The newly renovated NYC Milburn Hotel, located in a cozy tree-lined residential neighbourhood,  consistently ranks in the top 10 lists of family hotels in New York, and its appeal can be summed up in three words - budget, family and location.  

Inspite of being located in a quiet and sedate section of the big city, the Milburn is conviniently accesible by bus, subway and taxi and minutes away from downtown Manhattan, the Theater District and Fifth Ave. shopping.

One bedroom suites for a full family are available for between $239 to $399 (taxes extra), and include wireless internet, a fully equipped kitchenette with microwave and refrigirator and stocked mini-bar, flat screen LCD television, cable TV, a VCR and CD player, hair dryer, iron/ironing board and coffee maker.

Includes a special VCD collection for kids and use of a heated swimming pool next to the hotel. Children under 12 are free. In addition to use of the kitchette, the hotel also offers a compimentary European style breakfast, discount access to a next door cafe which serves complimentary wine and Artisanal cheeses. Also included in the package is access to the New York Sports Club, along with overnight shoe shines.

What makes the Milburn hotel family friendly is not what it offers, but what it does not - A Times Square location, lots of swanky add-ons and gizmos in the rooms, a trendy bar with a crush of NYC patrons and hundreds of rooms (things which you normally associate with NYC hotels). The Milburn parleys the lack of these ‘NYC must-haves’ into an advantage with personalized service to the limited number of guests, low room rates and a peaceful stay on a quiet street insulated from the downtown rush and bedlam.

Even the decor has a certain understated charm with wide open spaces, soothing colors, solid furnishings and a homey feel, which certainly adds to the charm when you compare it the harsh edges, artsy cubicles and crazy multi-hued modern art adorning the walls of designer hotels.

Add to that the fact that the paint is still fresh, the bedsheets and carpets spotless and a host of new amneties and in-room services recently added after the renovation, and you have a pretty good deal if you want to explore New York with your family in a safe, comfortable and reasonable environment. In their own words, it’s a home away from home.

Info: The Milburn Hotel, 242 West 76th St, New York, NY 10023 (Btwn West End Ave. & Broadway); (212) 362-1006

If your concept of a family hotel means keeping kids happy with all sorts of diversions and amusements, and moms free to go around shopping in the finest shopping extravaganza in the world, then what you’re looking for is the Chambers Hotel on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Chambers offers extensive help for making family vacations easier, with a complimentary kid-friendly DVD library, free wi-fi internet, cable television, cribs, rollaway beds, strollers, high chairs, laundry and maid service, room service, in room-dining, concierge, baby sitter, in room beauty treatments, masseuse…You name it - If a kid or mom wants or needs it, Chambers got it.

The rooms at the Chambers are sleek and luxurious, with lush Tibetian wool carpeting, wall to ceiling windows which light up the entire room and provide a great view of the sights on Fifth Avenue. The shower and bath have been attentively designed to be kid friendly, with short deep tubs to prevent accidents and extra large shower heads which spill the water forcefully and wide, which, if you remember your childhood, or have recently struggled to convince a kid to take a bath, is exactly what you need to coax an unwilling child into taking a bath.

Room rates, in line with the hotel’s amneties and  reputation, are way above normal, starting from $525 for a standard room, and on up to $675 for a room with a city view, walnut wood flooring and double beds. Well, nobody ever said family hotels in New York come cheap…

In fact, if I have to say so, the hotel, the glass-walled elevators climbing up the uniquely designed floors and the solid luxury and comfort of the outsize rooms make it one of the luxurious and decadent hotels in New York. The rooms all reflect this same decadence and a taste more suitable for the home office of a highly successful artist or writer, the shelves packed with books and magazines, a sleek flat screen television, understated colors and the huge windows opening out for a breathtaking view of New york City.

Dining and in-room service at the Chambers comes from the Town restaurant, slightly upscale, but with an innovative kitchen and a menu featuring modernistic versions of classic French cuisine such as chicken roasted with rhubarb, chanterelles and crushed parsnips, and Risotto of escargots with sweet garlic and black truffles. It’s actually quite chic and seems to be well frequented by NYC residents who like the ambience and the bar.

So, if you really, badly need a vacation, and so does your kid, or kids, then be willing to shell out the big bucks at the Chambers Hotel, and enjoy the guilty pleasures of the Big Apple while your children are taken care of by the hotel.

Info: 15 West 56 Street New York, NY 10019; (212) 974-5656

Central Park is what provides oxygen to New York, in more than one way. Time runs to a different beat here - A sleepy hollow in the middle of the city that never sleeps. In addition to the fresh air that the 843 acres of greenery provides, Central Park also serves as a daily getaway for New Yorkers fed up with being corraled into a concrete jungle of high rise condos, air conditioned office cubicles and a merciless daily grind, but unable to take that much needed getaway vacation. 

The dense foliage and jogging trails, the restaurants, the zoo, the cheek to cheek tango dances and organized events, the classic architecture of the landmark buildings, the outdoor theatre and concerts, the skating rinks, the walking tours, educational activities and extensive sports facilities with basketball, tennis and handball courts and 26 ballfields all put together are the life and soul of New York, which keeps the Big Apple’s residents fit and ready to battle another day in the mayhem of the subways, the noisy bumper-to-bumper traffic, and all that smoke and grime and the claustrophobia of being locked into a sea of commuter clogged streets.

