Are you looking for ideas for your next vacation?  Want to go somewhere, but can’t decide exactly where?

Perhaps you should check out one of the Top 10 US Cities to Visit.  Of course, whether or not a city is the best is a subjective opinion – but Conde Nast Traveler has taken a poll of its readers collective subjective opinions and come up with 10 American Cities that you’re most likely to enjoy visiting.  With cities from across the country highlighted, there should be a great vacation destination for everyone.

Top 10 Best Places To Visit In The Us

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge - Best US City to Visit

1.  San Francisco, California

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of San Francisco, California is The Golden Gate Bridge.  Residents rave about the culture and the year round mild weather that’s never too hot or too cold.  Visitors to San Francisco can stay in some of the country’s most eco-friendly hotels and enjoy organic dining.  UpTake’s own Cat Lincoln shares insider information on San Francisco via podcast.

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Nadia Zonis, New York editor for Urban Hound, has written a book called City Walks With Dogs: New York. This book is a godsend if you’re planning on traveling to New York City with a dog.

City Walks with Dogs: New York, by Nadia Zonis

The book lists 50 walks or ‘adventures on foot and paw’ that you can set out on with your dog, including SoHo and the West Village, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Roosevelt Island and Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue.

A short excerpt from the book, about the Sirius Dog Run in Battery Park City: “At Kowsky Plaza, you’ll find the Sirius Dog Run, named for the rescue dog killed in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. The run has a wading pool for dogs and views of the Hudson River for humans. Battery Park’s devoted dog people have formed a group called Battery Park Dogs, which organizes events in the run–they can be a great way to meet new dog-walking friends.”

Since we’re on the subject, it saddens me to inform you that Taz, a german shepherd in the City’s K-9 unit passed away on Oct 2 of a cardiac arrest. Taz was the last remaining dog in the force out of the ones which participated in 9/11 search and rescue.

Getting back to Nadia’s book and your pet-friendly New York vacation - you’ll find a ton of pet-friendly attractions and routes in the book that you’ll never find in the tourist brochures.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Nadia Zonis also participated in Q&A sessions with readers of the New York Times.

For example, let’s take transportation. The most convinient way to get around in New York with a dog is to use the subway or a bus. But the only way you can get a pet on-board is to carry it in a container and make sure it is well-behaved and does not turn into a nusiance for other passengers.

This isn’t a problem if you’re carrying cats, like say a handy Ragdoll, along for the ride. But if you have a strapping big dog, then we have a problem. To find the solution, read Nadia’s answers to this and other vexing issues for pet-owners visiting the Big Apple in the NYT’s 3-part series here, here and here.

Who can argue that autumn is one of the most colorful times of year?

That was a rhetorical question.

Fall is pretty, mostly because of the glorious displays put on by the fall leaves changing color.  This phenomenon occurs all over the United States, but some spots offer better views than others.  Grab your camera and a road atlas and take a day trip to one of the 11 best fall foliage sites in America.

11 Places To See Fall Leaves

Fall Leaves on Carriage Road at Acadia National Park

1.  Acadia National Park – Maine

Of course anywhere in the North East is going to boast spectacular fall foliage.  The Acadia National Park offers gorgeous views and extensive Ranger-led educational programs so that you can learn more about what you’re staring at.  Make sure to head to Bar Harbor Maine before the end of October to take full advantage of the sights and services available.

Fall Leaves at Oak Mountain State Park

2.  Oak Mountain State Park – Alabama

Oak Mountain State Park is Alabama’s largest state park.  This nearly 10,000 acre forest is featured on several sight seeing lists.  Admission is only $3 for adults on weekends and holidays.  You can visit the park for fall foliage viewing from 7am to sundown.

Fall Foliage in New Hampshire

3.  Mt. Washington – New Hampshire

While it’s typical to see fall foliage while you’re driving, the Mount offers guided cruises on the M/S Mount Washington.  Starting Sunday, September 27, the Mount will offer Fall Foliage Dinner Cruises from 4:30 to 7 p.m. each Sunday through mid-October. The cruise departs from Weirs Beach, boarding at 4 p.m. Cost for adults is$43. Visit Cruise Mount Washington for more information.

