Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sales Tax
New York City sales tax is 8.375%, but it is not added to
cloth-
ing and footwear items under $110.
If you're visiting from out
of state, consider having your purchases shipped directly
home to avoid paying sales tax. As with any shipped purchase,
be sure to get documentation of the sale and keep those
receipts handy until the merchandise arrives at your door.
Tips
which is located below street level and offers amazing antique and
contemporary porcelains that have to be seen to be believed.
The Oscar Wilde Bookshop,
the world's first gay bookstore, has
been on the eastern end of Christopher Street since 1967. Follow the
street westward, where Bleecker becomes boutique alley, and one
jewel box of a shop follows another. Among them:
Intermix, Olive
& Bette, Ralph Lauren, Lulu Guinness,
and
Marc Jacobs.
Those who love to browse should also wander
west of Seventh
Avenue
and along
Hudson Street,
where charming shops such as
House of Cards and Curiosities,
23 Eighth Ave., between Jane and
12th streets (
&
212/675-6178
), the Village's own funky take on an
old-fashioned 5-and-10, are tucked among the brownstones.
CHELSEA/MEATPACKING DISTRICT
Far west Chelsea has been transformed into the
Chelsea Art Dis-
trict,
where more than 200 galleries have sprouted up in a once-
moribund enclave of repair shops and warehouses. The district
unofficially stretches between 14th to 29th streets and the West Side
Highway and Seventh Avenue, but the high-density area lies between
20th and 26th streets, between Tenth and Eleventh avenues.
The Meatpacking District has also zoomed from quaint to hot
(and some say over) in no time, with such big-name designers as
Stella McCartney
(429 W. 14th St.;
&
212/255-1556
),
Christian
Louboutin
(59 Horatio St.;
&
212/255-1910
), and
Alexander
McQueen
(417 W. 14th St.;
&
212/645-1797
) in residence.
Jeffrey
New York,
an offshoot of the Atlanta department store, has pricey
designer clothes, an amazing shoe collection, and the friendliest staff
in New York.
UNION SQUARE/THE FLATIRON DISTRICT
The hottest shopping/eating/hanging-out neighborhood in the city
may be Union Square. The south side of the square is a mega-shopping
