By Nathalie Barclay.
The New York Pops
On July 7th, Queen’s Forest Hills Stadium will be hosting this summer’s New York Pops concert. This year’s lineup? It’s none other than Tony nominees Matthew Morrison and Megan Hilty, led by musical director Steven Reineke. Complete with a full orchestra and extremely reasonable ticket prices, this concert is the perfect night out for you and your family!
Stay tuned for our August Issue with an exclusive interview with Matthew Morrison!
For tickets visit: ticketf.ly/298CGf5
Staten Island Beaches
For most people, summer tends to go hand-in-hand with long days at the beach, surrounded by friends and family. In New York, this is a bit harder as we like to identify Central Park lawns as our beaches, a hot weekend often characterized as a bikini lounge-on-the-grass day. Most of us forget that just across the water there are multiple beautiful beaches, right there on Staten Island! So get your beachwear, your sunscreen and your volleyball and hop on the free ferry to Staten Island, ready to have a wonderful beach day!
www.visitstatenisland.com/parks/south-beach/
South Edison Restaurant, Montauk
Great new restaurant located on the water, South Edison is the perfect place for a hot summer’s day. It’s best known for its cocktails and raw bar, especially its oysters and crabmeat. Don’t miss out on their Spicy Bloody’s, a Bloody Mary combined with oyster shooters!
Central Park, Family Performance Festival
Looking for cool events to take your kids to this summer? Central Park has tons of free outdoor concerts and events that are perfect for a day out with the kids or a night of classical music. This Family Performance Festival is every Sunday from June to September, and offers fun and interactive activities for your whole family to enjoy! You’ll enjoy learning through music, storytelling, Park adventures and puppetry!
http://bit.ly/295KJMp
Perfect Picnic
If you’re tired of eating out in restaurants and want to spend the day outside, a picnic is a great way to do it. The only problem is that you end having to cook and prepare lots of food and not as relaxing as you might want it to be. Perfect Picnic helps solve that problem. Offering many different picnic services, this company will beautifully set up a picnic for you in Central Park (or in the place of your choosing), complete with blankets, pillows and a full meal (gourmet sandwiches, hors d’oeuvres, fruits, crudites, and even complimentary prosecco!). All you need to do is show up and everything will be taken care of for you!
Camping at Hither Hills State Park
Summer is a great time to go camping. The weather is warm and if you have kids, they’re on vacation and up for anything. You might not want to go too far, especially if you’re renting a car (because who owns a car in NYC?), so Hither Hills State Park is a perfect fit! Located on Long Island’s South Fork, all campsites are oceanfront and have great hiking trails by the beach and in the park. It’s important to book in advance, it fills up quickly during the summer!
Bedell Cellars
A winery in the North Fork of Long Island, Bedell Cellars is the ideal spot for a weekend getaway full of wine tastings and live music. The beautiful vineyard and garden views, curated art collections, and intimate tasting rooms make for a great summer mini-vacation. You might even partake in their evening wine cruise in September, complete with wine, cheeses and raw bar!
New York City Restaurant Week
It’s summer, and restaurant week is back, starting on July 25th and going all the way until August 19th! For all you foodies, this is like Christmas come early, all your favorite restaurants, and the restaurants you could never go to before, right there at your fingertips. Get ready for the most affordable fine dining experience, and make sure to come hungry!
Sailing in Montauk
With the weather so hot, a nice day on the water is just the thing to cool you off. Renting a sailboat can be intimidating if you don’t know what you’re doing, but the Montauk Yacht Club offers many sailing options perfect for an level or occasion. You can sail with a captain and relax, even go for a swim while the crew takes care of the sailing for you. You can learn to sail through their sailing programs. And best of all, you can have flotilla boat parties, an excursion involving multiple boats sailing alongside each other made for large parties right on the water!
http://www.sailmontauk.com
Summer Art Galleries and Expos
The art scene in New York is one of the city’s hottest attractions and is wonderful for locals and tourists alike. It is always changing and featuring new works, and this summer is no different. Make sure to check out the new expos at the big museums (the Met, the Whitney, the MoMa, etc.), but never forgetting your local galleries that are practically overflowing with new and exciting talents. There’s also always MetFridays at the Fifth Avenue, the Met Breuer and the Met Cloisters, all locations offering concerts, tours and even wine tastings after hours on Friday nights!
