United States (7)

2. France (2)

3. Germany (1)

4. United Kingdom (3)

5. Japan (5)

6. Italy (6)

7. Canada (4)

8. Switzerland (8)

9. Australia (9)

10. Spain (tie) (11)

10. Sweden (tie) (10)

Tags: australia, canada, france, germany, italy, japan, president barack obama, spain, switzerland, united kingdom, united states of america, usa

A Clip Show: My Top 10 Articles

Zzzzzzzz...A lazzzy Friday and a bit under the weather. Enjoy a clip show.

I have been fighting the flu all week. But today it just has hit me so hard and I have been bedridden most of the day. So I felt the need to break out the old clip show idea for today’s update. According to one definition online, “A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes.”

In this case, instead of giving you original content, I am simply going to slap together my top 10 most visited articles for you to click and enjoy. Of course if you want to check out all my previous work, you can click on the “Archives” link at the top of the page.

Check back in over the weekend for Saturday and Sunday Travel Shots from Seattle and Montreal. Plus this Monday is the debut of my new weekly “Guest Nomads” feature. Each week a fellow travel junkie will share their love of wanderlust with you. Have a great weekend.

1. All You Need Is Love (And A Passport): 9 Beatle-riffic Destinations

2. Sinful Travelers Confess Their Deepest, Darkest, & Downright Bizarre Secrets

3. Movies That Make You Want To Travel

4. Travel Reading

5. NY Pizza Is So Damn Good: Three Brooklyn Slices You Need To Try ASAP

6. Why This Brooklynite Is Glad To See A Coney Island Renewal Plan

7. Travel Humor

8. Extreme Alternative In Air Travel

9. Hot Day For A Hot Dog: My 90 Degree Day At Coney Island

10. All Hail Vail: Colorado Ski Town Is Not Just A Winter Destination

Tags: brooklyn, colorado, coney island, england, germany, London, new york, ny, spokane, the beatles, Travel, vail, washington

Sinful Travelers Confess Their Deepest, Darkest, & Downright Bizarre Secrets

Step right up!

The other day I was conversing with a friend of mine who is just about as obsessed as I am with gallivanting throughout this planet. It seems that when one of us is on the road, the other is planning the next “big” adventure and vice versa. One day over a few adult beverages at a local pub we got onto a topic I like to call “travel confessions.” This is when you get some travel nerds together and try to shock them with stories of odd occurrences on the road, places that as a serious traveler you have never visited, and possible habits you picked up while bouncing from one locale to the next.

My friend, who swears to have been just about everywhere, told me that he has no intentions of ever visiting London, England. He says it just looks like a real “boring city and expensive place to visit.” I was taken aback, not only because London is such a popular travel destination, but that this guy had recently become obsessed with the Manchester United football team. I figured someone who loves to travel for sports and concerts would eventually wind up landing at Heathrow Airport and then check out London en route to Manchester for a game.

It was my turn to share a few secrets or to squash some assumptions that people just believe since you call yourself a travel junkie and a nomad. Well for starters, I have yet to visit two “must visit” countries – France and Germany. Yes it pained me to tell my pal and some others sitting with me that I have yet to walk by the Eiffel Tower in Paris or raise an over-sized beer in Munich. But I swore that both were on the top of my list of countries to check out within the next few years…I promise!

Another confession that will probably make many hotel owners out there frown is my love of hotel key cards! I have a shoe box full of those digital door openers from all over the world. They are like mini-souvenirs that remind me of the many great places I was lucky enough to visit.

But enough about me. I decided that the only way to get over being such a guilty global navigator, was to reach out and ask some other travel experts to join me in a group confessional. Below are some uncensored secrets, habits, and revelations that they felt compelled to get off their chest. God have mercy on their sight-seeing souls.

• First up in the confession booth is Gabe Saglie, Senior Editor and “Travel Guru” at Travelzoo.com, who revealed to me that, “When it comes to hotels, I always check-out with 2 things: amenities and stationary. Amenities are something hotels identify with, and even advertise, especially the upscale hotels. So this started years ago, when my traveling really began to pick up and I found myself forgetting where I’d stayed. Those little shampoo and shower gel bottles were miniature mementos of stays at great hotels. Somewhere along the way, I started passing them on to my mom, who lives in L.A. but travels little (by comparison), as souvenirs of cities I’d visited. Today, she has hundreds and hundreds of amenities from cool hotels all over the world. She gets them faster than she can use them and files them away in neatly organized cabinets.”

