The Belvedere (www.belvederehotelnyc.com) is something of an institution among New York family hotels. Mixing up a rich history built up since its opening in 1928 and an original Art Deco facade with cutting edge modernities, luxury hospitality and a vibrant and diverse list of international clientele, the Belvedere Hotel sits a block away from the Theatre District, with everything from Times Square to Carnegie Hall and the Met within walking distance. It’s the perfect choice in terms of price, location, comfort and amenities, whether you’re on a weekend NYC getaway with family, or on a business trip or conference.

The hotel has 400 guest rooms, each offering a fully furnished kitchenette with microwave, refrigirator and coffee maker, plasma TV with a Nintendo player and pay-per-view movies, in-room safe, hairdryer, iron & ironing board, and a European style marble bathroom with custom designed showers.

A free complimentary continental breakfast is included in the nightly charge for a room with two double beds, which comes to about $359 plus taxes for a family of four, including two adults and two children. The Belvedere also offers a special NY1 package deal, which includes the free breakfast and a two night minimum stay, at $269 per night plus taxes.

Amenities include fitness and business centers, with a state of the art meeting center for conferences and events with A/V equipment, internet access and catering arrangements. The Belevedere’s Concierge is reputed for being able to arrange ’hard-to-get’ tickets and restaurant reservations at trendy hotspots, in addition to making arrangements for guests to join guided tours of the Big Apple and transportation within New York and limos to and from the airports. You can call ahead and let them know your needs and you can bet your boots you’ll have the tickets (or other ‘discrete’ arrangements as per your request) waiting for you when you get there.

Dining options include the Belvedere Café and Churrascaria Plataforma for lunch and dinner. The Belvedere Café serves the free breakfast for hotel guests with a gourmet buffett, fresh dairy and bakery products, meats and cheese, flpajacks, and coffee and tea from 7 to 11 a.m. Churrascaria Plataforma is a Brazilian steakhouse with roasted beef, lamb and pork dishes on the menu. While the Belvedere’s culinary fares are excellent, it remains to be said that New York in general, and Hell’s Kitchen and the Theatre District in particular, have a lot more to offer in terms of restaurants and diners than what the Belvedere’s two diners have. If you want to get a real taste of New York, consider dining out at one of the finer restaurants in the area. Web links are provided below.

Info: 319 West 48th Street New York NY 10036; (212) 245-7000

Web links: Hell’s Kitchen dining guide; NYC vacation family things to do; New York City Pass; Cheap Broadway tickets

Geek visiting New York? Here’s the schtick. You  get off the plane,  pay $60 for a Downtown cab ride which you suspect is excessive (you’re right), checkin and then walk out of the hotel, don’t want to take a cab again and you have no idea how the subway works, so you walk around, get lost after a couple of blocks, ask  for directions, get a blank stare and a head-to-toe ‘onceover’ which basically means ”Where do all these people come from?”

Right. Welcome to New York, and you’re all alone in a city with over 8 million people. Pathetic day so far, and perfectly normal for a geek. But today happens to be your lucky day, because I’m about to give you a free guided geek tour of New York City. Before we start hitting the streets, you should know that its best to know where you are, relative to wi-fi enabled spots, like Central Park and the nearest Starbucks. So you can map out a route which tracks both your intended destinations and all the wi-fi spots along the way.

Robot Village: Doesn’t get geekier than this. Anything and everything you’d need if you’re interested in robots. That’s Robot Village in the Upper West Side, where they have ‘bot building stations’ where you can build your own robot. You can buy a robot, you can buy books on robots, you can buy spare parts & accessories for robots, and you can attend or organize robot building parties, events and workshops. Let’s just say that if it needs electricity and moves, you can find it at Robot Village. Photo Credit - Ruth Fremson/The New York Times.

Info: 252 West 81st Street, New York, NY 10024; (212) 799-7626; info@robotvillage.com; Directions:- Subway: Take the #1 subway to 79th street. Walk 2 blocks North on Broadway to 81st Street.  Make left on 81st (between Broadway & West End Ave.); Bus: Take the M79 cross-town bus to Broadway (you’ll be on on 79th Street). Walk 2 blocks North on Broadway to 81st Street.  Make left on 81st  (between Broadway & West End Ave.)

Metronaps: Call it the perfect touristy option for geeks in NYC, but Metronaps provides you with an excuse to participate in regular ‘touristy’ options. It might otherwise be yucky for a geek to be caught snapping pics of the Empire State Building or wondering if you can say ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ aloud (don’t). The ergonomic pods at Metronaps provide you with 20 minutes of futuristic sleep in a dark room enhanced by the vibrations, the powerful but gentle hum of Bose speakers and a lemon scented washcloth that will totally knock you out just as the 20 minutes are up and you’re yanked out of your alternate reality. When you get out of the seat, and look around you, you’ll feel like one of Godzilla’s eggs hatching out of your shell in Madison Square Garden. BTW, it costs you $14. Worth it, I’d say, if only because you can say that you fell asleep on the 24th floor of the Empire State Building.

