reenster

My wonderful husband is taking me to New York next week for my birthday. He's got so much cool stuff planned! I just want to make sure that it all makes sense and that we're not doing too much in a short amount of time, not missing a "must do" and also hoping to get some restaurant recommendations.

A little about us: We are from San Francisco, love all kinds of food and are not afraid to try new things, love to do everything and anything big cities have to offer. Here's what we have planned:

Arrive of Wed at midnight, take a shuttle to our hotel (located at Park Ave & 52nd St) and settle in.

Thur morning: Grab some breakfast (would love some recommendations here) and head down to meat packing district and SoHo to walk around and do some shopping.

2:00 pm head over to Rockefeller Center to pick up our tickets for Letterman show (husband just got these yesteday!) and we are told that we will have about an hour before we have to be back so thinking this would be a good time to go to the Top of the Rock.

After the show, go get dinner and walk around Times Square and get a cocktail (would love recommendations here too).

Fri - head up to the Met Museum, walk around Central Park and Upper West Side)
Afternoon - Sex and the City tour!
On the way back from the tour, check out the MoMa museum if we're not too tired
Fri night - head to meatpacking district for dinner and drinks (recommendations please - heard the Buddha Bar is awesome so thinking we might go there).

Sat - head down to the WTC site, Wall St and possibly take the Staten Island Ferry ride and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
evening - go see a show

Sun - head back to San Francisco.

thanks so much in advance!!!

nytraveler

You say "shuttle to your hotel". DO NOT take the Super Shuttle. It may be OK in other cities but in NYC is completely unreliable. ther are many complaints that it never shows up - and when you take it in from the airport you often drive all over the city - since yours may be the 6th or 7th on their route. Don;t know which airport you're landing at - but at that time of night I would grab a cab.

What you have listed for Friday could easily take a week - so I think you're going to have to cut some of that. Go to the web site of the Met and pick 2/3 departemtns - tht you can cover in a couple of hours. Central Park is larger than Monaco - so again - go to the web site of the Cenral Park Conservancy to pick a couple of things to see/do. then if you want to see any of the upper west side you'll have reached dinner time. Sex and city tour and MoMA would need another day.

Also- there is no point in going to Wall St on Saturday. the financial district will be empty then - nothing to see really.

What time are yuou leaving Sunday - do you have time to do anything in the am?

As for a show - if you don;t have tickets yet - have you at least researched what's playing that might have tickets available on such short notice? If you go to broadwaybox.com it will list which shows have discounts - and you can pick a show and seats now. Otherwise you'll have to wait on line at the TKTS booth to see what they may have. Or ask your hotel concierge what he can get from scalpers.

jodeenyc

Just a recommendation, don't head down for shopping TOO early. Shops really don't open until 10/11am. I would also not bother with the meatpacking district until your night plans and focus on Soho only for that morning.

In Soho you can eat at Ben's pizza on Spring street for lunch. IMO the best. OR if you are a fan of sushi and Sex and the City you can eat lunch at Sushi Samba on 7th Ave. It's rarely crowded for lunch however admittedly not the same vibe as night.

I also agree that two museums on Friday is ambitious. I like the Met better because of the views from the rooftop cafe and I personally like the exhibits better there as well.

Also are you sure you aren't thinking of Buddakan the restaurant vs. Buddha Bar? Just making sure....

NewbE

I guess I'd agree that your Friday morning is kind of packed. If the weather's bad, you could do more Met, less Central Park, if it's good, vice versa, but walking around the UWS PLUS those 2 will be impossible. But what the heck--if you're OK with playing it by ear, you can start with the one thing you'd just HATE to miss, and go from there untiil it's time for the SatC tour.

For lunch on Thursday, I'd suggest Pastis--great French bistro food, fun atmosphere, and it appeared in SatC, too. It's the place Carrie and Baryshnikov have lunch with his snooty art world friends. Btw, you'll love the neighb and the shopping! Rest of Thursday looks good to me.

Saturday, don't miss the SI ferry--I'm not a fan of actually going to the Statue of Liberty, but you gotta swing by it. WTC and Wall Street won't take long, so you should have most of the day left for Brooklyn, or maybe a return to Central Park, the Met or MOMA.

I took my hub to NYC for his 40th, and then he took me for mine--you're way ahead of us, whippersnapper! Have fun!

reenster

Thank you everyone for all your great input!

I'm not sure about our shuttle - will check into it since we booked it on Expedia.

The Friday plans are probably too ambitious. I think we will just do the Met (a couple of hours) and the Park (also a couple of hours). Our Sex and the City tour is at 3 pm and meets in the park so I think that should give us enough time.

Also good point about Wall St on Saturday. Maybe we'll head down there on Thur morning (instead of the meat packing district) and ride the Staten Island Ferry and then stop by SoHo for some shopping and lunch on the way back to Rockefeller Center.

We do have tickets to see Chicago already, so we're all set there.

I'm thinking of the Buddha Bar and I understand they serve food there as well. Thanks for all the great restaurant recommendations! I'm a huge fan of the Sex and the City so it would be great to incorporate a couple into the trip =)

999reasonsDotCom

We're Aussies who were living in Boston and used o head down to NYC on a regular basis for weekends... I think you need some extra time ;-)

Art: Guggenheim, MoMa
Eat: One strange thing is you need to book for the good restaurants. We're veggies - if you're keen try Zen Palate at Union Sq
Walk: 5th Ave, up to Central Park, Times Sq - all pretty much in walking distance if you have the time.. put some good walking shoes on

Definitely go on the Staten Island Ferry - see Statue of Lib and skyline.

Here's some pics of the sites and a quick run down: http://www.999reasons.com/content/view/55/54/