ADB

With the help of this forum and other guidebooks I have put together an itinerary. We leave on Saturday, so any advice or suggestions would be great.

Saturday, November 22 -
AM ? arrive at NY Hilton
Afternoon - MET
7:30 pm ? dinner at Le Madeline?s
9:00 pm ? Christmas Spectacular

Sunday, November 23 -
Empire State Building
NY Public Library
Grand Central Station
Chrysler Bldg.
United Nations
Rockefeller Center
St. Patrick?s Cathedral
Lion King @ 6:30pm

Monday, November 24 -
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
Wall St.
Lunch @ Mangia
WTC
Century 21 Store
Woolworth Bldg.
Battery Park
Night??

Tuesday, November 25 -
Museum of Natural History
Lunch @ Lombardi?s in Brooklyn
Walk Brooklyn Bridge
Chinatown
Tribecca/Soho
Little Italy

Wednesday, November 26 -
Greenwich Village
Lunch @ Katz Deli
Union Square
Times Square
P.M. - Central Park for balloons

Thursday, November 27 -
Macy?s Day Parade
????

Friday, November 28 -
Central Park
Shopping??
Leave at 6:30 pm to go home

Myer

I'm sure other NY experts will comment on the itinerary.

I don't know how fixed your stay at the Hilton is but we stayed there 2 years ago. The lobby is nice, big and modern. The rooms are disgustingly small and unimpressive.

We were in NY last week and stayed a block over at a little boutique hotel. The Gorham. Small European style lobby. Neat, clean with internet connected computer for guest use.

Large, modern rooms. Marble bathroom, full kitchenette. Clean. 6-8 feet around the bed.

Staff was friendly and helpful.

The Hilton charged us to store our luggage the day we left. The Gorham didn't.

On checkout we got a lootbag with T-shirts.

We booked thru Quikbook at 179 per night.

No contest.

ADB

I've heard good and bad reviews about the Hilton. Most travel sites give it 3-4 stars. I figure it can't be that bad, especially since I only paid $125 through priceline.

dan_woodlief

The first thing that jumped out at me was the Tuesday schedule. Do you have kids? Especially if you have kids, the Museum of Natural History could easily take up at least 4 hours, which means you would be looking at a late lunch and may be doing much of the rest of the day's activities near or after dark (the museum doesn't open until 10), which may or may not bother you. I really like the Brooklyn Bridge as the first or last part of a day. Just last weekend, I started out in Brooklyn, where I took photos of the Brooklyn Bridge in a few locations before walking the bridge around 9:30 a.m. I spent the rest of the day walking through Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo (some shopping as well), and Greenwich Village. That evening, I went to the Met because it was open late. I had lunch at Lombardi's in Little Italy. I limited my time in each area to some degree because I had already toured them a few months earlier, and it still took almost until dark (not counting the museum). The bridge took me 50 minutes (I shot two rolls of film). You can do it in 30-40 minutes pretty easily otherwise. Allow at least 1 1/2 hours in Chinatown for more than just a quick walk-through, an hour in Little Italy, and 2-3 hours in SoHo if you shop (which is hard to not do there). When you go to Chinatown, make sure to visit Columbus Park. I saw lots of Chinese engaged in numerous interesting activities when I went.

Gothampc

Sunday, the NY Public Library, are you just planning on seeing the exterior? It will be closed on Sunday and you will not be able to see any of the exhibitions inside.

Tuesday sounds too ambitious. To tour Natural History and then haul yourself all the way to Brooklyn is ambitious.

You could push Tuesday's Soho visit into Wednesday and cover SoHo and the Village together.

HowardR

In addition to the excellent advice given, I'll recommend that you make your reservations at Le Madeleine for 6:30 or 7. You're not leaving yourself enough time to enjoy your dinner and get to the theater.

Anonymous

I am completely flabbergasted and appalled that the major library in a major city is closed on Sundays. Please tell me this is some sort of temporary situation related to a budget crisis, or something.

Gothampc

Anonymous, the New York Public Library has always been a victim of budget problems. They have never been "temporary". For some reason, the Library has always lived in budget crisis mode.

ADB

Thanks so much for all of your suggestions! I have already made some changes to my itinerary. Does anyone have any ideas for Thanksgiving Day?

GoTravel

Your entire itinerary seems a little ambitious. Things are going to take longer than you think they will. For example on Saturday, you could subsitute the Frick for the Met. Monday, if you do the Staten Island Ferry instead of the Ellis Island tour, you still have time for the Brooklyn Bridge.

You could see a lot of what is on your list in one day by taking the Grayline tour but that would be dependent on the weather.

Have fun and remember, most of your itinerary isn't written in stone. If you miss something, it is a good excuse to come back and visit.

You will enjoy the location of the Hilton. The rooms on the upper floors facing north have a sliver view of Central Park.

