Sports buffs of all ages will want to check out New York City’s newest museum. The Sports Museum of America at 26 Broadway in Manhattan opens one week from today and already the museum is generating some major media buzz in places like The New York Times, Yahoo! Sports, and The Dallas Morning News.

The first and only interactive, multimedia all-sports experience in the country, the Museum covers baseball, football, basketball, figure skating, extreme sports, and other sports with more than 800 artifacts, 1,100 photographs, and 20 original films. It’s also the new home of the Heisman Trophy and the Billie Jean King International Women’s Sports Center, including the first ever women’s sports hall of fame.

The Sports Museum of America will be included with the New York City Explorer Pass starting on May 7, 2008, when the museum officially opens.

If you’ve ever wondered where shows like Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O’Brien were filmed then, the NBC Studio Tour is for you. This seventy minute tour takes you inside NBC’s historic New York studios. Tours are led by NBC pages. Regis Philbin, Michael Eisner, and Ted Koppel all served as pages in their younger years, so you never know what up-and-comer might be showing you around the studio!

First stop is the NBC/Sharp History Theatre to learn about NBC’s early days in radio. Other highlights include NBC’s most famous studios (subject to filming schedules), including those used for The Today Show, Dateline NBC, NBC Nightly News, and others.

TV and movies buffs might also enjoy these tours:
New York TV & Movie Sites Tour
Central Park Movie Sites Tour
Sex and the City Hotspots Tour
New York TV & Movie Sites on the Water
Sopranos Sites Tour

Now that the weather finally is warming up, a visit to one of New York City’s greenmarkets is the perfect way to explore the city’s neighborhoods. You’ll find organic produce, farm fresh dairy, and homemade goods. Several of NYC’s outdoor markets, including Union Square Greenmarket, operate year-round, but others (like the Borough Hall Greenmarket and Sunnyside and Astoria Greenmarket) are open seasonally.

In celebration of National Garden Month, you can also stop by the 2008 NYC Grow Garden Festival in Union Square Park on April 27 for more on local produce and gardening.

Baseball season has begun in the Big Apple, with the Yankees kicking off their last year in their stadium with a win against the Toronto Blue Jays. Along with their regular season, Yankee Stadium will also be hosting the All-Star Game in July, and the ticket sales are already booming.

Recently named one of baseball’s top 10 stadiums by Men’s Fitness, this is your last chance to see the park in all its glory. The park opened on April 18, 1923 with a Yankees victory against the Boston Red Sox, complete with a home run by Babe Ruth himself.

If that’s how the stadium opened, it’s sure to end with a bang as well, with tons of fans wishing it farewell. If you act fast and grab some tickets, you could be part of history too!

With 5 boroughs, bridges, and trying to figure out the difference between “uptown” and “downtown,” New York City can be intimidating for first-time visitors.

NYC Visit.com has put together this handy little guide to navigating the Big Apple. I found it very useful, and I’m a seasoned visitor to New York. They explain everything from numbered vs. named streets, how many blocks equal a mile, and the greatly confused difference between “uptown” and “downtown.”

Their maps and neighborhoods section offers a tour of each of the boroughs, as well as a guide to visitors centers in different spots in the city, so you’ll always know where to find help.

While you’re in the Big Apple and faced with a plethora of dining options, you want to find something that’s going to please adults and kids alike. There’s so many wonderful places to check out that don’t begin with T.G.I…

Time Out New York recently put together a list of the Best Restaurants for Picky Eaters, focusing on dishes that kids constantly ask for. This list outlines the tastiest kids’ food out there, from chicken fingers to macaroni and cheese and hot fudge sundaes.

In addition to listings of restaurants to check out, there’s also lists of the best burgers in the city, ethnic eateries where eating with your hands is encouraged, dinner theatre destinations, plus an article where chefs discuss pleasing their toughest critics (their kids!).

On the first Friday of every month, the Museum of Natural History hosts Starry Nights in the Rose Center for Earth and Space. It’s an evening full of live jazz in an amazing setting, complete with wine and delicious tapas.

The Valerie Capers Ensemble will be performing at the next event, to be held on Friday, April 4 starting with seatings at 5:15 pm. A native of the Bronx and a Julliard grad, Valerie Capers has performed with greats like Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, and Ray Brown. Legally blind since the age of 6, Valerie is a great inspiration to all.

Here’s to a great Friday night!

After you’ve seen all the top attractions in New York City, the best places often lie just beneath the surface. On NYCvisit.com, they’ve introduced “Ask The Locals,” where you can get the scoop on the hidden gems of the city.

Featuring Julianne Moore, Jimmy Fallon, Robert DeNiro, Tiki Barber, and Chuck Close, you’ll learn about all their favorite spots, from Italian restaurants to museums. Favorites on the list include the New York City Fire Museum, the Frick Museum, and the Chelsea Market.

Are you a local who has some great spots to add to the list? Let us know in a comment!

During your visit to New York, why not learn about how New York got to be the center of American theatre? With this exhibit featured at the Museum of the City of New York, you’ll be able to walk down Broadway and trace the steps of the people who made the famed street it is today.

Entitled Perform, this exhibit is “…an exploration of the link between New York and theater, through costumes, photographs, props, and other original material drawn from the collections of the Museum of the City of New York.”

On April 2nd from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, you can get a special inside view on this exhibit as well as Setting the Stage: Scenic Designs by Donald Oenslager with a free open house! Be sure and RSVP soon to secure your spot.

We know you hate spending tons of money on maps while you’re trying to navigate a new city, so after you’ve picked up your Explorer Pass, check out these great maps for bargain travelers!

Budget Travel just alerted us to the concept of Schmaps, which are free travel guides to places all over the world with local, zoom-able maps, and marked attractions.These guides are great for planning out itineraries based on your personal interests as well, providing all sorts of suggestions based on your preferences.

We’d love to hear what you think should be included for those traveling to New York City! What are your favorite attractions? Let us know in a comment!