The NYC Blogger, Jenna Rice, from the Blond Well Traveled, shared with us a mix’n’match of 10 great NYC tips! From restaurants, hotels and bagel spots, to upstate trips, art galleries and beauty salons.
Jenna Rice was born and raised in Florida, and currently lives in New York City.
She told us: “I followed my heart around the globe and landed in New York City.” Definitely a great place to land, right?!
She launched her passion project: a travel and lifestyle blog called Blonde Well Traveled, in 2015. Plus, she’s visited over 15 countries and doesn’t stop counting.
Since she moved to the “City that Never Sleeps”, she’s been sharing a glimpse into her experiences both within the city and beyond. All this, in addition to working full time in Public Relations.
Such a busy bee!
Take a look at her 10 favorite NYC spots and in nearby towns:
Brooklyn Flea
“Brooklyn Flea is basically the cooler younger sister to Chelsea Market. There’s something for everyone, from vintage rings and designer bags to viney plants and eclectic home decor. Not to mention, they have some of the most popular food vendors from Smorgasburg minus the lines.”
We love Brooklyn! We’re Brooklyn-based and even though the Brooklyn Flea can get a bit touristy, we still love it!
In addition, you’ll find 75 vendors with everything from clothes and accessories, to furniture and jewelry, plus 25 food vendors with the most delicious dishes.
During the winter they have only one location and it happens during the weekends: Saturday + Sunday from 10am – 6pm – called Winter Flea + Smorgasburg.
Location: 1 Hanson Place, Fort Greene
Mile High Run Club
“Mile High Run Club is probably my favorite place to break a sweat in the City. It’s essentially a treadmill class with dimmed lighting, bumpin’ music and strobe lights…with a coach cheering you on through a series of intervals and hills. I recommend Dash 28 because it finishes with strength training utilizing kettle bells and core exercises.”
Do you like “the burn”? I mean, REALLY like it? Well, if your immediate answer was “YES!”, then this is the place for you!
Mile High Run Club’s running program is uniquely designed to challenge your body and get the best results you’d ever imagine. Go to one of their 2 locations to try it out.
Plus, they offer indoor and outdoor classes, with amazing coaches! We’re sure it’ll become your newest addiction!
Locations:
28 East 4th Street, NoHo
24 West 25th Street, NoMad
Heyday
“Heyday is easily one of my best NYC finds. My skin went nuts when I moved to the City in the heart of winter from Florida, and this place introduced me to several natural products that I now swear by.”
The weather in NYC can be pretty crazy and will test your skin to the limit!
And, summer can be burning hot, hot, hot, while the winter can be pretty damn harsh where we feel our skin will rip with the cold.
Yeah, we know, it sounds terrible, right?
Well, we are IN NEW YORK CITY of obviously that helps make it easier to accept, LOL.
HeyDay is a great place to go if you’re looking for the perfect facial, with a good price, at the time that’ll suit you best. Carly Heitlinger also loves it!
Locations:
1130 Broadway, NoMad
92 Reade Street, Tribeca
Harriman State Park
“For those who need a breather from the City, Harriman State Park is your sanctuary. It’s just a quick train ride from the city and much less crowded than some of the other hiking spots like Breakneck and Bear Mountain.”
Harriman State Park is located in Rockland and Orange Counties, Upstate NY – a little over 1h drive from Manhattan. The drive is actually a very quick and surely a gorgeous car ride up there.
They have almost 52,000 acres of mostly forested landscape and over 23miles of hiking trails.
So, what are you waiting for? Go grab (or rent here) a car, and have fun!
And, more about them:
“At 47,527 acres (192.33 km2), Harriman State Park is the second largest state park in New York. Located in Rockland and Orange counties 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City, it is a haven for hikers with over 200 miles (320 km) of hiking trails. The park is also known for its 31 lakes, multiple streams, public camping area, and great vistas.”
