valtor

This is my plan for NYC - 6 and 1/2 days in June. It will be our second visit there; the first was 15 years ago, for 4 days.

We plan to see as much as we can, I tried to plan the visit looking at maps and to opening hours for museums. I am under the impression that I want to see to much, but feel that I can not delete anything from my plan. What do you think about this plan? Your suggestions will help me a lot. Thank you in advance.

Thursday - arriving at hotel at 18:00 - visit NY Library (it is open this day till 21:00) -- Bryant Park ---------------------

Friday - Upper East Side

5th Ave. - walk to see Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt- Jackie Onassis - visit Metropolitan - small shopping at Bloomingdale – continue to walk to see Ukrainian institute - Asia Society-Central Park-Ulysses S. Grant-Roosevelt's twin town house - Pierre

Maybe is better to start in the opposite sense, as Metropolitan is open till 21:00 ? --------

Saturday - Midtown

Macy's - -Grand Terminal - - Rockefeller center tour + Top of the Rock - visit MOMA - St Patrick - some shopping (short time) H&M - walk to see Lever House - Seagram Building-Sony Building-FAO Schwartz

Some food from Magnolia bakery and from Dean &Deluca -------------

Sunday :
- morning - Guggenheim
- 13:00 - Gospel Brunch at BBKing
- afternoon - Central Park -----------------

Monday - Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

- subway to Brooklyn -Prospect Park - visit Botanical Garden - eat at Grimaldy Pizzeria - Brooklyn Bridge
- Then Lower Manhattan:City Hall-- Woolworth Building -St Paul Chapel - NY Exchange - Trinity Church - -----------------

Tuesday Ellie island – Greenwich – Chelsea

- ferry to Ellie Island
- then Financial Stock Reserve visit (1 hour tour) - is better to eliminate this from my plan?
- Union Square
- Greenwich - Street-Bleecker Street,- Christopher Street - Grove Street-Bedford-Chumley's bar-St. Luke in the Fields church-Barrow- Washington St.-Provincetown Playhouse-Café Figaro - Washington Park
- Ground zero
- Chelsea -Buddakan Asian restaurant==============

Wednesday Upper west

- St 112 - St John the divine Cathedral
- Barnes & Noble -Shakespeare & Co- some food from Zabar's.-Fairway-Ansonia Hotel- Apple Bank for New-York Historical Society Savings- visit American Museum of Natural History- Lincoln Center -Columbus St.-New York Times time capsule -Rose Center for Earth and Space-Beresford

at 20:00 Jersey Boys show

Please help me to improve this schedule.

ellenem

Tuesday is a very ambitious day. Ellis Island will probably take the entire morning. To fit in a tour of the Federal Reserve and the World Trade Center site (I dislike the name Ground Zero), and then explore Union Square, Greenwich Village (The word "Greenwich" alone is a town in Connecticut), and Chelsea gives little time to explore and of these three vibrant areas.

Do you plan to actually go inside the Guggenheim Museum? There is only a small permanent collection on display. The main spiral ramp galleries are used for one or two large changing exhibits at any given time. I would check the website to be sure you would enjoy the current exhibits before spending the money on a visit to the galleries.

"Ulysses S. Grant-Roosevelt's twin town house" I have no idea what this. Can you share where this is?

ellenem

"gives little time to explore ANY of these three vibrant areas."

bachslunch

Mostly pretty good with a few things that need a change or reconsideration:

--ellenem is right about your Tuesday. Ellis Island will take a full morning if all goes right, and if you're seeing the Statue of Liberty as well, be prepared for the pairing to take the better part of a day.

--the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's website says they are closed Mondays with the exception of Columbus Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Presidents Day. Unless you're visiting one of those four holiday Mondays, you'll have to change the day here.

--note that the Woolworth Building, NY Stock Exchange, and Ansonia are walk-bys only. None allow visitors inside, though that gives the advantage of allowing extra time for other things on your itinerary. They are all worth a look from the outside, though.

The Asia Society has a nice small museum inside, worth a stop-in. And you're smart to allot most of a day each to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Both are huge, wonderful, and can take days to explore.

Fra_Diavolo

Both Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jackie Onassis are dead, so you can strike that ;^).

Also mystified by the Grant/Roosevelt twin town house item.

Has Chumley's reopened? They were closed for structural repairs.

Ground Zero would be better included on Monday, if you are walking from City Hall to Trinity Church.

Margo_Chester

The best thing about itineraries is that you can adjust them as you go. Which things on your list are most important to you?

