San Francisco: MOMA debuts new Fisher collection

When visiting the Big Apple, definitely put downtown and the harbor on your sightseeing list. The narrow, winding streets of the Financial District are ripe with history, and the waterfront, with the Statue of Liberty as its crown jewel, always makes for a good photo op. Here are three new ways to experience this fascinating part of Manhattan, whether by land or by sea. This summer marks the first time you can have a dinner date with the one-and-only Statue of Liberty. Statue Cruises has debuted evening cruises that include dinner in the ticket price. The tours depart from Battery Park at 6 p.m. and land on Ellis Island. Guests are free to explore at leisure while munching on barbecue or other specialty dinners (menu depends on departure date). Park rangers are on-hand to give impromptu tours or answer questions. Most folks wander the grounds and then plunk down on a picnic blanket, waiting for the sun to set behind the Statue. About 1,200 tickets are available for each cruise, so our advice is to book online in advance; statue cruises are notorious for selling out. And full disclosure: On this cruise, admission to the museum and into the statue is not permitted—but the nighttime views of New York City should be enough to keep your camera clicking. June 10, July 8, 15, 22, Aug. 5, 12, 19. Tickets are $35 for adults, $28 for seniors, $15 for kids, including dinner. Book in advance at statuecruises.com or 877/523-9849. Downtown, The New York Freedom Trail is a new tour led by the National Park Service. Starting at Federal Hall, where George Washington was inaugurated, the 90-minute tour passes Bowling Green (where colonists tore down King George's statue), Trinity Church, and St. Paul's Chapel, winding north to the World Trade Center site. Federal Hall is just a few blocks from the waterfront, so this is an easy tour to tack on to your downtown explorations. Space is limited; this is another one to reserve in advance. $12 per person. Saturdays through Sept. 4; tours depart at 11 a.m. Buy tickets at nyharborparks.org. Why not splurge a little and take a lunchtime luxury cruise of the harbor—on a yacht, no less? Circle Line cruises has just partnered with World Yacht to offer two-hour narrated tours from Pier 81 through the harbor, right past the Statue of Liberty. The ticket price of $47 per person (which, let's be honest, is about what a nice dinner costs in this city—minus the boat ride) includes a gourmet buffet lunch on the Duchess. Thursdays-Saturdays, June 17-Oct. 30. Cruises begin boarding at 11:30 a.m. Book in advance at 212/630-8100 or at circleline42.com. Kids under 12 cost $25.

Modern London is much more than a stage set for The Tudors, Harry Potter, or a "Merchant Ivory" costume drama. The city pulses to a multicultural beat, but it's not always easy for American visitors to encounter the city's southeast Asian neighborhoods, with their distinctive architectural styles. It's worth it to make a detour off the tourist path in the city's heart and head a few subway stops northwest to see the stunning Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir temple. After fourteen years of construction, the temple has just opened, instantly becoming one of the most lavish and elaborately carved structures in Europe. Shree Sanatan offers the chance for visiting Americans to see an authentic and traditional Hindu temple without flying to Asia. Every bit as impressive as the traditional temples in the sub-continent, the structure is made from sandstone hand-carved in the Indian state of Gujarat, shipped to London and re-assembled. All of the pieces slot together without any metal attachments using a traditional technique which has been used in Asia for thousands of years. The building is covered head to toe with intricately carved statues of Hindu deities alongside spiritual leaders and Gods from other religions including Mother Teresa and Sikh spiritual leader Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Inside are elaborately carved effigies of Hindu gods, goddesses, and holy people. Unlike Brick Lane, Alperton is a London South Asian neighborhood which receives almost no tourists. So it has a local feel all its own. I really enjoyed the traditional Hindu fruit and vegetable markets just across the road from the temple, where you can buy exotic fruits like chicoo and custard apple for a fraction of the price of a city center exotic grocery store, and the little local shops selling sandalwood incense and bags of spices. And after visiting the temple, I chanced on a row of Indian restaurants on my walk back down to the subway station, popping into one for a delicious, spicy Chicken Jalfreezi washed down with a mango lassi yogurt drink for less than $7. The temple sits 400 yards north of Alperton Tube stop on Ealing Road. Take the Piccadily line from downtown. The famous Wembley Stadium, which lies less than two miles away to the north. The temple welcomes visitors. Shoes should be removed before entering the building. Men and women ought to wear long pants and cover their shoulders; women should wear a shawl over their head. MORE London neighborhood watch: Greenwich London: The Museum of London re-opens with a new look

