Nasher Photograph by Tim Hursley
Living in the middle of the country does have its perks. At any given time you can hop a plane at Lambert International and fly directly to any of 74 cities in the U.S. and beyond. We selected 10 destinations that are doable in a weekend and homed in on their strengths. From hitting the links in Phoenix to catching Jersey Boys on Broadway, exploring Albuquerque’s ancient pueblos to chowing down in Chi-Town, we’ve got you covered on some great weekend getaways.
Albuquerque: Native Land
Probably because of its history, sitting astride the Santa Fe Trail and Route 66, Albuquerque has developed a reputation as a pass-through town. But breezing by is a major mistake—one misses much by not stopping to savor the Albuquerque scene.
Albuquerque rocks, especially for ballooning (there’s even a museum devoted to it), hiking and biking in the forest-filled Sandia Mountains, getting one’s kicks on Route 66 and sampling Southwest cuisine (locals love El Pinto Restaurant, elpinto.com).
The city is as good as it gets for getting up close and personal with Native American culture. The city serves as a hub for the state’s 22 tribes—19 of which are Pueblo, two Apache and one Navajo. For an overview of Albuquerque’s American Indian culture, tour Petroglyph National Monument (nps.gov/petr), visiting a pueblo and staying at a Native American–owned and –operated resort, particularly the Pueblo of Santa Ana (santaana.org), the Pueblo of Sandia (sandiapueblo.nsn.us) and the Pueblo of Isleta (isletapueblo.com). In addition, all visitors should stop at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (indianpueblo.org), where you can find exhibits, enjoy a restaurant serving native-fusion cuisine and see tribal dances and art demonstrations on weekends.
When it comes to visiting pueblos, keep in mind that each is different. Not every pueblo accepts visitors at all times, and each has specific rules for visiting. If you have time to see only one, then make it Acoma Pueblo (skycity.com). Located 45 miles west of Albuquerque, Acoma piques visitors’ interests as not only the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America but also a location that’s sky-high on a 70-acre mesa rising 367 feet above the valley.
One last tip: Don’t forget your ATM card. Albuquerque is a fine place to buy rugs, jewelry, pottery and other Native American art and artifacts, particularly in Old Town’s shops.
For more information, visit itsatrip.org.
Chicago: Windy City Fare
When you visit Chicago, go on an empty stomach. By the Chicago Tourism and Convention Bureau’s count, the city has more than 7,000 restaurants. They run the gamut from lowdown dives to upscale eateries and include every style of food, price and ethnicity. If you plot out your weekend correctly, arriving in time for cocktails on Friday night and leaving after Sunday night dessert, you can enjoy a minimum of seven blowout dining experiences. And you can add between-meal snacks of Windy City specialties, such as Chicago-style hot dogs, deep-dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches and Chicago-born Shrimp de Jonghe and Chicken Vesuvio.
With so many options, it’s impossible for even the most devoted gourmands to stack their plates with a significant fraction of what Chicago has to offer in a single weekend. Foodies are going to have to settle for skimming the cream. And where is that cream? According to Scott Manlin—a Chicago resident, avid wine-collecting bon vivant and (full disclosure) my nephew—the city’s tiptop restaurants include Alinea, Custom House and L2O. He also fancies Boka, Blackbird and NoMI. I also asked Carol Haddix, food editor of the Chicago Tribune, about her favorite inexpensive, little-known and/or ethnic places. “Oh, there are so many,” she says. After considerable thought, however, she narrows the list. “For ethnic food, I love Sol de Mexico for their great mole sauces, Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown for the duck hot pot and Emilio’s Tapas for Spanish.”
How should visitors fill their time between meals? Not to worry—Chicago makes it easy to stay focused on food. In addition to great restaurants, the city offers a cornucopia of food-related activities, such as 125 nonprofessional cooking schools, a wide variety of guided culinary tours and enough food festivals and food-related special events to gorge a glutton. And then there is food shopping. Don’t leave without loading up on Sarah’s Pastries & Candies (sarahscandies.com) and Garrett Popcorn (garrettpopcorn.com).
