@DrJohn You mentioned referencing a bunch of different sources for your restaurant research.
Which ones do you find most reliable / in tune with your tastes?
Did you align locations with sightseeing, or figure out your eats (and drinks, nice list of of cocktail places!) first and then arrange around those?
I haven’t done this in a few years, but when close friends would visit NYC with their kids every couple of years, I’d have a 1-2-3 week itinerary drawn up like yours, with a mix of favorites and new places I thought they’d love, and an activity plan with casual places sprinkled in near the activities (I mean a spreadsheet with BLSD and morning, afternoon, and evening activities and rest worked in — summers in nyc are busy, and there were usually a few kids in the mix, so we had museums, outdoors stuff like movies and concerts, park stuff, and just wandering neighborhoods).
Used to give us a good starting framework from which we could adjust based on mood and energy level, but also reminded us of what they “had” to hit and what we should aim to work in.
They have done the same for me when I visit them — last trip me to them was Germany when they lived there for a bit, but I’m gearing up for a couple of weeks of insanity with them in Mumbai and then Hong Kong this summer!
My wife and I each do the researching. For this trip, we had a Frommer’s book for the sightseeing and took note of what restaurants and bars were recommended. I read through a lot of Hungry Onion threads, focusing on the kinds of places we prioritized. I have a longstanding New Yorker subscription and have kept tabs of their reviews and articles (Tatiana was in a feature article). We also looked at various “Best of” articles, including from the New York Times, Eater, TimeOut, and other random publications. We also went through all the Michelin recommendations.
For any new (to us) place, we like to have multiple sources concur in a recommendation. When a restaurant gets cross-referenced by many sources, usually it ends up being aligned with our tastes. Reviews on Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable tend to not be helpful, with so many people caring more about the host’s interaction than the food or having little knowledge and discernment about food.
My wife then constructs a Google Map, with the locations of all the restaurants and notes about which dishes to try. Thus if we are doing sightseeing in a specific area, we already have a shortlist of places to consider. We also plan a bit in reverse, deciding we must eat certain things and look to see what corresponds in terms of sightseeing in the area. Many of our trips are very planned out, so if we are in a particular town for just one day, we have specific plans for eating. But for New York, we were going to be in the same city all the time, so we were looser in our itinerary.
This is a new feature since I last traveled extensively for pleasure, and one that has been mentioned by many travelers here.
I use Google Maps extensively in NYC and other places I frequent for saving food ideas, so valuable to have sightseeing and food interests lined up in a single place!
Hey, isn’t that why we all hang out with each other here! No shame, I feel bad for people who don’t think about this stuff and then complain that they didn’t like the food (or worse, “XYZ place has bad food”.
My wife then constructs a Google Map, with the locations of all the restaurants and notes about which dishes to try. Thus if we are doing sightseeing in a specific area, we already have a shortlist of places to consider. We also plan a bit in reverse, deciding we must eat certain things and look to see what corresponds in terms of sightseeing in the area. Many of our trips are very planned out, so if we are in a particular town for just one day, we have specific plans for eating. But for New York, we were going to be in the same city all the time, so we were looser in our itinerary.
Yes a bit obsessive. We have no shame in that.
No shame in that at all, exactly what my DH is currently doing for an upcoming Dublin trip. And now we have a head start for our next NYC excursion, thank you.
Interesting how all the ’ heavy ’ chores were carried out by the ladies of the trip?!
During my European Food Crawl trip last month, my daughter using Google Map, mapped out ALL the main attractions, walking directions, transportation, shopping destinations and most importantly ’ restaurant ’ location before we set off! And she covered not just one major city but in our case…Tolosa, San Sebastian, Barcelona, Paris, Reims, London…etc.
So fortunate and glad that someone in the household is computer-savvy!!
Yeah, that’s how to do NYC. I would need to average about 25000 steps per day to keep up. Maybe more at my advanced age and slow metabolism. Well played sir, well played indeed. I’m known among family and friends as the go-to source for good eats but your prep work puts me to shame.
Running = higher intensity = more calories burned, yes? Yes you can burn calories by walking, but if you’re consuming more than you’re burning… When I’m on vacation, I eat whatever I want I’ll worry about it when I get back home
We’ve been walking between 12-15K on average since we arrived in Berlin bc my scooter wasn’t available to me for all of May, between 15-20K in Palermo. Didn’t lose a single pound — not that I was trying, as I am in your camp of
Since I got my scooter back (and my PIC came down with covid), steps on average for the last week have been 3K/per day… if I am being generous.
Lost 4 lbs. It’s almost exclusively about what you do or don’t put in your mouf.
I’m not saying walking doesn’t help somewhat, and I’m all for walking as many steps as I can whether I’m on holiday or at home but I know that the only reason I see any weight loss when I go on my very long walks(15k +) is because I’m not stuffing my face whilst walking :D.
Sorry @DrJohn , didn’t mean to hijack your thread . Apologies
We enjoy walking around in cities, bc it isn’t an end to a means. It is interesting, engaging, and a great way to get around and discover new things. We don’t walk to “get our steps in” … they simply just happen. And walking is good for your body. It’s entirely useless for weight loss, however, without any dietary changes or limitations.
I was walking 30,000 steps a day in Hawaii. Didn’t gain any weight.
My favourite holiday was 2 weeks in Greece in 2004. I ate well, walked a lot, and came home 5 lbs lighter.
When I lived in NYC, I walked around 2 hours a day during the week, 3 h a day on weekends.
I put on 10 lbs the year I moved back to Toronto, when I was walking less and bought my first car. I put on another 10 lbs the following year when I moved to Calgary, when I was walking even less than when I lived in Toronto.
Walking is good for maintenance. Taking weight off is a bitch.
This is correct. I assume I will eat more than usual on vacation. My goal on vacation is always to come back at or near the same weight. Not to weigh less. My extensive walking helps with weight maintenance when I’m basically eating out for a week.
Definitely but on vacation we tend to walk much more (often 20K+ steps) and that really helps to not gain weight even when you eat more than you might do at home
— summers in nyc are busy, and there were usually a few kids in the mix, so we had museums, outdoors stuff like movies and concerts, park stuff, and just wandering neighborhoods).
