Discover New York City and San Francisco

When people think of New York City, one of the most populous cities in the world, they rarely think of the amazing amount of natural and green areas incorporated into its design and planning. In fact, the big apple contains over 28,000 acres of parkland, and a further 14 miles worth of beaches. With the number of visitors increasing each year since 9/11, as well as airlines increasingly offering flights to New York from Europe, the city is set to get ever popular. So for the visitors who are considering a visit but are daunted by the relentless bustle, here is a guide to the natural side of New York City.

Well, this article wouldn't be right without it. Central Park has been an official land mark since 1963, but has since grown to include more than just trees and grass. Today the 843 acres boast lakes, ponds, tracks, ice rinks, and even an outdoor theatre. The park receives over 20 million visitors every year which is the most for any park in the US, despite the fact that there are many more that are bigger in size. The park has a carriage horse service, is host to music festivals, and even has its own all-volunteer ambulance service.

Central is not the only significant park in the city, Brooklyn is also home to its own sprawling green area. Prospect Park is slightly smaller, at 585 acres, buts its Long Meadow is considered by many to be one of the biggest urban meadows in the country. Prospect is also home to its own zoo which houses porcupines, sea lions and red pandas. Yet perhaps one of its most unique attractions is the former home of Edwyn Clark Litchfield's decadent Italiante Mansion - Litchfield Villa.

The New York Botanical Garden is located on the Bronx Park and draws over 800,000 visitors a year. The garden was founded in 1891 by Nathaniel Lord Britton after he saw the Gardens at Kew, London. Some of the trees on the premises are more than two centuries old, and make up a collection of flora that is incredibly divers, including: tulips, wetlands plants, and tall beeches.
Wave Hill is a smaller 28 acre estate located in The Bronx. The site, popular with horticulturalists, overlooks the Hudson River and is made up of colourful and visually stimulating gardens. There are two houses on the site, the most famous being Wave House which has seen many famous tenants including Mark Twain and Darwins Bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley. The gardens are also used for beekeeping, and include an aquatic garden and a Conservatory.


San Francisco is one of the most populous in California. Since the California Gold Rush and the city's establishment as a centre for finance and commerce, biotechnology firms and micro-businesses have come to be founded in the area - with Silicon Valley just a stones throw away. Despite this, the driving force behind San Francisco's economy is tourism, made up of millions of visitors a year who want to visit the place that is the subject of so many songs, movies, books, and other forms of popular culture. With European airlines offering flights to San Francisco, 2009 makes this city of culture more accessible than it has ever been.

The Golden Gate Bridge is often regarded as the definitive structural icon of San Francisco. Construction took four years from 1833 to 1937, and when it was completed it was the longest bridge of its kind in the world. It has since been surpassed in length, but still remains a uniquely breathtaking attraction. Additionally, there are many other architectural and structural sights in the City, such as the quaint "Painted Ladies" Victorian houses, and the city's very own cable car system.

For those eager to delve for a little more deeper history than what is on the surface, there are many museums to be visited. The Museum of the African Diaspora and the Contemporary Jewish Museum offer an interesting insight into the culturally diverse background of the city. There are also many more underground attractions that have developed from the city's inherent liberal politics, such as The Antique Vibrator Museum, and the UFO, Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster Museum.

Additionally, there are many art galleries displaying local and international art. The Museum of Modern Art is no doubt the most popular. Opened in 1935 and situated on Third Street, the museums is dedicated solely to 20th Century art and includes work by Jackson Pollock and Marcel Duchamp. The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum and the Asian Art Museum both display more historical works from other corners of the globe, with exhibitions including Egyptian and Chinese artefacts respectively.

San Francisco is also know as a centre for music and festivals. Aside from being the subject of many famous popular songs such as I Left My Heart in San Francisco and San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear flowers in Your Hair), music is very much ingrained within the soul of the city and the area has pioneered many sounds and given rise to many pioneering artists, such as Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Dead Kennedys, and Faith No More. The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is a free music festival held in the Golden Gate Park every year since 2001.

St Patricks Day in New York City

New York City is a popular destination and reportedly receives 47 million people a year, including over a million from the UK and over 250,000 from Ireland respectively.