Where to stay? The Peninsula Chicago (chicago.peninsula.com) and The Drake (thedrakehotel.com) are known to have great restaurants.
For more information, visit cityofchicago.org/tourism; for restaurant details, see metromix.com.
Dallas-Fort Worth: Plenty to Muse About
Texas is a big deal. Literally. Everything about Texas is big. Huge. Enormous. Of course, Texas is the nation’s second biggest state, but telescope in on parts of Texas and everything is still big. For example, where else would two major cities join forces and lasso in a bunch of surrounding cities and counties to form one mammoth metropolitan area called the Metroplex? Combining the urban sophistication of Dallas with the Western-style pizazz of Fort Worth, the Metroplex provides a huge number of far-reaching, wide-ranging attractions.
Take museums alone. Within the sprawling Metroplex are museums dedicated to African-Americans, natural history, Holocaust studies, Dwight D. Eisenhower, aviation, baseball, cowboys, cowgirls, Boy Scouts, Sam Rayburn, JFK’s assassination, Victorian furniture, steam railroads and cattle raisers. In addition, Dallas-Fort Worth has one of the best fine-arts scenes in Texas.
Covering 60 acres and containing such masterpieces as the Nasher Sculpture Center (nashersculpturecenter.org) and the Dallas Museum of Art (dallasmuseumofart.org), the Dallas Arts District represents the single largest contiguous urban arts district in the United States.
The Fort Worth Cultural District (fwculture.com) is equally exciting, with gems such as the Louis I. Kahn–designed Kimbell Art Museum (kimbellart.org), the Philip Johnson–designed Amon Carter Museum (cartermuseum.org) and the Tadao Ando–designed Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (themodern.org).
Diana Pfaff, director of communications for the Metroplex city of Irving, advises tourists to maximize weekend time by renting a car at the airport and using Irving as a base. “Irving is near both area airports and centered between Dallas and Fort Worth,” she says.
“Tourists can save time by sightseeing in Dallas one day and in Fort Worth the next.”
Although Pfaff is paid to promote Irving, her plan is perfect, as—in true Texas style—the little (yeah, right!) city of Irving contains about 75 choice hotels. Check into the Four Seasons Resort and Club (fourseasons.com/dallas), and you can supplement the eye candy of fine art museums with world-class golf, spas and fine dining.
For more information, visit www.fortworth.com and visitdallas.com.
Las Vegas: Roll the Dice
What do Bugsy Siegel, Elton John and Howard Hughes have in common? I’ll bet $50 you already know. These personalities helped make Vegas what it is—yet just what that is remains hard to define. Descriptions include the ultimate adult theme park, America’s best shopping center, the first-rate chefs’ second city, a quickie-wedding Mecca, the night-lover’s lifeline and the ultimate center for the big G—gangsters, girls, glitz, glitter and pull-the-lever, throw-the-dice gambling.
Gaming is at the razzle-dazzle core of the city. Casinos take the money when you lose; everything else—restaurants, shops, spas, hotels—is there to take the winnings. In Vegas one can gamble in all ways, anytime, everywhere. Step off the plane, and even before picking up luggage, you can lose a fortune or win big on the slots. (Just remember: Vegas isn’t one of the nation’s fastest growing cities because it’s going bankrupt.) Ever since 1946, when Siegel first took a gamble on gambling and set up shop at the Flamingo Hotel, the city has kept upping the ante. Today, Vegas is a mega land of movie-set magic spread across two main tourist areas, the 4-mile “strip” and the four-block “downtown.”