Central Park Tours:

• Walking Tours - These are pre-designed tours with podcasts, interactive guides and maps designed to allow visitors to experience all the wonders and pleasures of Central Park. The walking tours are available in two formats - The ‘Family tour’ which includes popular attractions like the  children’s zoo and Balto Conservatory Water with minature sailboats, and secondly the more inclusive ‘Arts & Architecture tour’, which features all the attractions of the family tour in addition to detours to the Loeb Boathouse, Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, the Mall, the Dairy, the Carousel and Wollman Rink.
• Bike Tours - The Central Park Bike Tours offer a way to go through all of Central Park in a couple of hours. The tour ticket costs $40 ($20 for 15 and below), and includes the bike rental and a tour escort who leads the group. There are three groups each day, at 10 am, 1 pm and 4 pm. Call (212) 541-8759 to purchase by phone or reserve online. The bike tour takes you along to  Strawberry Fields, the 3 acre international garden of peace honoring John Lennon, the Belvedere Castle and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, the Shakespeare Garden and Paul Simon Concert, in addition to other stopovers along the way.

In addition to these ‘official’ tours, you can also book yourself a spot with one of the many NYC tour companies, such as the Big Onion Walking Tours, who offer guided and themed tours inside Central Park, such as movie tours and picnics.

Central Park Restaurants: Central Park offers many restaurants and concession stands spread across the Park. The most famous of these is the Tavern on the Green (West Side between 66th and 67th Streets ) which serves as a formal restaurant with valet parking which offers lunch, dinner, pre-dinner theatre and a Sunday brunch. 

Also well frequented is the Loeb Boathouse (East 74th Street at the East Drive) which offers a picturesque location with a view of the lake for a romantic date or dinner, with informal snacks additionally available on the outside terrace, a bicycle rental concession, rowboat rentals and a quaint ride in a gondola across the lake. Like I said, it’s a great place to spend half a day, frolicking lakeside in the late afternoon, watch the sunset across the lake and then enjoy a sumptous buffet dinner.

Other dining options include the Wollman Rink, Leaping Frog Café, Kerbs Ice Cream Café, Ferrara Italian Café, Ballplayers House and the Sheep Meadow Café.

Central Park Zoo & Tisch Children’s Zoo: Located on the East Side between 63rd and 66th Streets, the five plus acres of the zoo have been carefully constructed and zoned to recreate the natural habitats of the zoo’s 130 species including the Polar Circle which houses the stars of the zoo - The polar bears Ida and Gus.

Next to the polar bears are the harbor seals and then the Ice Pack building inhabited by  dozens of funny penguins. The Rain Forest is a raucous collection of tropical birds, frogs, lizards, snakes, monkeys and other exotic species which are as fascinating for their oddball behavior as they are for the brlilliant canopy of colors and the incredible din they create. In short, the zoo is the perfect place to let loose cranky kids bored stiff by the Big Apple’s adult pleasures. Admission cost for adults is $8.00, senior citizens $4 and children aged 3 to 12 can get in for $3.00. Free for children under 3.  212-439-6500

Central Park Concerts: Concerts and music at the park include Summerstage, free performances by the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, and the concert series at Naumberg Bandshell. Central Park SummerStage (Rumsey Playfield, 70^th St. at Mid Park; (212) 360­-2756) is a performing arts festival which promotes a variety of artistic presentations, including readings, one-person theatrical productions and a dance series in outdoor settings. Every summer, both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic perform for free on the great lawn. In addition, there’s a summer jazz festival near the Dana Discovery Center, at Harlem Meer (Eastside from 106th to 110th Street )

Info: 5th Ave to Central Park W and 59th St to 110th St New York, NY 10024;
(212) 360-3456  Web Links: Central Park - Maps, live webcam, photo gallery. Directions: 1; A, B, C, D at 59th St-Columbus Cir; C at 72nd-110th Sts; 4, 5, 6; N, R at 59th St; 6 at 68th-110th Sts. Hotels near Central Park include the Comfort Inn Central Park West, Belnord, Bentley Hotel, Dream Hotel and the Park Central NY. 

Only in New York could someone dream up a museum which turns sex into an exhibition of academic pursuits and historical insights. The New York Musuem of Sex (http://museumofsex.com/), is one such bone-headed venture which, nevertheless, is generating quite a bit of enthusiasm with its colorful exhibitions among history buffs, tourists and just plain old kinky New Yorkers looking for a kick. The museum hosts ’sexhibitions’ based on themes such as the ‘underground evolution of early sex films’, ‘Vamps & Virgins: The Evolution of the American Pinup 1860-1960′, ‘Come whet your appetite and encounter the pleasures of Bacchanalia…’.  