Fall Color in Colorado

4.  Aspen – Colorado

It’s no surprise that Aspen, Colorado is the perfect place to watch the Aspen trees change colors with the seasons.  San Isabel National Forest offers extensive trails for viewing of some of the most fabulous aspen trees in Colorado.

New York Fall Foliage

5.  The Catskills – New York

The Catskills and Hudson Valley region is about a two hour drive from New York City.  One of the unique features of this area is that the color changing season lasts about six weeks, with colors rivaling those of its North Eastern neighbors, Vermont and Massachusetts.

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Not every vacation is a family vacation. Sometimes—either before, after or just without kids—a person wants an adult place to go. Sure “adult” could mean a coffee shop or the symphony, but sometimes “adult” means, you know, adult. (In case you can’t tell, I’m winking my eye and smirking like a teenager right now.)

In the 1990s, Rudy Guiliani and New York tourism and redevelopment offices cleaned up New York and swept away the adult bookstores. Even Times Square became Disneyfied. So how could an adult attraction stay open in New York’s age of clean storefronts and political correctness? Simple. Get a board of distinguished advisors, collect educational research materials, charge admission, and call it a museum.

A vistor to new York City's Museum of Sex disregards the sign.

New York City’s Museum of Sex opened in 2002. To some critics, it may seem like no more than a museum of porn and raunch. But it’s actually much more.

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This upward-view photo of the Statue of Liberty was taken from below the pedastal on twelve-acre Liberty Island. Ferries to Liberty Island and nearby Ellis Island are available from Lower Manhattan and New Jersey on Statue Cruises. Both islands include visitor centers, tours and exhibits, and gift and concession shops. On July 4, 2009, Lady Liberty’s crown will open to the public for the first time since September 11, 2001.

Photo copyright by Darren Farrington

Most people don’t visit New York to see flowers—especially in the Bronx—but there are some beautiful gardens and aboretums (that’s tree museums to you and me) here. At 250 acres, the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx is the largest.

Founded in 1891 and a National Historic Landmark since 1967, the Garden is one of the best known in the world and the largest in any United States city. In addition to being a “museum of plants” (it contains more than one million species), New York Botanical Garden is an educational institution (the largest at any botanical garden in the world), and a scientific research facility (according to the Garden’s own description, “unmatched in scope, depth, and authority”). To visitors though—and even to City residents—it’s great escape from the pavement and towering buildings of New York City.

The Garden actually consists of fifty different gardens and plant collections; a fifty-acre native forest containing oak, beech, cherry, birch, and ash trees (some more than two centuries old and representing the terrain of the area before the arrival of Europeans); a waterfall and wetlands; and dozens of programs, exhibitions, and activities for visitors. The greenhouses are also impressive, and the conservatory is the largest Victorian-era glasshouse in America. Some other landmark buildings at the Gardens date to the 1840s.

If you visit New York City, you’ll find hundreds of dining and lodging choices. The Botanical Garden is located at East 200th Street and Kazimiroff Boulevard in the Bronx.  Schedules and admission fees vary by time of year and specific areas visited. For more information, see Your Garden Visit at the Garden’s website.

For me to even write this post is asking for trouble. It might be safer to pick a fight with a 300 pound, 6 foot 4 Scot than to throw out my suggestions for the best Irish bars in New York.  The list, of course, is subject to opinion and everyone has theirs. This is mine. And yes, I know that my list is Manhattan-centric. There are some great Irish bars in places like the Woodlawn and Riverdale sections of the Bronx, and in Woodside, Queens, and the Irish Riviera officially know as Breezy Point, but lovingly called Boozy Point. For all I know, there are probably some good Irish bars upstate too. But I know Manhattan best. It’s where I lived about a quarter of my life. It’s also where I’ve wandered the streets for many a St. Patrick’s Day.

