At a loss - what to do in NYC for a day?

Ellis Island? This is a perfect opportunity.

I thought the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit at Discovery Times Square was fascinating and the audio guide is worth getting.

If you are at a loss, yk, what are the rest of us supposed to do?

I love the foodsofny.com walking tours. The original - Greenwich Village tour - is still my favorite.

I really enjoyed the Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour as well. The tour bus picks up in Manhattan (Union Square) and it's a delightful tour of Brooklyn with two stops for (very different) kinds of pizza. It's a 6 hour tour so it takes most of the day. It worked great for me when I had an evening flight and was trying to figure out what to do with my last day in the city on one trip. I'm very glad I took the tour. If Brooklyn is of interest, check it out.

Museum of Sex?

My friend and I are planning a day--exhibitions and lunch at the Asia Society, then the Arts of the Islamic World tour at the Met (in the recently opened Islamic galleries).

Based on what is not on your "have seen" list:
1. Staten Island Ferry
2. Ellis Island
3. Top of the Rock
4. Phase 2 of the High Line (but maybe, it's too cold for this one)

I think you would love both of Starrs' ideas, but especially the village walking tour, unless you feel it would be too cold.

The New York Historic Society has recently reopened after a complete redesign (was closed I thik almost 2 years). And the new exhibits sound fascinating. Also, you might consider looking at the exhibit at the main brand of the New York public library.

Thanks jubilada!

I took the tour during the first week of January when it was 7 degrees. Seven of us showed up for the tour. We spent more time inside the shops and scurried to the next shop/restaurant. It was fine.

The East Village tour has more walking. The Chelsea Market tour is mostly indoors. I've not taken that one but other Fodorites have and enjoyed it.

The Doug Wheeler show at David Zwirner is interesting. If you can get in without a long wait (I waited two hours on a Saturday), I recommend it.

The shows at Pace look interesting, but I haven't seen them. One is on "Happenings" while another is on the last two years of Dubuffet. If you're there, why not?

Surprised you're not seeing the Renaissance portraits at the Met? I only took a quick look at this and will have to go back. Granted, the star in Berlin, Leonardo's "Lady with an Ermine" is not here, but I think this show is still quite interesting. There's also a show on Fu Baoshi, which I plan to see. Fu is a seminal artist for his work at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The show was at Cleveland and I briefly considered flying there to see it.

NY Public Library at 42nd Street at Fifth Avenue, known as "the main branch" though its current name is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building . . . beautiful building. Be sure to see the lovely Periodicals Room featuring paintings of famous NYC buildings and the impressive main reading room on the third floor. There's a nice current exhibit "Celebrating 100 Years" featuring more than 200 items from the library's collections

http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/36/about

Have you been to the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea? Indian, Himalayan, Chinese, beautiful space.

I lived in NYC for thirty years. Now when I visit, I always enjoy spending one day on a long walk starting at Central Park and then to Rockefeller Center, Broadway Theater District, Murray Hill, Gramercy Park, Chelsea, the Meat Packing District, Greenwich Village, SoHo, the East Village, the Lower East Side, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Brooklyn Bridge and Wall Street.

HTTY

I made a 1 day visit to NYC in late December. You can see my itinerary towards the bottof of this thread. Similar to htty's, with Staten Island Ferry thrown in there for good measure, and a few subway rides to break up the distance.

http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/best-way-to-get-around-to-nyc-highlights.cfm

I agree with the recommendations of the Asia Society, Rubin Museum, Ellis Island. We also enjoyed the International Center of (or for?) Photography.

yk, If you haven't been to the Cloisters, that is where you should go! You'll have a wonderful time. The Unicorn Tapestries alone are worth the trip, but there is so much more to see...

http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters/

The Lewis Chessmen are at the Cloisters right now, so that should be worth a visit.

Thanks for adding that, 111op! I'd love to see the Lewis Chessmen!

I appreciate all your responses! I know Fodorites will come to my rescue. Now I have many more places to go on future visits.

I was leaning towards the Foods of NY tour, since I've never taken a food tour before and am not too familiar with Greenwich Village. Alas, no tours are offered on my free day. Next time, perhaps.

I am now considering Asia Society and Metropolitan Museum. I've never been to Asia Society, so why not. And I haven't been to the new Islamic galleries at the Met. Perhaps I'll stop by Cafe Sabarsky at Neue Galerie for lunch.

