My goal when I go on vacation is too lose as much weight as I can before I go, eat like a horse when I’m there, walk a lot(or not), and come back home satisfied and not stressed about any weight gain or loss. 
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Nice to see a fellow obsessive. For the past two summers, my wife and I have stayed in Brooklyn for 30 days (we’re returning this year for a third go-round) and we also usually come up for a few days in January to stay on the Lower East Side (when hotel rooms are relatively cheap). Preparing for these trips is almost as much fun as the trips themselves.
I have prepared lists of things to do and places to eat for all five boroughs, organized by neighborhood. I rely on many of the same sources as you (New Yorker, Hungry Onion, Eater, TimeOut, Michelin, New York magazine, Yelp, etc.), plus oddball other sources (Texas Monthly’s occasional forays into NYC for barbecue and Mexican food are very interesting). The lists are basically huge copyright violations, as I cut and paste reviews right into the document verbatim.
It used to be one big long list (300 pages or so), but that got to be unwieldy on Google Docs, so I cut into five separate lists.
I maintain a similar planning neighborhood-based planning document for the DC area where we live, but the NYC lists are much much better.
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My family hates how fast i walk. Not an issue!
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My PIC is eternally at least 5-15ft behind me. When I get walking in the city, I get walking 
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Might want to add The Infatuation to your sources. It’s been a nice help for my visits to LA where DD is now in college.
As for Yelp et al., I’ve found that there is good quality among the clutter.
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Exactly! While some might consider my pre-trip research to be obsessive (and based on this thread it barely qualifies LOL), when it comes to walking I don’t mess around. At my age (64 in two weeks), my metabolism is far from what it used to be. My appetite isn’t what it used to be either, but thanks to MyFitnessPal (ok that I am obsessive about; been tracking food for 3083 consecutive days) I can keep my daily intake within reasonable bounds even on vacation when I indulge in things like milkshakes and doughnuts.
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I like to enjoy a leisurely stroll when I’m in a new city, no speed walking for me At home it’s a different story.
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Yes, I definitely do use The Infatuation as a New York City reference. It’s good.
But The Infatuation in DC is incredibly mean-spirited. Here’s an article last year by their local critic:
“At some point or another, you’ll find yourself roped into a hangout you’ve been secretly avoiding for months now. It’s okay to admit it. We all have third-tier friends. You know the type, the ex-college roommate that refused to clean the bathroom or the coworker you always run into on your way out the door. The ‘let’s grab lunch’ but the lunch never materializes friend. And yet, somehow, through a series of events that can only be described as unfortunate, you’re actually… meeting up. No need to panic, we’ve got you covered. Here are 6 spots that won’t cost too much, won’t last too long, or are brimming with so many distractions, it’ll all be over faster than you can say ‘debt ceiling disaster.’”
What kind of mind does it take to think that it’s a universal experience to have “third-tier friends” who you actually don’t like?
Not only are The Infatuation’s reviews mean-spirited, they are inexplicably limited to DC proper, which is bizarre since a great many of the best restaurants (especially the best immigrant-owned restaurants) are in the suburbs, not within the boundaries of the tiny District of Columbia. I’m not saying The Infatuation is consciously anti-immigrant, but that is certainly the effect of their limiting their reviews to the District of Columbia.
The Infatuation does an excellent job with restaurant reviews in New York City, but their elitist, narrow coverage of DC area restaurants is pretty much worthless.
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Thanks Doug. I do remember the third-tier friend article. And as for limiting their choices to the DC city limits I agree that is nonsensical. Any DC bakery survey that doesn’t include eclairons, like the one they just published, is a massive fail!
When I read this I first thought wow, she is walking 12 to 15 kilometers a day and was blown away. Still impressed by the number of steps.
Maybe it’s inartfully written but I don’t think that the notion of tiers or circle or rings of friends is uncommon. There are very close friends you make time for and who make time for you. The buddy who would bail you out of jail no questions asked in the middle of the night. The best man and your groomsmen. The next ring is the friends who you see and have drinks with regularly. You went to their weddings. Then there are the sort of people you know and yes you say to each other that we should get together whenever you see each other and almost never do, but you can’t really say you know them well. Makes sense to me. And I didn’t take it as mean spirited. Just descriptive of the relationship.
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Yeah, I don’t walk for ‘sportsing’ or exercise purposes 
Berlin’s a big city, although we did even more steps in Palermo (no public transportation).
Yeahhhhh, they’ve kind of stepped in it here, too.
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I followed the link to the 8 year old review, and it was cleaned up, with a note at the top.
Yes, which is why I linked to the Eater article, which quotes from the un-cleaned up version.
I can’t agree with that. The review was signed by the reviewer, so there was every chance some of her “third tier” friends read that review and (rightly) had their feelings hurt.
Of course, there are some friends who you’re closer to than others, but this reviewer was talking about people you actually don’t like but pretend to like.
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Imagine wanting to be friends with someone with such ill regard for others!
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There’s a lot of that, though, especially in big cities where lots of young people congregate after college for entry level jobs (DC, NY, SF, LA for starters) – circles upon circles of friend-quaintances not very many of them actually close, but part of the fabric of the social life of that phase.
However what was written was obnoxious, and hopefully her friends (and not just the “3rd tier”) took note and adjusted accordingly.
(That said, it may also have just been written for effect.)
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