When you survey the travel world these days, there are fewer people out there working to—you know—show some love. Airlines are one-upping each other in the race to nickel-and-dime. Cruises are having an aha moment about the fact that they, too, should be charging fuel supplements ("That fuel is expensive!"). And we won't even get into the fact that finding a vacation option now involves a carpal-tunnel inducing 12 clicks online—meaning lots of your valuable time. Isn't this supposed to be vacation? Where's the warm-fuzzy fun? Turns out, hotels are stepping up to the plate. I found a hotel hitting the right note on a trip late last month to Beijing. (I was there to speak at the World Travel & Tourism Council's annual Global Travel & Tourism Summit). Upon landing after my 13-hour flight from New York, I stumbled into my hotel room at the Opposite House. I'd booked it in 4 clicks, the last of which was flash-sale discounter Jetsetter, where I got about 50 percent off the $250 rate I'd found elsewhere online. On my bedside table I spotted a little something with a yellow Post-it note attached, reading, "You must have had a very long day." It was a cooling facemask meant to help soothe and reduce puffiness, and I later learned that this is something that hotel, owned by Hong Kong-based Swire, does for absolutely everyone. They were right; I had had a long day, but that little touch completely turned it around. The result was sweet, subtle, and casually thoughtful in just the right way. A day later, at the WTTC conference, Hubert Joly, the President and CEO of Carlson Hotels, told me that a key initiative for the company, which owns Country Inn & Suites as well as Radisson and Park Inn, is something they're calling "hospitality empathy"—thoughtful touches, like that face mask, mean to make you feel considered, cared for, and understood. What's the latest hotel amenity that felt truly "empathetic"? I'd love to know the where, the when, and the how.

Have you ever wondered how it felt to be the first explorer to set foot on the South Pole a century ago? A new family-friendly exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, "Race to the End of the Earth," re-creates the epic battle between two explorers in 1911-1912 to be the first to make it to the South Pole, complete with hands-on interactive elements and rare historical artifacts from the expeditions (museum admission $16 adults, $9 kids). On display until January 2, 2011, the exhibit kicks off with a video introducing the two men, Norwegian Roald Amundsen and British Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott, and their missions, building suspense and ending with the question: Who will reach the South Pole first? As visitors exit that section, they receive a character card featuring a member of the British or Norwegian team and can look for clues about that person's experience throughout the rest of the exhibit. (I got the commander himself, Scott, who I learned was "intelligent, but sometimes short-tempered," and I was tasked with finding his goggles.) The exhibit then takes you through the events leading up to the race, including what life was like in each team's base camp on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf as they waited out the winter before setting off on the 1,800-mile journey to the pole. (The camps were 400 miles apart, so neither team ever knew what the other was up to). Highlights include life-size re-creations of Scott's hut and of Amundsen's underground workrooms, accompanied by touch-screen virtual scrapbooks of photos and drawings by each team. Then it gets down to business: A side-by-side comparison of the teams shows just how many dogs, people, sledges, etc., each set off with, and a timeline follows the trail of their challenging, historic journeys, culminating in which one planted its flag in the ground first. (I won't spoil the "surprise" by revealing the victor, but a fun fact about the winning team was that when its members reached the pole and set up a tent to mark the spot, messages of congratulations fluttered from the seams of the tent—confident teammates who'd stayed behind at the camp had hidden the notes inside it months earlier.) The exhibit closes with an interactive personality test to see if you're cut out for life on the continent. Sample question: "Winds of up to 185 mph have been clocked in Antarctica, and the sound is intense. Would this bother you?" Uh, yeah! "Race to the End of the Earth" has appeal for adults and kids alike, reflected in a host of related special events the museum is offering. Adults can cool off from the summer heat during a night of "Polar Cocktails" inspired by Antarctic explorers, led by cocktail connoisseur David Wondrich and Momofuku Ssäm Bar mixologist Don Lee (Tuesday June 8, 6:30 p.m., $25 including tastings), while animal lovers of all ages can enjoy a wildlife program featuring live penguins with Jarod Miller, host of the TV show Animal Exploration with Jarod Miller (Saturday, July 10, 11 a.m.–noon and 1 p.m.–2 p.m., $12 adults, $10 kids). Fun, free activity while you're in the neighborhood: Spend some time in Central Park, which borders the eastern side of the American Museum of Natural History. amnh.org. EARLIER New York City: 5 perfect moments—for free! New York: Bicycling made easy