“The Jane is easily my favorite spot to go out in the City. It basically feels like you’re at a mansion party where your favorite songs are always playing and dancing on the furniture is encouraged. Every time I have a friend visiting, I take them there and they’re never disappointed.”
Yup! It’s one of our favorite spots too!
The Jane Hotel, is located in the West Village and is certainly a destination for the cool NYC crowd.
In addition, the hotel was launched in 1908 and has rooms that replicate luxury ship and train cabins. On the other hand, rooms are pretty small, but come on, “Who” comes to NYC to stay in the room, right!?
Location: 113 Jane Street, West Village
Rockwood Music Hall
“For an intimate live music experience, hit up Rockwood Music Hall. A friend introduced me to this venue and it was everything I could’ve hoped for. While there are shows that require cover, there is a smaller room to the left of the main entrance that is free of charge.”
Rockwood Music Hall is known for having hosted performances of great artists like Lady Gaga, Gary Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Mumford & Sons.
It’s one our favorite spots to have a cool night out and listen to some of the best emerging NYC bands and musicians.
Plus, musicians from other nationalities are a big hit too, like Aline Muniz and André Vasconcellos.
They have 3 stages, full bars for all tastes, drinks aren’t so pricey, like expected in Manhattan. We love it, and we are there quite a lot!
Location: 196 Allen Street, Lower East Side
Black Seed Bagels
“After a night out, nothing compares to Black Seed Bagels. Option #11 always satisfies! Another favorite is Tompkins Square Bagels if you’re in the mood for trying out a new cream cheese flavor like birthday cake or one of their French toast bagels.”
Bagels! We just love Bagels!
And, New York’s bagels are said to be one of the best on this planet, since our water is so fantastically clean and tasty!
Black Seed Bagels is certainly one of the most famous in town. In addition, Tompkins Square Bagels’ are hand rolled, kettle boiled and baked over wood planks….yum!!!
Locations:
Black Seed Bagels:
170 Elizabeth Street, Nolita
200 Vesey Street, Battery Park City
176 First Street, East Village
Tompkins Square Bagels: 164 Avenue A.
Original Buddha Bodai
“Original Buddha Bodai is an incredible vegetarian spot in Chinatown. The food is delicious (you can’t even tell there’s no meat) and the atmosphere is so authentic. I highly recommend the sesame “chicken”.”
OMG! When our Founder, Fê Paronetto, went with a very good friend to Buddha Bodai, she became c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y addicted to it!
She’s vegetarian, but loves Vegan food too, and she couldn’t believe how amazingly tasty everything was!
The dumplings are to-die-for, but everything is remarkably good! But, it’s actually hard to know what exactly to order, so you might just have to go there multiple times to try it all.
Location: 5 Mott Street, Chinatown
Dia: Beacon
“Dia:Beacon is the perfect day trip for anyone craving a little artistic adventure, especially if you love installations! Be sure to purchase a round trip ticket with museum entrance included at Grand Central Station.”
Dia:Beacon is surely a highlight if you’re into Art.
Located only 1.5h from Manhattan, it’s a beautiful place to visit and the trip there, is pretty easy too. And, if you’re not sure how to get there, and would like help, contact our concierge experts.
In addition, if you need assistance for any corporate activity with your team or clients, let our experts cater to all your needs and make the experience memorable.
Location: 3 Beekman Street, Beacon
Galleries in NYC
“One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is pop into galleries in the LES and Chelsea. It’s a great alternative to hitting up a crowded museum, plus they’re completely free to enjoy: David Zwirner, Paul Kasmin, and Richard Taittinger are a few of my go-tos.”
David Zwirner
David Zwirner is one of the top contemporary art galleries, with another location overseas, in Mayfair, London. They currently have 2 great exhibitions: “Yun Hyong-keun” up through February 18th and “Drawn Together”, up through February 18th.