Info: Empire State Building Suite 2210, 350 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10118; (212) 239-3344  

Hayden Planetorium, Rose Center for Earth and Space: Walk through 13 billion years of cosmic evolution, watch the birth of the universe with a re-creation of the Big Bang, massive cosmic collisions and virtual reality space simulations with a customized Zeiss Mark IX star projector which can project over 9100 stars, along with a tour of the surface of any object in the solar system, on to the dome. For space junkies, there isn’t a better place to fulfill and indulge your fantasies. The Planetorium is located in the American Museum of Natural History. Info: American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024; (212) 769-5100; FAQ 

And then there’s New York’s ‘blogger bars’. It’s not like they hold any blogger get-togethers or some thing. Just that some bars and restaurants just sort of started getting famous as hang-outs where bloggers hang around, so to speak. So if you want to talk to a few NYC bloggers, and make friends with some of them, then you have to hit these bars.

The Magician - 118 Rivington St New York NY 10002; (212) 673-7881

Max Fish - 178 Ludlow St New York, NY 10002; (212) 253-1922

Loreley - 7  Rivington St New York, NY 10002; (212) 253-7077

Von - 3 Bleecker St New York, NY 10012; (212) 473-3039

Tom & Jerry’s (288 Bar) - 288 Elizabeth St New York, NY 10012; (212) 260-5045

There’s lots more, but tell you what. If you hang out with some of the people you find in these places, you won’t be needing this guide any time soon.

FoxNews - NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. —  A housekeeping supervisor is credited with saving the life of a newborn whose mother had just given birth in a toilet at a western New York hotel. Cathy Masic says a hotel housekeeper gave birth Saturday morning in the bathroom in a guest room at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Niagara Falls. A statement from the hotel says the mother and child are doing well.

Very touching, and admirable, at least on the part of the housekeeper. Only one question. What the heck was the numskull mother doing delivering a baby sitting on a loo in a Niagara Falls hotel? I mean, c’mon, its a bit hard to imagine plunking a baby out of a womb straight into a toilet bowl….Only in New York!

I can almost imagine the headlines for the hotel (www.qualityniagarafalls.com). Here at the Quality Hotel & Suites we offer 213 rooms & suites [toilets]. We have a special way of saying welcome. Whether it is business or pleasure [birth], our well-appointed guest rooms [toilets] and friendly staff [midwifes] will make you feel right at home the moment you [the baby] come through our doors [toilets].

Located just one block from the Seneca Niagara Casino, The Majestic Falls, Rainbow Bridge to Canada, and many more exciting attractions. Excellent dining, entertainment and shops are just minutes away. We offer a variety of well-appointed room types to meet your comfort level and budget. Choose from a variety of suites to suit your needs!

So now you know where to go if you’re planning on having a baby in a hotel room.

Info: 240 First Street Niagara Falls, NY 14303; (877) 282-1212; guestservices@qualityniagarafalls.com [birthservices@…]

New York’s Meatpacking District, or Gansevoort Market as it is officially known, is not a place where you’ll bump into too many blood-stained aprons or sausage factories nowadays. In fact, while it still retains a large blue collar residential population supporting the remaining meat plants, the Meatpacking District has actually morphed into one of the most trendy and ultra-chic neighbourhoods in Manhattan, with upscale boutiques, hard to get in night clubs frequented by celebs and ridiculously expensive restaurants catering to the filthy rich. As Seth Kugel, New York Times, says in this article about people watching in New York, the Meatpacking District is your best bet to see what skimpy outfits today’s young New Yorkers are wearing.

Also as a matter of fact, a lot of stars from the West Coast head straight for the Meatpacking District when they’re visiting NYC. Not surprisingly, there are a horde of tabloid journalists, film makers and NYC models packing it into the place, trying to ’fit in’ with the high flying crowd. And the center of gravity for all these high wattage celebrity stars and their hangers-on packed into the Meatpacking District is the Gansevoort Hotel.

From the outside, the hotel looks like an eyesore, a 14 story silver monster looming over the bland and relatively nondescript brick warehouses that abound in the District. Once you’re inside, though, its a completely different world, where luxury is taken for granted and the competition is to see who manages to spend more (a disease imported from Hollywood, I believe).

The best thing you’ll probably like about the hotel is the rooftop deck. The rooftop of Hotel Gansevoort is like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. In the center, there’s a 45 foot heated, glass-encased swimming pool with underwater music.

