MoMA Special at the Buckingham Hotel NYC

The Buckingham Hotel in midtown Manhattan may not be as opulent as its namesake in the U.K., but its more than luxurious enough for the common NYC trash who move around in cadillacs investing gazillions of dollars on Wall Street and downing martinis at swanky restaurants in snooty New York hotels. So if you want a slice of the Big Apple, and you want it in style, you aren't going to get any better than the Buckingham.

And they have some neat specials too. If you're interested in museums and art and stuff, one of the specials happens to the Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org/) special. Includes a deluxe suite and two VIP tickets to the Museum of Modern Art. Valid until October 31st, 2008. Rates starting from $339 per night with a minimum 2 night stay required. The musuem is closed on Tuesdays, so you might want to leave Tuesdays out of your trip plan. Online booking and more details about this package here.

MoMA is just a short stroll away from the hotel, and after having been given a complete facelift by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, the new 630,000-square-foot Museum has nearly twice the capacity as before. The result, in the architect's own words, is "an ideal environment for art and people [created] through the imaginative and disciplined use of light, materials, and space."

Other specials at the Buckingham include a Central Park Zoo package, an Earth and Space package which includes a visit to the American Museum of Natural History and its Hayden Planetarium.

I'm not saying that these offers are something very special - After all, you could just buy tickets to all these places, and book yourself in at one of NYC's cheap hotels - but there's something to be said about visiting New York in style. You know, the red carpet treatment, limos and butlers and never having to hail a cab... You want to be treated like royalty, then the Buckinghan's the place to be at. And the rates aren't so outlandish either. $339 (which includes the tickets) is just a wee bit over the $250 something that you'd end up paying at other (less luxurious) hotels just for the room (not suite).

Info: 101 West 57th Street at 6th Avenue New York City; (888) 511-1900; http://buckinghamhotel.com/