The Tribeca film festival has certainly grown up in the past five years. Established to help revive downtown Manhattan after 9/11, the festival now features some of the most prestigious new films in competition. This is one serious festival, although the excitement of Tribeca and of the city itself also help make this trip quite memorable. The festival itself is still based in Tribeca, but shows films in a total of 16 venues around Manhattan.

The Tribeca festival showed 157 feature films and 88 short films from 47 countries in 2007, in addition to a program of short films, sports films in association with ESPN, Talks, a family festival, a film institute, and even a music lounge.

How do you describe New York City? Amazon has over 127,000 books about the city listed on its web site. Come with us and enjoy one of the world's most exquisite places: the sights, experiences, and of course the dining, are unique.

We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Downtown, located at the intersection of Soho and Chinatown, with Tribeca (Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side) a brief walk away. The local neighborhood is a non-sanitized, fascinating and thriving center of artists, professionals, and locals. It defies a label, although the hotel calls itself "Holiday Inn Soho" on its website.

April is usually quite pleasant, but there can be rain and temperatures in the low 50's.