Vegas wears an “ultra” label. It’s ultracampy—think female impersonators, quickie weddings with Elvis attendants and activities that earn it the Sin City reputation. It’s ultraclassy—flush with great restaurants such as Restaurant Guy Savoy (guysavoy.com). It’s ultracomfortable—bursting with extravagant resorts, luxurious shopping malls and fabulous spas, exemplified by The Palazzo (palazzolasvegas.com), where enticements include Barneys New York and Canyon Ranch Spa. It’s also ultracontrived, especially the casinos, which create a never-never land of perpetual twilight unencumbered by windows, clocks or other reminders of reality that could bust the gambler’s concentration or stop the flow of cash.
For more information, see visitlasvegas.com.
Nashville: Music City
On any given night of the week (even Monday or Tuesday), Nashville offers more than 200 venues with live music. Count ’em, folks, 200—an astounding number for a city with a population of 1.5 million. I would guess half the population is involved in the music business. “Not so,” says Nashville resident and singer/songwriter Betty Ladas. “In Nashville everyone is connected to music.”
The city is packed with singers, songwriters and musicians, as well as those promoting, recording, feeding, housing, living with, sleeping with and/or listening to them. “Not all the musicians are even employed as professionals,” says Ladas. “That’s why we’re so nice in Nashville. The guy flipping burgers at Burger King could be the next Garth Brooks or head of a major label. No one is going to take a chance at offending, so we’re nice to everyone—just in case.”
Nashville comes by its title of “Music City” naturally. The city is totally and tonally focused. And not just on country music, although lovers of the genre will find more than enough to fill any achy breaky heart. Nashville embraces Christian and gospel, pop and rock, bluegrass, Americana and classical. Even opera’s voice is heard, on occasion.
If you only have a weekend, cut to the chase and get advance tickets to the Grand Ole Opry (opry.com) and The Bluebird Cafe (bluebirdcafe.com). And don’t miss the funky old clubs on Honky Tonk Row, especially Tootsies Orchid Lounge (tootsies.net). And no music lover’s tour would be complete without a peek at the past, found at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (countrymusichalloffame.com) and Historic RCA Studio B, where Elvis, Roy Orbison and Dolly Parton all recorded megahits.
Last tip: If you are a secret songwriter yearning to be heard, then try the Hall of Fame Lounge in the Best Western Music Row (nashvillebestwestern.com). “If it’s late enough, a guitar is usually passed around the bar, and anyone who wants to can take a turn,” says Ladas.
For information on accommodations, restaurants and attractions, see visitmusiccity.com.
New York City: Life’s a Stage
It’s noisy, crowded, stressful, dirty, expensive—and how I love it! In fact, I can’t get enough. I’m talking about New York City. More specifically, the “can’t get enough” refers to New York theater. Don’t bother giving my regards to Broadway; I’ll give them myself.
The term “Broadway” refers to performances presented in any of the 39 theaters, seating 500 or more, located in Manhattan’s Theater District, defined as the area between 42nd Street and 53rd Street from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue. Broadway plays tend to be mainstream favorites—the Tony winners and profit makers. More experimental and edgy productions are referred to as “off-Broadway” and “off-off-Broadway.” But “off” doesn’t mean the plays are offbeat (though they often are) or the theaters are necessarily out of the designated Theater District (some are, some aren’t). It’s the number of seats in the theater that accounts for the labels. Off-Broadway theaters have 100 to 499 seats, and off-off-Broadway theaters have 99 seats or less.
If you think Broadway is the best bite of the Big Apple, then head directly to the Theater District, where you’ll find everything you need to spotlight a weekend of theater indulgence. District hotels run the gamut from the superlarge, 1,892-room, 57-suite Marriott Marquis (marriott.com) to the intimate, 48-room/suite Casablanca Hotel (casablancahotel.com). And restaurants fill the area, including the theater crowd’s darling, Sardi’s (sardis.com).
In NYC the play’s the thing, and there are many ways to get tickets. Buy online at ilovenytheater.com, in person at any given theater’s box office or at the Broadway Concierge & Ticket Center in the Times Square Information Center. If you are willing to stand in line at the TKTS booths (tdf.org) in Times Square, then you can get same-day tickets at good discounts.