Saglie continued, “As for the stationary, I get a kick from mailing letters or bills inside hotel  envelopes. I think it adds a sense of intrigue for the person opening it on the other end. Plus, I haven’t had to buy envelopes in year.I also figure the hotels get some nice PR out of it, so it’s a win-win, no?”

• Lonely Planet’s Andy Murdock also feels the need to snatch hotel items when he travel. Murdock confessed, “I like to swipe hotel room pens – I’m always in need of a pen and often seem to lose or forget them, plus I like finding them in a drawer years later and remembering where the pen and I first met. I think you can tell a lot about a hotel by the pen they provide: some hotels put a lot of thought into it and pick out a pen that writes well, has an interesting design, and suits the hotel’s look and feel; others don’t give it a moment’s thought and just buy thousands of ultra cheapo ballpoints that aren’t worth taking with you. The pencil hotels are the most mysterious to me because they invariably fail to provide a pencil sharpener. Be wary of pencil hotels.”

• Sean O’Neill, Senior Editor for Budget Travel, felt compelled to express to me that while he may be a world traveler, there is just one kind of vacation he has avoided. “I’ve never taken an ocean cruise!” he exclaimed. “I feel silly about having left this off my travel to-do list. For millions, it’s an essential experience. But I’ve been turned off the idea ever since I read a Harper’s essay by David Foster Wallace, in which he ridiculed cruise-going. Sometimes I worry that I’m missing out. But I never worry enough to actually do anything about it.”

I must admit that I too have not gone cruising on vacation. Just not my thing. Next up is another troubled traveler that just needs to get something off her chest. I must warn you though that confession is a tad bit on the R-rated side.

• Adena Harford, who runs the blog at tripwolf.com, told me that, “I kind of got into not using toilet paper in India.” I asked her to please explain that exactly that meant. She continued, “Let’s see – well, first of all, we noticed only the tourists stop at little stand to buy toilet paper – and that there is a faucet and a bucket in every bathroom stall. I was secondly inspired by Jack Kerouac’s idea that most (western) people think they are so clean, but they are actually going around with dirty assholes because we only wipe them with paper. So well, I got into using the water and faucet, and truly felt like I was cleaner than usual – we all referred to it as ‘going local.’ Like, have you ‘gone local’ yet? Sorry if this story was a little TMI.”

Hmm…

• Moving right along we have flight attendant extraordinaire and travel blogger Heather Poole. Heather once told me on Twitter that she does in fact collect hotel “Do Not Disturb” signs, but her confession today was about someone else…or so she says. “I once knew a flight attendant who washed her panty hose in the hotel room coffee pot. NAST-AY!”

• Where Ive Been’s Katy, who is both the Community Manager and #traveltuesday initiator on Twitter, shockingly told me , “Alright, my travel confession is…I always remove my shoes on flights. Even when I have EXTRA smelly feet.  Hee hee hee!” She also confessed that as a young traveler she used to steal the blankets on long, transatlantic flights. But in Katy’s defense she expressed, ” Come on, I was 10 years old!”

• Monica Wong, who runs the travel blog  “A Pair of Panties & Boxers” confessed to me that, ” When I was studying abroad in Shanghai, I took a weekend trip to Hangzhou. I initially planned to stay for one night but I fell in love with the sunset at the West Lake. I wanted to see it again so my boyfriend and I stayed an extra night. The only problem was we only brought one change of clothes. Which meant, we only had one pair of underwear. We had to wear it twice. Inside out, of course. That incident gave birth to the name of my blog.”

Geez, these confessions are just getting dirtier and dirtier. For shame you travel experts…for shame indeed! I am going to clean up this confession booth and will be back with part 2/3 of  travel confessions tomorrow! In the meantime be good you sinners.

Tags: budget travel magazine, cruises, england, france, gabe saglie, germany, heathrow airport, hotel, London, lonely planet, Manchester, Munich, spain, travelzoo, tripwolf, twitter, where i've been, whereivebeen.com