12 new things to see this year

updated 6:58 p.m. ET Feb. 13, 2007

NEW YORK - Perhaps you've heard about the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a glass observation deck that will jut out from the edge of the canyon 4,000 feet over the Colorado River. The Skywalk is scheduled to open to the public some time in March, and promises to be one of the most interesting new places to visit this year.

But did you also know that an outdoor digital art gallery is coming to Dallas? And that a complex of nature walks and museums is opening in Las Vegas? Or that a Shakespeare festival in Washington, D.C., is putting fresh spins on the bard's timeless plays, including a real Supreme Court justice presiding over a trial of Hamlet?

A Web site called SixNewThings can help you keep track of these and many other new attractions. Every month, the site highlights six new things in 70 cities and regions around North America, from attractions to restaurants and the arts.

The site also offers an uber-list of what its editors deem to be the 12 "Most Intriguing New Things for 2007." The list, released in February, includes the Grand Canyon Skywalk, Las Vegas Springs Preserve, the Dallas digital gallery, and the Shakespeare festival, along with a new building for Manhattan's New Museum of Contemporary Art; Colborne Lane, a restaurant in Toronto; the Rosewood Mayakoba resort in Mexico; a new David Mamet musical; Kansas City; the Creation Museum; Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park, and England's Manchester International Festival.

NBC VIDEO Glass walkway to jut over Grand Canyon March 7: A walkway made of glass will allow visitors to the Grand Canyon to experience the 4,000-foot drop in a whole new way. NBC's Jennifer London reports. Nightly News

All 12, said Jeff Herrington, executive editor and co-publisher of the Dallas-based Web site, are "things that caught our eye, that are really interesting and intriguing to the smart savvy, adventurous traveler."

Not all of the local monthly listings are quite as noteworthy as the Skywalk. Herrington admits that "it's sometimes a little bit of a stretch to find" six new things every 30 days in all 70 regions the Web site covers - including places like Winnipeg, Canada, and the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. But he added that "we really do go for diversity, from a really high-end posh new restaurant, to something sports-related, to a great but simple Korean restaurant in a strip mall getting great reviews."

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The site does not get paid for listings, but it does accept advertising and recently stopped charging for reader subscriptions. Users now sign up on the home page and can go to the region that most interests them. Readers are encouraged to send in tips.

The Web site's 70 destinations include eight in Canada (Winnipeg, Vancouver/Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal); Mexico; the Bahamas and Caribbean; major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami and Chicago; medium-size cities like Denver, Indianapolis and Charlotte, N.C.; regions such as Boise-Northern Rockies, which includes Idaho's Sun Valley and Montana's Kalispell; and resort areas like California's Napa-Sonoma and Carmel-Monterey regions. Herrington says listings for a few smaller domestic markets will be replaced this year by international cities such as London, Paris and perhaps Shanghai.

While some readers will want to keep an eye on news about their home base or places where they regularly vacation, the big 12 hits can serve as inspiration for future trips or as a way to stay current on what people will be talking about in travel this year.

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