When King Tut made his first visit to New York City thirty years ago, the glittering display of artifacts from the young Pharaoh’s tomb turned Tutankhamen into a pop sensation. Huge lines formed to get a look at the treasures that had survived centuries untouched until their discovery in 1922. 

Tut is now back in NYC at Discovery Times Square. While no one has (yet) tried to reprise Steve Martin’s musical ode to King Tut, the lines are again forming to get a look. The exhibition runs through January 2nd, 2011 and after that there’s no telling if it will be another 30 years or more before Tut returns.

Unlike most other Egyptian Pharaohs, Tutankhamen’s tomb was not plundered by robbers and so it yielded a dazzling array items and artifacts when it was uncovered. Many of these items are on display at the exhibit, along with additional antiquities associated with his family and historical contemporaries. In all, some 130 artifacts are arrayed across 10 galleries.

Highlights include the canopic coffinette which is not only synonymous with King Tut but has since become as iconic an image of ancient Egypt’s as the Sphinx and the Pyramids. There is also the crown that was on his head when the tomb was opened, his gilded coffin, and many other finds from the tomb. 

And even if you did manage to see the tut exhibit 30 years ago, there is still something new this go round. There is a gallery devoted to the latest scientific research on Tutenkahamen and what ultimately killed the young king (he was only 19 at the time of his death). The New York Times has a good article on the newest science around King Tut.

Admission to the King Tut Exhibition at Discovery Times Square is free if you select it as one of your choices with a New York City Explorer Pass. This pass will also let you skip the lines at the Exhibition (you’ll probably be glad about that). And you can use your Pass to get free admission to your choice of over 45 different museums, sights, and tours. 

One great way to use the Explorer Pass is to visit the Egyptian Galleries and the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art either before or after you take in the Tut Exhibition. The Explorer Pass again gets you in free and lets you skip the lines at the Met too.

And if you still have a desire for even more Egyptian art and artifacts, the Brooklyn Museum is another good bet, not least because they currently have a long term installation on display called “The Mummy Chamber” that promises to let you “go under the wrappings.” And again, the Brooklyn Museum accepts the NYC Explorer Pass for free admission.

Be sure to also check out the new “build your own ticket” option for any and all of the above ways to get in touch with your inner Pharaoh.

We get the benefit of seeing a lot of travel oriented deals, both in New York City and elsewhere. The good news for travellers is there are a lot of good deals to be had. But every now an then we come across an insanely great deal.

The folks at CitySights are a NYC fixture. Their buses provide a network of tours across the city, including hop-on hop-off type tours that are extremely popular because they not only provide a tour, but they give tourists a handy form of transport.

While we are fans of many of the CitySights tours in their own right, they have a special deal that is really in a class by itself. It is a combo package called the “All Around Town Tour” which is a lot more than just a tour. It includes a 48 hour ticket to all of the following:

• The NYC Downtown Hop-On Hop Off Tour
• The NYC Uptown treasures & Harlem Hop-On Hop-Off Tour
• The Brooklyn Tour
• The Night Tour
• A Circle Line cruise of New York City’s harbor
• A ticket to the Museum of the City of New York

The tours — by land and sea — are a great way to get a narrated view of New York from almost every angle. Plenty of photo opportunities along the way as well as hop-on/hop-off privileges on two of the tours. Adding a free ticket the Museum of the City of New York is a nice touch. You can go before taking the tours and use your new found knowledge to rate your guides (I’m sure they love that!) or go at a later point to fill in the details around sights you saw on your tour(s). It really is an amazing combo and a great opportunity for first time visitors in particular.

Perhaps best of all, if you have a New York City Explorer Pass, you get the whole deal for only $12. To be clear, you need to buy a New York City Explorer Pass. But its a deal all on its own, getting entry into 3, 5, 7, or 10 museums, sights, and tours for a flat money saving price. You simply use of one of your admissions for the All Around Tour, pay the $12 fee, and then use the remaining admissions on your Explorer Pass to go to the Empire State Building, the MET, the Natural History Museum, or any of the other 40 plus choices available.

Have a great trip to the Big Apple!