Austin

I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert on NYC. We were there in Aug and H went to the Museum of Natural History (while we shopped) and spent a few hours there. Absolutely loved it. Said the planetarium show was the best thing he's ever seen. Don't miss it. Oh, and he went early. When he got out, said the line was looooooong.

mp

Go Travel - although I agree with you that ADB's intinerary is ambitious, the idea the the Frick can substitute for the Met (all paintings are the same?) or that taking a ferry ride can substitute for going to Ellis Island is , , ,well, kinda nuts. Unless ADB means to just take a harbor tour, and not actually visit either island, then yeah, one round trip ferry ride is sure quicker. But at what cost?

GoTravel

No, of course the Frick doesn't substitute for the Met. The Met spans over 5000 years and is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the most incredible places I've ever been in my life. However, it is huge and can be very overwhelming. The Frick is small and can easily be done in under 2 hours. I read somewhere to see everything in the Met, it would take you almost 2 years.

I also think Ellis Island is a must see but she also has a bunch of other things on her itinerary on Monday. I think the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most important pieces of architecture downtown and one should walk at least halfway across.

Does that explain things better for you?

GoTravel

mp, trying to figure out where you read that in my posting?

Myer

GoTravel,

We were in NY last week and also two years ago. during the first trip we went to the Met and also to the Frick. No others.

Wandering through the Met is intimidating. It's kind like getting a general 10,000 foot view unless you really are a museum goer (which we are not). The Met is more like where you have to have gone.

We really liked the Frick. Essentially, you are viewing his collection AND what he did to the home to accomodate this collection as he accumulated (you are really viewing both). Very, very interesting. I would definitely recommend it. The Frick is more like where you're happy you went.

Just my opinion.

KandKmom

ADB,
I will jump in here because I think I did exactly what you are doing when we went to NYC last summer. I had in my mind we would do go to so many of the same places each day. We got through about half of what I planned daily! Yes, it was July and it was hot and yes, we had two kids, so I am sure we were slowed down quite a bit, but my point is that like one of the others said, things take longer to do than you think. We are going back at Christmas time and I am planning on two "sites" a day this time. (not like the 4-5 I had before). I was kind of the "commando mom" last time and wore my family out. Maybe you could cut back to 2-3 really important sites to you that are geographically close together. That was a huge thing to us- we walked a lot ( didn't feel quite comfortable with knowing how to manuver the subways and the buses took us a while). Anyway, like GoTravel said, if you don't get to everything this time (as we didn't during our visit) you will be sure to want to go back! It is an amazing place! Hope this helps.

ADB

Just by reading previous posts about the Met I realize that even if we spent our whole 7 days there we wouldn't see it all. We thought we would go early in our trip so that if we decided that we wanted to go back we could make time later in the week. This is our first time to NY and I know that we will not be able to see everything but we are trying to fit in as much as we can. Our itinerary is not set in stone and I am sure we will be doing some rearranging once we get there.

Does anyone know how crowded the Empire State Bldg. gets on Thanksgiving Day?

dan_woodlief

I had a similar experience to the last poster. We went for six days last spring, and I planned way too much, especially considering my wife was pregnant and we had a four year old. Now, we did a ton, but I also left without doing many of the things I had hoped to do. I made up for most of those on a very recent business/pleasure trip when I was alone. Even then, I was exhausted at the end. I would suggest planning two big sights per day and make them as close to one another as possible; use the remainder of the day for just walking and enjoying the neighborhoods and see as much of those as your time allows, knowing that you just simply won't see all. For example, one day could be devoted to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and the rest given to walking around some of the Financial District. Another could have the Brooklyn Bridge as the big sight, with walking the Lower East Side as the remainder. Another could have Central Park and one of the two museums you mentioned (that will take up much of your day).

For the most part, the subways are not all that hard to use, but sometimes they are. On my recent stay I had to deal with delayed trains and closed turnstiles, which really complicated things. Take taxis on occasion to save time and walking. Unless you are walking in the area anyway, a taxi to the Met Museum may save a few blocks of walking, but you have an easy subway stop right at the Natural History Museum.

Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty can be very time consuming, even if you don't get off the boat at the statue (which we didn't). There are other options if you don't really care to visit Ellis Island (although it is very interesting and worth a trip). You can take the Staten Island Ferry or you can take a two-hour Circle Line boat tour to see the statue pretty close up along with the rest of Midtown and Downtown from the water. I really wish I had planned one of the hop-on, hop-off bus tours while we were there in the spring, and I definitely second that recommendation as a way to get in more sights in less time.

dan_woodlief

Go to the Empire State Building's Web site and print out your tickets ahead of time to save a lot of waiting. They do not come with specific times of use, so you have plenty of flexibility as to day and time. I think you are doing the Met Museum the right way. Plus, a visit is always exhausting, and you will be well-rested when you go. Take a look at the floor plan and think of what you must want to see at the museum. Do those first and then do as much of the rest as you have time for at the end of the visit. For me, the highlights are the 19th century European paintings, the American Wing, the American Wing Courtyard, and the Egyptian section. The Greek collection is also nice.