Then there’s the Plunge lounge with wall-to-wall windows and 20 foot high ceilings, where there’s always some hip parties and events in progress. There’s also a roof garden with another lounge and a 360 angle view of the entire District and the City skyline.

The dining at the Gansevoort is provided by the Ono Bar & Restaurant, with funky Japanese cuisine and an inimitable style of cooking and serving Sushi and Robatayaki.

You sit at the bar, surrounding the chef and a selection of meat, game and veggies, with the chef  busy chopping and grilling over an open flame. You point out what you want out of the choices in front of you to the chef, he picks it up, cooks it on the open flame and serves it to you right there. Eating at the Ono is more of an experience than a simple dinner. In addition, there’s also a Maxim eatery on the ground floor of the hotel.

Amenities and services at the hotel imclude complimentary wi-fi internet, free New York times or Wall Street Journal, Nintendo Wii gaming consoles, 24 hour fitness and business centers available for use by guests, a full service spa and 3 infinity hydro pools and a hair salon, room service around the clock, and same day laundry and dry cleaning. Room rates start at $435, with a suite going at $675 and a duplex penthouse for $5000. The 187 rooms are exceedingly well furnished with plush beds and 400-thread Egyptian cotton linens, flat screen LCD television, large bay windows and some really funny looking artsy kind of lighting and lamp shades.

A stay at the Hotel Gansevoort, accompanied by a sampling of the wonderful pleasures of the Meatpacking District, the massive Spice Market restaurant, the Wooster Projects gallery, and the Highline elevated railway that hangs over the Meatpacking District, with some celeb spotting and hob-nobbing with the stars, could be just the prescription for an exciting New York holiday.

Info: 18 Ninth Ave W 13th St New York NY 10014; (212) 206-6700

Up until recently, people used to prepare wills and set their affairs in order before they kicked the bucket. But, thanks to Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, not to mention the tanking economy, NYC residents no longer need to worry about wills and inheritances. There’s nothing left to leave behind anyway. So might as well get ready a Bucket List of places to visit before you go calling on the Pearly gates. A bit morbid, I agree. Like, Totally. But if you were given one week to live and wanted to visit the top 5 places in New York for a last look-see, what would they be? Any and all suggestions are welcome in the comments. Here’s my NYC Bucket List.

1. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York: There are slightly less than three quarters of a million bars of gold worth well above $100 billion in a vault five floors and 80 feet below the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, located at 33 Liberty Street, Manhattan. The 10 foot passageway to the vault is cut through a 90 ton steel cylinder. Photo credit: Heather Cross, About.com Guide for New York City Tavel (gonyc.about.com)

The NY Fed provides free guided tours (course they’re not gonna let you wander around in there by yourself) of the gold vault, trading desk and a multimedia trading exhibit during weekdays. These tours last about an hour and you actually get to see the gold and the tour guide will explain the security measures, the role of the Federal Reserve, the history of the bank and the gold.

If you’ve seen Die Hard III or Mackenna’s Gold, then you know what the NY Fed’s gold vault is doing on this Bucket List. What I’d like to do is just touch one of those bars. Not pocket it. Just rub it and see how it feels and how heavy it is and how it smells. Tell you the truth, I’ve never touched a gold bar before. And I wanna do it and that’s why it’s on the Bucket List.
Info: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Public Information Division, 33 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10045; (212) 720-6130; e-mail: frbnytours@ny.frb.org.

2. Ground Zero: If you thought rubbing a bar of gold was kinky, this one is downright loony. I want to sing a song standing on Ground Zero with a bullhorn. What? It’s a frigging Bucket List. I can write, and do, whatever I want to. Haven’t decided on a song yet, but I welcome your suggestions. I’m gonna do it too. I don’t think I need to explain what Ground Zero is, or where it is, but if you want to learn more , and get current updates about the WTC Memorial, you can visit http://groundzero.nyc.ny.us BTW, do those blue Ground Zero lights reaching for the skies remind of the Bat Signal that Gotham’s Commissioner Gordon used to summon Batman? It sounds more than a bit poignant that those lights are still vainly searching for Batman.

3. Charging Bull on Wall Street: I want to ride the Charging Bull in Bowling Green park near Wall Street. You walk by it everyday, but did you ever think of climbing on to its back and think of the stir that would create? Heck, you could get yourself a front page New York times photo spread, if you managed to get on the bull, held on to its horns and refused to get off. Just think about it. Wouldn’t that be on your Bucket List? Note to Wall Street bankers and investment managers - Rub the bull once a day. Some of that aggression and optimism may rub off on you. I’m telling you, it works. Really.

I’ll continue this Bucket List, if and when I want to, or get around to it. I’m thinking I’ll add the naked cowboy on Times Square to the list. Meantime, have fun. What? You think I’m nuts? So who gives a shit? This is New York.