“The David Zwirner gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of large-scale paintings by Yun Hyong-keun (1928-2007) from the mid-1970s through the 1980s. The exhibition includes an unprecedented selection of paintings in the artist’s unique style of monochromatic abstraction, several of which are shown here for the first time. The exhibition marks the largest solo presentation of Yun’s work in North America to date.” ~ Read more here.
“David Zwirner is pleased to present the gallery’s first exhibition of the collaborative work of Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb. Both pioneers of underground and alternative comics, Kominsky-Crumb and Crumb have created a groundbreaking portrait of their shared lives and creative collaborations over the past four decades. In their ongoing “Aline & Bob” comics, the two artists have rendered their innermost thoughts, fears, and fantasies alongside the day-to-day realities of family life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, each in their own distinctive style.” ~ Read more here.
Paul Kasmin Gallery
Paul Kasmin Gallery works and supports influential Modern and Contemporary artists. They are showcasing two exhibitions: NATURALIA” up through March 4th and “WILLIAM N. COPLEY: WOMEN”, up through March 25th.
“Paul Kasmin Gallery and Sotheby’s Old Masters Department will present their first collaborative exhibition, Naturalia, curated by Danny Moynihan. The show will be comprised of works spanning six centuries which share a fundamental focus on the examination of natural science and its myriad presentations in art.” ~ Read more here.
“COPLEY: WOMEN unites a selection of paintings that highlight the late artist’s preoccupation with the opposite sex, which he employed as an endless source for inventive figurative and narrative paintings that explored eroticism, sexual politics and the pursuit of pleasure. Originally defying painterly trends of the 1950s by making personal and narrative works, the self-taught artist developed a radical fusion of European Surrealist vernacular and a rogue, humorous American sensibility. Sex, eroticism and cultural critique were mainstays in Copley’s oeuvre of paintings that embraced idiosyncratic figuration, candy-colored palettes and Matisse-like decorative patterning.” ~ Read more here.
Richard Taittinger Gallery
Richard Taittinger Gallery works in Presenting works by contemporary artists with significant global recognition. Stop by their gallery, in the Lower East Side, to see their current exhibition: “The Wsanderers: Contemporary Painting From CLUJ”. It will be on through February 19th.
“For this exhibition, the curator has endeavored to make visible that, beyond the ascribed label of the Cluj School by way of international media, there is much more to be explored when considering this group of artists. Therefore, this multigenerational exhibition tracks a shared dialogue between masters and students in order to define certain Romanian traditions. Traditions, that has within the last decade, projected the painters of Cluj-Napoca, into the limelight, astounding the international art world.” ~ Read more here.
If you are an art lover, you’ll most certainly be fascinated by our art tours and experiences, so contact us. In addition, see how our corporate experiences related to art works.
Locations:
David Zwirner: 525 West 19th Street, Chelsea
www.davidzwirner.com
Paul Kasmin Gallery: 293 10th Avenue, Chelsea
www.paulkasmingallery.com
Richard Taittinger Gallery: 154 Ludlow Street, Lower East Side
http://richardtaittinger.com
Lastly, to wrap up this great interview and a beautiful selection of hot spots in New York, we asked Jenna:
What does NYC mean to you?
“I could honestly answer this question so many ways, but I think NYC means being able to wake up each morning with every possibility in the world at your feet.
There is always something to do, someone to meet, something to see. To me, personally, it means perseverance. The people who live here are tough. For the most part, we all struggled in some way to get here, and continue to struggle now that we’re here. But somehow, it’s all worth it.
There’s no place in the world that can offer up this kind of experience to a person.”
Thank you Jenna for being part of our Insider Interviews and sharing these 10 great NYC tips.
Plus, don’t forget to check out her blog named the Blond Well Traveled.
Credits (Text and Photos): Courtesy of Wikipedia (Harriman State Park), Mwanner, Daniel Krieger, Jenna Rice and all the venues
*Last Update on March/2020.*