“City Passes” — sometimes known as “Sightseeing Passes” or “Attraction Passes” — are becoming more and more part of the travel landscape. While long a part of the European travel scene, they are a more recent arrival in the U.S.

In many ways they are overdue. Nobody walks into a hotel to request a room or walks up to the airline ticket counter and expects to get the best price, and yet that is still largely the case when it comes to people purchasing things to do while on a trip. City Passes let people buy their admissions in advance to get the best deal and to do so in a more convenient way that trying to by individual tickets separately.

The basic idea behind any city pass is that it bundles together the entry tickets for multiple museums, sights, and tours and puts them on a single ticket. In doing this, the pass provides a discount compared to the cost of buying separate tickets. It may often have other benefits such as the ability to skip lines and/or come with a free guidebook.

One popular example is the New York City Explorer Pass. Nearly 50 of NY’s top sights accept the Pass as an admission ticket. Customers pick the number of sights they want to see and buy a pass for that number of admissions. Then the pass then works for that many admissions for whichever of the participating sights the holder wishes to visit. For example if a customer bought a 5 choice Pass, they could then use it to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Empire State Building, the Ground Zero Museum, Madame Tussauds, and a hop-on/hop-off bus tour (or any other combination of 5 sights they wanted).

Other examples include the Musee Pass which covers 60 museums and monuments in Paris, the Go Oahu Card with 30 sights and activities in Hawaii, the Smartvisit Card that covers sights in and around Sydney, Australia, and so on.

In addition to being available directly from their own websites, these passes are available from leading travel sites. There are even sites like Smart Destinations that are dedicated exclusively to selling city passes and offer them for a variety of destinations. They also have a video explaining how passes work, so if you need more info access the video on their home page. 

And for those who don’t want to plan ahead, passes can often be bought directly in their locales. The New York City Explorer Pass discussed above lists eight locations where it can be bought in the City.

If your next trip involves taking in the sights, its worth doing your research on your in destination activities just like you would for your flights and hotels. The savings can be significant.

Smart Destinations and Marriott Hotels of New York City are offering an exceptional getaway package.  The package, called “Explore Your New York” is designed to provide visitors a perfect weekend in the Big Apple buy combining a weekend’s hotel stay with breakfast for two and two New York City Explorer Passes. The NY Explorer Pass let you visit any three of fourty participating museums, tours, and attractions.

“We wanted to find a great partner in New York City to work with us in offering a package that delivers exceptional value for today’s traveler,” said Cecilia Dahl, founder and President of Smart Destinations, the creator of Go City Cards and Explorer Pass, which aggregate all the best museums, tours, and attractions onto a single money-saving ticket.

“Marriott has a wide variety of brands to suit all kinds of travelers, and their hotels are located in great locations all around the city.  Pair that with the New York City Explorer Pass and people really get an amazing experience, while saving hundreds of dollars.” Dahl adds that the Explorer Pass not only gets visitors in to the Top of the Rock, Empire State Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, and over 40 other top sites, but comes with skip-the-line privileges, as well as shopping and dining discounts.

People like to do a little of everything when they come to New York and Marriott hotels have long been an ideal base for visitors to New York City, with a broad range of choices, including Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard by Marriott, Renaissance Hotels and Residence Inn brands.

Using the Explorer Pass, you can see the city by guided tour, bus, or bike. Visit top attractions, museums, or national monuments.  Check out movie location sites or take a back stage tour.  Whatever you want to explore, we make it easy with the Explore Your New York package - allowing you to choose three participating attractions plus discounts at world-class shopping and restaurants, “skip the line” benefits and much, much more.

To purchase the Explore Your New York package visit Marriott’s dedicated web site.

Package includes:

• Two adult NYC Explorer Passes for the price of one, each with the holder’s choice of any three included attractions, from a list of over 45
• Breakfast for two or $50 Bonus Bucks (Varies by hotel)
• Two or more nights accommodation at participating New York City Marriott Hotels, rates based upon availability

It is a great way to take in the Big Apple.

“Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop” opened today in New York City.  Marking its world premier, this one-of-a-kind exhibit features life-size, interactive models of Leonardo’s inventions and machines drawn directly from the pages of his notebooks.