I will most certainly save all your other suggestions for my next NYC visits. thanks again!

Drat, I'll just miss the chessmen, I get to NY two days too late.

yk, I strongly second the Rubin recommendation, also Staten Island ferry & Top of the Rock, and add the Merchant's House (http://merchantshouse.com/ ), although I see that the servant's quarters are currently closed.

I'd go to Asia Society if there are exhibitions I find interesting. Otherwise, I don't think that it's worth the trouble. It looks like admission is $10, by the way. Sarah Sze could be interesting -- she won a MacArthur and did a public arts project for NYC. I know nothing about Mughal art.

Think you've eaten at Whitney's "Untitled" so I won't suggest it.

I just looked over the art listings in the New Yorker. The Jewish Museum is showing New York's Photo League. It should be interesting if you're interested in big-name American photographers from that era. ICP is showing Weegee.

There are free walking tours of New York. The All In One Tour is six hours long.

http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/new-york-tours/default.asp

Glad you have a plan! I reacted just as Nikki did when I read the title of your post. You are the guru of finding more things to do than almost anyone on this board and so for you to use the term "at a loss" threw me into a tizzy!

We missed the walking tour of the art work at Rockefeller Center. If you check out their website you'll see there are several beautiful sculptures and murals to see. How about the Museum of the City of New York?

The last time we stayed Downtown we enjoyed NMAI museum

http://www.nmai.si.edu/subpage.cfm?subpage=visitor&second=ny

The Met is always worth anther visit in my eyes.
Enjoy your trip, stay warm!

I was just at the new islamic galleries and Cafe Sabarsky last week.... and heartily recommend both. Also, have you seen the new American Wing at the Met?

I liked the islamic galleries and Cafe Sabarsky too.

But what about heading up town? One thing I have never seemed to do, but want to, is go to Harlem, to see the Morris Jumel Mansion. And there are quite a few walking tours available from various different organizations. I can't recommend a specific one because I haven't done it yet.

Also, there are these historic houses, though many of them are far from the center of Manhattan.
http://www.historichousetrust.org/item_list.php

NYC is more than Manhattan. How about heading out to Queens ( where people who aren't millionaires actually LIVE! You can go to Flushing Meadow Park and visit the Queens Museum. You can go to downtown Flushing and walk though and eat in the largest Chinese/Asian area in NYC--at this point probably more authentic than what is in Manhattan. You can take the subway to Woodside and think you are in anyone of a dozen different countries.

yk, the Brooklyn Museum of Art is on my bucket list. I've seen several pieces from there on loan to exhibitions and can't wait to see the rest!

yk, please note that the Cloisters are located in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, not at the Met.

Skyscraper Museum (Battery Park)

or

If you have been to NY as often as you have, just pick a theme and put together your own walk. We did that this past weekend. The theme was "foods that are bad for you that we miss from our travels to Europe"

Spain: LaChurreria (284 Mullberry)
France: Balthazar (Soho)
England: Tea and Sympathy (the Village)
Sweden: Sockerbit (89 Christopher St)
Belgium: Pommes Frittes (123 Second Avenue )
Belgium: Waffle cart Madison Square Park
Italy: Eataly (over rated)
Italy: DeRobertis (176 First Avenue)

At a loss - what to do in NYC for a day?

This is the saddest subject line I've read since I was in the Lounge a few years ago and came across "My beloved dog died last night."

HTTY

It's past 1:30am and I'm still not asleep yet; so I'm not sure what I'll end up doing tomorrow (Wed, which is my "free" day). I had an extremely long (but fantastic) day today & I most certainly will need much sleep. The main goal for my short 2-day trip to NYC this week is to see my parents (who are in NYC for just 20hrs due to flight connection), and see a friend who lives 7000 miles away but currently in NYC for a convention. So, even if I end up doing nothing at all tomorrow, I'll still leave NYC happy as I got to see them.

I have meant to go to the Brooklyn Museum a few years back when they had an art nouveau exhibition; however, I didn't make it because the only day I could go was the day it closes.

I am saving the Cloisters for my in-laws. They've been talking about visiting the Cloisters for as long as I've known them. Some day they'll make a trip to NYC while DH & I are in town, and we'll go there together.