For more information, visit broadwayleague.com.
Orlando: A Roller Coaster of a Vacation
Why do kids love it? Let me count the ways: 1) Walt Disney World (disneyworld.com), 2) SeaWorld (seaworld.com/Orlando), 3) Universal Studios Florida (universalorlando.com), 4) Cypress Gardens (cypressgardens.com), 5) Gatorland (gatorland.com), 6) Wet ’n Wild (wetnwildorlando.com), 7) Aquatica (aquaticabyseaworld.com) … The list goes on and on like a certain pink battery bunny. Orlando is theme-park, fun-attraction heaven. The cup runneth over with delights to awe not only children, but also the inner child in most adults.
Seems just about everyone dips into the fantasyland of Orlando. With nearly 50 million visitors a year, Orlando is ranked the No. 1 tourist destination in the United States—which is both good news and bad news. The good news is fun, fun, fun. The downside includes crowds, expenses and exhaustion, as it’s rather impossible for families to take it all in without a few cranky tears and tantrums.
Planning ahead helps with everything. Go online to discover the best times to go, where to stay, how to get around, how to approach each park and the secret little insider stuff such as where to find the freebies and how to get the discounts.
Before leaving home, be sure to look up area and theme park maps so you can chart a course not only for the trip at large, but also for individual parks. Also check ride requirements: You don’t want to tease Matt and Maggie by taking them to the giant, super-duper roller coaster if they are too short or too young to ride.
Many of Orlando’s 450 hotels tempt visitors with deals, packages and perks (for example, Disney’s resorts keep “Magic Hours,” opening some parks early or keeping them open late for guests; Universal Studios lets guests jump to the front of lines). You can find the deals online.
You can also buy discounted advance tickets online, which saves time as well as money; tickets in hand mean less waiting in entrance lines. And last but not least, you can use the Internet to locate the places spouting those three little words that are so near and dear to the hearts of parents everywhere: “Kids Eat Free.”
For more information, see visitorlando.com.
Phoenix: Fun in the Sun
At 6 a.m. I was trudging through the icy slush of a St. Louis February. By 1 p.m. I was slathering on sunscreen and having lunch by the side of a spiffy swimming pool. Guess which scenario I preferred?
With temperatures hovering around 70 degrees, 325 days a year of sunshine and a Sonoran Desert setting that includes a backdrop of majestic mountains, Phoenix is the place to go for a midwinter, stress-busting, sun-soaking getaway. In this Valley of the Sun, you’ll find the best of the best: sunshine, great golf, sumptuous spas, regal resorts and dynamite dining—in short, all of the goodies geared to bring the affluent traveler warm, luxurious pleasure.
According to golf writer and course consultant Michael Stewart, the Greater Phoenix Area, which includes Scottsdale and 21 other incorporated cities, “has a larger concentration of ‘great courses’ in one location than any other place in the world … and that easily makes it the world’s No. 1 golf destination.” Of the 200 courses found in the area, Stewart says his favorites include Eagle Mountain Golf Club (eaglemtn.com), the Cochise course at Desert Mountain (desertmountain.com) and the Pinnacle Course at Troon North Golf Club (troonnorthgolf.com).
Golf is great, but staying is on par with playing. Phoenix is full of fabulous resorts. Competition inspires each resort to outdo the others, and it’s a tossup which wins. Five-diamond properties vying for guests’ bank accounts include The Phoenician (thephoenician.com), The Boulders (theboulders.com), Camelback Inn (camelbackinn.com), Fairmont Scottsdale (fairmont.com) and the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North (fourseasons.com/scottsdale).
Whew! I’m exhausted thinking of Greater Phoenix’s glories, which immediately brings to mind my favorite way to relax there—drinking at the muddle bar connected to the luscious nuevo Latino bistro Deseo, in the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa (kierlandresort.com). After a hard day of pleasure-seeking, nothing is more soothing than a multitude of rum-drenched muddle concoctions. Who says money can’t buy happiness?