Visitors will get to see dozens of Leonardo’s ideas brought to life from the iconic drawings he put down on paper at the height of the Renaissance.  Highlights range from weapons of war to flying machines imagined centuries before the Wright brothers. Hundreds more of Leonardo’s ideas are presented through interactive touch-screens, giving a clear representation to the breadth and depth of the thinking of one of history’s most prolific geniuses.

Far from being a kitschy display, all of the physical replicas were built not just to look like the drawings and notes left by Leonardo, but actually have been built using authentic techniques from his day and using materials that were in use in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop can be visited at Discovery TSX located at 226 West 44th Street in Manhattan. The exhibit will run from November 20, 2009 through March 2010.  Tickets are available for $19.50 (adult), $17.50 (child 4-12), and $18.50 (senior over 65) – or get in free when selecting Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop as one of your choices with a New York City Explorer Pass.

With the upcoming movie release of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, New York City is going Wild. October 12 to 16 has been declared “Wild Things Week” across the Big Apple’s five boroughs and there are a variety of activities parents and kids can participate in.

One of the highlights is the Morgan Library’s display of sketches and early drafts of Sendak’s classic children’s book (October 6 - November 1). While over at the Museum of Modern Art there is exposition on the work of Where the Wild Things Aredirector Spike Jonze (October 8-18). Most of the City’s children’s museums are participating in the fun as well with a variety Sendak themed events and readings. 

The folks at NYC & Company has a great resource on their site to help you join in the fun, just go to http://www.nycgo.com/wildthingsweek for complete details on what’s happening where. This is a great excuse to get out with your kids and enjoy the early fall weather! To get in the mood, you can see the preview for the movie here.

“The New York Explorer Pass quickly became one of our most popular offerings,” said Cecilia Dahl, President and Co-Founder of Smart Destinations. “When we heard from our customers that they would like to have this additional option, the flexibility of our platform allowed us to quickly respond and add the new 10 choice Explorer Pass.”

Dahl went on to credit Smart Destinations’ growth in New York and for the company overall to the combination of a comprehensive and flexible offering along with economic conditions that favor Smart Destinations offerings. “Being able to help people save money is always popular,” explained Dahl, “And from the beginning we’ve focused on having all the best attractions and tours in our program, so the savings don’t come at a cost in customer’s flexibility to see what they want. Particularly in this market, people are looking for ways to stretch their money as far as possible and there’s no doubt that’s helped fuel our growth.”

Among the top attractions included in the NYC Explorer Pass are the Empire State Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Top of the Rock, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry, the Brooklyn Museum – and 40 more.

The New York City Explorer Pass also includes transportation, such as the City Sights “hop-off” double-decker bus tour and other attractions including On Location’s Sex and the City Tour, NY TV and Movie Sites Tour, a Biking Tour of Central Park and a shopping tour of SOHO. The pass also offers a multilingual city tour given in Spanish, German, Italian and French. See the full list here.

First piece of advice: try to stick to public transport, and ideally the Subway. Despite the fact public transport gets crowded in bad weather, it is still  beats fighting for a cab. Many attractions are located near subway stops — and sometimes you can connect to your destination with out stepping out into the weather.

Second piece of advice: if you have kids along, try to go to places with plenty to do. Getting from point A to point B is going to be the worst part of coping with the bad weather, so try to mimimize that part of your day. 

A great example of a kid friendly place with plenty to do is The American Museum of Natural History. Located on the West Side at 79th Street and Central Park West (there is a stop at 81st street right next to the museum and the 1 train stops two blocks away on 79th), the museum has a famous collection of stuffed animals grouped by their continent of origin. These animals are displayed in dioramas that have been a favorite for New Yorkers and visitors alike for decades. The dinosaur collection is another long time favorite that will delight any dinosaur fan.

Also at the Museum of Natural History is the Rose Center for Earth & Space and the Hayden Planetarium. These have been a top draw for the museum ever since they first opened in 2000. One word of caution: the Museum of Natural History is a favorite escape for local New Yorkers to let their kids get out of the apartment on rainy days – so go early if you want to get a jump on the crowds.