I can get into the Met & Asia Society for free, so that's another reason for picking these 2. Doing some belt-tightening these days. Might even skip Sabarsky or just go there for coffee and cake instead of lunch.

Have you been to the Museum of Natural History? I didn't see that on the list.

Hope you enjoy a great day, yk! What a great, idea filled, thread this turned out to be so I am "bookmarking".

Museum of the City of New York?
http://www.mcny.org/

Have a great day what ever you decide to do.

Thanks again for all your great suggestions and ideas! It's raining out, so it'll definitely be a museum day for me. But as I said, all this info will be VERY handy for me for future visits (next trip to NYC is 5 wks from now)! And I'm glad others are getting ideas from this too.

Brief report:

Had a very late start due to me sleeping in; didn't leave my friends' apt until quarter to noon.

I first had to crosstown to Met Opera to buy a ticket for DH at the box office. Afterwards, I had lunch at one of my go-to place near Lincoln Center: Nanoosh. Nanoosh serves organic mediterranean fare and I'm addicted to their lentil soup and quinoa salad. I eat there almost every time before I attend a perf at Lincoln Center.

After lunch, I crossed town to Metropolitan Museum. By then it was 2pm. With great serendipity, I found out there is a docent-guided tour of the new Islamic galleries at 2:15pm, which was perfect! The tour was great (as usual), and the galleries are really quite amazing. Since there is so much to show us and to talk about, the tour was 90 minutes long. By the end of it, I was worn out and decided I've seen enough for the day. {as I said, I can get in the Met for free so I don't mind just going there for just an hour or two} I did find a silk scraf in the Clearance section of the gift shop for half-price! It's got a lovely William Morris flowery design in a pale blue color. That's my contribution to the Met.

On the way home, my friends told me to check out Lady M. I was going to stop there for coffee and cake; but changed my mind and instead bought several slices to go. I can't wait to try them for dessert tonight! http://www.ladymconfections.com/

In any case, thank you for all your suggestions and comments!

Bookmarking Nanoosh..

Worn out? Glad to hear it's in your vocabulary.

Lady M is good, but the cakes at La Maison du Chocolat are really the best.

All sounds great but when you get to the Cloisters, don't forget the Hispanic Society on your way back to midtown.

I mean this with all kindness, yk, but could you be coming down with a cold? Sleeping late and being worn out....just so not the you I have come to "know" here. So glad that things worked out re: the timing. Serendipity is great!

Yes, "worn out," perhaps that's a sign of me getting old!

thursdaysd, Nanoosh has several locations throughout Manhattan. http://www.nanoosh.com/

I really, really enjoyed the Lady M cakes. We tried 3 flavors: Green tea mousse, banana Mille Feuille, and their signature Mille crepes cake. They are light and delicate, and not overly sweet. Although the cakes are pricey, I find them better value and better tasting than Laduree's macarons. Plus, there are no lines out the door at Lady M, unlike Laduree.

Is there a particular cake you like at La Maison du Chocolat, 111op? [do they have any cake other than chocolate cake?]

Heading home in the morning and will be back to my regular, boring routine...

Glad you had a good time for your short trip in New York.


If I may ask: How "new" are the new Islamic galleries? I found the "old" Middle East galleries quite extensive. Have new ones been added?

Well I haven't had one I didn't like. It's not really a dense chocolate cake like you'd expect.

Right now I can only recall one called Delice, but I've had a few different ones. The website should have details.

Try it the next time you're here. In any case, there's one very close to Lady M so it's convenient if you're in the UES.

And yes, there are other cakes. But I haven't tried them.

For those of you who go to the Rubin Museum after reading this thread, be sure to stop by two of NYC's best thrift shops on the same St. (W 17th) and block as the Rubin. Angel St. Thrift and HousingWorks are both non-profit and give their proceeds to very good needy programs in NYC. Both have nice and high end designer and vintage goods, all donated. Great clothes, jewelry, kitchenalia, etc. And you are helping fund good causes.

The renovated Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia opened in November 2011.

http://tinyurl.com/7ho22bt

Thanks for the report on your docent-led tour, yk. I'm looking forward to our next NYC excursion in a few weeks.

Eataly! Go early and beat the crowds.

http://eatalyny.com/