For more information, visit phoenix.gov.
Toronto: A Great Getaw—Eh?
“Oh, the places you’ll go … You’ll be seeing great sights. You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.”
So perhaps Dr. Seuss wasn’t thinking of Toronto when he penned these lines, but the words still apply. Toronto takes tourism to new heights, and the city offers enough diversity to satisfy a variety of interests.
Want to focus on nature and the great outdoors? Done. Within city borders are more than 1,500 parks on 20,000 acres of parkland. Not one river runs through Toronto—rather, six rivers flow through the city on the way to Lake Ontario, where Toronto sits on 29 miles of shoreline. Adjacent islands, beaches and nature reserves add up to outdoor activities and nature galore. Pretty terrific for a major city with a cityscape that frequently doubles for Manhattan in the movies.
Want a foreign-culture experience? That’s easy in Toronto. St. Louis touts The Hill as its source for all good things Italian. Toronto counts among its neighborhoods Little Italy, Chinatown, Greektown, Little India, Koreatown, Little Poland and Portugal Village. Just think of the authentic ethnic restaurants, the unique shopping and the unusual cultural festivals that await you there.
Don’t care a whit about parks and foreign culture? Want to shop till you drop? Toronto accommodates. Not just shops, but whole neighborhoods devoted to shopping. And if it’s raining, no problem—just hit the PATH, a 16-mile, 1,200-shop underground concourse.
Like theater? Toronto is the third best theater city in the world, ranked just behind New York and London. Prefer spectator sports? Then you might want to team up with the Raptors, Blue Jays, Maple Leafs or Argos. Or maybe you’re a generalist looking for a major North American cosmopolitan center with nice hotels, fine restaurants and a slew of big-city attractions? Toronto is the place to be.
Best yet, the great present that is Toronto comes gift-wrapped with locals who are laid-back, kind and obliging. What more could anyone want? Oh, and Toronto is also one of the safest big metropolitan areas in North America. (Just don’t jaywalk. You’re likely to get ticketed.)
For more information, visit torontotourism.com.
Washington, D.C.: Education With a Capital E
The single most important place in the United States for families to visit has to be Washington, D.C. Although the reasons for the trip are obvious (to educate, instill patriotism and provide fun for all), how to squeeze the most into a weekend is not so clear. That’s why I contacted St. Louis Municipal Judge Debra Carnahan. Being born and raised in Alexandria, Va., and married to Congressman Russ Carnahan, she spends much of her time in D.C., so I figured she could give the verdict on visiting. Sure enough, she offered a slew of capital ideas.
Her first words of advice: “Tour the Capitol.” Families can book organized tours, but Carnahan recommends contacting your congressman for a more personalized tour. She also says a congressman contact is a must to tour the White House—but even then, White House tours are difficult to obtain and are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.
As for museums that both parents and kids can appreciate, Carnahan suggests the Newseum (newseum.org), the International Spy Museum (spymuseum.org) and the National Air and Space Museum (www.nasm.si.edu). But she cautions that kids can get tired of museums and encourages parents to include some outdoor fun. “You can rent bikes and even book Segway tours,” she says. “If you go to Thompson Boat Center [thompsonboatcenter.com], you can also rent canoes and kayaks for paddling on the Potomac.”
Asked where to stay, Carnahan says, “Anywhere, as long as it’s near a Metro. Metros are cheap and fast and get you where you want to go.” She also offered insider suggestions for eating: “There are great cafeterias in the Longworth Building, the Sam Rayburn Building and in the National Museum of the American Indian [www.nmai.si.edu]. You’d be surprised at the quality of the food and reasonable prices.”
Best yet was her tip for seeing the monuments: “When everyone is worn out from walking, hop on a bus for a night tour; the monuments are lit and absolutely magnificent at night!”
For more information, visit washington.org.
