Revel with strangers or stay home with friends? What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
The most popular places to ring in 2007 are Las Vegas, New York City and Orlando.
That is according to a survey of hotel rooms booked through the on-line booking service Priceline.com.
The Las Vegas Strip ranks number one for the second year in a row. But as we all know, numbers sometimes are not what they seem.
Priceline ranked by location within each city. New York City just has more neighborhoods than other cities, and Priceline sliced up The Big Apple into little bit-sized pieces. Even so, New York City appears in the top ten a total of four times – Soho/Financial district is second, Upper Midtown is third, Midtown West is fourth, Midtown East is seventh on the top ten list.
That means New York City has four of the five most booked hotel rooms in the USA for New Year’s Eve. Four out of five beats one in poker, and also in places to party.
Times Square is arguably the Number One spot on the planet for ringing in the New Year, but it doesn’t appear on the hotel room list at all. I wonder why.
It’s not because Times Square has no hotel rooms. Some of the largest in the city are right there, including the Marriott Marquis, W Times Square, HIlton Times Square and Crowne Plaza.
Maybe it’s because there are a couple of million of your closest friends in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, plus hundreds of television cameras and crews broadcasting the moment that world-famous crystal ball lights up the new year. That and the several tons of confetti they all leave behind can make it difficult to get into the front door of your hotel. Not to mention all the happy and loud noise.
Orlando also would beat Las Vegas by sheer numbers, with two neighborhoods in the top ten -- University Studios and Sea World ranked number four and Disney World vicinity number eight.
I’m sure New York City would rank number one if Priceline had created a category called “Times Square Vicinity” as it did for Disney World Vicinity and even the number one Strip Vicinity of Vegas. After all, Times Square and vicinity is where the world' largest New Year's Eve party happens. Or, Priceline could have merged The Big Apple’s “Midtown West” and “Midtown East” listings and just call it “Midtown”, which is what people who live in New York City call it.
Chicago and San Francisco also appear on the top ten list – The Millenium Park and Loop and Grant Park areas of the Windy City and the Union Square West neighborhood of the City By The Bay. Other neighborhoods of both cities rank in the 10 to 20 list.
The rest of the top 25 US hotel areas for welcoming in 2007 are Key West, the Riverwalk and Downtown area of San Antonio, the French Quarter of New Orleans, Maui and Atlanta. Miami appears twice in the top 25 – once for South Beach and again for Miami Beach.
Wherever you spend New Year’s Eve, and whoever you spend it with, I wish you good health, the happiness of loving and being loved, and the gift of new and wondrous adventure travel experiences in 2007.
Happy New Year. Three cheers for 2007.