You can only view the NY Stock Exchange building from outside, if you want to tour the Federal Reserve the tour is free but you must reserve. More info here: http://www.ny.frb.org/aboutthefed/ny_tours.html

Make sure you allow enough time for the museums, there is so much to see at the Met - obviously you can't see it all but allow yourself at least a few hours (maybe join one of the 'highlights' tours?) You'll also want to allow ample time at the Natural History Museum, it's not something that you want to rush through. Agree to make sure that you are interested in the current exhibition at the Guggenheim before paying admission. If you just want to see the architecture of the building you can go in and take a look (to proceed through the current exhibit and the up to the galleries you need a ticket.)

Unfortunately Chumley's is still closed. There's been progress made on the exterior of the building but the inside is still just a shell.

nytraveler

If you want to do Ellis Island with or without the SoL do get a reservation for the ferry. they are large but fill up quickly and unless you get there for the first of the day the line can be huge. Also - you need to allow about 45 minutes for security (airline type) before you're allowed on the ferry - no matter your destination.

And agree- see little reason to just look at upscale apartment buildings b ecause someone lived there years ago - all the bildings look similar and there aer many dozens of them. And have no clue about Grant/Roosevelt.

valtor

Thank you very much for answer.
I felt lost making the schedule for NY, so I am glad now to see that my plan is not so bad.
Based on your suggestions, I ‘ll make the corrections.
Thanks a lot, Bachlunch, I did not note that Botanical garden are closed on Monday. I'll switch the plan between Monday and Tuesday now.

Being interested in architecture and art, can you give me some ideas of things to be included / deleted from my plan? (We already visited Frick museum).

Aduchamp1

Being interested in architecture and art, can you give me some ideas of things to be included / deleted from my plan? (We already visited Frick museum).
______________________________
Two of the most beautiful structures in New York City are the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park. In the Park there are many small beautiful bridges.

For residential architecture, visit East 9,10,111, and 12th Streets between 6th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) and 5th Avenue. Also see the Washington Mews just north of Washington Square Park off 5th Avenue.

Visit Grand Central Station with its Beaux Arts architecture. In the main hall, look at the ceiling. There are stars on a blue background. The stars are out during the day!

When you get to NY buy a magazine "Time Out New York." There are many art galleries in NYC and you can see what type of art you will like.

ellenem

You can see two icons in New York architecture across the street from one another in the East Village.

The Cooper Union's Foundation Building was built in 1859 using the cast iron details of the day--it is considered NYC's first skyscraper.

Across the street, Cooper Union's new academic building designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis is a bold architectural statement not often seen in NYC.

E_M

I'd pay a visit to Barney's over Bloomingdales, and visit the Henri Bendel shop on 5th Avenue, which has the largest piece of Lalique glass outside of France (upstairs windows). Also, visit Paley Park on 53rd & 5th/Madison, which is considered to be one of the best small public spaces around. Ditto the visit to Grand Central, but also make sure you view it from the north side on Park Avenue. You will not be able to see it--the Met Life/Pan Am building blocks the view. But when the city was planned out, you were supposed to be able to stand on Park and have this vista that goes all the way downtown. Then view the station from the south side, and try to imagine what the building would look like if it had a skyscraper built on top of it. The fact that there isn't one is testament to the landmark court case that set the precedence for historic preservation in America (NYC vs Penn RR).

I would also try and see the Cloisters. If you look out at New Jersey from up there, you will see the Palisades in all their glory--courtesy of a Rockefeller. The art is magnificent there, too.

If you like art and architecture, you MUST stop in the Rizzoli bookshop on west 57th.

Before you go to the Met, you should prioritize what galleries you want to see. Otherwise, you'll be totally overwhelmed (and waste a lot of time.)

Lastly, if you don't have the opportunity to visit art galleries where you live, you should take some time to visit the ones in NYC--like the galleries where they actually sell Renoirs. If you have a favorite artist, you should find the gallery(ies) that sell their work, as the visit there will be more educational that at the museums, because the owners are generally more knowledgeable than the Met docents.

E_M

And, see if you can view the videos from a PBS series called "A Walk Down 42nd Street", "A Walk Up Broadway", "A Walk Through Harlem", "A Walk Around Brooklyn", "A Walk Through Greenwich Village", "A Walk Through Central Park", "A Walk Through Queens", "A Walk Through the Bronx", and "A Walk Around Staten Island". Those are a terrific way of orienting yourself to the history and architecture of the city.