Significant holidays, such as Christmas and New Year, also attract the crowds who flock to the city to stock up on presents and celebrate with thousands of other revellers. So why don’t us Brits consider spending Saint Patrick’s Day in The Big Apple in 2009?

New York City holds one of the longest running Saint Patrick Day parades in the world. 2009 will be the 248th year that fifth avenue (between 34th and 59th Street, central Manhattan) pays host to the parade involving some 150,000 marchers – and an additional 2 million spectators. The popularity of the celebration is no doubt due to New York’s own Irish community, which is the sixth biggest minority in the city today.

Manhattan’s Irish Heritage stretches back to the potato famine of the mid-1800s. This resulted in almost 2 million people leaving the country with many of them heading west, landing in New York, and subsequently settling in the city due to arriving with very little money. Since then the Irish community has become well established in the area, with examples of Irish influence in the religious, political, and business/service sectors exemplified by the many Irish bars across the city – and the popularity of products such as Smithwick’s Ale.

An additional plus to the multicultural character of New York City, is that in terms of accessibility, the city is one of the best places to easily experience a diverse range of cultural influences. Alongside the Irish community, there are many Puerto Ricans, Chinese, Italians, Dominicans, and West Indians – who have all had an impact on the city. And therefore, for the brief visitor to the city, there is an awful lot of choice concerning sights to see and cuisine to sample.

Yet with today’s economic climate, it is probably the thought of travel money that is at the forefront of most people’s minds. From a British perspective, over the last year the pound has suffered a massive fall against the US dollar as well as the Euro but since February, or so, has showed a slight increase which bodes well for the 17th. As it stands, £1 gets you $1.42 but is closer to parity with the Euro (€1.13), so looking at the figures for the past year (and the percentage change) the weakness of the pound is not likely to differ too much between the two destinations.

20 New York Facts

20 Cool facts about New York. Did you know that in New York City, more than 26,000 people live in each square mile? Or that the island of Manhattan was purchased from Native Americans for about $24? In fact, New York City is not only the largest city in the United States, but is made up of five separate boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Manhattan. If you think you know everything about the Big Apple, think again.

Here are my top 20 Interesting Facts About New York City, some you might have heard and others I guarantee you haven't.


1. Dutch explorer Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan (really its southern tip) from the Algonquin tribe for trinkets and tools worth about $24.

2. The first known name for Manhattan was New Amsterdam, which referred to the southern tip of Manhattan, a Dutch trading port.

3. New York City was the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790

4. New Yorkers travel an average of 40 minutes to work each day.

5. More than 47 percent of New York City's residents over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home.

6. New York's Central Park is larger than the principality of Monaco.

7. The New York City Council consists of 51 members and is the legislative branch of city.

8. According to Crain's New York Business, the average sale price of an apartment in Manhattan during the 4th quarter of 2007 was a whopping $1.49 million.

9. New York's Yellow Cabs are yellow because John Hertz, the company's founder, learned from a study that yellow was the easiest color for the eye to spot. He was right.

10. The Federal Reserve Bank on New York's Wall Street contains vaults that are located 80 feet beneath the bank and hold about 25 percent of the world's gold bullion.

11. In 2007, 46 million international and domestic visitors came to New York City. They spent approximately $28 billion while there.

12. The average daily room rate in New York hotels in 2006 (the most recent year surveyed) was $267.

13. More than 250 feature films are shot on location in New York City each year.

14. An average of 4.9 million people ride the New York City subway each weekday.

15. The New York City subway system runs 26 routes with 6,200 subway cars that stop at 468 different subway stations.

16. More than 12,700 licensed medallion taxis work the streets of New York City.

17. More than 18,600 restaurants and eating establishments do business in New York City, and the average cost of a dinner in 2006, according to the Zagat Survey, was $39.43. That includes a drink, tax and the tip.

18. As of the 2000 Census, 8,008,278 people live in New York City.

19. Approximately 790,000 companies operate in New York City.

20. Although many legends exist about the origin of New York City's nickname, the Big Apple, most historians agree that it can be traced back to a writer who covered horse racing in the 1920s. In The Morning Telegraph, he wrote that stable hands often referred to New York as the Big Apple, meaning that any thoroughbred that raced in New York had reached the pinnacle of racing.


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