For the record (yes, I googled it), the bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Roman and Greek god Bacchus. Funnies aside, this musuem is actually a release valve for America and New York’s pent-up prudishness. Why all the big hoopla about sex? The French don’t give two hoots about their recently elected President getting divorced, and both him and his wife getting re-married before their electoral honeymoon is over. The Swedes take pride in their openness about sex and nude camps. New Yorkers take pride in having ousted a Governor who paid for extra-marital sex, even as hookers are servicing clients in family friendly hotels in New York. If the museum manages to raise the curtain on some of the hypocrisy and double-standards which prusidhness leads to, it might actually be beneficial, than just a place you visit for entertainment value.

So yes, this museum does have some significance, and if they don’t cross the line (which is going to be a tad bit difficult considering it’s New York), it might actually help liberate New York’s culture and views about sex and end up changing the future, rather than be a bunch of pictures and artifacts cataloguing the past.

Besides, the museum isn’t as debauched as it may sound from this post. It’s actually more art than explicit portrayal, and some of it, such as the current exhibition ‘Sex in Design/Design in Sex’, is actually quite stimulating (not in that sense) and inspiring if you’re an artist or a designer. And some exhibitions are a testament to American ingenuity, such as the ‘US Patent Office Sex Inventions’ which focuses on technological innovations and the way these new inventions intermingle and fit in with changing perceptions about sex and conventional thought.

Info: 233 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016; (212) 689-6337. Open Sunday to Friday from 11:00am – 6:30pm and on Saturdays from 11:00am – 8:00pm. Tickets - Adults $14.50 + tax  and a dollar less for students and seniors. You can get a $3 discount if you print out a coupon and from their website and take it along when you go to the museum. Further group discounts available for groups of 10 or more. Transportation: Subway: N, R to 28th Street (Broadway); 6 to 28th Street (Park Avenue). Bus:
M2,M3,M5 going downtown on Fifth Avenue; M6,M7 going downtown on Broadway; M2,M3 going uptown on Madison Avenue.

Most visitors to New York want the ‘real’ tour, but very few are willing to venture out of their comfort zones. I mean, its a pain in the butt to forgo an airconditioned coach and wander the streets looking for a small street vendor who sells some cheese, even if it does happen to be the best cheese in New York. But if you want to get to know the real New York, ain’t no bus going to take you there. You’ll have to take the subway or a cab and work out a sweat walking the streets and talking to people in bars, cafes and restaurants.

A more palatable option, if the thought of getting lost in NYC intimidates you, is to tag along with the Greenwich Village food and culture walking tour, organized by the Food of New York Tours, Inc., which takes you along on a guided tour of the West Village, with halts at quaint food shops hawking specialty foods along Bleeker Street which you won’t find anywhere else, Italian eateries and charming neighbourhood restaurants, all sprinkled liberally with a dose of culture, customs and the historic landmarks found along the way.

Tour info: Available 7 days a week, starts late in the morning and lasts for 3 hours. Meet up at 6th and Bleecker St., one tour guide assigned for a group of 16 people. Included in the ticket cost ($42) are all the food tastings and a ‘Foods of New York Neighbourhood Guide’. Wear clothing and shoes comfortable for walking. Advance booking recommended.

If you’re going along on this tour, a few more recommendations. For foodies, the tastings might not be enough to be called a proper lunch, so you might want to have an early brunch before you head off for the tour. You might also want to buy some takeaways and specialty foods and gifts when you hit these famed eateries and walk the streets, so take along a fairly big size bag or something to carry along all the stuff you buy.  Believe me, you walk Bleeker Street, you come out with a bag full of goodies. Take along a bag if you don’t want people to stare at all the things you’re carrying… 

Also, the tour involves a slightly strenous walk of around 2 miles all put together, so it might not be advisable to take along kids (unless they’re small enough to be carried) or anyone who has a problem walking long distances. The tour doesn’t stop for bad weather, so you might want to check the weather forecasts to see if you’re up to it. Featured stops along the way include Murray’s Cheese Shop (254 Bleeker St.), with a mind-boggling display of heaping baskets of fresh ricotta, basket cheese, buffalo mozzarella and specialty foods including Lillie Belle handmade chocolates and Rosebud spiced plum chutney.

Another stop on this gastronomic odyssey is at Rocco’s Pastry Shop and Espresso Cafe (243 Bleeker St.), where you’ll find cakes which are the stuff of dreams. You take one step into Rocco’s and the sight of the loaded racks of cookies, baked goods and freezers chock-a-bloc full of cakes, not to mention the heavenly aroma of fresh baked breads, is enough to set your mouth watering worse than a bull dog with a bone just out of reach of his leash. Eat your fill, wash it down with a strong espresso, and take along a few slices of cakes and some cookies for later consumption, and maybe a gift basket for someone you want to make really, really happy.

Some more stops at a couple of Italian pizzerias and a Mediterranean olive oil shop rounds of the Greenwich Village food tour, and you can take home a slice of New York with you. The company also offers tours of Chelsea Market, Soho and Chinatown, so if you have a full week, I suggest you wrap up Lady Liberty, Times Square attractions, Fifth Avenue shopping and other cookie-cutter tourist options in a day or two and spend a couple of days stomping around with the Food of New York tours.