If you’re planning to visit New York for St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll probably want to see the parade. New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is the oldest, biggest and self-proclaimed best St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world. New Yorkers first held the parade on March 17, 1762, in honor of the patron saint of the Archdiocese of New York.  In a city that holds a parade for just about anyone, it’s now the largest and most famous of New York’s parades. And it does that without allowing any floats, cars or commercial advertising—it’s 100% musicians, politicians, civil servants, club and society members, and other marchers on foot who are all Irish, or at least Irish for the day.

There’s a nearly endless number of restaurants in New York, of course, and accommodations for every taste and budget. (Or you could just sleep on the floor in Grand Central Terminal and wake up for a train in the morning. Not that I know anyone who’s done that.) But, if you’re going to New York for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the day isn’t complete without a stop in an Irish pub.

If you’re uneasy about what you might be walking into in an Irish bar on St. Patrick’s Day, don’t be. One of the things I most love about Irish bars and restaurants in Manhattan every March 17 is that entire families come after the parade to continue celebrating. Not all of them are like that, but you can find quite a few family-friendly establishments where moms, dads, grandparents and kids are all enjoying the day. Of course, if you want a loud, young, come-here-just-for-the-drink type of place, New York has that too.

Paddy Reilly’s, at 519 Second Avenue near East 29th Street, is one of the best bars in the City for live Irish music. Mildly famous bands like Black 47 got their start playing weekly here, when I’d crowd in with scores of other middle and upper-class twenty-somethings to sing along and shake our firsts for the Irish proletariat. The bar has a dark, dingy, needs-to-be-cleaned look, but one that makes the young Irish and Irish-wannabes feel right at home. What’s more—the only beer on tap is Guinness. Who could ask for anything more?

Speaking of dark and dingy, McSorley’s Old Ale House, at 15 East 7th Street, is the original dark and dingy Irish-American bar. Seriously. There’s probably dust in there that’s older than our great-grandparents. It’s been open since 1854 and has the reputation for being no-nonsense and stubborn in its ways. Women weren’t allowed in until 1970, and didn’t get a separate restroom until 1986. The bar also serves only two kinds of beer—light and dark—and you’re expected to buy two at a time. You want something else? Find yourself a bar with a menu. McSorely’s also has the reputation for being overcrowded with college kids, but how many bars can you go to that once welcomed Abraham Lincoln? It’s educational, really.

Molly’s Pub & Restaurant, at 287 Third Avenue near 22nd Street, is one of the more family-friendly establishments among the Irish bars of New York.  It’s been called “the most authentic Irish bar in the City” and “New York’s finest Irish pub.” Like most other Irish bars, Molly’s is dark—but at Molly’s, dark isn’t dingy, but warm and cozy with even a log-burning fireplace to add to the charm. Molly’s also has a full menu and gets great reviews and high ratings for its food as well as its beer.

Originally on West 48th Street, the Pig n’ Whistle now has three midtown locations—Third Avenue, Second Avenue, and the most tourist-friendly of the three in Times Square at 165 West 47th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Unlike other Irish bars, the Pig n’ Whistle is large, bright and polished.  It also has a full dinner and bar menu and gets some great reviews for its food.  The Pig n’ Whistle still has a lot of Irish left in it though. By calling itself the “Best Irish Pub” in New York, for example, it just sounds like it’s askin’ for a fight.

Finally, there’s Dublin House at 225 West 79th Street near Broadway. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. Dublin House was my Irish bar. There were bars closer to my ‘hood near Columbia University, some that I went to too often and another (now closed) that was also an Irish pub, but Dublin House is the place that I always thought of as the local Irish bar. From the dark narrow room to the Guinness on tap to the authentic brogues on the bartenders, this was St. Patrick’s Day to me. I’m sure that I’d feel old now in an evening crowd of twenty-somethings, but I’d probably still feel young, late in the afternoons, sitting with the old regulars at the bar.  That’s the beauty of an Irish bar—that there’s always a welcome, a fáilte, for everyone. With apologies to Robert Frost, an Irish bar is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone.