Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City's Best Unusual Attractions
Label : Cumberland House Publishing
Publisher : Cumberland House Publishing
Studio : Cumberland House Publishing
While it may seem that every possible topic about New York City's attractions has been written about, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track is the first book to focus on the hundreds of off-the-beaten-path destinations in the city. Some are small museums, others are historic places long forgotten, some are stores that sell only odd things, and some are distinguished for their claim to fame as the world's largest/smallest whatever. All of them are notable for the passion with which their proprietors and curators care for them, and all can be visited via the subway system as the author directs readers to which of the city's 486 subway stations will get them closest.
These are the types of places and things that fit perfectly with New Yorkers' psyches and egos and satisfy the desire of tourists to see the unusual. For example, New York is home to the world's tallest Doric column, the world's largest armory, the world's largest cathedral, and the world's largest Reform synagogue. It also has a troll museum, a numismatic museum, a skyscraper museum, doll and toy museums, and a museum of comic and cartoon art. In many cases, half the fun of visiting many of these sites is meeting the people behind them.
Organized geographically to help readers explore the culture and diversity of the city's great neighborhoods, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City's Best Unusual Attractions offers venues in Lower, Middle, and Upper Manhattan; Brooklyn; the Bronx; Queens; and Staten Island. Each section features attractions and fascinating sidebars highlighting places that are particularly interesting to explore.
Recommended for any travel library strong in New York City attractions (2008-10-09)
There are so many books on New York's attractions that one might wonder at the need for yet another, but this book is a key and the first to focus on a hundred off-the-beaten-path destinations, from small museums and nearly forgotten historic places to odd shops and small oddities. A geographic arrangement aids in the journey, with chapters offering addresses, hours, directions, web sites, and long paragraphs of enticing description. Recommended for any travel library strong in New York City attractions.
Great Book for Travelers and Locals Alike! (2008-09-19)
I love love love this book! I've been to 3 of the places so far and love that everything is easily (mostly) accessible and pretty spot on with the descriptions in the book.
Plus, each attraction's description is not only digestable, but filled with a great traveler's context, unlike some Lonely Planet versions where you never really get the context of WHY something is fun to visit!
Excellent Look into NYC's Hidden Treasures! (2008-09-13)
Suzanne Reisman is a wonderful guide through off-the-beaten-track New York City. This guide is well-written, entertaining, thoroughly researched, and full of wonderful gems for any traveler or NYC dweller looking for quirky, fun, and enlightening things to do around town. I love the troll museum. Highly recommend!
I had no idea this stuff was in NYC!!! (2008-08-31)
Having recently moved out of NYC after a LONG time living there, reading this book makes me want to move back right now! I wish I knew about all these cool places while I was living close by.
This book highlights a lot of little-known and interesting places all over the city that are easily accessible on public transportation. The wide range of places means that anyone can find something of interest. It is organized by location, so the visitor can plan on doing several things with one trip and gives great directions on how to get there and what to expect. A little bit of the history of each place rounds out the vivid descriptions, so I felt like I was actually visiting the places just by reading. What a great and out of the ordinary guide-book!
So much fun! (2008-08-22)
Indeed, this travel book is truly unique. Blending fascinating information with humor, mild expletives, and Yiddish phrases, Ms. Reisman creates a relaxed writing style that is as appealing as the colorful cover is eye-catching. The perspective traveler wants to peruse the book from cover to cover as if it were a novel, and not just a catalog of destinations, in order to discover what she has to say. The reader is simultaneously enlightened and entertained. Whoever dreamed that guidebooks could be so much fun?!