Fun Times in New York City at the New York Times Travel Show

I attended the New York Times Travel Show on February 26^th at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. While the show was three days long, my travel schedule got me there on day 2 after flying back to the States from Scotland. My daughter Jenn flew in from Chicago to join me.

It was great to listen to presentations by Arthur and Pauline Frommer, Rick Steves, National Geographic TV personality Julia Dimon, friends from TBEX Kim Mance, GoGalavanting.com; Andrew Evans, National Geographic; Robert Reid, Lonely Planet; and Jen Leo, LA Times Web Buzz.

The vast hall had over 400 exhibitors where tourist board, tour company and cruise line representatives touted the best of what their city, country or cruise line offers. There were many booths from Africa (a safari is definitely on my bucket list), Canadian provinces, Greece, Slavic countries, Egypt, Caribbean Islands, and of course many cities and states from the U.S., including my home town of Orlando, Florida. My bucket list got much longer at this event! Many of the countries had performers on stage dancing to the local music and these colorful events always attracted large crowds. Attendance was around 24,000 over the three day show.

Jenn and I then spent a day just having fun in New York City. We took an evening tour through the night light scenes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. A full day tour bus took us through the famous sections of Manhattan (Times Square, Central Park, the Plaza Hotel, Chinatown, and so much more. We joined the lunch crowds at Carnegie Deli, ate New York pizza, and got half-price tickets to see Chicago. We hung outside NBC Studios on a rainy Monday morning waiting for Matt Lauer and Ann Curry to great the crowds. We had a great time in the limited amount of time we had in NYC.