November 6, 2017

Glittering Gulliver’s Gate

By roads-rus

There’s a new attraction in the New York’s Times Square area called Gulliver’s Gate.  It opened on May 9, 2017, and, already, there are 1,147 reviews of it on Tripadvisor.  745 of those reviewers rated it excellent.  I was less than enthusiastic about seeing it so asked around, and people in the travel business told me that it’s getting, and deserving, mixed reviews.  Go see it and make up your own mind.

Gulliver’s Gate is a miniature, fantasy world.  It’s on the 2nd floor of the old New York Times Building at 216 West 44th Street.  Phantom of the Opera has been playing in the Majestic Theatre at 245 West 44th Street since 1988.  Ruth and I were given a key upon entering that activated items, like trains and windmills, in some displays.  That was fun….at first.

It’s expensive to see Gulliver’s Gate (GG).   An adult ticket is $36.  Groupon is a good source for reduced price entry.  GG’s website’s main theme is BUY TICKETS and shows a lot of its “immersive world of miniatures”.   I completely agree with its insistence that it offers “highlights of the world”.   If you love small scale train sets and year-end-holiday-fantasy-worlds, you’ll be enchanted by it. Someone told me that it’s ideal for people who can’t, or won’t, travel but want to see the world.  That comment seems spot on.

GG’s chief executive is Eiran Gazit, a veteran of the Israeli military who loves miniatures.  Before Kickstarting Gulliver’s Gate, a $40 million project, he built a 14-acre miniature version of Israel in its Ayalon Valley.  There’s a big emphasis on this part of the world, like Little Jerusalem, among GG’s exhibits.

The first display we studied was a pretty amazing, mini-version of New York City.  Its builders claim to have gone for a “pillars of light” theme while recreating its skyscrapers.  The 2nd exhibit was called A Day in New England.  “Russia” was made in St. Petersburg by 26 people in 158 days.  The Eiffel Tower soars upward but is not complete and will probably never will  be.   The last display was a still incomplete airport that is Gulliver’s Gate’s biggest project.  I watched as its builders climbed under it and enjoyed seeing them in their workshops.

Am I glad I saw Gulliver’s Gate?  Yes.  Did I linger?  No.   Would I go back?  Probably not.   It’s the kind of attraction that strives, and sometimes succeeds, in evoking exclamation marks.  I watched as many people, including Ruth, joined a crowd of faces on Niagara’s Horseshoe Falls!  See Tower Bridge!  Visit Tibet!  Admire a tiny version of Edinburgh Castle!

Hank!

 

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2017 at 10:09 pm and posted in New York City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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