On the other side of Central Park is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of the top museums in the world, the Met has something for everyone — kids included. The museum covers 5,000 years of culture. At the Met, art is not just something that hangs on walls. For example, the collection of arms and armor is among the best in the world, with mounted knights on display giving a sense of what it would have been like to see one of these medieval tanks headed your way.

The Met’s Egyptian galleries not only have a wide range of artifacts — including a large number of mummies – but also boasts an entire temple: the The Temple of Dendur. Saved from the rising waters of the Nile’s Aswan Dam, the temple was taken apart and transported to its new home inside a dedicated space in the Met.

Even if armour or Egypt are not your things, the Met probably has something for you. American Painting, Medieval religious art, Asian art, Greek and Roman artifacts, Islamic Art, Byzantine artifacts – the list goes on. And the displays often use architectural elements from the period that give the visitor a sense of actually being there. Even though the Met is probably New York’s most visited attraction, it never feels quite as crowded as the Natural History Museum, but if you are with kids you will feel a need to keep a slightly tighter rein on them at the Met than at the NHM.

If you are looking for something a little less overwhelming than the Met, the Brooklyn Museum of Art is well worth the trip and it has it’s own subway stop. Like the Met, it covers a vast sweep of history with a great breadth and variety of exhibits. The Brooklyn Museum is ideal if you are in the mood for sampling a lot of things vs going deeply into a number of topics (something the Met is ideal for). That said, the BMA is still one of the largest museums in the U.S., so it passes the test of being able to keep you entertained and out of the weather for a while. And if the weather does clear, the adjoining Botanic Garden is a nice addition to your visit.

The New York Explorer Pass features all of these sights — and lets you skip the line at the Met — and many more options for both rain and shine. No matter what the weather does, you can save money on the best things to do in New York. See the full list of included attractions, as well as the dinning and shopping discounts that come with the pass.

Say “New York” to many people, and the images that come to mind are entirely from a relatively tiny slice of this sprawling and diverse city. But there is a lot more to New York than Manhattan. One area that a growing number of visitors are discovering is Brooklyn.

For sometime now native New Yorkers have been enjoying the continuing renaissance of this storied part of the city. Even Manhattanites are embracing what Brooklyn residents have known all along: Brooklyn has something for almost anyone. Increasingly out-of-town visitors are following along to experience the many wonderful sights (and tastes) of Manhattan’s most accessiable neighbor.

New York is nothing without its neighborhoods, and this is as true in Brooklyn as anywhere else. Featuring the picturesque row-houses of Brooklyn Heights, the vibrant DUMBO neighboorhood along the river with its fun and funky bars and restaurants (and some of the best pizza in the city), the posh Park Slope area, the Russian ambiance of Brighton Beach, Williamsburg’s art scene, not to mention Coney Island (hot dog anyone?), Brooklyn is — as Borough President Marty Markowitz says – ”a must-visit for tourists looking for a hip, historic, authentic and diverse experience.”

A personal favorite is the Brooklyn Museum. With a wonderful collection of art and artifacts from around the world and across eras, this museum lets the visitor sample a wide variety without overwhelming with any one theme. And the adjoining Botanic Garden is a beautiful spot to take a break from the hustle of the City. The museum has a number of good restaurants in the area and is just a short subway ride from Manhattan (and has its own stop) or on weekends grab the free shuttle from Manhattan.

Another thing worth checking out is a Chassidic Walking Tour in the Crown Heights neighborhood. You’ll get to experience a slice of New York that is both iconic and a bit off the beaten path (plus get a free deli lunch in the process). There is a great video available on the Chassidic Welcome Center’s site to give you a sense of what you’ll experience on the tour.

If you are going to New York, definitely add Brooklyn to your visit. It is easy to get to — just walk across the historic Brooklyn Bridge (with great views of the City and the River) or take your pick from many of the subway lines to get you into any and all of the neighborhoods.  A New York Explorer Pass covers a number of the top things to do in Brooklyn, including those mentioned above, as well as a bike tour of the waterfront and key bridges or a City Sights bus tour of the Borough.