A renovated NYC boutique hostel, from $24 per person per night

by Amy Chen on

Is a hostel still a hostel if you get a private bathroom and a room that looks like this?

The recently renovated Broadway Hotel & Hostel on the Upper West Side is blurring the line between backpacker digs and, well, boutique hotels. Billing itself as New York’s first boutique hostel, the property is promoting dorm-style rooms that start at $24 per person per night, while a private space like the one to the right will run at least $119 for two people.

The dorm-style rooms have been switched to a more spacious setup that features one bunk bed for two people, as opposed to squishing four people into the space. Booking the dorm-style room category means you’ll have to share bathrooms, though there’s a sink in your room. (How very European.) Like other hostels, a solo traveler can be paired with a roommate of the same gender if you ask.

To upgrade the hostel experience, consider booking one of the private rooms that has a bathroom en suite (which I consider a luxury by hostel standards). Even for April travel dates, I still found plenty of availability for the private rooms; prices will vary if the bed type is a double (from $89), a queen (from $109), or two twins (from $119). The beds are each covered in a crisp white down duvet, and the private rooms come with amenities like flatscreen TVs and iPod docking stations.

Linens and towels with daily housekeeping service are included in all rates. There is no curfew or lockout. Common spaces include a lobby with free Wi-Fi and a fireplace. There’s also a kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops.

As someone who has let visitors crash on my couch so they can save a little dough, I suddenly feel like my New York apartment and hospitality skills are very inferior. But I should note that recent TripAdvisor reviews are mixed, so as always, practice due diligence in researching beforehand. For example, payment for the dorm-style rooms is cash-only, so make sure you have enough funds to cover your stay.

Update: A Broadway Hotel & Hostel spokesperson informs that they’ve just updated their website; major credit cards are accepted. However, the balance of your stay is due up front, so make sure you’re prepared to pay with either cash or by credit card.%Gallery-73514%

Before you go, be sure to check out Episode 5 of Travel Talk TV, which features a Santa Cruz beach adventure; explains why Scottish money is no good; and shows how to cook brats the German way!

Video of the week (3.20.10)

by Kent Wien on

This week’s video of the week, called Sandpit, is from Sam O’Hare who wanted to use a tilt-shift lens to turn a New York City scene into something that looks like a tiny model. But he discovered he could improve the look and feel by shooting the video with a normal lens and then blur the background and foreground after it was produced.

Tilt-shift videos of cites are nothing new, but Sam took it to a new level.

Sam explained the process of making Sandpit in an interesting interview by Aero Film if you need to know how it was created.

The effects are amazing. Coupled with the music from Human, you may find yourself hypnotized in no time.

Do you have a great travel related suggestion for our Video of the Week? Fill out this form or just include my twitter handle @veryjr in your tweet about it. Maybe we’ll use it as next week’s Video.

Get weird at Obscura Day this weekend

by Jeremy Kressmann on

We spend our travel lives hunting down the world’s most famous sights like the Eiffel Tower and Machu Picchu. But did you ever consider the amazing sights right in your own backyard? That’s the idea behind Obscura Day, an international event taking place in 80 cities worldwide on March 20th.

Obscura Day is dedicated to celebrating the strange and interesting sights found in our hometowns. In San Francisco, a tour will be visiting the Musee Mecanique, a museum devoted to antique coin operated carnival games. In Detroit, the tour will bring visitors to the Heidelberg Project, and “outsider art” project made from found objects. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, the tour will bring visitors inside the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, a 170-year-old subway tunnel Gadling visited last year. Those living outside the U.S. will find plenty to do as well, with events taking place from Canada to Iceland to Japan.

Want to investigate the weirder side of your own home town? Head over to the Obscura Day event page and see if there’s a tour near you. Hurry though, tours are filling up quick!%Gallery-72634%

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Be sure to check out Episode 5 of Travel Talk TV, which features a Santa Cruz beach adventure; explains why Scottish money is no good; shows how to cook brats the German way; and offers international dating tips!

Hidden Gem: New York’s temporary art gallery

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I can’t tell you how long the art gallery at 25 Central Park West will be there: even the organizers don’t know. But, it’s worth checking the group’s website if you plan to pass through Manhattan in the next month (or longer, we hope) to make sure the project is still going on. There’s always something amazing happening at this vacant retail space.

I found the 25PW gallery by accident. I was walking down Central Park West last November. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw people inside an empty commercial spot at the corner of Central Park West and W 62nd Street. They were carrying hammers and paintings. So, I checked the door, which wasn’t locked, went inside and met Bess Greenberg, one of the founders of 25CPW, a non-profit that runs all the action inside this art gallery.

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According to Greenberg, 25CPW will be able to keep the space until a tenant comes along and is willing to meet the manager’s asking price (which hasn’t happened yet). In the three months that 25CPW has occupied the space, it has hosted art exhibitions, musical performances and an auction to benefit charitable organizations focused on Afghanistan. A recent show featuring works by the guards at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art attracted the most attention, though every event I’ve attended at 25CPW has been packed.

The fact that there’s now a cool art scene on the Upper West Side alone is worth a visit – this kind of thinking usually happens in other neighborhoods. So, the curiosity factor alone should be enough to put this stop on your itinerary. But, that’s the least of the many reasons to pay a visit to 25CPW. The best is whatever event is being featured on a particular day. They’ve all been fantastic.

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New York cabbies caught overcharging passengers – 1.8 million times

by Scott Carmichael on

The New York Taxi and Limousine Commission has uncovered a massive scam/scheme in which 1.8 million riders were overcharged.

The scheme netted 36,000 drivers an extra $8.3 million in cab fares, charging passengers about $5 too much for each ride.

The overcharging wasn’t even that hard for them to pull off – the cabbies would simply change their meter to a higher per-mile fare, reserved for rides in the Nassau and Westchester area.

When activated, the meter would show the new fare code, but I doubt anyone sitting in the back would actually notice. Sadly for the cabbies, the taxi commission did notice – and thanks to recording equipment and GPS tracking, they have been able to determine exactly which drivers were involved.

One driver – Wasim Khalid Cheema overcharged his passengers 574 times in one month, and has now lost his taxi license.

Of course, the cabbies are fighting back, claiming it could all just be one big misunderstanding. According to Bhairavi Desai of the Taxi Workers Alliance, the meters are to blame. Other cabbies join her – mentioning how easy it is to press the wrong button, complaining how small the buttons are on the meter.

Soon, New York taxi’s will be outfitted with updated fare warning systems, which will alert riders to the higher fare, and make them acknowledge the fare change on the rear displays mounted in New York Taxi cabs.
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